The Project Gutenberg EBook of Daughter of the Night, by Richard S. Shaver

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Title: Daughter of the Night

Author: Richard S. Shaver

Release Date: June 15, 2010 [EBook #32822]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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DAUGHTER OF THE NIGHT

By RICHARD S. SHAVER

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December
1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: The evil magic of the Goddess Diana turned men to stone.
Would the power of the strange Eos be strong enough to turn them back to
living men?]

[Illustration: Like a flash of light the gleaming sword swept down]

Like a flash of light the gleaming sword swept down. A fraction of a
second later a portion of it no longer gleamed: it was crimson! And
Queen Dionaea's head bounced down the stairway into her garden of live
oaks. A few seconds of thought remained to it before it would be very
dead; but her thought was confused by shock--her eyes rolled
uncontrollably while she tried to remember some cantrap or rune from her
long association with the Goddess Diana. Desperately she tried to recite
the proper abracadabra to stay the swift death that was sweeping through
her mind; but it is hard for a head to chant a charm with no body to
draw a breath....

Druga, his job of execution finished, sheathed his bloody sword and
turning, stalked away. Thus it was that he did not see the amazing thing
that happened in the gloom of the ancient live oaks....

Baena was a serpent, a huge river of strength up to his giant head, and
he lived among the mighty branches of the oaks. Being a serpent, Baena
was far from equal to a human being in his brainpower, but even his dim
perception told him that harm had come to his one and only
benefactress--and that meant harm to him, too, for Queen Dionaea had
always cared for the needs of his stomach. Through her he ate and lived.