Simia quam similis, turpissima bestia, nobis!Having read the speculations of the wizard Niwradz-Elrach anent the origins and antecedents of mankind, King Pxerak-Tosoim was filled with a consuming horror and wrath, deeming the wizard one who worked with ax and fire at the very roots of human dignity and high estate. Wherefor the king, turning the metaphor in literal and sardonic jest upon its inspiration, ordered all copies of the wizard’s manuscripts burnt and the wizard himself summarily beheaded. But the soldiers he despatched to the mountain whereon the wizard dwelt returned to tell that the dwelling was empty and the malefactor fled, having farseen in his crystal, no doubt, the king’s wrath and its sequelæ.Quintus Ennius.
Some weeks later news came that Niwradz-Elrach had taken post as physician-cum-astrologer in the court of a neighboring king, to whom Pxerak-Tosoim wrote in stern fraternal rebuke, demanding that wizard be either executed in situ or returned in catenis to his rightful lord. No answer came in the standard time, for the kingdoms were customary rivals, and the court of Pxerak-Tosoim, if not the king himself, had forgotten the affair entirely by the eve of his wedding to the most beautiful and hilarious princess Asomrophë. ’Twas then that a seeming wedding-gift was carried into the hall wherein the pre-nuptial feast was being celebrated, consisting of a silver-inked couplet on a byssus-bound scroll and an iron cage bearing a most ugly and melancholy female ape.
The princess Asomrophë, seated at Pxerak-Tosoim’s right hand for the interrupted feast, joined as heartily as any in the laughter that greeted the discovery of the cage, when the ape peered and chattered to see the splendor and finery of the hall, half-blinded by the blaze of flambeaux and glitter, most especially, of Asomrophë’s own jewelry. Nor did the princess disdain to add her incitements to those of Pxerak-Tosoim’s courtiers, as the royal jester darted on the cage to tease its occupant to a gleefully anticipated rage, bouncing his bladder upon the bars and flicking bones and scraps between. Smiling at the pleasure of his bride-to-be, whom he had chosen not merely for her beauty but also in hope that her youth and insouciance would medicate his oft-remarked melancholy, Pxerak-Tosoim took the evolved scroll from the hands of his archiscribe and read:
All eyes save the king’s were now on cage-and-jester, and none saw him mottle with rage as his eye fell to the subscribed signature, which was that of the wizard Niwradz-Elrach himself. Looking up, the king saw with waxing indignation, as the frightened ape crouched to a futile corner of its cage, clapping its uncouth hands to its ears against the laughter and jests, that the creature bore a silver ring on one black-furred finger. When he ordered the cage opened and the ring taken from its unworthy bearer, the laughter and shouts redoubled and Asomrophë kissed and beard-ruffled her groom in gratitude, seeing still more entertainment to be wrung from torment of the ape. And the creature rewarded her anticipation, for though it suffered its hand to be raised by a soldier and the ring to be drawn thereoff without resistance, it yet wept great misshapen tears at the loss, as though its bestial heart was wrung and pierced with grief.
Amid the renewed glee of the court, the ring was brought to Pxerak-Tosoim, who had it washed and dried with silk ere sliding it on his own finger. Then verily his heart pounded and thumped with fear-of-madness, for what did he see about him in place of his courtiers but a thousand apes shrieking with laughter at weeping-Asomrophë-in-the-cage, while the ape-therein-a-moment-before bounced and chattered at his side? He drew the ring off and hall-and-cage were restored to sane normality; slid the ring back on and saw the thousand apes shriek again for pleasure at caged Asomrophë’s distress. He tried to draw the ring off a second time, but it would not come, as though it were sealed now to the flesh of his finger. The wizard’s scroll at this moment jumped to the floor whence he had placed it beside his golden platter, for its parchment had suddenly revolved, and he bent to lift it from the sweet-scented rushes, seeing in the fall a further clause of the wizard’s magic. Evolving the thing again, he stretched it flat and read therefrom the altered couplet:
Dropping the scroll with a snort, Pxerak-Tosoim tugged again at the ring, seeking to draw it off his finger at whatever cost of torn skin and bruised knuckle. But it twisted as he tugged, sliding in a half-circle on his sweating skin; and he looked up, gaping in horrified amaze, for on a sudden the cacophony of the hall was stilled and the lights quenched, and he saw now, in moonlight falling through rents in ceiling and walls, that the hall was crowded but with mouldering bones, tumbled to the floor or sprawled to the table where a moment before they had caroused in their living robes of flesh. Aye, he and caged Asomrophë alone, who forwent her weeping in wonder at the transformation about her, were left alive and whole in the hall, nor would the ring twist in reverse to restore life thereto.
Rising from his chair (sole solid and upright of all around the table), he went to the cage wherein Asomrophë stood, her cheeks moon-silvered with tears, and asked her if she would come forth. No answer she vouchsafed, staring on him without understanding till he gestured his meaning and she nodded and chattered her consent. Whereat he opened the cage and took her soft white hand to draw her forth, then passed with her through the hall and over the toppled valves of the door, powdered by decay, to seek if aught remained outwith of his fallen and irresurrectible kingdom.