PLAY FRAGMENT

by ALLEN MACKEY

Note: This extremely brief fragment of The King In Yellow was found
buried between the mildewed pages of some old occult book in one of
the boxes of arcane research that I have inherited from my deceased
friend, Adam Qade. I could not place exactly what edition of the play
it had been ripped from; I only knw that it seemed naggingly familiar.
Now I have remembered!

Play Fragment

From one version of The King In Yellow, Act I, Scene 2...

Cordelia: Wait--! My Queen, what am I to do--?

[Cassilda walks away, ignoring the pleas of Cordelia. Cordelia,

looking confused, wanders the other way. Naotalba and Prince Thale
enter the corridor.]

Prince Thale: Okay, O priest! Where is this mystery of which you

speak?

Naotalba: My Lord, as you will soon see, beyond this window is the
Dhooric Tower. That is where this will be played out, the course of
events which have become entangled with the scourge of time. As for
the meaning of my words, my young prince, the time has come.

Beyond the casement window can be seen a large stone tower,

partially obscured by curling gray mists. As they look, the mists
recede and a leering skull-like face, impossibly thin, appears on the
Dhooric Tower. Its hollow eye-sockets blaze malevolently with red
flames which seem to be staring at them. The royal onlookers loudly
gasp in amazement and shock.

[Naotalba smiles. For in the fullness of time his schemes begin to take
shape. The legacy that is Carcosa beckons.]

Commentary: Like I stated at the beginning, the torn page with this
"Play Fragment" was found in 2016 among the papers of Adam Qade.
Without any other written clues, I have since determined that there is
more than a passing similarity to the Thomas Ryng version of the play
from 1999 published by Armitage House. However, I am uncertain if
the text is supposed to have been a part of Ryng's play, (perhaps from
an "apocryphal" passage) or from another that was merely inspired by
Ryng's book. Is it simply an addition? Further investigation is called
for. (There is the "boneless" possiblity that the source-text has its
origin in another version altogether.)