The Importance of Being Literate: The Pusadian Tales, Part 7

Read/Watch 'em In Order #110

When I wrote about the 1974 short story "The Rug and the Bull"--the 6th of L. Sprague de Camp's 7 Pusadian short stories--I thought I was done, since the very last story had been published in the Fall 1977 issue of Weirdbook, which I was unable to find either online or at an afforable price. So I moved on to another series.

But one of the members of an excellent Facebook group about de Camp was enjoying my reviews sufficiently to send me a copy of that last story. Therefore, I'm jumping back to de Camp's Bronze Age world to cover this last story.

Though "The Stone of the of the Witch Queen" is last story featuring Gezun of Lorsk that de Camp wrote, it's not the last one chronologically. Gezun is still a young man and there's no mention of the wife and kids we met in "The Rug and the Bull." The events of "The Hungry Hercynian" are mentioned, so for those of us who enjoy figuring out fictional chronologies, we can place "Witch Queen" between that one and "Ka the Appalling."

We find Gezun in the city-state of Ausonia, where he's fibbed about his swordsmanship and gotten a job in the private guard of a senator. This has the added benefit of giving him access to the senator's amorous daughter. But that sort of access to the daughter will earn Gezun a rather painful death if her father learns about it. So, when he gets a chance to steal a magical amulet from the young lady and leave the city, he does so without hesitation.

That amulet gives whomever holds it power over the opposite sex. Gezun plans to sell it back to its original owner, Queen Bathyllis of Phaiaxia, for a roomful of gold.

One of the strengths of "The Stone of the Witch Queen" is that, in a way, it subverts expectations. The amulet is the driving force of the plot and a reader might expect its power to be used by Gezun or others during the story to accomplish their goals and perhaps generate some humor. But after Gezun employs it to put the senator's daughter asleep, it isn't used at all. It is simply the story's Macguffin. Other events move the story along instead. Considering how much fun "Witch Queen" turns out to be, de Camp obviously made the wise choice here.

Gezun soon meets an elderly traveling philosopher named Aristax of Pylion, who is such a fun character that it is tragic this is his only appearance. Aristax shows his intelligence by doing a Sherlock Scan on Gezun and accurately deducing a number of things about him, then soon after comes up with a clever plan to help Gezun escape from a band of angry Ausonians who are trying to recover the amulet. The two are soon partners--planning out the best way to safely collect money from Bathyllis. Aristax also points out that Gezun would have a great deal of trouble transporting a roomful of gold and convinces him to ask for a smaller (but still significant) ransom instead.

But even well-laid plans can go awry. As events play out, Gezun, Aristax and another character find themselves trapped in a house that had been used by a magically disguised Bathyllis. That pesky band of angry Ausanians is trying to break in and a drugged gorilla inside the house with them is about to wake up. It is Aristax who comes up with a quite clever stratagem that allows them to escape. Sadly, the amulet is lost in the confusion.

And then Gezun finds out that if he had been able to read a certain letter, he might have avoided all that trouble. The tale ends with him asking Aristax to help him learn to read.

It's yet another fun story--fast-paced, well-written, witty and full of characters with whom we enjoy hanging out. A number of de Camp's works have become avaiable as e-books, including the Pusadian novel The Tritonian Ring. But the Pusadian short stories have yet to be collected and released. In fact, they never have been collected in their entirety even as a traditional book. Hopefully, this will not stand and we'll someday see such a collection pop up on for sale.

Thanks to Brian Kunde for sending me a copy of "The Stone of the Witch Queen." I really do appreciate it.