Aided by Heliobas, a monk with special powers who appeared in Marie Corelli's first novel, "The Romance of Two Worlds," a young poet named Theos Alwyn embarks on a strange soul-journey in which he is confronted by the apparition of his twin soul--an angel named Edris--on the Field of Ardath. He is then transported in a vision back in time by 7,000 years to the ancient city of Al Kyris, where he is introduced to his alter ego, a poet laureate named Sah-luma.

Ardath' is the story of Theos Alwyn, a poet, and lost man, who travels to a secluded monastery looking for a man who can take away his soul. He finds him in Heliobas, a visionary who gave up drawing room seances for the worship of God. A night of introspection and discussion leads Alwyn to write an epic poem that he sends to his publisher and meets an angel named Edris, who tells him to search for Ardath. The story follows various adventures and the enlightenment of Alwyn in the process.

Reproduction of the original.

Ardath Mayhar is one of the best kept secrets of Texas. Over the course of her career, she published novels, short stories, articles, and more with a unique voice and vision. The Ardath Mayhar MEGAPACK® (originally published as Crazy Quilt: The Best Short Stories of Ardath Mayhar). INTRODUCTION: ARDATH MAYHAR, EAST TEXAS MAGICIAN, by Joe R. Lansdale FIDO IS A LOVING BEAST A HARPING OF WATERS A PAINTERLY EFFECT THE WEAPON GRYPHON’S NEST THE FORGING OF FEAR WHO ACCUSES THIS WOMAN? A SHIMMER OF BLACKNESS THE NEXT GENERATION INDULGENCES HUNTING TRUCE FUNGI THE POWER THAT PRESERVES RATINGS WAR SOLO PERFORMANCE THE CHILDREN BENEATH THE STONES CONCERTO THE DIG A NIGHT IN POSSUM HOLLER THE TUCK AT THE FOOT OF THE BED THE EAGLE CLAW RATTLE THROUGH THE PADDED DOOR THE AFFAIR OF THE MIDNIGHT MIDGET CRAWFISH AUNT DOLLY THE CREEK, IT DONE RIZ JIGSAW THE ANTHOLOGIST THE PISTOLEER POWDER RIVER HIDEOUT TRAPLINE A COLD WAY HOME NIGHT OF THE COUGAR LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE WHISTLE IN THE WIND HEAVY, HEAVY HANGS OVER YOUR HEAD WELCOME THE ANGLOS COLD TEARS, COLD STONE If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!

