"John DeChancie - Castle 05 - Castle Murders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

Edition

Ordinarily an introduction or prolegomenon is expected to shed some light on the material it prefaces or
introduces, enough so that the reader may find his way through an unfamiliar literary landscape. In the
present case, however, this prefatory note to the work now known as The Eidolons of the King: Tales of
Castle Perilous can serve only to delimit areas of shadow that shroud the work in mystery.

Particularly obscure is the question of its origin and authorship. To say that its provenance is mysterious
is to put it mildly. To put the matter simply: the original paperbound volumes of the books of The
Eidolons тАФ cheap pulp paper, hastily glued bindings, garish covers and all тАФ were found one day in the
castle library, having been shelved among finely wrought leatherbound tomes of bardic sagas and epic
poetry. No one knows who put them there.

Would that this were the only mystery! The deeper and more fundamental question, of course, is: Who
wrote these books and how did their author come by his intimate knowledge of Castle Perilous? to say
nothing of his apparent clairvoyance in producing these accounts of the storm of recent events that have
raged round it.

Castle Perilous! At its very mention the heart skips a beat. For the benefit of the reader and especially
for those castle Guests who seek a general orientation within these pages, it might do well to pause here
and describe what the name evokes for we who make the castle our home.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswi...-%20Castle%20Perilous%205%20-%20Castle%20Murders.html (5 of 249)19-2-2006 3:40:41
 Castle MurdersJohn DeChanciee-reads2002Texttext/html0-7592-6266-7en-usen-usCopyright ┬й 1994 by John DeChancie{59FFE082-6408-11



For the castle itself is a mystery. Its very existence maintained from second to second by a
transmutational spell laid long ago on a great demon, Castle Perilous is a magical construction. Its huge
bulk тАФ far more than what mortal hands could amass piling stone upon stone тАФ bestrides a citadel
commanding the bleak Plains of Baranthe in the Western Pale. The castle is a world in itself; but far
more than that, it contains countless worlds.

Some explication is needed. As would any structure of its size, Perilous has innumerable doors and
windows; but the anomaly is that some of these are portals to other worlds. Pass through any of the
castleтАЩs тАЬaspects,тАЭ as they are called, and you cross into a strange new cosmos. There are exactly
144,000 aspects in the castle. Any resident or Guest of the castle can describe the sensation of wonder
engendered when, after traversing gloomy hallways, one goes through an archway or alcove and steps
out onto a vast savannah where herds of animals graze тАФ or into a deep forest limned in cathedral light
тАФ or onto a desolate plain whereon sits a domed city under an alien sun.

But let us return to the controversy surrounding the authorship of The Eidolons.

Who is the man whose name is emblazoned (immodestly so, if I might add) across the covers of these
тАЬpaperbacksтАЭ? Where does he live? As the language of these works is contemporary (if quasi-
grammatical) English with lapses into pseudo-Elizabethan cant, one might well conclude that the author
hails from the castle aspect known as Earth. But, truth be told, a thorough search of the appropriate
reference volumes has failed to produce any mention of either the author or his works. Moreover, no
trace can be found of the publisher whose name and address is printed on the verso of the title page!
(There are attendant minor mysteries, of which we should make passing mention. The authorтАЩs surname,