COMPLEAT Collected SFF Works, page 1
The COMPLEAT
Collected SFF Works
of
C. L. Moore
1911-1987
SERIES
Jirel of Joiry
BLACK GOD'S KISS
BLACK GOD'S SHADOW
JIREL MEETS MAGIC
THE DARK LAND
QUEST OF THE STARSTONE
HELLSGARDE
Northwest Smith
SHAMBLEAU
BLACK THIRST
SCARLET DREAM
DUST OF GODS
JULHI
NYMPH OF DARKNESS
THE COLD GRAY GOD
YVALA
LOST PARADISE
THE TREE OF LIFE
QUEST OF THE STARSTONE
WEREWOMAN
SONG IN A MINOR KEY
Gallagher
TIME LOCKER
THE WORLD IS MINE
THE PROUD ROBOT
GALLEGHER PLUS
EX MACHINE
Keeps
CLASH BY NIGHT
FURY
Baldy
THE PIPER'S SON
THREE BLIND MICE
THE LION AND THE UNICORN
BEGGARS IN VELVET
HUMPTY DUMPTY
Hogben
EXIT THE PROFESSOR
PILE OF TROUBLE
SEE YOU LATER
COLD WAR
Thresholders
PROMISED LAND
HEIR APPARENT
INDIVIDUAL
STORIES
GREATER GLORIES
THE CHALLENGE FROM BEYOND
TRYST IN TIME
MIRACLE IN THREE DIMENSIONS
GREATER THAN GODS
ALL IS UNKNOWN
FRUIT OF KNOWLEDGE
A GNOME THERE WAS
THERE SHALL BE DARKNESS
DEADLOCK
THE TWONKY
COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR
PIGGY BANK
NOTHING BUT GINGERBREAD LEFT
MIMSY WERE THE BOROGOVES
SHOCK
OPEN SECRET
ENDOWMENT POLICY
JUDGMENT NIGHT
DOORWAY INTO TIME
THE IRON STANDARD
THE CHILDREN'S HOUR
HOUSING PROBLEM
WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS
NO WOMAN BORN
BABY FACE
THE CODE
CAMOUFLAGE
WHAT YOU NEED
LINE TO TOMORROW
THE FAIRY CHESSMEN
THIS IS THE HOUSE
WE KILL PEOPLE
THE DARK ANGEL
THE CURE
RAIN CHECK
VINTAGE SEASON
CALL HIM DEMON
ABSALOM
THE LITTLE THINGS
DAEMON
TIME ENOUGH
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW
JUKE-BOX
PROJECT
JESTING PILOT
DREAM'S END
MARGIN FOR ERROR
HAPPY ENDING
PRIVATE EYE
THE PRISONER IN THE SKULL
BEYOND EARTH'S GATES
THE SKY IS FALLING
PARADISE STREET
CARRY ME HOME
THE ODYSSEY OF YIGGAR THROLG
GOLDEN APPLE
ANDROID
WE SHALL COME BACK
THE EGO MACHINE
A WILD SURMISE
DE PROFUNDIS
HOME IS THE HUNTER
OR ELSE
HOME THERE'S NO RETURNING
TWO-HANDED ENGINE
RITE OF PASSAGE
DOOMSDAY MORNING
NEAR MISS
EARTH'S LAST CITADEL
Notes on original publishing dates and co-authors
SERIES
Jirel of Joiry
1934
with Henry Kuttner
Northwest Smith
1933
with Forrest J. Ackerman
Gallagher
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Keeps
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Baldy
1945
with Henry Kuttner
Hogben
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Thresholders
1950
--
INDIVIDUAL STORIES
The Bright Illusion
1934
--
Greater Glories.doc
1935
--
The Challenge From Beyond
1935
with various
Tryst in Time
1936
--
Miracle In Three Dimensions
1939
Greater Than Gods
1939
--
All is Illusion
1940
with Henry Kuttner
Fruit of Knowledge
1940
--
A Gnome There Was
1941
with Henry Kuttner
There Shall Be Darkness
1942
--
Deadlock
1942
with Kenry Kuttner
The Twonky
1942
with Henry Kuttner
Compliments of the Author
1942
with Henry Kuttner
Piggy Bank
1942
with Henry Kuttner
Nothing But Gingerbread Left
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Mimsy Were the Borogoves
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Shock
1943
with Henty Kuttner
Open Secret
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Endowment Policy
1943
with Henry Kuttner
Judgment Night
1943
--
Doorway Into Time
1943
--
The Iron Standard
1943
with Henry Kuttner
The Children's Hour
1944
with Henry Kuttner
Housing Problem
1944
with Henry Kuttner
When the Bough Breaks
1944
with Henry Kuttner
No Woman Born
1944
--
Baby Face
1945
with Henry Kuttner
The Code
1945
--
Camouflage
1945
with Henry Kuttner
What You Need
1945
with Henry Kuttner
Line to Tomorrow
1945
with Henry Kuttner
The Fairy Chessmen
1946
with Henry Kuttner
This Is the House
1946
with Henry Kuttner
We Kill People
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Dark Angel
