A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

THE NINTH LIFE 49 steady—“‘you had better put on that ring again.” “No. For should I be less alone? What is humble adoration that waits on my will to me? I would have strength greater than my own to hold me. Not to look down into eyes that pray to me while they tell their worship. For tell me, what is that to me?P”’ He made no answer. The clock on the mantel chimed thrice, and glancing at it, he made out the time as a quarter to seven. Then all sound ceased, even the ticking, and again he felt silence as an immensity. “For a space I take you from time again,” she said. “Now see! This is her vengeance on me, Kefra, who cursed her and her covenant.’’ “Her vengeance?” he echoed uncom- prehendingly. Again she leaned toward him, and he saw the red sheen of her hair in the fire- light, the white intensity of her face, and her eyes as pools of dark tenderness smil- ing at him. “Love, such as no woman of a day ever gave.” Her words sounded on the still- ness like the music of bells very far away. “Unwished, unsatisfied, a fire to torture always without release—her beastly ven- geance!”’ He said—unsteadily, stammeringly: “And if—Kefra—if it were not—not un- wished? If I—I too—” Again he heard the ticking of the clock on the mantel, a cinder from the fire tapped rustlingly on the tiles of the hearth. Close in his hold Kefra reached up her hands to caress his face and hair— and then his lips. “For a time—for a little time—before she found some other way to strike! At me—for you this love of mine shall be a shield !”’ “| have no fear—Kefra—”’ “But I know! I was her priestess and cursed her—I know !” He said, soberly, with his lips on hers: “J will not go back tonight, Kefra. I don’t want to leave you. You're too beau- tiful, too lovely to let go.” “No. Oh, but I knew the folly of all my wisdom when I first saw you! Now am I slave to my kind—make me one with time and you!” CHAPTER 9 Before the Storm EES sat at the steering wheel, and Kefra stood beside him, her hand on his. The morning was gray and still. He looked into her eyes, with erave content in his own. “Why do you stay, instead of coming back with me?” he asked. “Why do you go?” she asked in reply. ‘“That’s easy,” he answered, and smiled. “To make your place ready for you. This—you have changed all my life, Kefra.” She said, very softly: “And I have now no life but you.” “You told me—such love as no woman of a day ever gave. I love you, Kefra.” She bent, quickly, to touch his hand with her lips. “I have no life but you.” “There’s Tony,” he reflected; “and many other things to be done, but by next week it must be one life. Kefra, let me tell Tony.” She shook her head. “In all else, I ask only to yield. But in that one thing you have no part—I must tell him. No other.” “Then come back with me—now—and tell him.”’ “Not yet. I too have many things to do, and three days is all too short. But on Saturday I shall be with you again, if—” Her eyes grew somber. = “Why the if?” he asked. “And you _ said—Tf we come to the one life” as though you had some doubt in your mind. Why ?” 3 “Because, though I am one with you — and one with time since yesterday, still I have sight—the knowledge I stored has not gone from me. You are safe—that I have bought and know. But for myself I do not know. Only—” she laid both hands on his—“‘if the little time I craved and won be all, still I am glad.” He said: “I hate leaving you here.” She smiled. “You leave very little here. All of me that may go will be with you, all I have given I give forever. As this Kefra you see is yours to take and hold so is my spirit given to you, woven into your life. Take that with you for my last — spoken thought, until I hear your voice and know your strength holding me