User:DoctorWho42/The Treader of the Dust

"The Treader of the Dust" is a short story by American author Clark Ashton Smith and was first published in the August 1935 of Weird Tales.

Publication history
According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Treader of the Dust" was first published in the August 1935 issue of Weird Tales. It reappeared in the book Lost Worlds (1944).

Plot
An ancient tome The Testatements of Carnamagos describes a wizard called Quachil Uttaus whose presence causes utter decay. Uttaus is also known as "The Treader of the Dust." John Sebastian lives alone in a mansion on an inherited wealth. He is fascinated by the occult and collects tomes. While an agoraphobe, he left his house for three days but returned. Afraid of the dark, he turns on all the lights. His butler Timmers is missing. Sebastian assumes he is either out of the house or in Timmers' bedroom. Finding it empty, he assumes the former. He goes to his study and finds dust on everything and a pile of dust near a lectern. On a lectern, the book The Testaments of Carnamagos is open on a particular passage. Sebastian reads it. It tells how Quachil Uttaus is summoned through the reading of a formula described by the book. The lights go out and Sebastian feels a chill. As a corner of the room crumbles, a star shines through and he sees an undead child. He realises the child is Uttaus and everything turns to dust.