This page has been validated.
"Her mouth curved into a twist of fiercely smiling anticipation."
The Dark Land
By C. L. MOORE
An amazing tale of a red-headed warrior maid, and a leprously white,
skull-faced woman, and a flame that was quenched—
by the author of "Shambleau"
IN HER great bed in the tower room of Joiry Castle, Jirel of Joiry lay very near to death. Her red hair was a blaze upon the pillow above the bone-whiteness of her face, and the lids lay heavy over the yellow fire of her eyes. Life had gushed out of her in great scarlet spurts from the pike-wound deep in her side, and the whispering women who hovered at the door were telling one another in hushed murmurs that the Lady Jirel had led her last battle charge. Never
53
