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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32784-h.zip b/32784-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..18a2bbc --- /dev/null +++ b/32784-h.zip diff --git a/32784-h/32784-h.htm b/32784-h/32784-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..375bc3d --- /dev/null +++ b/32784-h/32784-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1165 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Dark Goddess, by Richard S. Shaver. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dark Goddess, by Richard Sharpe Shaver + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dark Goddess + +Author: Richard Sharpe Shaver + +Release Date: June 12, 2010 [EBook #32784] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK GODDESS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h1>The Dark Goddess</h1> + +<h2>By Richard S. Shaver</h2> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of +Science and Fantasy February 1953. Extensive research did not uncover +any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Deep within her caverns the great mer-woman longed for death +to end her loneliness. But then came a voyager from space—a man—also +lonely....</div> + + +<p>The black-emerald water swirled and broke in many silver gleamings. From +the misty center of the pool rose a vast but beautiful head. The long +dripping hair was not hair, but had a rippling life of its own. The +great lonely eyes and wide scarlet mouth were far more lovely than any +human's. The gleaming green shoulders and shapely long arms ended in +graceful webbed fingers. The red tipped breasts were proud, naked mounts +where beauty lived forever. The pillaring waist—the strong-arched hips +that did not divide into legs but into two great serpentine +drivers—ended in the wide tail fins of a fish.</p> + +<p>The dark sea-scented lapping green water was circled by tiers of marble +seats, where many human people sat, their eyes upon the throne-seat into +which the tremendous female figure vaulted in one powerful thrust from +the water, as a tall wave uncurls effortlessly upon a golden beach.</p> + +<p>The people bowed their heads and waited for her words, and she sat for a +long time looking on them sadly and somehow conveying that they had long +disappointed her. When her voice came, a great bell of meaning in the +sea-cavern, the humans began to weep, for they knew now in their hearts +they had failed her.</p> + +<p>"My people, when the first of you came here I welcomed you. I was glad, +for I had been long alone. I never knew my own origin, my own race, and +the wisdom that I learned here in these caverns I was glad to give to +the young and ignorant voyagers that first came.</p> + +<p>"An age ago, before any of you saw life, the work began. Today, this +home of ours is the fruit of long labor, of generations of men. We do +not like to give up our home, built to house our genius, to provide +everlasting protection against the unstable elements."</p> + +<p>Her people, of several shapes and sizes, sourcing from an amalgam of +many human races of divergent strains from several near-forgotten +planets, all sighed together, like a little wind of sadness. And +something about that resignation of theirs seemed to anger the great +green mer-woman's eyes, but her voice did not reflect that anger. All +about them, below and above and on and on around the ancient bedrock of +the dark planet, tier on tier and level on level, their cavern city +stretched, a myriad homes for a myriad individuals.</p> + +<p>"Today we face a contingency long foreseen. One which we hoped time +itself would change, through some new force changing the motions of +those bodies which circle ahead of us in space. It was foretold that in +time this planet in its free course through space would be attracted to +one or the other of two great suns which it will pass—or encounter. It +is most probable that our planet will find an orbit about one of those +suns ahead.</p> + +<p>"Today that fate is no longer a prediction from an astronomer peering +into far space. It is a fact we face within short weeks, not in some far +future time. Already the surface ice is melting, seas forming above. +Already those who used to travel on the surface on their duties and +observations have been affected by the powerful radiations of those +suns. Those radiations when we are caught and held close will shorten +the life span to a hundredth of what it is now. You must go, and go now. +You must seek out a new home in the darkness of space where no sun +shines to cut your lives short."</p> + +<p>A low sob broke from the almost silent people; then another. For years +they had known this would occur, but now there was no time left. It was +hard to think of leaving their ancient home. A low and youthful voice +asked, a clear ringing voice:</p> + +<p>"And what of you, Alfreya? How can you accompany us? There has been no +ship built to hold the water you must have, no ship great enough to hold +your weight or lift it. What will you do?"</p> + +<p>Her laugh was somehow one of vast relief, of humor of some mysterious +kind they could not fathom, of loneliness glad once more to be alone. "I +remain. This is my home, and if my knowledge is not great enough to +fight off the death the new sun brings then I will welcome death. It +could be, dear people, that I am weary of life."</p> + +<p>The people could not hear her inward thought—"and of other lives, too +..."—but perhaps they felt it in their hearts.</p> + +<p>The gigantic mer-creature dove then, from her throne into the green-dark +water, and left her people to their own devices. They saw her no more.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The evacuation under way, the great ships lanced upward, one after +another. One every three seconds, for a month of earth time. And deep in +the water of her subterranean abode, it seemed to one great heart that +with each blast of sound as another great ship lifted, some weight +lifted from her heart.</p> + +<p>The people of the Dark Goddess leaving their ancient home were very +numerous, and very sad. But few of them thought twice of their ancient +benefactress who had welcomed their ancestors, taught them, started them +abuilding in the rock their vast cavern homes. If she wished to remain +and die, that was her affair. She was not human. She was only a bit of +ancient history that had somehow remained alive.</p> + +<p>All of the people of the dark planet of ice were included in that +migration. Not one remained to face death with their ancient Goddess. +The dark planet moved on into its new orbit, empty of life. Empty, that +is, except for one dark lonely heart. The mer-creature was too vast of +body for any ship to hold. Besides, she breathed water—and she did not +want to go. That was very strange. Very strange indeed. Of all that +myriad of departing voyagers, not one understood why their Dark Goddess +did not wish to go along. Which perhaps explains the mystery.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>An age passed. Or was it but a few years, a hundred or so? The mer-woman +did not count the years. The once free planet now circled the angry red +sun as a humble captive. On its now warm surface soil formed and plants +grew. Trees and animals began to move about, grow larger. It was a new +wild jungle planet, untouched by organized intelligence of any kind.