标题: 《Cursed Be the City 》作者：- Henry Kuttner 【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-4-4 21:26 标题: 《Cursed Be the City 》作者：- Henry Kuttner 【EPUB】 Cursed be the City by Henry Kuttner Illustrations by Virgil Finlay An A\NN/A Preservation Edition. Notes This is the tale they tell, O King: that ere the royal banners were lifted upon the tall towers of Chaldean Ur, before the Winged Pharaohs reigned in secret Aegyptus, there were mighty empires far to the east. There in that vast desert known as the Cradle of Mankind—aye, even in the heart of the measureless Gobi—great wars were fought and high palaces thrust their minarets up to the purple Asian sky. But this, O King, was long ago, beyond the memory of the oldest sage; the splendor of Imperial Gobi lives now only in the dreams of minstrels and poets. … The Tale of Sakhmet the Damned. CHAPTER I The Gates of War IN THE gray light of the false dawn the prophet had climbed to the outer wall of Sardopolis, his beard streaming in the chill wind. Before him, stretching across the broad plain, were the gay tents and pavilions of the besieging army, emblazoned with the scarlet symbol of the wyvern, the winged dragon beneath which King Cyaxares of the north waged his wars. Already soldiers were grouped about the catapults and scaling-towers, and a knot