20) The Demon of the Flower by Clark Ashton Smith

Plot:

On the planet Lophai, humans are subject to plants, which “[resemble] fields of rooted serpents that dance eternally to an other-world music.” Humans and all flora and fauna pay tribute to the supreme flower known as Voorqual, in which a demon more ancient than the twin suns made its immortal avatar. Or so they believe.

A human priesthood serves the Voorqual. From this priesthood, it draws its sacrifices. Lunithi, king of the realms about Lospar and high priest of the Voorqual, is the last (and maybe the first) to rebel. His promised bride, Nala, a priestess of the Voorqual, is chosen for sacrifice. Lunith sets off to find the Occlith, a demon coeval with the Voorqual, who was said to have given an ancient king good advice. Lunithi wishes to ask if it’s possible to kill the Voorqual.

Thoughts:

The language of this is artificially old-timey and a little stilted, but it works, lending the tale an otherworldly aura. A world where plants rule and demand human sacrifice is odd, and the reader is told little about it other than what’s necessary for the story. We read nothing about what they eat, for example.

Lunithi knows what he’s doing when he heads out to learn if the Voorqual can be killed. He knows that a dead Voorqual would throw society as he knows it into chaos. Yet, he loves Nala. Nothing can take her away from him. Even overturning every norm in society is not going too far. Granted, there are some pretty lousy norms in that society.

No happy endings loom on the horizon, I’m afraid. Some may argue that it’s more science fiction than horror, and maybe that’s true. But the horror is present from the beginning. Poor Nala is going to get sacrificed, and Lunithi is going to lose the woman he loves.

I enjoyed this story.

The story can be read here.


Bio: Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), an American poet, writer, and artist, was born near Auburn, California, where his parents had a farm. His first publication came at seventeen with short stories, but his earliest fame came from poetry. He became friends with the poet George Sterling. Later, H. P. Lovecraft encouraged him to submit fiction to Weird Tales. Among his best-known works are “The Hashish-Eater; Or, The Apocalypse of Evil” and “The City of the Singing Flame.”



Title: “The Demon of the Flower”
Author: Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961)
First published: Astounding Stories, December 1933