A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“se rved me better than in life. And not easing them from any tower could I oh ave brought that to be.” She had spoken tranquilly ; with evident es sincerity. Whether she had spoken truth ae or not, I had then no slightest doubt that what she had spoken she believed to be truth. I caught her by the wrists. I ‘i “Did you kill Ralston?” _ She answered with that same tran- i oon. She Ja a sandaled foot on mine nd leaned close to me, looking up into "my eyes. Hot jealousy mingled with my | wrath, I asked: _ “And those—others? You killed - them?” 4 3 “Why, yes.” _ My hands ached to go round her throat. tried to drop her wrists, and could not. Pit was as though she held them clamped. I could not move a finger. “You are a flower of evil, Dahut, and 3 your roots feed on hell—” [I said: “It _ was his money then that bought you?” _ She leaned back and laughed; and her ~ eyes laughed and in the laughter of eyes S mouth was triumph. She said: Be In the old days you cared nothing about lovers who had gone before. Why do you care now, Alain? But no—it was - not his money. I was tired of him, Alain | Ag . yet I liked him . . . if I had not liked “hin I would not have given him to Brit- UU < 4 came back to sanity. Undoubtedly, : * suggestions of mine about her the night before. Her method might be a bit ek but certainly it had been effec- ‘tive. I was more than a little ashamed of | my ; self. I dropped her hands and laughed with her . . . but why and whence that ans\ ver and the devastating jealousy ? = f thrust that doubt aside. I said, rue- thos d. St et us go in.’ ollowed her into ae turreted 1 room. - a" & ist > + CREEP, SHADOW! Demoiselle was scoring me off for Suddenly I, too, felt cold, and a strange weakness. I poured some wine and drank it down. I sat upon the couch. There was — a haziness about my thoughts, as though | a cold fog had gathered ‘round my brain, I poured another glass of the wine. ITsaw its” that Dahut had brought one of the stools eee and was sitting at my feet. In her hands was an old and many-stringed lute. She —e laughed again, and whispered: Se “You ask forgiveness—and you do not know what it is that you ask,” Se ee She touched the strings and began to = sing. There was something archaic about Je that song—all weird,-sighing minors. IT thought that I ought to know that song; that I did know it; had heard it often << and often—in just such a turret as this. — SS I looked at the walls. The hues in the ——— hangings were shifting more rapidly .. . eae changing from malachite depths to pallid == shoals. And the shadows were rising more and more rapidly; were coming oe closer and closer to the surface before ~ <= they sank again... = Som Dahut said: 3 ees. “You brought the bracelet I gave you?” Passively, I thrust my hand into my oe pocket, drew out the bracelet and gave it —— to her. She fastened it around my wrist. AS The red symbol on the pebble gleamed ~ ea as though traced in lines of fire. She said: — = “You have forgotten I gave you that <—— . . . long and long and long ago ..., Se lover I loved you above all men . . . lover = I have hated above all men. And you aS have forgotten the name it bears. Well, ae hear that name once more, Alain de Se: Caranac . . . and remember what you ask SSS me to forgive.”’ ae: She spoke a name. Hearing it, a mil- 5 lion sparks seemed to burst in my brain— fireflies dissipating the cold fog that — aS She spoke it again, and the shadows pe: within the green tapestries rushed to the ee surface of the waves, twined arms, locked ea hands, = Round and round and round the walls == _ they danced .. . faster and ever faster . . a shadows of women and men _ . . these Resta shadows were dancing to the luting of Ss Dahut SS Faster and faster the Madea: spun, —— and then they, too, began to sing; in Sey faint whispering voice, shadows of voices 3 comicbooks.com —