'The Tale of Satampra Zeiros' – Clark Ashton Smith

Last night, I was looking for a short(ish) story to read and round off a week where I haven't been able to find the time to read as much as I would have liked. Hopefully next week will be better, we'll see.

But anyway... I couldn't settle on anything. Seriously, the floor of my flat is a like a graveyard for short stories... And then I realised that it had been bloody ages since I'd read anything by Clark Ashton Smith (since November last year actually, I went and checked) and the reading took care of itself.

This time round, I decided to see what tale it was that Satampra Zeiros had to tell...

I, Satampra Zeiros of Uzuldaroum, shall write with my left hand, since I have no longer any other, the tale of everything that befell Tirouv Ompallios and myself in the shrine of the god Tsathoggua, which lies neglected by the worship of man in the jungle-taken suburbs of Commoriom, that long-deserted capital of the Hyperborean rulers. I shall write it with the violet juice of the suvana-palm, which turns to a blood-red rubric with the passage of years, on a strong vellum that is made from the skin of the mastodon, as a warning to all good thieves and adventurers who may hear some lying legend of the lost treasures of Commoriom and be tempted thereby.

I really mustn't leave it so long before I read any more Clark Ashton Smith... It was so good to immerse myself in his lush and dangerous words (and worlds) again. 'The Tale of Satampra Zeiros' treads some familiar ground but the payoff is really worth it, trust me.

Any bastion of civilisation, in Ashton Smith's worlds, is guaranteed to have a reminder of its dark past nearby and more often than not, it's a jungle temple that holds the promise of treasure but actually holds, well... you know. And it will more often than not be discovered by thieves or someone on the run and looking for somewhere to hide.

It's the turn of thieves to discover this particular temple and like I said, it's a path well trodden. What rescues it though is just how much Satampra Zeiros is prepared to talk up how good he and his partner, one Tirouv Ompallos, are at the business of thieving. If this story was admissible as evidence, Zeiros would be behind bars before the end of the first page, lets put it that way. I loved it personally. If you're good at something, don't ever sell yourself short ;o)

Ashton Smith then proceeds to take his deadly temple, and not so modest thieves, and dress it up in the style that he does best. He takes a setting already steeped in age and proceeds to make it even older by not only making it all overgrown, the further Zeiros and Ompallos go into the jungle, but also adding little hints that the setting is far older than anyone realises. Again, I love it. The detail is lush and intricate and it's for a story that's only thirteen pages long. Smith is great at telling us a lot using very little space to do so. You come out of Smith's stories feeling almost like you travelled there and 'The Tale of Satampra Zeiros' is no different. These aren't hospitable climes, by any means, but the journey itself is breathtaking.

And we get some 'monster action', right at the very end :o) The description may not be anything new (if it ain't broke though...) but what that monster does, in it's single minded pursuit of the duo, makes for some tense reading. And it's final actions... Wow. I could see it coming but seeing it actually happen was something else entirely. Zeiros was very lucky to only lose the one hand, lets put it that way...

I won't say anything else other than that you can read 'The Tale of Satampra Zeiros' over Here and it's a tale that you should read if you get the chance. It may not break new ground but when it's written as well as this, does it really need to...?