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“Let Him that Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own” by Rob MacWolf (part 2 of 2, read by William Dingo))
In the late bronze age, on a small island, there dwells a pirate. Will fate be content to leave him there, happy and in love?
Today’s story is the second and final part of “Let Him that Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own” by Rob MacWolf, winner of a LEO Literary Award for best short story, from the award winning anthology When the World Was Young by the Furry Historical Fiction Society. Be sure to look for his work in the next volumes, also available from the FHFS.
Last time, Talzu the Oracle and his lover Ouanaxes the Pirate King were happily settled, despite worries that fate and prophesy would tear them apart. But they are about to learn that fate is a more complicated thing than even an oracle might guess.
Read by William Dingo, the Sunrise Spectator.
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https://thevoice.dog/episode/let-him-that-speaketh-fate-to-men-have-no-fate-of-his-own-by-rob-macwolf-part-2-of-2
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:Today’s story is the second and final part of
Speaker:“Let Him that Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own” by Rob MacWolf, winner of a LEO Literary Award for best short story,
Speaker:from the award winning anthology When the World Was Young
Speaker:by the Furry Historical Fiction Society.
Speaker:Be sure to look for his work in the next volumes,
Speaker:also available from the FHFS.
Speaker:Last time, Talzu the Oracle
Speaker:and his lover Ouanaxes the Pirate King
Speaker:were happily settled,
Speaker:despite worries that fate
Speaker:and prophesy would tear them apart.
Speaker:But they are about to learn
Speaker:that fate is a more complicated thing
Speaker:than even an oracle
Speaker:might guess. Read by William Dingo,
Speaker:the Sunrise Spectator.
Speaker:Please enjoy“Let Him that Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own”
Speaker:by Rob MacWolf
Speaker:Now step forward,
Speaker:in your imaginings,
Speaker:a month or so. The season has turned,
Speaker:and Ouanaxes announced the winds have turned with them.
Speaker:Those ships which went north and east,
Speaker:he said, bearing gold and incense from the God-Kings in the south,
Speaker:have weathered the summer becalming
Speaker:and now mean to bear back cargos of spice and jewels,
Speaker:from the unknown shores of the north
Speaker:and whatever nomad warlords they could find to trade with there.
Speaker:So the season was come
Speaker:for piracy. “I will bring you back,”
Speaker:Ouanaxes bid farewell to his dog, on the shore,
Speaker:with a great abundance of kisses,
Speaker:“a gold ring for your tail.
Speaker:Set with amethysts,
Speaker:maybe.” “I would rather,”
Speaker:Talzu returned every kiss his lion gave him,
Speaker:“you bring me back your self,
Speaker:safe and unhurt.” But there was little fear in him.
Speaker:Three among his crew had visited the Oracle, the night before,
Speaker:and all had asked if any among the pirates would be slain.
Speaker:Each time the answer had been no.
Speaker:“Still, amethysts would look most striking against your fur!” Ouanaxes laughed, and his eyes glinted, and he went aboard. Once the boat took the surf,
Speaker:and passed the breakers, Talzu went to the high bluff, to watch it drive west on a score
Speaker:and six oars until the sail caught the wind to carry them toward
Speaker:the sunset. “You said yourself,” Histuman would have reassured him, “he will not be harmed.” “Aye,” said Talzu. “But it will be wearisome, waiting for him to return.”
Speaker:Over the next fortnight, an architect came to ask if the hill on which he planned a fortified place for a local despot were firm
Speaker:and stable,
Speaker:a rich matriarch came asking
Speaker:to which gods she should make sacrifice
Speaker:so that her yet-to-be-born grandchildren would live healthy
Speaker:and prosperous, and a lovesick young fool came wanting to know
Speaker:if a woman to whom he had never spoken
Speaker:loved him. Each night,
Speaker:after he had answered them,[a] Talzu’s
Speaker:dreams were a torment.
Speaker:The first, he dreamed of Ouanaxes, robed and crowned,
Speaker:seated in a high place to deliver verdicts both just and merciful.
Speaker:In the next, he dreamed of Ouanaxes bearing a sacred torch,
Speaker:on a quest through haunted mountains,
Speaker:to relight the altar fires at an abandoned temple
Speaker:and appease the curse of an angry god
Speaker:on a whole people.
