Isaac Asimov - Mythical Beasties

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NAL BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED

TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES FOR INFORMATION PLEASE

WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION. NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY.

1633 BROADWAY. NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019.

Copyrigta® 1986 by Nightfall, Inc-.MaitinH-Greenberg, and CbffllesG.Waugh

Cover an by Kinuko Craft

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Edward 0. Hoch; an original story published with the permission of the author.

"The Ice Dragon," by George R.R-Martin. Copyright® 1980 by George R. R.

Martin. From DRAGONS OF LIGHT. Reprinted by pennission of the author.

permission of the author.

Company- Reprinted by pennission of Kifby McCauley, Ltd.

1982 by Mildred Clingennaa. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Inc. From THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION.

Reprinted by permission of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845

Third Avenue. New York, NY 10022.

E-S.T. International, Ltd. First published as "The End of the Line."

Publishing Company. Reprinted by pennission of the Scott Meredith Literary

Agency. Inc., 845 Third Avenue. New York. NY 10022.

1979 by Theodore Sturgeon. Reprinted by pennission of Kirby McCauiey, Ltd.

Publications, Inc. Reprinted by pennission of die author.

SIGNET TRADEMARK REO U S PAT. Off AND FOUREIGN COUNTRIES

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA KfiOlSTRADA

ffiCHO EN CHICAGO. U.S.A.

SIGNET, SIGNET CLASSIC. MENTOR, PLUME, MERIDIAN AND NAL BOOKS

are published by New American Library.

1633 Broadway, New York. New York 10019

Fmt Priming, May, 1986

123456789

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

1 Centaur

Centaur Fielder for the Yankees—by Edward D. Hoch

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2 Dragon

The Ice Dragon—by George R. R. Martin

3 Firedrake

Prince Prigio—by Andrew Lang

4 Gorgon

The Gorgon—Ay Tanith Lee

5 Griffin

The Griffin and the Minor Canon—by Frank R. Stockton.

6 Kragen

The Kragen—by Jack Vance

7 Mermaid

The Little Mermaid—by Haw Christian Andersen

8 Minotaur

Letters from Laura—by Mildred Clingerman

9 Pegasus

The Triumph of Pegasus—by F. A. Javor

10 Phoenix

Caution! Inflammable!—by Thomas N. Scortia

11 Sphinx

The Pyramid Project—by Robert F. Young

12 Unicorn

The Silken-Swift—by Theodore Sturgeon

13 Wendigo

Mood Wendigo—by Thomas A. Easton

CENTAUR

The horse was tamed about 2000 B.C. by the nomads of

the Central Asian steppes, and when it drew a light chariot

bearing a driver and an armed warrior, it proved a fear-

some weapon. The horsemen conquered the entire civilized

world from India to Egypt, and held their rule until the

dominated people learned the use of the horse themselves.

By 800 B.C.. the Medes of western Asia had bred

horses large enough to carry men on their backs, and that

combination was even more fearsome. To farmers who

encountered horsemen for the first time this combination of

men and animals must have seemed monstrous.

The early Greeks were not horsepeople, for their moun-

tainous terrain and narrow valleys were not conducive to

either the breeding or the use of horses. In northern

Greece, however, there was the plain of Thessaly, and

there horses and horsemen made their appearance.

The fearful Greeks must have first seen them as horse-

human combinations, and so was born the myth of the

' 'centaur,'' finally portrayed in Greek art as a creature

with the head and torso of a human being replacing the

head and neck of a horse. For the most part, the Greeks

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pictured the centaurs as barbarians—crude, wild. lawless,

easily made drunk, and, in that state, prone to be lascivi-

ous. Perhaps' that is how they saw the real Thessalian

horsemen.

At least one centaur, however, named Chiron, was wise,

Edward D. Hoch

noble, and learned. He was the tutor of Hercules and

Achilles, among others.

The centaur of the story that follows falls between these

two extremes.

CENTAUR FIELDER FOR THE

YANKEES

Edward D. Hoch

Let me tell you. there was a time not so long ago when a

centaur would have been kept in a zoo or a circus. He

certainly wouldn't have been allowed to play major league

baseball. But times have changed, and we're more tolerant of

people who are different. I suppose that's why Mark Eques

ended up playing baseball for the New York Yankees.

But I'd better tell it from the beginning.

The idea of centaurs—creatures having the head, trunk and

arms of a man and the body and legs of a horse—had been

around since Ovid's Metamorphoses and Homer's lliad. It

was Lucretius who declared that the creature must be mythi-

cal because horses reach maturity before humans, and are

full-grown at three years of age. The horse would die fifty

years before the man. All mis is true enough, but when

Professor Hagger of Columbia University returned from me

Greek island of Antikythira with a young living centaur early

in the 22nd century, a great many preconceptions changed.

Like most everyone else in America, I'd equated centaurs

with unicorns and other mythical beasts. Seeing one live on

the evening news took some getting used to. Hagger chris-

tened the young creature Mark Eques, and set about educat-

ing him. It was quite a story for a month or two, during the

slow news days of summer, but by fall Professor Hagger and

his discovery had faded from view. Mark Eques was living

on a farm in upstate New York, staying pretty much out of

the public eye.