</p> + +<p>Deep down in the dim caverns, in her deepest lair, the mistress of an +age of magic slept, and waked, and slept again. And what she thought +about, and what she waited for, and what she did with the endless time +on her hands, were mysteries. Mysteries, at times, even to herself. But +her heart was sometimes very light, and glad to be alone, and at other +times, very sad, and very sure that mankind itself was not what she +would wish it to be. In searching her heart, Alfreya knew she was very +well rid of all that clutter in the caverns overhead.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>From the outer darkness of space came a tiny shape, speeding on and on +toward this sun and captive planet. It was going from nowhere to nowhere +at a terrific rate.</p> + +<p>There are many shapes adrift in space, bits of rock, celestial debris +awash in the infinite oceans of ether. But this shape was not a rock. It +was of metal, and within it was a man named Peter McCarthy.</p> + +<p>He was a very hungry man, and a very thirsty man, and when the great red +sun reached out and pulled his ship to itself, Pete in his fuel depleted +craft gave silent thanks that at last the end had come.</p> + +<p>This would be a quick clean death in the flames, and Pete turned his +back on the sun and waited. But when he heard the air screaming about +his hull, he turned back to the bow view panes again.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be damned!" cried Peter McCarthy. For a huge green planet +had pushed itself between him and the sun, and he did not like that at +all. "It's another of cruel Fate's devices to lengthen my torments!" +said Peter, and wept salt tears of weakness.</p> + +<p>But his hands responded automatically. They thrust to the controls in +front of him and fired the long unused jets. A bit of fuel had collected +in the bottom of his tanks, and the jets blasted out, the ship lifted, +held itself upright on a pillar of sudden flame. Pete let it sink, +swiftly but gently, so that it fell hissing into the rolling green seas +without smashing to bits.</p> + +<p>It sank down through the green waters like a stone, and McCarthy fell +weakly across the controls, and did not move a finger to change her +downward course. In truth, he hoped the ship would never come up again. +He was sick and tired of fighting against death.</p> + +<p>Hours passed, and he slept, dreaming vague little dreams of eating and +drinking and flirting with the girls in the streets of Port Freedom. No +light came through the single hemisphere of transparence in front of his +nose, and he finally switched on the search-beam on the ship's nose.</p> + +<p>"Stuck in the mud, I hope, jade that she is, and good for her, making me +die like this," Pete muttered, hating even the cracked crazy sound of +his own voice.</p> + +<p>But the bowlight shafted ahead in brilliant clarity, piercing no ocean +depths or ooze or mud-flats, but glancing over the racing ripples of a +flowing river. Above the river surface the rocks came down, so low Pete +could hear them touch the hull, scrape, grind free, as their touch sent +the craft deeper in the hurrying water.</p> + +<p>"Holy old Harry," growled McCarthy, rubbing at his slackened features. +"She fell right through the bottom of the sea into some subterranean +flow...." He yawned, and stretched a little, and cursed again. "Sure, I +couldn't expect her to do anything else, with my luck aboard her. There +were trees and sunlight, and water ... ah, water ... up there, +somewhere. I saw them, falling in, I did. Do I land where I can get +anything like water? Hell no! I crash right on down into this hole!" He +laughed a weak bitter laugh. Then he leaned back and began to sing +through cracked and bleeding lips:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>There's a hole in the bottom of the sea;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>There's a rock in a hole in the bottom of the sea;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>There's a crab on a rock in the hole in the bottom....</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And he began to snore, having fallen asleep.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Some hours later, Peter McCarthy awoke, little refreshed because of the +raging thirst within him. With terrific effort he got to his feet, +noting that the ship was no longer moving.</p> + +<p>The bow light was still burning, but it showed only a black wall of +smooth rock ahead. He switched it off, turning on the inside lights. He +staggered and cursed his weakness, but he made it to the airlock. With +feeble hands he tugged the little wheel around that pulled back the big +bars on the lock door.</p> + +<p>"I'll get this over with, somehow. I'll just jump into the damned black +water and drink the damn river dry...."</p> + +<p>The big outer lock door swung open, and he straightened, half expecting +a rush of icy water about his feet. But instead a warm and slightly +fragrant air drifted silently in, touched his tangled hair with idle and +somehow playful fingers.</p> + +<p>"Still teasing me, you dirty old tramp!" growled the lean McCarthy, to +whom death had become a personal enemy, a figure he had both pursued and +fled from across a vast and empty space. A nemesis he could not escape, +and a fiend he could not quite catch.</p> + +<p>He tugged loose a hand flash from the bracket by the lock, and staggered +out upon the smooth rock floor against which the ship had come to rest. +He snapped on the light, and then he stood gaping stupidly at the rock +walls in disbelief.</p> + +<p>There were carvings, deep cut reliefs of utter beauty, twining vine +leaves, little figures half-human peeping from the leaves, lovely female +bodies as the flowers, incredibly lovely female heads in clusters as the +fruit.</p> + +<p>"I've come to the Halls of Bacchus himself! Sure, I must be dead +already. No wonder I can't manage to die! But if that ain't the vine +itself, I've never been drunk!" Pete was half delirious, half in the +darkness of utter despair. But his Irish heart whispered to him, "Where +there's the vine there's wine," and he tottered off weakly into the dark +in search of it.</p> + +<p>Somewhere afar off he heard a faint mysterious laugh, strangely +feminine, strangely friendly. He stopped, for ahead of him was +approaching a strange faint light. Closer it came, stalking toward him +fearfully, and to anyone else it would have seemed like an animated +clothing store dummy without the clothes. But the figure was feminine, +and it bore on its shoulder a tall oval vase-like vessel.</p> + +<p>Pete straightened, and awe swept over him. In a low voice he heard +himself quoting—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Came toward me through the dusk an angel-shape,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Bearing on her shoulder a vessel ...</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And bid me taste of it. 'Twas the grape!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>McCarthy's tongue twisted strangely in his mouth with a desirous life of +its own. The glowing angel-shape bent, and held the vessel to his lips, +and he drank long and deep. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, +and looked into the angel's glowing eyes.</p> + +<p>As he looked the shape changed, subtly, adapting itself to his approval +like a dream might, and McCarthy whispered in an awed voice:</p> + +<p>"Sure, lady, it is the grape right enough! Now tell me, are you the same +angel who gave drink to Omar? Or was she your sister, maybe?"