Speaker:On the last, he dreamed of a city
Speaker:fully in celebration,
Speaker:dancing and singing in the marketplace
Speaker:and on all the rooftops,
Speaker:as their prince, long promised,
Speaker:returned from exile to take the throne
Speaker:and restore peace and plenty.
Speaker:And below, Ouanaxes’s ship drew into the harbor,
Speaker:stately, on sea as smooth as beaten metal
Speaker:and clear as glass,
Speaker:under showers of silver apple petals cast upon the breeze.
Speaker:“Sleep has failed you, lad,”
Speaker:Histuman would have said,
Speaker:if he could have sat beside Talzu,
Speaker:“and this is a poor place for breaking your fast.”
Speaker:“True,” the dog clutched his breakfast cup in the sanctuary garden
Speaker:as the stewed grains and sweet herbs in it
Speaker:grew cold, “but it faces west.”
Speaker:“When other men are troubled by dreams of ill portent,” Histuman would have sighed, “they consult an oracle.” Talzu scowled at where the old wolf would have been sitting. “Break your fast first, lad.”
Speaker:Histuman would have said.
Speaker:“What will your pirate think if you waste away to nothing before he returns?”
Speaker:Talzu’s scowl deepened,
Speaker:but he gulped down his gruel and curds.
Speaker:“Did you ever,” he said,
Speaker:“know more than what you were asked?”
Speaker:“Aye,” Histuman’s voice would have grown cautious and grave.
Speaker:“Rare it was, but from time to time
Speaker:there would come one on whom the fates had laid a finger.
Speaker:Those with great
Speaker:and noble destinies,
Speaker:or monstrous and horrific ones.
Speaker:And whatsoever they actually asked,
Speaker:some part of the deeds they would someday do
Speaker:would bear down upon me
Speaker:like a deluge.” Talzu bit his lip.
Speaker:“I have heard, indeed,
Speaker:I have seen, what may happen if it be too much.”
Speaker:Histuman would have relaxed easily into lecture,
Speaker:“I was not apprenticed here, you know.
Speaker:I learned at a temple on the mainland,
Speaker:and that land is thick
Speaker:with heroes. When they would come,
Speaker:my teacher, an old and august woman,
Speaker:a leopard, she would sometime snap,
Speaker:deliver them prophesies unasked for,
Speaker:that she had not the strength to hold back.
Speaker:Many was the time they could not even speak their question entire.
Speaker:It became, I think, a part of
Speaker:her fame—that you might be told not what you wanted to hear,
Speaker:but what you needed to know
Speaker:—but it broke her in the end.
Speaker:Her soul could bear the weight no more.
Speaker:And that is why, when I came to the mastery of my foresight,
Speaker:I sought out an obscure sanctuary,
Speaker:to unknown gods, where few would think to bring anything so pestilent
Speaker:as a hero’s destiny.” Histuaman would have fallen silent, then, on first noticing how tight Talzu gripped the cup, how wide the dog’s eyes were, and how fixed on the horizon toward which Ouanaxes had gone. And the old wolf,
Speaker:who would have known better than to ask
Speaker:what his student had seen,
Speaker:would have only put an arm around the dog’s shoulders
Speaker:and held him close.
Speaker:The day the ship returned,
Speaker:Talzu was awake before the sunrise,
Speaker:and down waiting at the harbor
Speaker:hours before he sighted it.
Speaker:Ouanaxes was standing on the prow,
Speaker:leaning forward. He was too distant for what he shouted
Speaker:when he saw Talzu waiting to be heard,
Speaker:but he dove off and swam ashore without waiting for the ship to make land,
Speaker:so his feelings were not difficult to infer.
Speaker:It would perhaps be thought very shocking, in these days,
Speaker:for man to kiss one he loved in full view of all the island
Speaker:and a shipful of his sailors,
Speaker:but those were simpler times.
Speaker:When they at last lay,
Speaker:peacefully, blissfully,
Speaker:in one another’s arms,
Speaker:all appetites sated
Speaker:—which had taken no little doing to accomplish
Speaker:—Ouanaxes kissed Talzu again,
Speaker:on the side of the neck,
Speaker:and said “I suspect it’s as sorely as I missed you,
Speaker:that you have missed me.”
Speaker:“That may be,” Talzu said.
