Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan

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The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

This is a tale of the wizard al-Tir al-Abtan, when he dwelt in the

ancient city of Tahrir, on the shore of the southern sea.

The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan stood, of the wizard's choice, in the

poorest quarter of Tahrir. To reach it, a determined traveler would find

himself required to pass through alleys that were little more than tunnels

through crumbling piles of brick, and down streets that were no more than

mud-filled gaps between one decrepit tenement and the next. The Most Profound

Tir, the great magician of the age, had raised his palace here to avoid the

petty intrigues of lesser wizards, and the maddening importunities of nobles

and kings upon his time and talent. He did not care directly to refuse the

lords of the earth admission to his palace, for that would mean constant

harassment by those seeking exceptions or an end to the ban; but instead, he

put the palace where no self-respecting nobleman would dare approach it, and

where those who did approach it could be freely dealt with.

The Most Profound Tir made it impossible for any save himself to find a

gate in the outer wall of his residence. Whether the gate was concealed

somehow, or moved about, or did not actually exist at all was a matter of much

debate among the people of Tahrir. Certainly, when he chose to enter or leave,

a gate appeared, but no one else could ever find it again afterward, or

remember just where it had been. Thus did the wizard guard his privacy, and

for fully a century his palace remained inviolate, while he grew in

necromantic prowess, and those about him lived and died; and in all those

years that passed without touching his citadel, no man or woman other than

al-Tir al-Abtan saw the inside of the marble walls that separated the palace

grounds from the remainder of the city. Even when the magician himself was

away about the world, the palace was said to be guarded by a demon, or ghoul,

that none saw but all feared. It was said, also, that other creatures, equally

terrible, patrolled the gardens. As tales grow in the telling, it was soon

rumored that Tir used djinni and afrits as his household slaves, and his

palace was shunned as an unholy and fearsome place, even when unrest came upon

the city. And unrest did come, for it happened that, many years after al-Tir

al-Abtan completed the construction of his vast edifice, a foolish and evil

man ascended the throne as Sultan of Tahrir, one Selim ibn Jafar. This sultan

so oppressed his people that those who could, fled the city, leaving behind

only the poor and wretched, who knew that they would be no more welcome

elsewhere. Thus, while the magician's palace remained untouched, the condition

of the city about it grew ever worse. The loathsome stench of poverty spread

across the city, as beggars, thieves, whores, and cutthroats played an

ever-larger role in the life of Tahrir. The city became as a stinking swamp

about the foot of the Sultan's throne, and like a rising tide about a seaside

rock the decay closed in, as more and more of the wealthy fled the city,

allowing their homes to be overrun by the starving beggars and bloody-handed

thieves. The rot came ever nearer to the Sultan's Palace, as if to surround it

as it already surrounded Tir's palace. The Sultan Selim ibn Jafar was not

totally insensible to this situation, and in the fourth year of his reign he

could no longer stand the idea of his home being lost amid filth and poverty.

He did not see that his own actions were the cause, but rather cursed Allah,

in his folly, for sending this blight upon his city. He declared open war upon

his own people, accusing them of treason in their failure to maintain his city

despite the burdens he placed upon them and the mistreatment and injustice he

perpetrated. His men were sent out with torches, instructed to burn the

tenements and brothels to the ground; but most of these soldiers simply

disappeared forever in the maze of streets, either through desertion or

because the unhappy citizens had ambushed them and cut their throats. The

fires that began were short-lived and ineffective.

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