Books with author Robert E Wells

The king of Vendhya was dying. Through the hot, stifling night the temple gongs boomed and the conchs roared. Their clamor was a faint echo in the gold–domed chamber where Bunda Chand struggled on the velvet–cushioned dais. Beads of sweat glistened on his dark skin; his fingers twisted the gold–worked fabric beneath him. He was young; no spear had touched him, no poison lurked in his wine. But his veins stood out like blue cords on his temples, and his eyes dilated with the nearness of death. Trembling slave–girls knelt at the foot of the dais, and leaning down to him, watching him with passionate intensity, was his sister, the Devi Yasmina. With her was the wazam, a noble grown old in the royal court.

If medals were awarded to animals for living a long time, then a giant tortoise would certainly win one. Some giant tortoises have lived for more than 150 years! Still, there are things on this planet much older than giant tortoises. Some of the giant sequoia trees that grow in California would be more than 3,000 years old. But the trees aren't that old compared to the Barringer Crater in Arizona--that was made about 49,000 years ago. And it's almost impossible to imagine that 65 million years ago, the T. rex dinosaur roamed this planet--but we have the skeletons to prove it!