Speaker:“But it’s also that you are a man
Speaker:whom it is a joy to welcome.”
Speaker:“Oh, I am welcome, then?”
Speaker:“Must I welcome you still further,
Speaker:to make you understand?”
Speaker:“Let it never be said,”
Speaker:the lion nuzzled him,
Speaker:“that I rejected offered hospitality.”
Speaker:The raid, indeed, had been a brilliant success.
Speaker:They had come upon a barge
Speaker:heavy-laden with tribute,
Speaker:bound for a warrior queen
Speaker:—who purposed to build a palace
Speaker:that outshone her father’s in splendor
Speaker:—in an attempt to win
Speaker:the allyship of her armies.
Speaker:Because these armies were so desperately needed,
Speaker:no warriors had been spared for the ship,
Speaker:and they had taken the whole cargo
Speaker:with but little bloodshed.
Speaker:They unloaded all manner of rich and comfortable furniture
Speaker:—as well as the to-be-expected
Speaker:gold, silver, fine patterned linens,
Speaker:incense and spices,
Speaker:and all manner of jewels
Speaker:—and the homes of Ocrit Isle were suddenly all more gracious
Speaker:than they had ever before dreamed of being.
Speaker:And there was indeed a tailring of amethysts
Speaker:set in gold for Talzu,
Speaker:as promised. But for all the time the pirate and the oracle spent in eachother’s arms,
Speaker:rather than seeing to the treasure,
Speaker:you would have thought
Speaker:neither of them cared a bean for any of it.
Speaker:The next three years passed much as has been described. There was
Speaker:plunder and victory on the sea,
Speaker:and there was love and comfort on the return.
Speaker:For the dog’s part,
Speaker:when Ouanaxes was gone
Speaker:the dreams of his beloved’s glory and heroism,
Speaker:if he but left him and his isle,
Speaker:would haunt him. Then when the lion was in his arms again,
Speaker:they would recede like the tide,
Speaker:always threatening a return.
Speaker:“So, when I am away,”
Speaker:Ouanaxes said, “you are some manner of priest at the sanctuary of the Oracle?”
Speaker:His head lay in Talzu’s lap,
Speaker:in the whitewashed brick cottage the pirate had taken,
Speaker:a half hour’s walk from the harbor, to be his dwelling on Ocrit Isle.
Speaker:“If I were,” Talzu stroked the lion’s ears,
Speaker:“I would be bound by sacred oaths not to reveal it.”
Speaker:Here discourse was obliged to wait for a time,
Speaker:while Ouanaxes’s tongue attended to more important matters.
Speaker:“I do recall,” the lion nuzzled the belly that cradled his face,
Speaker:“a number of mysterious fellows,
Speaker:their faces all hidden,
Speaker:who attended my audience when I went.
Speaker:If I were to ask if you had been one among them,
Speaker:what then might you say?”
Speaker:“I suppose,” Talzu laughed,
Speaker:“I would ask you to tell me about your country.
Speaker:Where did the journey that brought you to my bed begin?”
Speaker:So Ouanaxes, who was no fool and
Speaker:could see plainly what was plain enough,
Speaker:moved up beside Talzu on the bed,
Speaker:and told the dog of an entire city that was a palace,
Speaker:of the topless towers,
Speaker:and the temples on the high places.
Speaker:Of eating melons cooled in springwater
Speaker:and meat skewers hot from the grill in the market square,
Speaker:of the warm and steaming public baths,
Speaker:and the festival parades on the holy days dedicated to the queen of the night sky,
Speaker:and the lady of the underworld,
Speaker:and the sacred king of the harvest between them.
Speaker:And if his voice grew low and wistful,
Speaker:heavy with nostalgia,
Speaker:and if he slowed to a halt,
Speaker:and shied away from any mention
Speaker:of why he was not there now,
Speaker:or how when folk spoke of the absent prince
Speaker:they oft used the words ‘banished’ or ‘exile,’
Speaker:then Talzu mentioned it not.
Speaker:They each understood
Speaker:what it was for the other to have secrets.
Speaker:“I understand what you are doing, lad”
Speaker:Histuman would have said,
Speaker:“but do you?” Talzu did not turn away from Ouanaxes’s ship,
Speaker:departing on what the pirate said was likely the last sortie
Speaker:before winter storms came to shut all the merchants in their ports.
