Judgment Night by C.L. Moore

Author:C.L. Moore [Moore, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682301135
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2015-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Juille sat angrily on a floor deeply cushioned with dust, leaning upon a dusty wall. Profound dimness all around her was feebly diluted by the light of a distant lamp. Helia had left it, after a short disagreement with her companions. Juille realized that the Andareans probably distrusted the depths of Helia’s loyalty to themselves where Juille was concerned, and oddly, she rather resented their distrust. The cult of the amazon was still too new not to resent man’s misunderstanding of its principles. Juille was conscious of a sort of fierce pride in Helia’s betrayal of her lifelong trust, for the bleak ideal of Andarean loyalty. The Andareans’ doubt of it was a slap in the face to all amazons.

But she was not thinking of that now. She was mentally following Egide through the dripping green forest toward the temple which she had never seen. She knew it would be dark and broad and tall among the trees. She pictured Egide in his black velvet and charred silver mail, striding up to the portal and—But her mind balked at following him farther.

And that, too, humiliated her. It seemed to her that she had been wallowing in enforced humilities for the past several hours, each of them more irritating than the last. This was particularly so, because it involved the moral courage she prided herself on possessing. She did not like to think of Egide walking boldly up to a doorway so awesome that she herself scarcely dared visit it in thoughts. Even the knowledge that he was a barbarian and an outworlder, with the courage of ignorance, was not too comforting. And presently, in the dimness, she began to wonder whether she could do as he was doing, supposing herself free again. Step in under that great shadowy, unimaginable portal and ask for guidance? Intrude her small human presence upon the living gods, whose millenniums of aloofness showed so clearly that they did not welcome human interference?

Even if she were free, would she dare?

Suddenly, hideously, there were tiny cold hands fumbling at hers.

The darkness reeled about her. Mad thoughts went racing through her mind—denizens of the lower levels, creeping up in the dark to seize her? Unseen things against which the Andareans locked their great grilles in vain? Tiny, clammy-fingered demons from some lost race’s hell—Clammy-fingered—many-fingered—

Juille sank back against the wall and laughed hysterically in the dark, weak with relief, feeling a sleek, furry side brushing her wrist as the little hands tugged at her bonds. The llar, of course, but how…how could it possibly have followed or found her here? No llar had ever done such a thing before. They had none of the canine’s fawning faithfulness. No, there must be rescuers close behind it, though how anyone could have followed her here unseen by the Andareans, she could not imagine.

She called softly into the dimness. No answer, but the llar hissed at her gently, rather like a man whistling in preoccupation as he works. A moment later, she was amazed to feel the cord slackening at her wrists.

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