1946
with Henry Kuttner
The Cure
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Rain Check
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Vintage Season
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Call Him Demon
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Absalom
1946
with Henry Kuttner
The Little Things
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Daemon
1946
--
Time Enough
1946
with Henry Kuttner
Tomorrow and Tomorrow
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Juke-Box
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Project
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Jesting Pilot
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Dream's End
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Margin for Error
1947
with Henry Kuttner
Happy Ending
1948
with Henry Kuttner
Private Eye
1949
with Henry Kuttner
The Prisoner in the Skull
1949
with Henry Kuttner
Beyond Earth's Gate (The Portal in the Picture)
1954
with Henry Kuttner
The Sky Is Falling
1950
with Henry Kuttner
Paradise Street
1950
--
Carry Me Home
1950
with Henry Kuttner
The Odyssey of Yiggar Throlg
1951
with Henry Kuttner
Golden Apple
1951
with Henry Kuttner
Android
1951
with Henry Kuttner
We Shall Come Back
1951
with Henry Kuttner
The Ego Machine
1952
with Henry Kuttner
A Wild Surmise
1953
De Profundis (The Visitors)
1953
with Henry Kuttner
Home Is the Hunter
1953
with Henry Kuttner
Or Else
1953
with Henry Kuttner
Home There's No Returning
1955
with Henry Kuttner
Two-handed Engine
1955
with Henry Kuttner
Rite of Passage
1956
with Henry Kuttner
Doomsday Morning
1957
--
Near Miss
1958
with Henry Kuttner
Earth's Last Citadel
1943
with Henry Kuttner
The COMPLEAT
Collected SFF Works
of
C. L. Moore
Jirel of Joiry
(1934-1939)*
Contents
BLACK GOD'S KISS
BLACK GOD'S SHADOW
JIREL MEETS MAGIC
THE DARK LAND
QUEST OF THE STARSTONE
HELLSGARDE
BLACK GOD'S KISS
Jirel of Joiry 01
Weird Tales - October 1934
I
They brought in Joiry's tall commander, struggling between two men-at-arms who tightly gripped the ropes which bound their captive's mailed arms. They picked their way between mounds of dead as they crossed the great hall toward the dais where the conqueror sat, and twice they slipped a little in the blood that spattered the flags. When they came to a halt before the mailed figure on the dais, Joiry's commander was breathing hard, and the voice that echoed hollowly under the helmet's confines was hoarse with fury and despair.
Guillaume the conqueror leaned on his mighty sword, hands crossed on its hilt, grinning down from his height upon the furious captive before him. He was a big man, Guillaume, and he looked bigger still in his spattered armor. There was blood on his hard, scarred face, and he was grinning a white grin that split his short, curly beard glitteringly. Very splendid and very dangerous he looked, leaning on his great sword and smiling down upon fallen Joiry's lord, struggling between the stolid men-at-arms.
"Unshell me this lobster," said Guillaume in his deep lazy voice. "We'll see what sort of face the fellow has who gave us such a battle. Off with his helmet, you."
But a third man had to come up and slash the straps which held the iron helmet on, for the struggles of Joiry's commander were too fierce, even with bound arms, for either of the guards to release their hold. There was a moment of sharp struggle; then the straps parted and the helmet rolled loudly across the flagstones.
Guillaume's white teeth clicked on a startled oath. He stared. Joiry's lady glared back at him from between her captors, wild red hair tousled, wild lion-yellow eyes ablaze.