Speaker:“You have not said you saw more of his fate,”
Speaker:the old wolf would have followed Talzu
Speaker:as he strode up the path,
Speaker:past the cottage where he meant to spend the winter with his lion,
Speaker:and into the forest toward the heights and the sanctuary.
Speaker:“But neither have you made it hard to guess.
Speaker:Will you tell me,
Speaker:at least, what grim future you fear in your dreams?
Speaker:What keeps you from restful sleep every night you are not with him?
Speaker:What does my shade linger with you for,
Speaker:if not to give you counsel?”
Speaker:Talzu strode faster.
Speaker:“If some danger awaits him,
Speaker:or even death inescapable,”
Speaker:Histuman would have been snarling by now,
Speaker:“what good does it do,
Speaker:to keep this from him?”
Speaker:“I saw he was going to leave!”
Speaker:Talzu turned on his heel in the sanctuary gates to howl back at the empty forest.
Speaker:“I saw the grand and glorious destiny
Speaker:—throne, triumph, and a hero’s renown—that awaits him if he leaves this place and never returns!
Speaker:Fate means him to be much more than mine,
Speaker:and by the gods, if any man knows he can indeed be much more, it is I!”
Speaker:Histuman would have been too shaken to reply.
Speaker:“Yet as long as I do not tell him,
Speaker:as long as the oracle
Speaker:stays silent,” Talzu shot a disgusted look at the hall
Speaker:where he had stood,
Speaker:masked and robed,
Speaker:to tell Ouanaxes
Speaker:it would be safe to dwell here,
Speaker:“he has no wish to leave!
Speaker:He is happy with me,
Speaker:I am happy with him,
Speaker:and I’d be glad to count whatsoever glory
Speaker:might have been as worth nothing,
Speaker:as a thing that will never exist
Speaker:and therefore matters not,
Speaker:if it were not that I cannot
Speaker:unsee what I saw!”
Speaker:The dog could not keep a whine out of his voice,
Speaker:“Every dream grows clearer.
Speaker:In each of them he is more glorious.
Speaker:And in
Speaker:none of them am I anywhere
Speaker:to be found.” “Is that not his choice to make?”
Speaker:Histuman would have drawn near,
Speaker:tentatively, as if trying to not to startle away a frightened animal,
Speaker:“If you lay the two futures before him,
Speaker:and let him decide?”
Speaker:“He will decide to stay,
Speaker:because he will decide
Speaker:not to hurt me.” “You have foreseen this?”
Speaker:“I do not need to.”
Speaker:“Then,” Histuman would have said,
Speaker:“all will be well.
Speaker:Why this woe?” “Because he should go!
Speaker:It is an unjust thing to deprive a rightful king of his kingdom, is it not?
Speaker:Is that not what I am doing, old man?”
Speaker:Talzu retreated into the sanctuary proper,
Speaker:hushed the concerned acolyte with a gesture,
Speaker:and strode into the hall.
Speaker:The braziers were unlit,
Speaker:the mask set aside in an alcove shrine. “And what of the fates?
Speaker:What plagues will they send on my head,
Speaker:or on his, if I continue to defy them?”
Speaker:“If you wish,” Histuman would have stood by the mask he had worn in life,
Speaker:one paw on it,
Speaker:wistfully, “I will play the oracle for you, lad.
Speaker:You journeyed to the sanctuary,
Speaker:you came within, you asked
Speaker:your question.” Talzu could hear his own heartbeat in his ears
Speaker:as he nodded. Then,
Speaker:without dramatics, without ceremony,
Speaker:without mask or brazier or drugs,
Speaker:Histuman would have recited,
Speaker:“Trade crown for heart
Speaker:for crown, and be forevermore alone.
Speaker:Lose all thy self within the masks
Speaker:you did not ask to bear,
Speaker:But none but those outside of them
Speaker:can read what masks
Speaker:fate wears. Let him that speaketh fate to men
Speaker:have no fate of his own.”
Speaker:If there had been an acolyte
Speaker:who had the gift to hear what Histuman would have prophesied,
Speaker:then perhaps for some additional alms,
Speaker:beyond that he had paid to be admitted to this place
Speaker:—and Talzu indeed felt he had paid much, by now
Speaker:—someone could have offered
Speaker:an interpretation.