</p> + +<p>The glowing shape, growing second by second more sweetly curved to his +eye, unsmilingly replaced the vessel on her shoulder. Her voice was a +distant melody though her face was right before his eyes:</p> + +<p>"I am but a messenger, dear welcome stranger. I bid you consider these +ancient halls your home. When you are well and strong, there will be +many things to talk of, for I have been long alone. Mine eyes are glad +with the sight of you."</p> + +<p>McCarthy touched the naked angel's shoulder, and was surprised to find +it hard as steel. The glowing being did not seem surprised, and her arm +went about his shoulders, supporting him easily. After a minute of this +slow progress, she bent and picked McCarthy up in her arms as if he were +a babe. McCarthy murmured, "Sure angel, be this Heaven or Hell I'm +damned glad to get here."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The voyager lay unconscious for many days. While he slept, dozens of the +weird "angels" hovered over him and what they poured down his throat and +what they injected into his veins he never knew. But when at last he +awakened he felt like the man he had been twenty years before, young in +heart and with a boundless happiness of well-being surging up in him +like a great spring of Omar's wine.</p> + +<p>So waking, he sprang to his feet as he had used to do in the morning, +unable to wait to learn what new and curious thing the day would bear +for him. He looked about him with eyes that could not believe, and he +was a long time remembering how he had got here or where he was. And +when he did, it was to wonder why he had been so sunk in despair and so +ready to accept death.</p> + +<p>One of the tall glowing shapes came and bowed low before him, and +McCarthy saw for an instant she was not a living woman at all, nor any +angel either!</p> + +<p>"Why you're a robot kind of thing!" cried Pete, recoiling in sudden +distrust, for there was something revolting to him about a metal machine +masquerading as a human form.</p> + +<p>The glowing woman-shape straightened proudly, and her long fiery eyes +narrowed a little, and her voice like distant tinkling magic murmured +softly, "Are you so very sure I am not alive, man from afar?"</p> + +<p>McCarthy kept looking at her, and she changed before his very eyes, and +at last his wits awoke, so that he said gallantly, "Sure and you're as +beautiful a woman as ever I saw in my life! I'm owing you my life, and +I'd be the last would want to hurt your feelings. Nobody could be +sorrier for the mistake than I am."</p> + +<p>Now whatever she was, he could no longer tell her from a living woman of +great beauty, for she had changed before his eyes from a metallic +monstrosity of glowing terror to a softly curved beauty that would have +graced the stage of any musical show, and her voice was far too good for +any show that Pete had ever listened to. As she moved closer to him, her +weirdly lovely voice whispered, "So my arms are hard as steel, man from +space?" and put her arms around him, and they were soft and firm and +fine arms to feel indeed.</p> + +<p>Peter McCarthy, in sudden wonder, kissed the glowing weird lips of the +lovely thing, and the taste was different but far more lovely than any +woman's lips had ever been before.</p> + +<p>"Now may God strike me, but I must be losing my wits," swore McCarthy, +"but I had thought you were made of steel for sure!"</p> + +<p>Somewhere afar there came a music of laughter; he could not exactly hear +it but he felt it, as if the very walls were amused with him. It was a +powerful laugh, with an undertinkling to it, like a distant bell beneath +water, struck by a little stone so that it gave out both strong sounds +and little sounds.... A very beautiful laugh but very strange to hear.</p> + +<p>With the sound of that laughter an awe came to McCarthy; he felt the +touch of some terrific magic, and he gave up trying to understand what +was happening to him.</p> + +<p>"This is a strange place," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "A strange +place indeed. Could ye tell me, Miss Angel, what place this is and how I +can expect to get along here and why you're so good to a poor wanderer +like myself?"</p> + +<p>The angel-shape—which second by second was getting to be more and more +the shape of ultimate beauty to his eye, as if she was learning the way +of it better and better right out of his mind, as if she was taking from +his own thinking the colors and the shapes and form and spirit that +would please him most—gave a laugh that was very like the strange great +tinkling sound from nowhere. Her voice was like sparkling water falling +on suspended crystals that rang musically, and she looked into his eyes +out of her own fiery strange eyes of terrible beauty.</p> + +<p>"This is the best of all possible places you could have come to, and +your host is the best of all possible hosts and what more do you need to +know today, Peter McCarthy?"</p> + +<p>For an instant a shadow passed over the strange glowing eyes of the +angel-shape, as if she remembered something she did not want to +remember, and he asked:</p> + +<p>"What is that shadow of trouble, if this is so good a place for me?"</p> + +<p>She answered him quickly as the shadow passed from her eyes: "That +shadow is the future, which will eventually get into even this +stronghold and end it all. But until that day comes, why you at least +can make merry. And I will help you...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>So time passed. The visitor was very happy, living in a paradise of +wonder and sensation and love such as no man of earth ever had before.</p> + +<p>The days of McCarthy's dreaming became many. There were always about him +several of the lovely glowing woman-shapes. Their forms were soft and +seemed to become almost too perfectly what he most wished they would +become, even as he looked and his mind tried to find imperfection, he +found only perfection. It was opposite from earth-style love, where one +ignores imperfections to think about the better parts and points of the +loved one ... where love is a slow schooling in seeing only the finest +facets of one's chosen. Here, he could find no imperfections to ignore, +and he had only to imagine some perfection to see it before him.</p> + +<p>McCarthy could not consciously know that the heavenly looks of these +lovely things was magic, but he had his suspicions, and was always +turning around quickly to catch one of them off guard and looking like +something other than the featured actress in an extravagant and +too-undressed musical comedy. But he never succeeded, and always when he +turned quickly he heard the far faint tinkle of bell-like laughter, and +that tinkle was somehow not a tinkle, but a deep melodious chime so far +away that it was broken into smaller sound by the echo.</p> + +<p>"Somebody gets a big kick out of me," grinned McCarthy, and forgot about +it. They waited on him hand and foot; every whim that came into his mind +they gratified as soon as it was born. Food of the most exotic kind was +set before him whenever he was hungry. When he wanted love, they gave +him from a boundless store; though not love such as he knew about. It +was instead an ecstacy of an intense and vibrant kind, an overwhelming +flame that hovered always about the sweetly glowing bodies of them, a +flame that was not anything but the essence of all desires, distilled +and intensified by some strong but subtle magic.