The Project Gutenberg EBook of Black Amazon of Mars, by Leigh Brackett

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Title: Black Amazon of Mars

Author: Leigh Brackett

Release Date: June 2, 2010 [EBook #32664]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Black Amazon of Mars

A Novel by LEIGH BRACKETT

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories March
1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian
city--with every step he cursed the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed
in his blood-stained belt. Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran,
hungering for that magic jewel--ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice
Creatures--at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach,
urging him on to a battle Stark knew he must lose!_]

I

Through all the long cold hours of the Norland night the Martian had not
moved nor spoken. At dusk of the day before Eric John Stark had brought
him into the ruined tower and laid him down, wrapped in blankets, on the
snow. He had built a fire of dead brush, and since then the two men had
waited, alone in the vast wasteland that girdles the polar cap of Mars.

Now, just before dawn, Camar the Martian spoke.

"Stark."

"Yes?"

"I am dying."

"Yes."

"I will not reach Kushat."

"No."

Camar nodded. He was silent again.

The wind howled down from the northern ice, and the broken walls rose up
against it, brooding, gigantic, roofless now but so huge and sprawling
that they seemed less like walls than cliffs of ebon stone. Stark would
not have gone near them but for Camar. They were wrong, somehow, with a
taint of forgotten evil still about them.

The big Earthman glanced at Camar, and his face was sad. "A man likes to
die in his own place," he said abruptly. "I am sorry."

"The Lord of Silence is a great personage," Camar answered. "He does not
mind the