Deep in the heart of the Caucasus mountains a wild storm was gathering. Drear shadows drooped and thickened above the Pass of Dariel,—that terrific gorge which like a mere thread seems to hang between the toppling frost-bound heights above and the black abysmal depths below,—clouds, fringed ominously with lurid green and white, drifted heavily yet swiftly across the jagged peaks where, looming largely out of the mist, the snow-capped crest of Mount Kazbek rose coldly white against the darkness of the threatening sky. Night was approaching, though away to the west a road gash of crimson, a seeming wound in the breast of heaven, showed where the sun had set an hour since. Now and again the rising wind moaned sobbingly through the tall and spectral pines that, with knotted roots fast clenched in the reluctant earth, clung tenaciously to their stony vantageground; and mingling with its wailing murmur, there came a distant hoarse roaring as of tumbling torrents, while at far-off intervals could be heard the sweeping thud of an avalanche slipping from point to point on its disastrous downward way. Through the wreathing vapors the steep, bare sides of the near mountains were pallidly visible, their icy pinnacles, like uplifted daggers, piercing with sharp glitter the density of the low-hanging haze, from which large drops of moisture began presently to ooze rather than fall. Gradually the wind increased, and soon with sudden fierce gusts shook the pine-trees into shuddering anxiety,—the red slit in the sky closed, and a gleam of forked lightning leaped athwart the driving darkness. An appalling crash of thunder followed almost instantaneously, its deep boom vibrating in sullenly grand echoes on all sides of the Pass, and then—with a swirling, hissing rush of rain—the unbound hurricane burst forth alive and furious. On, on! splitting huge boughs and flinging them aside like straws, swelling the rivers into riotous floods that swept hither and thither, carrying with them masses of rock and stone and tons of loosened snow—on, on! with pitiless force and destructive haste, the tempest rolled, thundered, and shrieked its way through Dariel. As the night darkened and the clamor of the conflicting elements grew more sustained and violent, a sudden sweet sound floated softly through the turbulent air—the slow, measured tolling of a bell. To and fro, to and fro, the silvery chime swung with mild distinctness—it was the vesper-bell ringing in the Monastery of Lars far up among the crags crowning the ravine. There the wind roared and blustered its loudest; it whirled round and round the quaint castellated building, battering the gates and moving their heavy iron hinges to a most dolorous groaning; it flung rattling hailstones at the narrow windows, and raged and howled at every corner and through every crevice; while snaky twists of lightning played threateningly over the tall iron Cross that surmounted the roof, as though bent on striking it down and splitting open the firm old walls it guarded. All was war and tumult without:—but within, a tranquil peace prevailed, enhanced by the grave murmur of organ music; men's voices mingling together in mellow unison chanted the Magnificat, and the uplifted steady harmony of the grand old anthem rose triumphantly above the noise of the storm. The monks who inhabited this mountain eyrie, once a fortress, now a religious refuge, were assembled in their little chapel—a sort of grotto roughly hewn out of the natural rock. Fifteen in number, they stood in rows of three abreast, their white woollen robes touching the ground, their white cowls thrown back, and their dark faces and flashing eyes turned devoutly toward the altar whereon blazed in strange and solitary brilliancy a Cross of Fire. At the first glance it was easy to see that they were a peculiar Community devoted to some peculiar form of worship, for their costume was totally different in character and detail from any such as are worn by the various religious fraternities of the Greek, Roman, or Armenian faith, and one especial feature of their outward appearance served as a distinctly marked sign of their severance from all known monastic orders—this was the absence of the disfiguring tonsure. They were all fine-looking men seemingly in the prime of life, and they intoned the Magnificat not drowsily or droningly, but with a rich tunefulness and warmth of utterance that stirred to a faint surprise and contempt the jaded spirit of one reluctant listener present among them. This was a stranger who had arrived that evening at the monastery, and who intended remaining there for the night—a man of distinguished and somewhat haughty bearing, with a dark, sorrowful, poetic face, chiefly remarkable for its mingled expression of dreamy ardor and cold scorn, an expression such as the unknown sculptor of Hadrian's era caught and fixed in the marble of his ivy-crowned Bacchus-Antinous, whose half-sweet, half-cruel smile suggests a perpetual doubt of all things and all men. He was clad in the rough-and-ready garb of the travelling Englishman, and his athletic figure in its plain-cut modern attire looked curiously out of place in that mysterious grotto which, with its rocky walls and flaming symbol of salvation, seem suited only to the picturesque prophet-like forms of the white-gowned brethren whom he now surveyed, as he stood behind their ranks, with a gleam of something like mockery in his proud, weary eyes.

The author of sixty-two books, more than forty of them published commercially, Ardath Mayhar (1930-2012) began her career in the early 1980s with science fiction novels from Doubleday and TSR. Atheneum published several of her young adult and children’s novels. Changing focus, she wrote westerns (as Frank Cannon) and mountain man novels (as John Killdeer), four prehistoric Indian books under her own name, and historical western High Mountain Winter under the byline Frances Hurst. This collection -- which features 27 fantasy & science fiction stories -- was originally published in paperback as "The Methodist Bobcat and Other Tales." Included are: THE METHODIST BOBCAT THE LYCH ROAD THE VEAULES MAY BANKED FIRES RISE ANEW THE GUARDIANS OF THE SHRINE ARPEGGIA'S DEATHSONG THE PLACE OF THE ANCIENTS OLD MAN, BAD SCENE THE SWAMP RUNNER FATE HAS THREE FACES MINDBEND IN THE LONE GRAY THE DAY OF THE DRUM DEEP WOODS LADY WELCOME TO SHIARA THE LAST PAS SEUL MY FRIEND EDDY THE FACE IN THE FOG NORTHER PER CASTANEA THE BLUE-FIRED COW-KILLING CRAZIES PURSUIT LALIQUE THIS IS THE NIGHT! STONE CIRCLES CONFLICT NIGHT SONG If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!