Speaker:But there was none
Speaker:but himself. “What did that mean?”
Speaker:he asked, quietly.
Speaker:“I suppose,” Histuman would have sighed,
Speaker:as he gestured for Talzu to follow him into the garden,
Speaker:“you have not forseen wrongly.
Speaker:If he leaves, if he returns wherever it was he came from,
Speaker:he finds glory there.
Speaker:And aye, that may be what the fates intended for him.”
Speaker:“But if he does,” mulled Talzu,
Speaker:“he loses himself in kingship,
Speaker:in the mask of it?
Speaker:The same as I was becoming nothing but the oracle, ere he arrived.”
Speaker:“A likely reading, lad,”
Speaker:Histuman would have nodded,
Speaker:“what make you of
Speaker:‘those outside’ who
Speaker:‘read the masks fate wears?”
Speaker:“I suppose that means us.”
Speaker:Talzu said. “Means me.
Speaker:In order to foretell fate,
Speaker:I had to shake loose of it,
Speaker:to be outside it.
Speaker:That is why all that can be interpreted of what you said
Speaker:is about him, not me.”
Speaker:“If all I can do is foresee of him,
Speaker:then I shall tell you what I foresee,”
Speaker:Histuman would have taken a good breath,
Speaker:gathered his thoughts.
Speaker:“On the one path, he leaves you,
Speaker:and all is as you have foretold.
Speaker:Glory and a throne, the kind of destiny all men dream of and few attain to.
Speaker:On the other, he remains with you all his days,
Speaker:and those are unremarkable. Eventually the petty kingdoms know better than to send their ships past here,
Speaker:they will have learned to fear the peoples they meet on the sea.
Speaker:By then he will scarce care.
Speaker:He will have brought wealth enough to make Ocrit Isle a comfortable place for himself,
Speaker:for the one he loves,
Speaker:to live out the rest of their days.”
Speaker:Talzu wore the face of a man
Speaker:who expects a trap.
Speaker:“The dreams, on this path,
Speaker:either fade, taking much of your foresight with them,
Speaker:or they grow until your mind snaps under the strain.
Speaker:And one day,” Histuman
Speaker:would have growled,
Speaker:“some strange and foolish people
Speaker:may discover your forgotten tomb,
Speaker:look on your bones
Speaker:and his, lying paw in paw
Speaker:and arm in arm, and say
Speaker:‘they must have been brothers.’”
Speaker:He would have pointed a finger at Talzu without looking at the young dog,
Speaker:“And it is you, lad,
Speaker:that must choose,
Speaker:not he. He came to you,
Speaker:the oracle though he knew it not.
Speaker:And aye, he had a glorious destiny before him,
Speaker:but if keeping him is what you choose,
Speaker:and all that comes with it,
Speaker:why, is that not a destiny
Speaker:too? Is that not a path the fates have set before the man,
Speaker:just as much as is the glory you saw?”
Speaker:“And perhaps” Talzu whispered quietly,
Speaker:“I would rather be broken in his arms,
Speaker:than whole and alone?”
Speaker:Histuman would have had nothing to say to that.
Speaker:Which is hardly to be wondered at,
Speaker:since he was not there.
Speaker:He was dead. The dog squeezed his eyes shut against his tears,
Speaker:managed to contain them.
Speaker:“I would you had not died.
Speaker:That I were still
Speaker:only your apprentice.
Speaker:That I could know,
Speaker:if I let Ouanaxes go,
Speaker:I would still have your bed,
Speaker:and your arms, to take comfort in.” And Talzu hoped Histuman would have said something like, ‘But then you would not be Oracle.
Speaker:And you are a greater Oracle
Speaker:than I.’ Thus did Talzu set his shoulders,
Speaker:and dry his tears,
Speaker:and turn to do as a great oracle would do:
Speaker:To choose the future,
Speaker:by choosing which prophecy to say,
Speaker:and which to leave
Speaker:unspoken. So it was, alas, that I must tell you:
Speaker:when Ouanaxes returned—empty handed,
Speaker:as he had said, the season of storms
Speaker:when none could safely set sail was all but upon them
Speaker:—it was to see Talzu waiting,
Speaker:as ever, at a high place above the harbor.
Speaker:But this time it was without eagerness.
