Read Online Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore - Free Book Online

what lies beyond. But to gain a weapon against that man I would venture into perils even worse than that.”
    “If I thought you meant it,” he whispered, “I would waken Guillaume now and give you into his arms. It would be a kinder fate, my daughter.”
    “It’s that I would walk through hell to escape,” she whispered back fiercely. “Can’t you see? Oh, God knows I’m not innocent of the ways of light loving—but to be any man’s fancy, for a night or two, before he snaps my neck or sells me into slavery—and above all, if that man were Guillaume! Can’t you understand?”
    “That would be shame enough,” nodded Gervase . “But think, Jirel ! For that shame there is atonement and absolution, and for that death the gates of heaven open wide. But this other— Jirel , Jirel , never through all eternity may you come out, body or soul, if you venture—down!”
    She shrugged.
    “To wreak my vengeance upon Guillaume I would go if I knew I should burn in hell for ever.”
    “But Jirel , I do not think you understand. This is a worse fate than the deepest depths of hellfire. This is—this is beyond all the bounds of the hells we know. And I think Satan’s hottest flames were the breath of paradise, compared to what may befall there.”
    “I know. Do you think I’d venture down if I could not be sure? Where else would I find such a weapon as I need, save outside God’s dominion?”
    “ Jirel , you shall not!”
    “ Gervase , I go! Will you shrive me?” The hot yellow eyes blazed into his, lambent in the starlight.
    After a moment he dropped his head. “You are my lady. I will give you God’s blessing, but it will not avail you—there.”

3
     
    She went down into the dungeons again. She went down a long way through utter dark, over stones that were oozy and odorous with moisture, through blackness that had never known the light of day. She might have been a little afraid at other times, but that steady flame of hatred burning behind her eyes was a torch to light the way, and she could not wipe from her memory the feel of Guillaume’s arms about her, the scornful press of his lips on her mouth. She whimpered a little, low in her throat, and a hot gust of hate went over her.
    In the solid blackness she came at length to a wall, and she set herself to pulling the loose stones from this with her free hand, for she would not lay down the sword. They had never been laid in mortar, and they came out easily. When the way was clear, she stepped through and found her feet upon a downward-sloping ramp of smooth stone. She cleared the rubble away from the hole in the wall and enlarged it enough for a quick passage; for when she came back this way—if she did—it might well be that she would come very fast.
    At the bottom of the slope she dropped to her knees on the cold floor and felt about. Her fingers traced the outline of a circle, the veriest crack in the stone. She felt until she found the ring in its center. That ring was of the coldest metal she had ever known, and the smoothest. She could put no name to it. The daylight had never shone upon such metal.
    She tugged. The stone was reluctant, and at last she took her sword in her teeth and put both hands to the lifting. Even then it taxed the limit of her strength, and she was strong as many men. But at last it rose, with the strangest sighing sound, and a little prickle of gooseflesh rippled over her.
    Now she took the sword back into her hand and knelt on the rim of the invisible blackness below. She had gone this path once before and once only, and never thought to find any necessity in life strong enough to drive her down again. The way was the strangest she had ever known. There was, she thought, no such passage in all the world save here. It had not been built for human feet to travel. It had not been built for feet at all. It was a narrow, polished shaft that cork-screwed round and round. A snake might have slipped in it and gone shooting down,