</p> + +<p>But after a while it was his sleeping that McCarthy liked the most. For +then dreams came visibly into his chambers, and before his mind's eye +waved immense phantasmagorial adventures. When one of these adventures +caught his fancy it picked him up like a womanish whirlwind of strangely +soft dark arms and he became for the time of his sleep a God, to whom +all things were possible and each tiniest part of these dreams was like +a flower of unearthly and utterly exquisite beauty.</p> + +<p>It was nearly a year by McCarthy's careless reckoning before he +determined what was true and what was mere pleasant fantasy in his life.</p> + +<p>That was a black day.</p> + +<p>He awoke to find his chambers empty. No glowing heavenly shapes to wash +him and dress him and caress him. No sweet laughter in his ears, and no +light anywhere but what he made with his almost depleted hand flash.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Like a man bereft of reason he rushed away through the endless vaulted +cavern halls, seeking, seeking his loved playmates, his glowing +angel-shapes. And his heart seemed about to burst in his breast with the +terrible sense of loss, like a man who has just lost his family ... and +who thinks he will find them alive if he runs fast enough.</p> + +<p>After an endless time of running and walking and panting his hand flash +went dark in his hand and he flung it away. He went on like a madman, +blind, caroming off the carved stone walls and on and on until at last +he sank to the floor in exhaustion.</p> + +<p>Lying there, in despair as dark as the utter darkness of the caverns, +his eyes began to note after a time a soft glow spreading out before +him. Still longer he lay, looking, and his eyes began to see that it was +water glowing, rippling softly away before his eyes. The glow +strengthened little by little, until he could make out a vast +throne-like chair afar above the glowing water.</p> + +<p>For a still longer time McCarthy did not believe his eyes, for on the +throne was a mighty female figure of dark green flesh.</p> + +<p>Her long dripping hair was not hair, but writhed softly about her +beautiful head with a life of its own. The great eyes and wide scarlet +mouth were not exactly human, but they were very attractive and kind and +somehow lonely with a weight of wisdom. The gleaming shoulders and +tremendous long arms ended in wide-webbed fingers. The red tipped +breasts, the pillaring waist, the proud arched hips that did not divide +into legs but into two great serpentine drivers finned and scaled like +the tails of beautiful fish ... were to McCarthy after all his dreams +but figments of his overworked imagination.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>Peter McCarthy lay silently looking on this new phantasm, wondering if +he were still sane, and indeed, if he were still alive, or if this were +perhaps a place into which a soul wandered after death—where nothing +was as a man expected it to be. And in the midst of his wondering the +great lovely sea-woman's head turned. Her eyes sought him out and that +unearthly music of her voice murmured—a sound like the surf breaking on +ringing rocks far off.</p> + +<p>"You had to know the truth some time, Peter McCarthy."</p> + +<p>Pete struggled to his feet and found his strength flowing back. And +being the kind of man he was he plunged into the dark pool of cool water +and swam toward the great throne. It was much farther than it seemed, +and when at last he got there he found the throne was as tall as an +office building in the great cities of earth, and the lovely mer-woman's +body as mighty as a Titan of earth's misty dawn. Big she was, and just +as beautiful close up as from the far shore of her pool.</p> + +<p>McCarthy sat on the first step of the throne, at her wide fin that was +not a foot at all, and looked up into her lovely tragic eyes, his heart +pounding in his breast.</p> + +<p>"Sure, sea-mother, I know now! You are the only living creature in all +these vast halls, and all the lovely things you have been doing to +entertain me you do because you are lonely. Has it been fun to play with +me like a toy, sorceress?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>One of the great finned hands of her fanned the air in a gesture of +negation. "Not too much fun, McCarthy. But interesting, for I have never +met a man of your race, so child-like and simple and so easily made to +believe in my magic. And have you not enjoyed this year with me?"</p> + +<p>"It is not that, sorceress. It is that my heart is snared here, like an +ape in a cage and will never again be free. What kind of life can please +me now? After this life you have shown me, how can I ever want to +breathe common air again?"</p> + +<p>Her laugh was like music under water, like bells ringing in the deeps of +the sea. Her hand touched him lightly, and the touch was like lightning +from heaven striking him with eternal love. And the thunder of that +lightning pealed through all his being, thunder on thunder of vast +meaning, and there was nothing from his dreams to compare with the +beauty and the wonder of the simple touch of her hand.</p> + +<p>McCarthy turned his face up to the vast woman-shape above him, the +wonder of her touch shining from his eyes, so that she laughed again as +she saw the effect upon him.</p> + +<p>"If there had been more like you among my people, I would not be here +alone," she murmured, like distant sorrowful music above him, her voice +that was so much more than a voice. "But my people were sated with +wonder and tired of love and weary with having too much. They went off +and left me because I said I wanted to remain—to die. And my heart was +sad, but something in me was very glad to be alone. Now I am glad that +you are here! But I am afraid that there is no way you can leave now."</p> + +<p>McCarthy stretched out at the foot of her throne, a grin on his square +Irish face. "So, I can't get away again! Now that's the sorriest word +I've heard for years. Sure I'm the unluckiest mortal that ever was +born."</p> + +<p>The dark goddess laughed again, and there was something of a sweet child +in the bell-tones of her laugh, that died away in soft and softer echoes +in the endless dark about them.</p> + +<p>... Something of a shy child, who had never been loved, and found the +idea infinitely amusing. Her voice became softer and more beautiful +still, and McCarthy was endlessly happy to hear that laugh, for it said +so much stronger than any words could—"You are welcome here, you sad +Irishman." And her voice said, "And do you want your angel-shapes and +their wine back again, or do you want some other thing I might create +for you out of these forgotten energy converters?"</p> + +<p>McCarthy grinned contentedly, and rubbed his roughened face against the +smooth calf of her leg beside him. "D'ye think I should shave, goddess?"</p> + +<p>The great beautiful face bent over and examined his Irish countenance, +the rugged features and twinkling blue eyes and the red hearty cheeks of +him. "Why, man-child, you are quite good-looking as you are!"</p> + +<p>"And as for them angels and their wine," added McCarthy, "don't you know +one look at you is worth a thousand angels? Can't you see in my mind and +know ... I forget, ye've been doing that for one solid year. Sure, you +green angel you, why should a man want any other shape or sound or wine +than yourself?