A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

'__-voice of Dahut! It was hauntingly sweet. “Lord of Caranac, the dusk hides your lands. And have you not looked long enough on the sea, beloved. Her arms are ~ cold—mine are warm.” 3 I turned from the window, and for a moment ancient Caranac and ancient Ys seemed fantastic dream. For I was still in that tower from which I had thought _ the dancing shadows had thrust me. It : was the same room; rose-lighted, octa- 3 __ gonal, hung with the same tapestries in _ which green shadows waxed and waned; & and upon a low stool sat Dahut, lute in aS hand, draped in the same sea-green web. RCs I said: . “You are a true witch, Dahut—to trap me like that again.” And turned to the '_ window to look upon the familiar lights — of New York. Ss But that was. not what I said, nor did I turn. I found myself walking straight toward her, and instead of the words I _ had thought to speak, I heard myself say- “You are of the sea, Dahut .. . and if your arms are warmer. Your heart is as merciless.” And suddenly I knew that whether dream or illusion, this was Ys, and whilst the part of me that was Alan Caranac could see through the eyes, hear with the _ ears, and read the thought of this other part of me which was Lord of Caranac, _ __ I was powerless to control him and he was __ unaware of me. Yet I must abide by what he did. ‘Something like an actor watching himself go .hrough a play—but with the quite important difference that I knew 3 pepncither the lines nor the situations. A _ most disturbing condition. I had a swift thought that Dahut ought either to have placed me under better hypnotic control or BX: peeassed me up entirely. __ IT felt a faint disappointment in her. That = idea shot out of my mind like a rocket. She looked up at me, and her eyes were ; wet She loosed her braids and covered her face with her hair and she wept be- +a x hind its curtain. I said, coldly: “Many women have wept as you do... es for men you have slain, Dahut.” _ She said : “Since you rode into Ys from Caranac a i month ago, I have had no peace. There is | ~ aati in my heart that eats it. What a) Pad iy. net Abi *” "CREEP, SHADOW! to me or to you are the lovers who have gone before, since until you came never did I know love? I kill no more—I have - 3 banished my shadows—” I asked, grimly: “What if they do not accept their banishment ?” She threw back her hair; looked at me, _ = sharply : “What do you mean by that?” I answered: “TI make serfs. me well and to acknowledge no other master, I feed and house them. Suppose, then, I feed them no longer, deny them — shelter. Banish them. What will my hun- a gry, homeless serfs do, Dahut ?” She said, incredulously: “You mean my shadows may rebel against me?” She laughed, then her eyes. narrowed, calculatingly : something in what you say. And what I have made, I can—unmake.” I thought that a sighing went around — the room, and that for an instant the hues in the tapestries shifted more rapidly. If- so, Dahut paid, no heed, sat pensive. She said, musingly : “After all, they do not love me—my shadows, They do my bidding—but they do not love me... who made them. No.” I, who was Alan Caranac smiled at this, but then I reflected that the I, who was Lord of Caranac quite evidently took these shadows entirely seriously, discon- certingly as matters-of-fact .. as Dick had! GHE stood up, threw white arms around my neck, and the fragrance of her that was like some secret flower of the sea rocked me, and at her touch desire flamed through me. She said languorous- | ly: “Beloved .. . who have swept my heart clean ... who have awakened me to love . why will you not love me?” I said, thickly: “T do love you, Dahut—but I do not. trust you. How can I know your love will last . . . or that the time may not come when I, too, become a shadow those others who loved you?” She answered, lips close to mine: ak have told you. I loved none of | them,” oO Eomilebooks Gi i _ 4 ; <* ee ge , —" a . = ™ “~ a z mt ~~ - 2 -¥ P2325 4. : - I train them to serve “Still—there is — ty, 7 fe ay ha y x " ire 7 \ mT i job pa TI Ht My iy t KM 14 Wl ew a pre mer +! | 3 Ai aS mee } ‘ Mr i ’ 5 4 @ be eal) t ies : Shake A © 3 Pou PILE erie LAM ‘4 f as Vhs wh “~— i ; Mee = peat iW ces U Arba tl Ce AL ISRAR ellie WAPARS Bi ‘ vi, 4 ‘i + & eg ; Al P.) j aA ‘s fv ‘2 ing ‘STy : \ ivi we TAS an ~ ti . h ») p35 4 oy » se » aiv “A ra r w, AP at Libs ach Say rv ¥y i sie be ys a LA%4 yur ot Pt y2 1 iS sat ; ; " : i A eat? ied cad Me ? ; . sea es Lash, nak ib’ a3 i) LT 9) > Ne aN, ke | , wy \ rs h Ta VSNA, y Viva <9) bY Pati s WA aN se a ’ i} > i TH od eh sy a