Kar Kaballa / Tower of the Medusa

KAR KABALLA by George H. Smith Kar Kaballa was the new king of the Gogs and rumor was that he would lead his barbaric cannibalistic band of Northern nomads down on a mad crusade against the civilized nations of the world. Cultured people found this improbably--but they were soon to learn better. Their weapons were good, about as good as you could get in a Victorian army, which was what the period was. But there was a traveler in town with a weapon he said was better, an odd chap with a thing called a Gatling Gun from a country nobody ever heard of called the United States of America. The question was...could this outlander, this Major Churchward, sell his unearthly import to the Empire soon enough--or would Kar Kaballa become the new Tamerlane of a bloody-dawned Twentieth Century? TOWER OF THE MEDUSA by Lin Carter "You are the most notorious and celebrated jewel thief in the Near Stars. It was Kirin of Tellus who stole the Nine Diamonds of Pharvis from the dragon-guarded citadel beside the Flaming Sea. It was you who carried off the tiara of the Queen of Zodah, a trifle composed of eleven thousand matched fire-rubies, worth an emperor's ransom...I want you to steal something for me. I am a doctor of the Minor Thaumaturgies and I am come from Trevelon. "The jewel we are after is called The Medusa. It is concealed within a structure called the Iron Tower, which lies amidst the barren wastes of the uplands of Pelizon, guarded by a maze of traps and deadfalls. We have, over the centuries, and at frightful labour, obtained very precise and complete blueprints of the Tower...There will be no danger. No danger at all..." The softly modulated voice of the starship interrupted the conversation. "I have been under attack for the past 12.03 seconds," the ship observed calmly.