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>So it was that some years later a great ship burst up from the seas of +the lonely planet and on the terrific wings of a mysterious power shot +silently away into the trackless void. And at the helm was a red-cheeked +Irishman and the rest of the vast ship was filled with water and the +goddess herself. All of it, that is, except the part where the three +little McCarthys came out of the water to play with their dad every day.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Dark Goddess, by Richard Sharpe Shaver + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK GODDESS *** + +***** This file should be named 32784-h.htm or 32784-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/7/8/32784/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dark Goddess + +Author: Richard Sharpe Shaver + +Release Date: June 12, 2010 [EBook #32784] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK GODDESS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + The Dark Goddess + + By Richard S. Shaver + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of +Science and Fantasy February 1953. Extensive research did not uncover +any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: Deep within her caverns the great mer-woman longed for death +to end her loneliness. But then came a voyager from space--a man--also +lonely....] + + +The black-emerald water swirled and broke in many silver gleamings. From +the misty center of the pool rose a vast but beautiful head. The long +dripping hair was not hair, but had a rippling life of its own. The +great lonely eyes and wide scarlet mouth were far more lovely than any +human's. The gleaming green shoulders and shapely long arms ended in +graceful webbed fingers. The red tipped breasts were proud, naked mounts +where beauty lived forever. The pillaring waist--the strong-arched hips +that did not divide into legs but into two great serpentine +drivers--ended in the wide tail fins of a fish. + +The dark sea-scented lapping green water was circled by tiers of marble +seats, where many human people sat, their eyes upon the throne-seat into +which the tremendous female figure vaulted in one powerful thrust from +the water, as a tall wave uncurls effortlessly upon a golden beach. + +The people bowed their heads and waited for her words, and she sat for a +long time looking on them sadly and somehow conveying that they had long +disappointed her. When her voice came, a great bell of meaning in the +sea-cavern, the humans began to weep, for they knew now in their hearts +they had failed her. + +"My people, when the first of you came here I welcomed you. I was glad, +for I had been long alone. I never knew my own origin, my own race, and +the wisdom that I learned here in these caverns I was glad to give to +the young and ignorant voyagers that first came. + +"An age ago, before any of you saw life, the work began. Today, this +home of ours is the fruit of long labor, of generations of men. We do +not like to give up our home, built to house our genius, to provide +everlasting protection against the unstable elements." + +Her people, of several shapes and sizes, sourcing from an amalgam of +many human races of divergent strains from several near-forgotten +planets, all sighed together, like a little wind of sadness. And +something about that resignation of theirs seemed to anger the great +green mer-woman's eyes, but her voice did not reflect that anger. All +about them, below and above and on and on around the ancient bedrock of +the dark planet, tier on tier and level on level, their cavern city +stretched, a myriad homes for a myriad individuals. + +"Today we face a contingency long foreseen. One which we hoped time +itself would change, through some new force changing the motions of +those bodies which circle ahead of us in space. It was foretold that in +time this planet in its free course through space would be attracted to +one or the other of two great suns which it will pass--or encounter. It +is most probable that our planet will find an orbit about one of those +suns ahead. + +"Today that fate is no longer a prediction from an astronomer peering +into far space. It is a fact we face within short weeks, not in some far +future time. Already the surface ice is melting, seas forming above. +Already those who used to travel on the surface on their duties and +observations have been affected by the powerful radiations of those +suns. Those radiations when we are caught and held close will shorten +the life span to a hundredth of what it is now. You must go, and go now. +You must seek out a new home in the darkness of space where no sun +shines to cut your lives short." + +A low sob broke from the almost silent people; then another. For years +they had known this would occur, but now there was no time left. It was +hard to think of leaving their ancient home. A low and youthful voice +asked, a clear ringing voice: + +"And what of you, Alfreya? How can you accompany us? There has been no +ship built to hold the water you must have, no ship great enough to hold +your weight or lift it. What will you do?" + +Her laugh was somehow one of vast relief, of humor of some mysterious +kind they could not fathom, of loneliness glad once more to be alone. "I +remain. This is my home, and if my knowledge is not great enough to +fight off the death the new sun brings then I will welcome death. It +could be, dear people, that I am weary of life." + +The people could not hear her inward thought--"and of other lives, too +..."--but perhaps they felt it in their hearts. + +The gigantic mer-creature dove then, from her throne into the green-dark +water, and left her people to their own devices. They saw her no more. + + * * * * * + +The evacuation under way, the great ships lanced upward, one after +another. One every three seconds, for a month of earth time. And deep in +the water of her subterranean abode, it seemed to one great heart that +with each blast of sound as another great ship lifted, some weight +lifted from her heart. + +The people of the Dark Goddess leaving their ancient home were very +numerous, and very sad. But few of them thought twice of their ancient +benefactress who had welcomed their ancestors, taught them, started them +abuilding in the rock their vast cavern homes. If she wished to remain +and die, that was her affair. She was not human. She was only a bit of +ancient history that had somehow remained alive. + +All of the people of the dark planet of ice were included in that +migration. Not one remained to face death with their ancient Goddess. +The dark planet moved on into its new orbit, empty of life. Empty, that +is, except for one dark lonely heart. The mer-creature was too vast of +body for any ship to hold. Besides, she breathed water--and she did not +want to go. That was very strange. Very strange indeed. Of all that +myriad of departing voyagers, not one understood why their Dark Goddess +did not wish to go along. Which perhaps explains the mystery. + + * * * * * + +An age passed. Or was it but a few years, a hundred or so? The mer-woman +did not count the years. The once free planet now circled the angry red +sun as a humble captive. On its now warm surface soil formed and plants +grew. Trees and animals began to move about, grow