The Tale of the Dark Island
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		As told by: Aravoth Tarkaan
                                                                      
It is related, O listeners, that four generations ago, my father's
father's father Radanox Tarkaan, father of Taltanoth Tarkaan, father
of my Lord and father Alaxoth Tarkaan; Radanox who was himself son of
the Tisroc at the time, and thusly descended from the great God, the
Inexorable Tash, set out on a quest. The great Ocean of the East,
feared by many in the great country Calormen, was mostly unknown to
all, save the nearby islands known for their trade in slaves. The
quest was to the east, along the island chains leading from the port
of Zalindreh. Radanox Tarkaan commissioned, as the son of a Tisroc
may, a fast and sturdy ship. I have heard these Calormene ships are
said to pale next to the tremendous ships of the Narnian fleet, yet
this dark ship, built from the darkest of Calormene wood and black as
the night under which it sailed, was a sight to behold. The ship set
sail with a rowing crew of slaves and hired sailors, away to see what
lay past the farthest islands of the chain. The ship passed the five
islands bound to Calormen, then ventured past, into uncharted waters,
far from the edges of any maps aboard.  For a week the sailed without
sight of land, their barrels of water running low, the slaves whipped
at the oars when the wind died. And still no sign of land. Eventually,
on the day that the last of the water would go to the crew and Lords,
the spires of an island appeared from the ocean mists ahead. The
island was a collection of spires, black and sharp, rising as a
cluster from the ocean itself. There was no land itself between them,
no place to go ashore. Between the spires, channels wide enough for
the ship to sail down appeared, and the black ship drew between the
blacker rocks.  The crew rowed the ship to the heart of the spires,
which twisted up into the skies and blocked the clouds and blood red
horizon as the sun set far to the west. At the center of the darkened
island, they found a small tiered temple jutting from the ocean, as if
carved from one of the spires.  Radanox Tarkaan and his crew took the
carved steps up to the temple, and entered the structure as night
fell. Their torches only dimly lit the structure, and there they found
at its center a tremendous statue of the God Tash, arms spread wide,
and beak open as if to devour the night sky itself.  Radanox bowed to
the icon of Tash, and said, "O Tash, the Inexorable, the Irresistible,
we have sailed for many days and many nights, far from our homes in
Calormen. Our barrels are empty of water, and our sails are slack in
the wind. By Tash, may a wind to the West fill our sails, and draw us
back to Calormen before we are lost to the sun and the sea itself."
All of the men then prayed to Tash for fresh water, to fill their
barrels, and for a stiff wind to bring them west back to their own
land. They returned to their ship, and put out the torches, giving the
night back to Zardeena, Lady of the Night. All slept, even the guards
who should have been whipped the next day for such a lax in their
duties.  When all awoke with the arrival of dawn, they found that the
spires and temple of the island were naught to be seen anywhere, the
ship adrift in the ocean out of sight of land once more. The ship's
barrels were mysteriously full of water again.  Yet the first to drink
of the water choked, it being that of salt. Radanox Tarkaan offered
praise once more to Tash, and his drink from the same barrel was of
fresh water.  One by one they all prayed to the Inexorable Tash, and
one by one they all drank the water, and the ship sailed east again
with a strong wind. Their tale upon, reaching the mainland, spread far
and wide. And that is why to this day, sailors of Calormen pray to the
Inexorable Tash before drinking water aboard their ships, and those
who fail to do so are flayed with forty lashes.