The Quest of Kadji

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The star Kylix in the constellation of the Unicorn.

And now of Guizund would I speak.

No eye but mine has seen her whispering plains,

Her ebon cliffs, her dragon-guarded shores.

But I have voyaged thither in my dreams,

And watched the Red Hawk ride to the World’s Edge,

And from my voyaging, bring back this tale …

Song of Worlds,

from

CHRONICLES OF KYLIX, the Fifth Book.

The age is dark—the world Is old—

The Gods are dead or gone away!

But what care we? For I am told

A man can die but once, they say!

—Road Song of the Kozanga Nomads

FOR THREE days and three nights the great clan of warriors had ridden without pause or rest across the worldwide plains of the whispering grasses, and in all that time no habitation of men had they seen.

But now, toward evening, one of the advance scouts turned back and rode like the very wind itself to the forefront of the weary and battle-stained legion. He rode up to the place where a tall bearded man, wrapped in a voluminous ishlak of striped red and black wool, bestrode a superb white stallion.

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