larger. It was a new +wild jungle planet, untouched by organized intelligence of any kind. + +Deep down in the dim caverns, in her deepest lair, the mistress of an +age of magic slept, and waked, and slept again. And what she thought +about, and what she waited for, and what she did with the endless time +on her hands, were mysteries. Mysteries, at times, even to herself. But +her heart was sometimes very light, and glad to be alone, and at other +times, very sad, and very sure that mankind itself was not what she +would wish it to be. In searching her heart, Alfreya knew she was very +well rid of all that clutter in the caverns overhead. + + * * * * * + +From the outer darkness of space came a tiny shape, speeding on and on +toward this sun and captive planet. It was going from nowhere to nowhere +at a terrific rate. + +There are many shapes adrift in space, bits of rock, celestial debris +awash in the infinite oceans of ether. But this shape was not a rock. It +was of metal, and within it was a man named Peter McCarthy. + +He was a very hungry man, and a very thirsty man, and when the great red +sun reached out and pulled his ship to itself, Pete in his fuel depleted +craft gave silent thanks that at last the end had come. + +This would be a quick clean death in the flames, and Pete turned his +back on the sun and waited. But when he heard the air screaming about +his hull, he turned back to the bow view panes again. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" cried Peter McCarthy. For a huge green planet +had pushed itself between him and the sun, and he did not like that at +all. "It's another of cruel Fate's devices to lengthen my torments!" +said Peter, and wept salt tears of weakness. + +But his hands responded automatically. They thrust to the controls in +front of him and fired the long unused jets. A bit of fuel had collected +in the bottom of his tanks, and the jets blasted out, the ship lifted, +held itself upright on a pillar of sudden flame. Pete let it sink, +swiftly but gently, so that it fell hissing into the rolling green seas +without smashing to bits. + +It sank down through the green waters like a stone, and McCarthy fell +weakly across the controls, and did not move a finger to change her +downward course. In truth, he hoped the ship would never come up again. +He was sick and tired of fighting against death. + +Hours passed, and he slept, dreaming vague little dreams of eating and +drinking and flirting with the girls in the streets of Port Freedom. No +light came through the single hemisphere of transparence in front of his +nose, and he finally switched on the search-beam on the ship's nose. + +"Stuck in the mud, I hope, jade that she is, and good for her, making me +die like this," Pete muttered, hating even the cracked crazy sound of +his own voice. + +But the bowlight shafted ahead in brilliant clarity, piercing no ocean +depths or ooze or mud-flats, but glancing over the racing ripples of a +flowing river. Above the river surface the rocks came down, so low Pete +could hear them touch the hull, scrape, grind free, as their touch sent +the craft deeper in the hurrying water. + +"Holy old Harry," growled McCarthy, rubbing at his slackened features. +"She fell right through the bottom of the sea into some subterranean +flow...." He yawned, and stretched a little, and cursed again. "Sure, I +couldn't expect her to do anything else, with my luck aboard her. There +were trees and sunlight, and water ... ah, water ... up there, +somewhere. I saw them, falling in, I did. Do I land where I can get +anything like water? Hell no! I crash right on down into this hole!" He +laughed a weak bitter laugh. Then he leaned back and began to sing +through cracked and bleeding lips: + + "_There's a hole in the bottom of the sea; + There's a rock in a hole in the bottom of the sea; + There's a crab on a rock in the hole in the bottom...._" + +And he began to snore, having fallen asleep. + + * * * * * + +Some hours later, Peter McCarthy awoke, little refreshed because of the +raging thirst within him. With terrific effort he got to his feet, +noting that the ship was no longer moving. + +The bow light was still burning, but it showed only a black wall of +smooth rock ahead. He switched it off, turning on the inside lights. He +staggered and cursed his weakness, but he made it to the airlock. With +feeble hands he tugged the little wheel around that pulled back the big +bars on the lock door. + +"I'll get this over with, somehow. I'll just jump into the damned black +water and drink the damn river dry...." + +The big outer lock door swung open, and he straightened, half expecting +a rush of icy water about his feet. But instead a warm and slightly +fragrant air drifted silently in, touched his tangled hair with idle and +somehow playful fingers. + +"Still teasing me, you dirty old tramp!" growled the lean McCarthy, to +whom death had become a personal enemy, a figure he had both pursued and +fled from across a vast and empty space. A nemesis he could not escape, +and a fiend he could not quite catch. + +He tugged loose a hand flash from the bracket by the lock, and staggered +out upon the smooth rock floor against which the ship had come to rest. +He snapped on the light, and then he stood gaping stupidly at the rock +walls in disbelief. + +There were carvings, deep cut reliefs of utter beauty, twining vine +leaves, little figures half-human peeping from the leaves, lovely female +bodies as the flowers, incredibly lovely female heads in clusters as the +fruit. + +"I've come to the Halls of Bacchus himself! Sure, I must be dead +already. No wonder I can't manage to die! But if that ain't the vine +itself, I've never been drunk!" Pete was half delirious, half in the +darkness of utter despair. But his Irish heart whispered to him, "Where +there's the vine there's wine," and he tottered off weakly into the dark +in search of it. + +Somewhere afar off he heard a faint mysterious laugh, strangely +feminine, strangely friendly. He stopped, for ahead of him was +approaching a strange faint light. Closer it came, stalking toward him +fearfully, and to anyone else it would have seemed like an animated +clothing store dummy without the clothes. But the figure was feminine, +and it bore on its shoulder a tall oval vase-like vessel. + +Pete straightened, and awe swept over him. In a low voice he heard +himself quoting-- + + "_Came toward me through the dusk an angel-shape, + Bearing on her shoulder a vessel ... + And bid me taste of it. 'Twas the grape!_" + +McCarthy's tongue twisted strangely in his mouth with a desirous life of +its own. The glowing angel-shape bent, and held the vessel to his lips, +and he drank long and deep. