Lord Dunsany

The Emperor's Crystal

The ibex-hunter found it among incredible pinnacles, a crystal with water in it; and took it to the Emperor. He had found it just before dawn in a white cliff facing eastwards; for hundreds of centuries it had glistened there, giving back rays to the sunrise, where the gods or the sea had left it, who knows when ?

The Emperor had treasured it, turning it over often in that small fat palm of his, with the whimsical way he had; and none knew what he was thinking. For years he had treasured it, till the little waves that rocked in the crystal's heart had reflected for thousands of times that brooding look. And then one day he sent if as a gift to the King of Mesch. He called Alhoderic who came with his scimitar and his camel and took the huge hollow crystal in both his hands, kneeling before the Emperor. None knew for what strange service he sent such a gift to that king, he had told none, that was not the way of the Emperor. Or, perhaps, he had merely wearied of that crystal and those little waves that rocked.

Alhoderic did not ask, did not wonder; a duty, that was all; others would go on guard alternate days for seven weeks on the Gateway. Alhoderic rode to the desert. It was wrapped in many silks, deep in a wallet lined with soft wool and hair, the silks to please the eye of the King of Mesch, but the wool and hair were put there by Alhoderic to protect him from the wrath that would come if the crystal broke, and death at the hands of the slave of the Emperor's dwarf, whose moods were mostly maniacal. Alhoderic rode alone. Whenever he halted he drew the crystal forth to see how it fared, and the waves had sight of the desert's sun, and twinkled back to the desert's stars at night, a secret they seemed to Alhoderic to have only amongst themselves.

He rode on. Nine days he rode, being near the midst of his journey; and then, a menace, no more than that, a menace, but very near, the siroc rode by from the north-west. It did not touch Alhoderic and his camel : both saw it, both knew it, both felt the flick of its skirts. In the desert all those days such knowledge as one must have was equal with Alhoderic and his camel, as needs were equal. Of the things that were needful to know, neither knew more than the other. The camel eyed the siroc, as it rode north-west, at once; made a half turn and galloped. Alhoderic did not guide him. The long legs splayed over the desert, and the king of those lands rode by.

For three days they sped away from the desert's deadly visitor. And then far off, for love of the golden sand, in an unknown hollow of sand, the siroc whispered; stooped and whispered and slept; and roared no more. Alhoderic turned again to the camel-track.

Things are hard to find in cities, harder to find in the desert. Many things are lost in cities; all Alhoderic needed now was the camel-track.

Amongst the inscrutable ways of so vast a desert he wandered and did not find it. Five days passed, and the water was growing low in the saddle-flasks. Three more days and, the water being now very low, Alhoderic perceived one evening how weak was the wit of man; he perceived this and thought on it, then left it all to his camel.

Dawn came and he said whatever he had to say to his camel; I know not how he said it; but the guiding-rope was slack for three days on the camel's neck; and the wise beast went on, searching.

And the desert was wiser than that camel. He gets by inscrutable means through unreckoned ages a wisdom from older gods that the camel knew.

And one day, just at dawn, they found the camel track, overcoming no wiles of the desert, that he learned from ferocious gods ; for the desert smiled for miles, knowing they were too late.

Alhoderic knew, and the camel knew, that the water was gone. The journey's end, and lakes, lay only two days ahead. One more drink might do it, but the saddle-flasks were dry. Alhoderic thought of the huge crystal he carried, warmed for so many years by the Emperor's sacred palm, into which the imperial eyes so often gazed : far off there seemed to await it dim spires in the city of Mesch.

Alhoderic thought of it and drew it out and looked — though a man hitherto with little imagination — with that intense, far-off look with which the Emperor himself had gazed. Who knows what dreams the Emperor had had as he looked in the crystal ? Alhoderic dreamed of water. And there were the little waves rocking and smiling at him.

Many dreams had Alhoderic had as a boy, many far thoughts and fancies : he had loved many women, many had smiled at him; he had seen dawns in war, had had hopes and ambitions, and now he looked at the rocking, smiling water and knew no hope nor ambition, no dreams, no love any more, save the wish for that smiling water.

The camel thought the last thought that camels have, whatever that thought may be.

The water gurgled and winked at Alhoderic and smiled at him with its waves; a drink, enough for two days. The desert saw those careless smiles and wondered, for they mocked his grasping sands as they used to mock the Emperor.

Alhoderic, seated on the sand by his dead camel raised up the hilt of his curved scimitar, with its little gems that his fathers had long since gripped in battle, and broke, very gently, the top of the Emperor's crystal. The water was salt.

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