4 Edward D Hoch

A few years passed before we heard about him again, and

this time it was an announcement by Professor Hagger that

Mark was about to enter Columbia University, having passed

the traditional college entrance examinations. He was even

entitled to special consideration by the university, since the

government had ruled that Mark was a handicapped human

being and not any sort of monster.

Mark found college to be difficult, and by me end of his first

year it appeared he was ready to drop out. That was when

Roscoe Greene, a scout for the New York Yankees baseball

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team, contacted Mark, and when I had my first meeting with

the boy centaur.

I was a sportswriter on a Boston paper at the time, and I

became interested in Mark when he attempted to run in the

Boston marathon, They couldn't officially bar him from it,

but they did me next best thing. They set up a special

category for centaurs. Since he was the only known centaur

on earth, he had no one to compete against but himself. There

was no point in running at all, and on Patriots' Day he didn't

even bother to appear.

But baseball was a different story.

Mark Eques had been ruled a handicapped person, and

under federal regulations in those early years of the 22nd

century, handicapped persons were allowed to play profes-

sional sports, so long as their handicap did not prevent them

from performing their duties. I had to hand it to Roscoe

Greene for coming up with that one.

An old girl friend in the Yankee front office tipped me off

to what was happening, and I drove all night to reach the

Dutchess County farm where Mark was living with Professor

Hagger after completing his first year at Columbia. It was

horse country, with the roads bordered on either side by neat

white fences that extended back over the rolling hills as far as

the eye could see.

As I pulled into the Hagger farm shortly after nine in the

morning I saw that Roscoe Greene had arrived first. He stood

at the fence speaking with Mark Eques. When he saw me he

cursed, not too softly. "What in hell are you doing here,

Danny? Go back to Boston where you belong!"

CENTAUR FIELDER FOR THE YANKEES 5

"Hello, Roscoe. Glad to see you too. Is it true the Yankees

are about to sign Mark here to a position in center field?' *

Mark Eques, his hairy chest bare to the morning sun,

grinned boyishly and pawed the grass with his front hoof.

"I'm gonna play in the big leagues," he announced proudly.

"What does Hagger say about all this?" I wanted to know.

"Why don't you ask him?" Greene answered smugly.

Professor Hagger must have observed my arrival, because

he came out of the farmhouse to join us. When Greene

introduced me. he said, "So the press is onto this already!

You don't waste any time."

"Danny's a go-getter." Green confirmed. "One of these

days he'll cover a story before it happens."

"Has he ever played ball?" 1 asked the professor. "Is he

any good at it?"

"His family apparently played a version of baseball,'*

Hagger responded. "He remembers it as a child."

"I'm good," Mark Eques answered for himself. "They

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wouldn't let me run in the marathon but they can't stop me

now."

"He has tremendous speed in the outfield," Professor

Hagger confirmed. "Virtually nothing gets by him. His base-

running is superb too. We're still working on his hitting."

"What do you think, Roscoe?" I asked Greene.

"I think he has unlimited potential. Young, clean-cut—

people will flock to the games just to see him play."

"The other managers will never allow it," I predicted.

"We've already got the courts behind us. Let the other

clubs go out and hire their own centaur."

Mine was the first exclusive interview with Mark Eques on

his signing with the Yankees, and for a week or two it wa§

quite a story. The other major league clubs grumbled, of

course, until New York agreed to share with them the addi-

tional revenues Mark's appearance was expected to generate.

So, after a month of hoopla and further training, the centaur

took the field for a July 4th doubleheader against the Boston

Red Sox. I was there, of course, covering Boston on the road

as I usually did, but so was just about every sportswriter in

6 Edward D. Hoch

the country, along with all the TV and satellite people. It's a

wonder there was any space left in the Yankees' new domed

stadium for just plain fans.

Mark Eques galloped onto the field wearing his Yankee

shirt and the crowd went wild. He removed his hat while the

National Anthem was played, and then continued on into

center field. The first inning was a disappointment for the

fans and television cameras, with not a single ball making it

out of the infield. But in the top of the second Mark showed

his stuff, charging across center field to nab a well-hit grounder

and peg it to first base for the out. The crowd went wild for

the second time.

He could hit too. He ended the day's doubleheader with

two doubles and a single, which wasn't bad. The Yankees

won the first game 5-3, and only dropped the nightcap 2-1 as

a result of a ninth-inning Boston homer. Even a centaur in the

outfield couldn't protect against home runs.

The following week's games showed that his biggest strengths

were in fielding and baserunning. Once he got the hang of it,

Mark proved a whiz at stolen bases. The sight of him gallop-

ing into second at a full charge was enough to intimidate most

any second baseman in the league. By the end of July, the

Yankees had climbed into a tie with Boston for first place in

the American League East.

That was when I was approached by Lippy Lewis.

Lippy was a gambler who specialized in sports betting of

any kind. He'd bet big money on Boston as an early-season

favorite to take both the pennant and the World Series, and he

wasn't about to lose it. "Tell me something, Danny," he said

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