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, +and looked into the angel's glowing eyes. + +As he looked the shape changed, subtly, adapting itself to his approval +like a dream might, and McCarthy whispered in an awed voice: + +"Sure, lady, it is the grape right enough! Now tell me, are you the same +angel who gave drink to Omar? Or was she your sister, maybe?" + +The glowing shape, growing second by second more sweetly curved to his +eye, unsmilingly replaced the vessel on her shoulder. Her voice was a +distant melody though her face was right before his eyes: + +"I am but a messenger, dear welcome stranger. I bid you consider these +ancient halls your home. When you are well and strong, there will be +many things to talk of, for I have been long alone. Mine eyes are glad +with the sight of you." + +McCarthy touched the naked angel's shoulder, and was surprised to find +it hard as steel. The glowing being did not seem surprised, and her arm +went about his shoulders, supporting him easily. After a minute of this +slow progress, she bent and picked McCarthy up in her arms as if he were +a babe. McCarthy murmured, "Sure angel, be this Heaven or Hell I'm +damned glad to get here." + + * * * * * + +The voyager lay unconscious for many days. While he slept, dozens of the +weird "angels" hovered over him and what they poured down his throat and +what they injected into his veins he never knew. But when at last he +awakened he felt like the man he had been twenty years before, young in +heart and with a boundless happiness of well-being surging up in him +like a great spring of Omar's wine. + +So waking, he sprang to his feet as he had used to do in the morning, +unable to wait to learn what new and curious thing the day would bear +for him. He looked about him with eyes that could not believe, and he +was a long time remembering how he had got here or where he was. And +when he did, it was to wonder why he had been so sunk in despair and so +ready to accept death. + +One of the tall glowing shapes came and bowed low before him, and +McCarthy saw for an instant she was not a living woman at all, nor any +angel either! + +"Why you're a robot kind of thing!" cried Pete, recoiling in sudden +distrust, for there was something revolting to him about a metal machine +masquerading as a human form. + +The glowing woman-shape straightened proudly, and her long fiery eyes +narrowed a little, and her voice like distant tinkling magic murmured +softly, "Are you so very sure I am not alive, man from afar?" + +McCarthy kept looking at her, and she changed before his very eyes, and +at last his wits awoke, so that he said gallantly, "Sure and you're as +beautiful a woman as ever I saw in my life! I'm owing you my life, and +I'd be the last would want to hurt your feelings. Nobody could be +sorrier for the mistake than I am." + +Now whatever she was, he could no longer tell her from a living woman of +great beauty, for she had changed before his eyes from a metallic +monstrosity of glowing terror to a softly curved beauty that would have +graced the stage of any musical show, and her voice was far too good for +any show that Pete had ever listened to. As she moved closer to him, her +weirdly lovely voice whispered, "So my arms are hard as steel, man from +space?" and put her arms around him, and they were soft and firm and +fine arms to feel indeed. + +Peter McCarthy, in sudden wonder, kissed the glowing weird lips of the +lovely thing, and the taste was different but far more lovely than any +woman's lips had ever been before. + +"Now may God strike me, but I must be losing my wits," swore McCarthy, +"but I had thought you were made of steel for sure!" + +Somewhere afar there came a music of laughter; he could not exactly hear +it but he felt it, as if the very walls were amused with him. It was a +powerful laugh, with an undertinkling to it, like a distant bell beneath +water, struck by a little stone so that it gave out both strong sounds +and little sounds.... A very beautiful laugh but very strange to hear. + +With the sound of that laughter an awe came to McCarthy; he felt the +touch of some terrific magic, and he gave up trying to understand what +was happening to him. + +"This is a strange place," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "A strange +place indeed. Could ye tell me, Miss Angel, what place this is and how I +can expect to get along here and why you're so good to a poor wanderer +like myself?" + +The angel-shape--which second by second was getting to be more and more +the shape of ultimate beauty to his eye, as if she was learning the way +of it better and better right out of his mind, as if she was taking from +his own thinking the colors and the shapes and form and spirit that +would please him most--gave a laugh that was very like the strange great +tinkling sound from nowhere. Her voice was like sparkling water falling +on suspended crystals that rang musically, and she looked into his eyes +out of her own fiery strange eyes of terrible beauty. + +"This is the best of all possible places you could have come to, and +your host is the best of all possible hosts and what more do you need to +know today, Peter McCarthy?" + +For an instant a shadow passed over the strange glowing eyes of the +angel-shape, as if she remembered something she did not want to +remember, and he asked: + +"What is that shadow of trouble, if this is so good a place for me?" + +She answered him quickly as the shadow passed from her eyes: "That +shadow is the future, which will eventually get into even this +stronghold and end it all. But until that day comes, why you at least +can make merry. And I will help you...." + + * * * * * + +So time passed. The visitor was very happy, living in a paradise of +wonder and sensation and love such as no man of earth ever had before. + +The days of McCarthy's dreaming became many. There were always about him +several of the lovely glowing woman-shapes. Their forms were soft and +seemed to become almost too perfectly what he most wished they would +become, even as he looked and his mind tried to find imperfection, he +found only perfection. It was opposite from earth-style love, where one +ignores imperfections to think about the better parts and points of the +loved one ... where love is a slow schooling in seeing only the finest +facets of one's chosen. Here, he could find no imperfections to ignore, +and he had only to imagine some perfection to see it before him. + +McCarthy could not consciously know that the heavenly looks of these +lovely things was magic, but he had his suspicions, and was always +turning around quickly to catch one of them off guard and looking like +something other than the featured actress in an extravagant and +too-undressed musical comedy. But he never succeeded, and always when he +turned quickly he heard the far faint tinkle of bell-like laughter, and +that tinkle was somehow not a tinkle, but a deep melodious chime so far +away that it was broken into smaller sound by the echo. + +"Somebody gets a big kick out of me," grinned McCarthy, and forgot about +it. They waited on him hand and foot; every whim that came into his mind +they gratified as soon as it was born. Food of the most exotic kind was +set before him whenever he was hungry. When he wanted love, they gave +him from a boundless store; though not love such as he knew about. It +was instead an ecstacy of an intense and vibrant kind, an overwhelming +flame that hovered always about the sweetly glowing bodies of them, a +flame that was not anything but the essence of all desires, distilled +and intensified by some strong but subtle magic. + +But after a while it was his sleeping that McCarthy liked the most. For +then dreams came visibly into his chambers, and before his mind's eye +waved immense phantasmagorial adventures. When one of these adventures +caught his fancy it picked him up like a womanish whirlwind of strangely +soft dark arms and he became for the time of his sleep a God, to whom +all things were possible and each tiniest part of these dreams was like +a flower of unearthly and utterly exquisite beauty. + +It was nearly a year by McCarthy's careless reckoning before he +determined what was true and what was mere pleasant fantasy in his life. + +That was a black day. + +He awoke to find his chambers empty. No glowing heavenly shapes to wash +him and dress him and caress him. No sweet laughter in his ears, and no +light anywhere but what he made with his almost depleted hand flash. + + * * * * * + +Like a man bereft of reason he rushed away through the endless vaulted +cavern halls, seeking, seeking his loved playmates, his glowing +angel-shapes. And his heart seemed about to burst in his breast with the +terrible sense of loss, like a man who has just lost his family ... and +who thinks he will find them alive if he runs fast enough. + +After an endless time of running and walking and panting his hand flash +went dark in his hand and he flung it away. He went on like a madman, +blind, caroming off the carved stone walls and on and on until at last +he sank to the floor in exhaustion. + +Lying there, in despair as dark as the utter darkness of the caverns, +his eyes began to note after a time a soft glow spreading out before +him. Still longer he lay, looking, and his eyes began to see that it was +water glowing, rippling softly away before his eyes. The glow +strengthened little by little, until he could make out a vast +throne-like chair afar above the glowing water. + +For a still longer time McCarthy did not believe his eyes, for on the +throne was a mighty female figure of dark green flesh. + +Her long dripping hair was not hair, but writhed softly about her +beautiful head with a life of its own. The great eyes and wide scarlet +mouth were not exactly human, but they were very attractive and kind and +somehow lonely with a weight of wisdom. The gleaming shoulders and +tremendous long arms ended in wide-webbed fingers. The red tipped +breasts, the pillaring waist, the proud arched hips that did not divide +into legs but into two great serpentine drivers finned and scaled like +the tails of beautiful fish ... were to McCarthy after all his dreams +but figments of his overworked imagination. + +Peter McCarthy lay silently looking on this new phantasm, wondering if +he were still sane, and indeed, if he were still alive, or if this were +perhaps a place into which a soul wandered after death--where nothing +was as a man expected it to be. And in the midst of his wondering the +great lovely sea-woman's head turned. Her eyes sought him out and that +unearthly music of her voice murmured--a sound like the surf breaking on +ringing rocks far off. + +"You had to know the truth some time, Peter McCarthy." + +Pete struggled to his feet and found his strength flowing back. And +being the kind of man he was he plunged into the dark pool of cool water +and swam toward the great throne. It was much farther than it seemed, +and when at last he got there he found the throne was as tall as an +office building in the great cities of earth, and the lovely mer-woman's +body as mighty as a Titan of earth's misty dawn. Big she was, and just +as beautiful close up as from the far shore of her pool. + +[Illustration] + +McCarthy sat on the first step of the throne, at her wide fin that was +not a foot at all, and looked up into her lovely tragic eyes, his heart +pounding in his breast. + +"Sure, sea-mother, I know now! You are the only living creature in all +these vast halls, and all the lovely things you have been doing to +entertain me you do because you are lonely. Has it been fun to play with +me like a toy, sorceress?" + + * * * * * + +One of the great finned hands of her fanned the air in a gesture of +negation. "Not too much fun, McCarthy. But interesting, for I have never +met a man of your race, so child-like and simple and so easily made to +believe in my magic. And have you not enjoyed this year with me?" + +"It is not that, sorceress. It is that my heart is snared here, like an +ape in a cage and will never again be free. What kind of life can please +me now? After this life you have shown me, how can I ever want to +breathe common air again?" + +Her laugh was like music under water, like bells ringing in the deeps of +the sea. Her hand touched him lightly, and the touch was like lightning +from heaven striking him with eternal love. And the thunder of that +lightning pealed through all his being, thunder on thunder of vast +meaning, and there was nothing from his dreams to compare with the +beauty and the wonder of the simple touch of her hand. + +McCarthy turned his face up to the vast woman-shape above him, the +wonder of her touch shining from his eyes, so that she laughed again as +she saw the effect upon him. + +"If there had been more like you among my people, I would not be here +alone," she murmured, like distant sorrowful music above him, her voice +that was so much more than a voice. "But my people were sated with +wonder and tired of love and weary with having too much. They went off +and left me because I said I wanted to remain--to die. And my heart was +sad, but something in me was very glad to be alone. Now I am glad that +you are here! But I am afraid that there is no way you can leave now." + +McCarthy stretched out at the foot of her throne, a grin on his square +Irish face. "So, I can't get away again! Now that's the sorriest word +I've heard for years. Sure I'm the unluckiest mortal that ever was +born." + +The dark goddess laughed again, and there was something of a sweet child +in the bell-tones of her laugh, that died away in soft and softer echoes +in the endless dark about them. + +... Something of a shy child, who had never been loved, and found the +idea infinitely amusing. Her voice became softer and more beautiful +still, and McCarthy was endlessly happy to hear that laugh, for it said +so much stronger than any words could--"You are welcome here, you sad +Irishman." And her voice said, "And do you want your angel-shapes and +their wine back again, or do you want some other thing I might create +for you out of these forgotten energy converters?" + +McCarthy grinned contentedly, and rubbed his roughened face against the +smooth calf of her leg beside him. "D'ye think I should shave, goddess?" + +The great beautiful face bent over and examined his Irish countenance, +the rugged features and twinkling blue eyes and the red hearty cheeks of +him. "Why, man-child, you are quite good-looking as you are!" + +"And as for them angels and their wine," added McCarthy, "don't you know +one look at you is worth a thousand angels? Can't you see in my mind and +know ... I forget, ye've been doing that for one solid year. Sure, you +green angel you, why should a man want any other shape or sound or wine +than yourself?" + + * * * * * + +So it was that some years later a great ship burst up from the seas of +the lonely planet and on the terrific wings of a mysterious power shot +silently away into the trackless void. And at the helm was a red-cheeked +Irishman and the rest of the vast ship was filled with water and the +goddess herself. All of it, that is, except the part where the three +little McCarthys came out of the water to play with their dad every day. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Dark Goddess, by Richard Sharpe Shaver + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK GODDESS *** + +***** This file should be named 32784.txt or 32784.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/7/8/32784/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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