Avram Davidson - The Avram Davidson Treasury - a tribute collection

To sum up: I, Vergil, once with brief: an advocate: ’twas very brief: eh? if the Vestal Virgin in this probably vatic dream — and every dream in one way or another must be vatic, must be prophetic, else why is a dream dreamed? if I, Vergil, am he whom the Vestal pardons, she can be pardoning me only from sentence of death. Not from charge of a crime meriting death, no, from sentence of death. And what can I, Vergil, have done or what would I do , to merit?

Dared I, would I dare? to love her—?

And as for the other dream, and her cry of, “Thou art the man!” if this was not accusative, then what was it? Could it be exculpatory? all things were, some barely, possible: but…he would believe that this the Virgin’s exclamation was exculpatory? then he would believe anything…let him, if he would, believe—

But let him first flee. And if not to the end of the Empery, then at least from Yellow Rome. To be, at least, a while more, safe.

Where would he safest be? from the accusations of the vatic voice in a state of dream—? whither flees the frightened child? he flees to home.

And now and for a long time: Naples was home.

… whence he might, if he would, if he need, having taken stock, flee again …

But why at once …? Why, because there was no set time indicated in these dreams. Who knows but what even now delators and informants were bespeaking those who bespoke the soldiery, He laid his hands upon the Virgin’s naked flesh, and, Act quickly, he may soon escape and flee …

Also, did I wait, tarry?…opportunity…temptation…lust …

Thus: at once.

It is tiresome to say what everyone knows, in this case that some things are more quickly said than done. There was no ship at a wharf behind a signboard reading HOME, AT ONCE. We had to wait until Quint’s friend, our host, was willing to see us. Then it was needful (he, Quint, thought) that I should leave the City by a round-about way and not by any of the broader streets, and essential (I thought) that Quint should not be seen with me; and I was a long time persuading him of this, and even I had a chore preventing him of this, and even I had a chore preventing him that he might not even, as he put it, “put bread in my wallet” for the journey, in my old doe-skin budget, bread: had I yielded at all, we would likely have wandered over half of Rome to find some particular bake-shop. With or without opium seed. Even, yes indeed! he might bethink him, bread is not enough! and insist he obtain me cheese , and salamesausage! — at which, by the sod and staff! might I give myself up for lost—

I was therefore long in leaving, and I neither drew rein of my borrowed horse, a gentle stalwart grey with dappled haunches; his name alas I never learned, I called him Thee (the Etruscan…a bit mysterious, like most his kind; and like most his kind: rich…had many horses, asked no questions) nor looked back till I had reached the rise by the third milestone. Then I halted, and turned. No pursuit? None…though I was uneasy in recalling that a dream, like a curse, might sometimes wait as much as seven years for fulfillment. No sign of pursuit, nor yet I was not easy. Ease is not always to the wise; was I wise? Some knowledge had I gained, but had I gained wisdom?

And lifting my eyes from the Appian Road I saw in the setting sun the cloud of dust raised by the hooves of the beasts being driven into the city to be slaughtered early next morning for sale in the markets, and the dust was faintly yellow. I saw in the suddenly visible middle distance the gold-spiked roofs, and stonework in marble the color of the hair of a fair-haired woman, brickwork the shade of straw, tiles a tint between that of the lemon of Sicily and a bright marigold blowing in the wind. I saw the glittering roofs and glowing golden buildings of Rome. By the yellow Tiber in the yellow dusk I saw the city of Yellow Rome…of Yellow Rome…

Yellow Rome.

I turned and urged on my horse. It was a long way to Naples.

All the Vergil Magus stories together are only the tip of an iceberg the size of a rather large universe, as I realized when Avram allowed me to browse the boxes containing the detailed notes on fact, myth, and fantasy upon which they rest. Here’s a glimpse into the Vergil Magus Cosmos, a tiny bright diamond in which the infinite whole is reflected.

“The Affair at Lahore Cantonment” first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , June 1961

“And Don’t Forget the One Red Rose” first appeared in Playboy , September 1975

“Author, Author” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , July 1959

“Crazy Old Lady” first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , March 1976

“Dagon” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , October 1959

“Full Chicken Richness” first appeared in The Last Wave , vol. 1, October 1983

“The Golem” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , July 1958

“Goobers” first appeared in Swank , November 1965

“Goslin Day” first appeared in Orbit 6 , 1970, ed. Damon Knight

“Hark! Was That the Squeal of an Angry Throat?” first appeared in Fantastic , December 1977

“Help! I Am Dr. Morris Goldpepper” first appeared in Galaxy , July 1957

“The Hills Behind Hollywood High” (with Grania Davis) first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , April 1983

“The House the Blakeneys Built” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , January 1965

“The Last Wizard” first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , December 1972

“Manatee Gal, Won’t You Come Out Tonight” first appeared (as “Manatee Gal, Ain’t You Coming Out Tonight”) in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1977

“My Boy Friend’s Name Is Jello” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , July 1954

“Naples” first appeared in Shadows , ed. Charles L. Grant (Doubleday, 1978)

“The Necessity of His Condition” first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , April 1957

“Now Let Us Sleep” first appeared in Venture Science Fiction , September 1957

“Ogre in the Vly” first appeared (as “The Ogre”) in Worlds of If , July 1959

“Or All the Seas with Oysters” first appeared in Galaxy , May 1958

“Or the Grasses Grow” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , November 1958

“Polly Charms, The Sleeping Woman” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science, Fiction , February 1975

“The Power of Every Root” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , October 1967

“The Price of a Charm; or, The Lineaments of Gratified Desire” first appeared (as “Price of a Charm”) in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , December 1963

“Revenge of the Cat-Lady” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , January 1985 (1,700 words)

“Revolver” first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , October 1962

“Sacheverell” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , March 1964

“Selectra Six-Ten” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , October 1970