Mazirian the Magician

Mazirian the Magician is a sword and sorcery short story by Jack Vance. It was first published as part of a series of loosely-linked tales in The Dying Earth, a paperback, in 1950. It has since been reprinted and also reprinted in the anthology The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp.

Plot summary

Mazirian the Magician paces his enchanted garden, wrestling with the problem of how to invest the humanoid creatures he has created in vats with intelligence. The secret is held by Turjan, who despite imprisonment, reduction in size and torment by a small vicious dragon, has thus far kept the secret to himself.

Mazirian is interrupted by a distantly spied beautiful woman who tempts him to follow her out of the garden and into the wild country. He resists but when she comes repeatedly, he eventually follows her, armed with only five spells. In this age, such spells that remain to the knowledge of sorcerers are very complex and difficult to memorise, and disappear from memory once used.

The eager magician follows the girl through hills and valleys, chanting his spells to avoid the strange creatures he encounters; these include a flesh-eating mutated man-creature, the Deodand, and Thrang the ghoul-bear.

In due course, he closes upon the girl and is about to capture her - but they are both attacked by deadly vampire-grass. As Mazirian, out of spells, is held tightly and beaten to the ground, the girl is enabled to crawl away with her life. Battered and barely alive, she returns to Mazirian's garden, enters his house and releases Turjan. It is now revealed that the girl, known as T'sain, is a creation of Turjan and sent by him to destroy his tormentor. He bears her lifeless body away to his vats to create an even lovelier creature.