Speaker:“The oracle has summoned you,”
Speaker:he told the lion,
Speaker:his face all concern,
Speaker:“they say there is something they must say.”
Speaker:“You cannot warn me what it is?”
Speaker:The dog shook his head.
Speaker:“It is uncommon, is it not,”
Speaker:Ouanaxes ran a paw through his mane,
Speaker:and oh the way the fur rolled over the muscles
Speaker:was a precious and bittersweet sight,
Speaker:“for the Oracle to call for a man?
Speaker:Usually tis pilgrims who seek them out.”
Speaker:“I have never known it to happen before,”
Speaker:said Talzu. “When?” “As soon as can be.”
Speaker:“Very well,” Ouanaxes breathed in his courage,
Speaker:like the hero Talzu had foreseen him into,
Speaker:“lead the way.” When they reached the sanctuary,
Speaker:Talzu stopped him.
Speaker:“You must wait here.
Speaker:An acolyte will come to fetch you,
Speaker:in the Oracle’s own time.”
Speaker:“Will that acolyte be you?”
Speaker:Ouanaxes asked,
Speaker:very earnestly. “I…”
Speaker:Talzu shook his head, “...
Speaker:“...cannot say.” The oracle was lighting one of the braziers
Speaker:when the lion was admitted.
Speaker:He had not had to wait very long.
Speaker:The room was lighter than usual,
Speaker:for rarely was a pilgrim permitted to see it during the day.
Speaker:“Hail. I was told,” Ouanaxes went to one knee,
Speaker:“you would have words with me?”
Speaker:The oracle nodded, slowly,
Speaker:as if they had to be careful with the enormous mask.
Speaker:No moon was overhead,
Speaker:no sacred herbs burned in the braziers,
Speaker:no rites had been performed.
Speaker:But it seemed, today,
Speaker:such things were not needed.
Speaker:The oracle spoke,
Speaker:quietly, casually,
Speaker:as would two citizens who met in the street:
Speaker:“Why do you tarry,
Speaker:King Ouanaxes, here?
Speaker:Thy house sits empty,
Speaker:and thy crown unclaimed.
Speaker:Thy uncle is unseated and undone
Speaker:And, jeered out of the orphan’s gate, is fled.
Speaker:His treachery can no more threaten thee.
Speaker:The goddess waits,
Speaker:upon her lantern hill,
Speaker:To crown again her sacred king, and cries:
Speaker:“Why do you tarry,
Speaker:King Ouanaxes, there?”
Speaker:The lion flinched back,
Speaker:as if he had been struck.
Speaker:He opened his mouth, thought
Speaker:better of it,
Speaker:closed it again. Someone observing very close
Speaker:might have seen the oracle’s mask tremble.
Speaker:Finally, Ouanaxes gathered himself again,
Speaker:bowed graciously,
Speaker:and made for the door.
Speaker:But when he reached it,
Speaker:he stopped. “I know it’s forbidden to speak more than once,
Speaker:but it would be not be the first time I dared do what I must,
Speaker:for I knew it was banishment for me already,
Speaker:and nothing had I to lose.
Speaker:So I will say: may I know if Talzu is here among you?”
Speaker:The oracle turned their back.
Speaker:“Well, whether or not he is,
Speaker:I would say this:
Speaker:I will never forget him.
Speaker:I swear it.” The acolytes
Speaker:all looked to the oracle,
Speaker:who whispered “It will be made known
Speaker:to him.” If any noticed the tail,
Speaker:visible beneath the oracle’s robes,
Speaker:with a ring of amethysts set in gold,
Speaker:none dared remark on it.
Speaker:Talzu walked the path down through the cedars
Speaker:utterly alone. It would be well, he supposed,
Speaker:to retrieve all his worldly possessions from the whitewashed cottage
Speaker:in which he had meant to spend the winter,
Speaker:return them to the hut behind the sanctuary.
Speaker:Without his beloved,
Speaker:what use had he for the place?
Speaker:The dog froze as he stepped through the doorway.
Speaker:“You are yet here?”
Speaker:“You thought I would go,”
Speaker:replied the lion sitting on the bed,
Speaker:awake with a lamp though it was after midnight,
Speaker:“before I saw you at least once more?”
