User:Auric/The Seven Geases

thumb|The Seven Geases was originally published in the October 1934 issue of [[Weird Tales ]]

The Seven Geases is a novelette by Clark Ashton Smith, forming part of his Hyperborean cycle of stories. It was first published in Weird Tales in 1934 and has been variously republished.

Synopsis
Lord Ralibar Vooz, high magistrate of Commoriom goes forth with his retainers to hunt in the Eiglophian mountains. After a restless night camped near Mount Voormithadreth, they climb it to hunt Voormis, whose pelts he collects. After several hours of difficult climbing, they reach the caves of the Voormis. With his retainers, he scales a chimney in the rock and ascends to a buttress of the lowest cone of the four cones of the volcano. He sees a wisp of smoke in the distance and climbs to find its source, leaving his men behind. The smoke remains elusive. Eventually, he reaches the source, a stone hut. An old man, the sorcerer Ezdagor, approaches him, angry that his arrival has spoiled an evocation he had cast. In response to Vooz' rude behavior to him, he lays upon him a geas, to go unarmed among the voormis and offer himself to the god Tsathoggua as a blood sacrifice. He sends his familiar the snake-bird Raphtontis with him as a guide.

Vooz reaches the Voormis' dens and is pelted with refuse as he approaches. They bite and claw at him as he proceeds downwards. Eventually, he reaches Tsathoggua's cave and offers himself up. Tsathoggua, however, is well-fed and instead puts him under another geas, to descend to the abyss of Atlach-Nacha and offer himself up.

He descends down yet steeper passageways and comes to the edge of Atlach-Nacha's abyss. Atlach-Nacha, however, is busy in the eternal task of bridging the abyss. He puts him under yet another geas, to cross one of his bridges and present himself to the antehuman sorcerer Haon-Dor.

The bridge ends at the bottom of of a flight of stone steps, guarded by an enormous serpent. The serpent lets him pass and he ascends to an enormous hall. Raphtontis guides him unerringly to the throne of Haon-Dor. He, however has no use for him and instead sends him on to his allies, the serpent-people. The serpent people, however, are busy and largely ignore him. Eventually, he is spotted, examined and dismissed. The serpent-people already have specimens of Hyperboreans and Voormis and eat synthetic foods.

They send him further down, to the Cavern of the Archetypes. Vooz is by this time fatigued and worried. A tyrannosaurus tries to ingest him but finds him inedible. Many other types of dinosaurs try and fail to digest him. The Archetypes of Humanity find him disgusting and consider him fit only for Abhoth and send him onwards to it's cavern.

Even Abhoth, however finds him distasteful, and lays a seventh geas upon him, to seek the Outer World. The bird guides him to an alcove where he sleeps. When he wakes, the bird brings him one of the spawn of Abhoth, which he ravenously devours. It leads him on a shorter route that soon brings him to the edge of Atlach-Nacha's abyss. By this time more of Abhoth's progeny have caught up to him. He waits for a sloth-like creature to cross, but more have arrived. In his haste to cross, he fails to notice that the bridge has weakened and falls into the abyss when the bridge snaps.

Foreign editions

 * De Gewelven van Yoh-Vombis, Bruna (1975)
 * Hyperborea, Edaf (1978)
 * L'empire des nécromants, Néo (1986)
 * I miti di Lovecraft, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (2010); trans. of Tales of the Lovecraft Mytho
 * Die Stadt der Singenden Flamme, Festa (2011)

Translated titles

 * De Zeven Betoveringen [Dutch] (1975)
 * Las Siete Pruebas [Spanish] (1978)
 * Les sept sortilèges [French] (1986)
 * Le sette maledizioni [Italian] (2010)
 * Die sieben Banngelübde [German] (2011)