Swords From the East (82 page)

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Authors: Harold Lamb

Tags: #Historical Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #Short Stories (Single Author), #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Suspense, #Adventure Fiction, #Historical, #Short Stories, #Adventure Stories

BOOK: Swords From the East
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Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Gate in the Sky

The Wolf-Chaser

The Three Palladins

The House of the Strongest

The Road of the Giants

Azadi's Jest

The Net

The Book of the Tiger: The Warrior

The Book of the Tiger: The Emperor

Sleeping Lion

Appendix

About the Author

Source Acknowledgments

Lamb tried his hand at contemporary fiction and was published in a number of top-flight magazines; t

"This one is a falcon," thought Aruk, taking counsel with himself. "May the -eat me though if he isn

"Nay," the servant grinned surlily, "I will tell my tale to the baksa, the witch-doctors, and they w

"You are a usenin-a teller of tales. Is that how you pass the time when you are shut up in the house

The third day, Mingan judged that they covered four hundred li"

cry of the Horde. Mingan stared at them, aware of power in the steady gait of the ordered ranks, in

"If I lurk in my tent like a dog," snarled the khan, "my enemies will take counsel together and elec

"'Tis part of the magic of Prester John," the Tiger explained. "Those who seek out Tangut see on eve

Three days more of riding and they reached a fairer land, where the camps of the nomads ceased and v

"The Roof of the World,"*

"Since the time of my grandsire, tales have come to us through the Moslem caravans that Christian pa

Mingan had been well content these last years. He had gone with the Horde when Genghis Khan led his

"Listen, Alashan," he had said to the boy, "to the words spoken by the All-Conquering, the mighty mo

The old chieftain rode with his head raised. He was looking for the fires in the sky*

"A thousand and another thousand tents.*

"Llai-hai-hai!" roared Ubaka, seeing the standard approaching. "The Kirghiz have been building a lop

Kam was lost in admiration. The faces of the demigods were red as the crimson of the northern lights

From these original Turki manuscript and copies, two English men of letters, Dr. John Leyden and Mr.

He was a great-grandson of Timur-i-lang`

But when the officers who were in the citadel heard of my movements they sent a learned kwajah, who

Samarkand is a wonderfully elegant city surrounded by green meadows. As no enemy has ever stormed it

When I had explained this to Tambal he also went off and left me.*

And then came tidings that Shaibani Khan and the Uzbek horde were invading the Moghul kingdoms.*

They accordingly went, scaled the walls opposite the Lovers' Cave, and entered the place without giv

No sooner had I gained Samarkand than I repeatedly dispatched messengers to all the Khans and Sultan

The cause of my eagerness to engage was that the Eight Stars*

When the lines of the two armies approached each other, the extremity of their right wing turned my

"Though the Moghul name were writ in gold, it is base-and false is the fruit of the Moghul seed!

About midnight I left the city secretly by the Sheikh-Zadeh Gate, accompanied by my mother. Two othe

This winter many of my soldiers, principally because we could not go out on plundering parties, aske

Kwajah*

These ceremonies they repeated three times. After that they all leaped into the saddle, raised the w

"I have made an agreement," I answered. "How call I violate it?""

Meanwhile we heard that Sheikh Bayezid had entered the citadel on the height. We ought to have place

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