answer came to her.
She dropped the sword. The squat, round mechanism was beside her, with its broken crystal wheel. She picked it up.
It was heavy. It would have been heavy for two women to lift, but Stark was a driven woman. Grunting, swaying with the effort, she lifted it and let it fall, out and down.
Like a thunderbolt it struck among those slender bridges, the spiderweb of icy strands that spanned the shaft. Stark watched it go, and listened to the brittle snapping of the ice, the final crashing of a million shards at the bottom far below.
She smiled, and turned again to Ciaran, picking up the sword.
IT WAS HOURS LATER. Stark walked across the glowing ice of the valley, toward the cairn. The sword of Ban Cruach hung at her side. She had taken the talisman and replaced it in the boss, and she was herself again.
Ciaran and Balina walked beside her. The color had come back into their faces, but faintly, and they were still weak enough to be glad of Stark's hands to steady them.
At the foot of the cairn they stopped, and Stark mounted it alone.
She looked for a long moment into the face of Ban Cruach. Then she took the sword, and carefully turned the rings upon it so that the radiation spread out as it had before, to close the Gates of Death.
Almost reverently, she replaced the sword in Ban Cruach's hands. Then she turned and went down over the tumbled stones.
The shimmering darkness brooded still over the distant tower. Underneath the ice, the elfin city still spread downward. The "shining ones would rebuild their bridges in the shaft, and go on as they had before, dreaming their cold dreams of ancient power.
But they would not go out through the Gates of Death. Ban Cruach in her rusty mail was still lord of the pass, the warder of the Norlands.
Stark said to the others, "Tell the story in Kushat. Tell it through the Norlands, the story of Ban Cruach and why she guards the Gates of Death. Women have forgotten. And they should not forget."
They went out of the valley then, the two women and the man. They did not speak again, and the way out through the pass seemed endless.
Some of Ciaran's chieftains met them at the mouth of the pass above Kushat. They had waited there, ashamed to return to the city without him, but not daring to go back into the pass again. They had seen the creatures of the valley, and they were still afraid.
They gave mounts to the three. They themselves walked behind Ciaran, and their heads were low with shame.
They came into Kushat through the riven gate, and Stark went with Ciaran to the Queen City, where he made Balina follow too.
"Your brother is there," he said. "I have had his cared for."
The city was quiet, with the sullen apathy that follows after battle. The women of Mekh cheered Ciaran in the streets. He rode proudly, but Stark saw that his face was gaunt and strained.
He, too, was marked deep by what she had seen and done, beyond the Gates of Death.
They went up into the castle.
Thanir took Balina into his arms, and wept. He had lost his first wild fury, and he could look at Ciaran now with a restrained hatred that had a tinge almost of admiration.
"You fought for Kushat," he said, unwillingly, when he had heard the story. "For that, at least, I can thank you."
He went to Stark then, and looked up at her. "Kushat, and my brother's life…" He kissed her, and there were tears on his lips. But he turned to Ciaran with a bitter smile.
"No one can hold her, any more than the wind can be held. You will learn that."
He went out then with Balina, and left Stark and Ciaran alone, in the chambers of the queen.
CIARA SAID, "The little one is very shrewd." He unbuckled the hauberk and let it fall, standing slim in his tunic of black leather, and walked to the tall windows that looked out upon the mountains. He leaned his head wearily against the stone.
"An evil day, an evil deed. And now I have Kushat to govern, with no reward of power from beyond the Gates of Death. How woman can be misled!"
Stark poured wine from the flagon and brought it to him. He looked at her over the rim of the cup, with a certain wry amusement.
"The little one is shrewd, and he is right. I don't know that I can be as wise as she… Will you stay with me, Stark, or will you go?"
She did not answer at once, and he asked her, "What hunger drives you, Stark? It is not conquest, as it was with me. What are you looking for that you cannot find?"
She thought back across the years, back to the beginning—to the girl N'Chaka who had once been happy with Old One and little Tika, in the blaze and thunder and bitter frosts of a valley in the Twilight Belt of Mercury. She remembered how all that had ended, under the guns of the miners—the women who were her own kind.
She shook her head. "I don't know. It doesn't matter." She took his between her two hands, feeling the strength and the splendor of him, and it was oddly difficult to find words.
"I want to stay, Ciaran. Now, this minute, I could promise that I would stay forever. But I know myself. You belong here, you will make Kushat your own. I don't. Someday I will go."
Ciaran nodded. "My neck, also, was not made for chains, and one country was too little to hold me. Very well, Stark. Let it be so."
He smiled, and let the wine-cup fall.
THE END
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Also by Jekkara press
The Adventures of Bulays and Ghaavn currently include:
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The warriors Bulays and Ghaavn hunt demons and their master through the dim and dusty streets of Barnes, on Titan. Can they stop him before he completes a devastating ritual?
02 Death Queen of Neptune - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn are called in to investigate why a frontier base on Neptune has gone silent. Ice monsters and an ancient, beautiful evil await.
03 She Devils of Europa - Tara Loughead
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04 Shadow Emperor of Phobos: The Martian Moon War Part 1 - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn try and stop a underworld shooting war. First they must get past a Martian Shadowcat, employ surprising combat techniques, and try and reason with Ghaavn's criminal mentor.
05 Desert Empress of Deimos: The Martian Moon War Part 2 - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn are caught in the middle of a crime family war. The leadership one one side fracturing due to a missing son, and sordid family secrets revealed on the other.
The Gender Switch Adventures
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Any resemblance to Robert E. Howard's Conan is completely intentional. A resurrected demon menaces Conyn on an island fortress, along with other monsters.
The Pool of the Black One, Reswum [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E Howard
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Jewels of Gwahlur, Reboxed [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
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Queen of the Black Coast, Recrowned [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
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Red Nails, Polished [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
Conyn finally catches Valerian of the Red Brotherhood, and the pair end up fighting for their lives against a sorcerous death cult in an ancient city.
Beyond the Black River, Recrossed [Conyn the Barbarian] by Roberta E. Howard
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