"God curse you!" snarled the lady of Joiry between teeth. "God blast your black heart!"
Guillaume scarcely heard her. He was still staring, as men stared when they first set eyes upon Jirel of Joiry. She was tall as most men, and as savage as the wildest of them, and the fall of Joiry was bitter enough to her heart as she stood snarling curses up at her conqueror. The face above her mail might not have been fair in a woman's head-dress, but in the steel setting of her armor it had a biting, sword-edge beauty as keen as the flash of blades. The red hair was short upon her high, defiant head, and the yellow blaze of her eyes held fury as a crucible holds fire.
Guillaume's stare melted into a slow smile. A little light kindled behind his eyes as he swept the long, strong lines of her with a practised gaze. The smile broadened, suddenly he burst into full-throated laughter, a deep bellow of amusement and delight.
"By the Nails!" he roared. "Here's welcome for the warrior! And what forfeit d'ye offer, pretty one, for your life?"
She blazed a curse at him.
"So? Naughty words for a mouth so fair, my lady. We'll not deny you put up a gallant battle. No man could have done better, and many have done worse, But Guillaume—" He inflated his splendid chest and grinned down at her from the depths of his jutting beard. "Come to me, pretty one," he commanded. "I'll wager your mouth is sweeter than your words."
Jirel drove a spurred heel into the shin of one guard and twisted from his grip as he howled, bringing up an iron knee into the abdomen of the other. She had writhed from their grip and made three long strides toward the door before Guillaume caught her. She felt his arms closing about her from behind, and lashed out with heels in a futile assault upon his leg armor, twisting like a maniac, fighting with her knees and spurs, straining hopelessly at the ropes which bound her arms. Guillaume laughed and whirled her round, grinning down into the blaze of her yellow eyes. Then deliberately he set a fist under her chin and tilted her mouth up to his. There was a cessation of her hoarse curses.
"By Heaven, that's like kissing a sword-blade," said Guillaume, lifting his lips at last.
Jirel choked something that was mercifully muffled as she darted her head sidewise, like a serpent striking, and sank her teeth into his neck. She missed the jugular by a fraction of an inch.
Guillaume said nothing, then. He sought her head with a steady hand, found it despite her wild writhing, sank iron fingers deep into the hinges of her jaw, forcing her teeth relentlessly apart. When he had her free he glared down into the yellow hell of her eyes for an instant. The blaze of them was hot enough to scorch his scarred face. He grinned and lifted his ungauntleted hand, and with one heavy blow in the face he knocked her halfway across the room. She lay still upon the flags.
-
II
Jirel opened her yellow eyes upon darkness. She lay quiet for a while, collecting her scattered thoughts. By degrees it came back to her, and she muffled upon her arm a sound that was half curse and half sob. Joiry had fallen. For a time she lay rigid in the dark, forcing herself to the realization.
The sound of feet shifting on stone near by brought her out of that particular misery. She sat up cautiously, feeling about her to determine in what part of Joiry its liege lady was imprisoned. She knew that the sound she had heard must be a sentry, and by the dank smell of the darkness that she was underground. In one of the little dungeon cells, of course. With careful quietness she got to her feet, muttering a curse as her head reeled for an instant and then began to throb. In the utter dark she felt around the cell. Presently she came to a little wooden stool in a corner, and was satisfied. She gripped one leg of it with firm fingers and made her soundless way around the wall until she had located the door.
The sentry remembered, afterward, that he had heard the wildest shriek for help which had ever rung in his ears, and he remembered unbolting the door. Afterward, until they found him lying inside the locked cell with a cracked skull, he remembered nothing.
Jirel crept up the dark stairs of the north turret, murder in her heart. Many little hatreds she had known in her life, but no such blaze as this. Before her eyes in the night she could see Guillaume's scornful, scarred face laughing, the little jutting beard split with the whiteness of his mirth. Upon her mouth she felt the remembered weight of his, about her the strength of his arms. And such a blast of hot fury came over her that she reeled a little and clutched at the wall for support. She went on in a haze of red anger, and something like madness burning in her brain as a resolve slowly took shape out of the chaos of her hate. When that thought came to her she paused again, mid-step upon the stairs, and was conscious of a little coldness blowing over her. Then it was gone, and she shivered a little, shook her shoulders and grinned wolfishly, and went on.
