The screams from the main chamber of the temple came higher and higher. They faded behind Gezun as he pulled Ro out to the stable, hitched up the whites, whirled the chariot around, and set out for the north gate at a gallop. They skidded around turns.
"What—what happened?" said Ro.
"Your father didn't believe in Ka, but he convinced so many others that their belief called the god to life."
"But why did Ka animate the statue and attack Father?"
"Well, he was described as fierce and vindictive, so he'd be angry when I wasn't sacrificed as promised. Or perhaps he resented Ugaph's atheism." He slowed the team to a trot. "Let's stop at the fountain to make ourselves look respectable, or the guards won't let us out of the gate."
A few minutes later, Gezun whipped up the whites and galloped out on the long level desert road to Kham in the land of Kheru. Behind him, a somber shadow seemed to brood over Typhon.
"Anyway," he said, "I'm through with experiments having to do with gods. Men are hard enough to deal with."
The End
Book information
Suspend Your Disbelief
And plunge headlong into the always wild, constantly weird, and frequently whimsical realm of fantasy as invoked by that master magician L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP!
A social protestor who just happens to be a ghost...
A mail-order magic business that conjures up a universe of trouble...
A fledgling wizard who doesn't know the strength of his own power...
And these are only a sprinkling of the outrageous and amazing creatures and things you'll encounter as you whir through a world where everything is probable—
L. Sprague de Camp's
The Reluctant Shaman
and other fantastic tales
A PYRAMID BOOK 75¢
Printed in U.S.A.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF ...
you were a neophyte magician who decided to invent a wrathful god for financial gain, then found his all-too-actual wrath aimed directly at you?
you were a champion swimmer forced to swim a crucial race against a ... a ... a ... mermaid?
you were caught in the spell of a guru whose strange conception of transcendental meditation has you literally falling on your face?
CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES!
First time in book form! Seven flights of supreme fancy—by fantasy's reigning monarch.
L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP
THE RELUCTANT SHAMAN
and Other Fantastic Tales
by
L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP
PYRAMID BOOKS · NEW YORK
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE RELUCTANT SHAMAN was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories for April, 1947; copyright 1947 by Standard Magazines, Inc. THE HARDWOOD PILE was first published in Street & Smith's Unknown for September, 1940; copyright 1940 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed by L. Sprague de Camp, 1968.
NOTHING IN THE RULES was first published in Street & Smith's Unknown for July, 1939; copyright 1939 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. It was reprinted in From Unknown Worlds, N.Y.: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 1948; London; Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co., Ltd., 1952. Copyright renewed by L. Sprague de Camp, 1966.
THE GHOSTS OF MELVIN PYE was first published in Thrilling Wonder
Stories for December, 1946; copyright 1946 by Standard Magazines, Inc.
THE WISDOM OF THE EAST was first published in Unknown Worlds for
August, 1942; copyright 1942 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.
MR. ARSON was first published in Unknown Worlds for December, 1941;
copyright 1941; by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. It was reprinted in
The Undesired Princess, L.A.: Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc., 1951.
KA THE APPALLING was first published in Fantastic Universe Science Fiction
for August, 1958; copyright 1958 by King-Size Publications, Inc.