User:DoctorWho42/The Maze of Maal Dweb

"The Maze of Maal Dweb" (or "The Maze of the Enchanter") is a short story by American author Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Xiccarph cycle, and first published in the 1933 book The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies.

Publication history
According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Maze of Maal Dweb" was first published in the 1933 book The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies. It was included in Today's Literature (1935) as "The Maze of the Enchanter", the October 1938 issue of Weird Tales, The Young Magicians (1969), and Xiccarph (1972).

Plot
On the planet Xiccarph, the hunter Tiglari traverses a swamp to climb a mountain whose base is the house of the tyrant Maal Dweb. Maal Dweb stole Tiglari's love Athlé for his harem. Thus Tiglari plans to slay him and rescue her. While ascending the mountain, Tiglari wonders about Mocair, a hunter who is also a suiter of Athlé. Reaching the top, he finds strange plant life in the garden of the tyrant as apish monsters lumber about. One regards him dully but turns away. They ignore him as he is covered in a juice repugnant to animals on Xiccarph. When he enters Maal Dweb's house, Tiglari finds the women in the harem under various spells. He also finds Maal Dweb in a languid slumber. Attempting a stab, he finds that it is an image in a hall of mirrors as the delusions assault the hunter. Joined by two metal servants, Maal Dweb confronts Tiglari asks him why he is here. Tiglari responds that he seeks Athlé which the tyrant says has gone into his labyrinth. He notes Mocair has also gone into the maze. Going through various paths, Tiglari arrives at the end but is captured by flower. While captured, he sees Athlé staring at a mirror. Unable to save her, he watches as the mirror renders Athlé frozen in time. Meanwhile, the flower excretes a fluid the turns Tiglari into an apish monster. However, Maal Dweb spares the process and Tiglari is only human from the top. He points out that Mocair was rendered fully a monster and that he may have ran into him earlier. Maal Dweb tells him to leave as he consorts with his metal automatons. Talking with them, the tyrant decides his magic is amusing but next he should be more resourceful.

Reception
Reviewing The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies in the 1983 book The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, E. F. Bleiler said "The Maze of Maal Dweb" and "The Double Shadow" are "richer than they sound in summary and are worth reading." In the 1981 book Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, Will Murray called "The Maze of Maal Dweb" and "The Flower-Women" "sardonic tales."