Land of Unreason (29 page)

            He leaped for the table top,
and in the very moment of the leap saw a figure at the door behind the ice men;
the single page boy missing from the line. The lad's high voice cried:
"Time is! The ravens fly no more!" and then Barber's foot touched the
brazen plate that was the third place.

            It seemed to go right
through; he had a sensation of floating disembodied into nothingness. There was
a rending crash; the ice without the castle split and shivered away, and a
bright new golden sun came streaming in all the windows of that hall, and—

           
Frederick Barbarossa,
he
that was Fred Barber, gripped the arms of the ivory throne and stood upright.
There was a tug at his chin; the marble table split and its halves toppled to
side and side with a booming crash.

            "Where is the
Enemy?" he demanded, and looked around on ice men that were ice men no
longer, but knights and barons in shining mail with swords in hand and a few
drops of water shining like jewels on them in the new light.

            But that philosopher from
the lower end of the table stretched his arms and answered:

            "Lord, there is no
Enemy, nor ever was, within this place. For the Enemy but shifts from body to
body, being impalpable; and being put down in one form, seeks a new and must
again be dealt with. This is the end, Lord, for which you were called from
sleep, that you might bring the strong power of the iron to the alliance of
King Oberon's realm, which is of law. Neither can stand without the other; and
now I counsel you that you send straitly to him, since the Enemy in a new guise
draws near his borders."

            "Let it be done,"
said Barbarossa.

            In the annals of Fairyland
the story of that alliance is written—how Barbarossa and his knights journeyed
to the west and won a great battle among the sea crags against an invasion of
Rakshas, hideous yellow things that lived like ghouls. They were not the last
of such invaders, for the Enemy is ubiquitous. But Barbarossa deals hardly with
them all; and there is an end of shapings and evil enchantments in that land.
These have no power against the iron.

            Yet there are whispers and
mystery about the great red-bearded King; for it has been observed that when he
takes a new love, whether from among the fays or the other people of Fairy, he
tells her tales of how he spent some thirty years among the mortals. Some hold
that these are merely things that he makes up; for who could believe in a world
of such wild unreason that its people must blow each other to bits in order to
command obedience to their wills? Some hold, on the other hand, that these
tales are nothing but the disturbed dreams that Barbarossa dreamed while lying
asleep under the ice, in the Wartburg castle with the ravens circling round.
Yet it is observable that there is a certain wild consistency in the King's
dreams and his acts; for among his loves he has never taken one from the apple
dryads.

The End

* * * * * *

Scanned by Highroller

"No—it is
forbidden!"

Arvicola's whisper was frantic. In the
fading glow, Barber could see his reflection in a big mirror; and beneath that
mirror on a little shelf lay Titania's crook-handled wand.

            He snatched for the wand. As
his hand touched it, he noticed lettering deeply engrailed on the glass:

On
the pathway you trace

The
face that you face

Is
the median place.

            "Come—on, quick!"
Arvicola gripped his wrist urgently. He pulled loose and reached for the mirror
with the tip of the wand.

            A violent electric shock ran
up his arm and all through him. Before he could analyze it, he was aware of a
new, deep darkness; a shapeless
something
that almost filled the
chamber, with two expressionless eyes that reflected ...

Land of

Unreason

L. Sprague de
Camp

& Fletcher
Pratt

To

John D. Clark,

Another
hard-boiled rationalist,

and for all we
know, Another

Fred Barber

Published
by

DELL
PUBLISHING CO., INC.

1
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

New
York, N.Y. 10017

A
shorter version of this novel appeared in the October 1941 issue of
Unknown
Worlds.

Copyright
© 1942 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

Copyright
© renewed 1969 by L. Sprague de Camp

Interior
illustrations copyright © 1941

by
Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

Copyright
© renewed 1967 by The Condé Nast Publications, Inc.

Illustrations
reprinted by permission of the artist, Edd Cartier

All
rights reserved,

Dell
® TM 681510, Dell Publishing Co., Inc.

ISBN:
0-440-14736-0

Reprinted
by arrangement with L. Sprague de Camp

Printed
in the United States of America

First
Dell printing—March I979

* * * * * *

Back cover

THE
ELF WAS DRUNK TO BEGIN WITH...

Otherwise he would never have kidnapped Fred Barber and dropped
him into the Court of King Oberon and Queen Titania.

Barber, a seasoned diplomat, believed only what he saw—but what he
was seeing was unbelievable: elves, fairies, sprites, goblins, all
matter-of-factly living in a world of spells, curses, and assorted magics.

It was like something out of a children's story—until Barber's
quest for a way back to the "real" world of the 20th century
unleashed forces of ancient evil that had been lying in wait for him for a
long, long time....

One of the many brilliant stories that made
Unknown
the
outstanding fantasy magazine of its time, LAND OF UNREASON is a classic novel
of enchantment and eerie destiny.

This
edition features the original interior
illustrations

by
the renowned EDD CARTIER, whose work always

adds
an extra dimension .of enjoyment.

Cover
art by Esteban Maroto