Speaker:“I feared-” was all the dog managed to say
Speaker:before the lion was upon him,
Speaker:clutching him tight,
Speaker:kissing him with a desperate hunger. “Nay,” sobbed the lion, between kisses, “never. To be with
Speaker:you is the last thing I must see completed,
Speaker:before I may leave.”
Speaker:In the morning, the Pirate King gathered his men on the shore.
Speaker:He spoke to them of his homeland,
Speaker:which many of them shared,
Speaker:and told them the tale of his banishment,
Speaker:as a youth, by his mother’s brother.
Speaker:He warned them they might face dangers
Speaker:—for it was nigh to winter,
Speaker:and the season of storms
Speaker:where only fools and desperate men set sail
Speaker:was upon them—and battle at journey’s end,
Speaker:for who could say how many of his uncle’s party
Speaker:might yet remain?
Speaker:But any man who sailed with him,
Speaker:he would regard forever as a hero,
Speaker:and if the gods were with them
Speaker:and he did reclaim his throne,
Speaker:their names would be etched in stone to be remembered
Speaker:for as long as his house endured.
Speaker:Alas, no, I can tell you none of those names now.
Speaker:He would not command any of them go.
Speaker:“Let any man speak,”
Speaker:said Ouanaxes, “and then I will lead those who will follow,
Speaker:and I shall think no less of any who choose to remain,
Speaker:for aye,” and he could not keep his eyes from straying to the high bluff above the harbor,
Speaker:where Talzu watched,
Speaker:“Ocrit has been a home to us
Speaker:indeed.” In the end,
Speaker:some stayed, and some of the islanders of Ocrit left.
Speaker:For such is the way of the lives woven for mortals by the fates:
Speaker:they intersect, they tangle with eachother,
Speaker:and never do they meet
Speaker:but some go their separate ways.
Speaker:And yes, it was a hard voyage.
Speaker:The storms were dire,
Speaker:but some god of the winds
Speaker:must have been with them.
Speaker:For yes, they arrived safely.
Speaker:The lookouts on the lantern hill spotted the burnished copper prow
Speaker:and saffron sails.
Speaker:And yes indeed, Ouanaxes entered into his city,
Speaker:amid rejoicing, under showers of silver apple petals,
Speaker:and he relit the altar fires,
Speaker:and was crowned, and ruled both justly
Speaker:and with mercy.
Speaker:Just as the oracle of a distant island
Speaker:had once foreseen.
Speaker:And some have said that when the time and signs were right,
Speaker:the dog left the island.
Speaker:Left behind the oracle’s mask.
Speaker:Another acolyte took it up
Speaker:but had not the gift,
Speaker:and the Oracle of Ocrit Isle
Speaker:was no more renowned,
Speaker:faded into curiosity and mere fortune-telling,
Speaker:until it was forgotten.
Speaker:But Talzu, they say,
Speaker:journeyed across the seas and found his hero once again,
Speaker:found the city he ruled,
Speaker:and there they lived as many years of destiny and noble deeds,
Speaker:in eachother's arms,
Speaker:as mortals might dare to have.
Speaker:But others have said not.
Speaker:Have said that is all lies of poets,
Speaker:a drop of honey at the end,
Speaker:to make the tale more palatable.
Speaker:They say Talzu remained at his duty,
Speaker:passed the rest of his days as Oracle,
Speaker:though from that day on when he took off the mask
Speaker:he went not to the market
Speaker:or the tavern, but to the high bluffs to watch the sun set over the western seas.
Speaker:And he slept no more in the hut
Speaker:behind the sanctuary.
Speaker:Though it were a longer walk, each night,
Speaker:he made his dwelling instead
Speaker:in a whitewashed cottage,
Speaker:about half an hour’s walk from the harbor.
Speaker:And still others say they both wander the earth to this day,
Speaker:seeking one another.
Speaker:For being reunited
Speaker:is the last task
Speaker:they must see complete, ere they
Speaker:depart this life together.
Speaker:But I cannot tell you which of these,
Speaker:if any, is the truth.
Speaker:I am no oracle.This was the second and final part of
Speaker:“Let Him that Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own”
Speaker:by Rob MacWolf,
Speaker:read for you by William Dingo,
Speaker:the Sunrise Spectator.
Speaker:As always, you can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,
Speaker:or find the show wherever you get
Speaker:your podcasts. Thank you
Speaker:for listening to The Voice of Dog.
