EBOOK THE GIFTS OF ASTI ***
Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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Transcriber's Notes:
This etext was produced from Fantasy Book Vol. 1, No. 3 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright
on this publication was renewed.
A number of typographical errors found in the original text have been
corrected in this version. A list of these errors is found at the end
of this book.
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THE GIFTS OF ASTI
ANDREW NORTH
_She was the guardian of the worlds, but HER world was dead._
Even here, on the black terrace before the forgotten mountain retreat of
Asti, it was possible to smell the dank stench of burning Memphir, to
imagine that the dawn wind bore upward from the pillaged city the faint
tortured cries of those whom the barbarians of Klem hunted to their
prolonged death. Indeed it was time to leave--
Varta, last of the virgin Maidens of Asti, shivered. The scaled and
wattled creature who crouched beside her thigh turned his reptilian head
so that golden eyes met the aquamarine ones set slantingly at a faintly
provocative angle in her smooth ivory face.
"We go--?"
She nodded in answer to that unvoiced question Lur had sent into her
brain, and turned toward the dark cavern which was the mouth of Asti's
last dwelling place.
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