A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

—e CREEP, SHADOW! groups, in companies. And as they went ‘by, or overtook me, or I overtook them, I felt their gaze upon me. They seemed of all times and of all races, these shadow folk. There was a lean . Egyptian priest upon whose shoulder sat a shadowy cat that arched its back and spat soundlessly at me... three Roman legionnaires whose round, close-fitting hel- mets were darker stains upon their heads and who raised shadowy arms in the an- cient salute as they strode past. There were Greek warriors with helms from which shadow plumes streamed, and shadowy women in litters carried by shadow slaves . . . and once a company of little men went by on shaggy, silent ponies, spectral bows at backs, slant shadowy eyes, glinting at me... and there was the shadow of a child that turned and trotted beside me for a space, reaching up its hands to the slender filament that was leading me . . . dragging me . . . where? The road went on and on. It became ever more throned with the shadow people, and I saw that many more were going my - way than against me. Then at my right, out upon the vaporous plain, a wan light ~ began to glow . . . phosphorescent, funeral . . . like the glimmer of the corposants, the lights of the dead . . . among the mon- oliths. | | It became a half-moon that rested upon the plain like a gigantic gateway. It sent a path of ashen light across the plain, and from the highroad into that path, the _ shadow people began to stream. Not all— - one that tarried passed beside me; gross of body ; with plumed and conical hat and cloak that streamed and wavered in a wind I could not feel, as though by it his gross body were being whipped in tatters. He whispered, “The Eater of Shadows eats from a full board.” echoed thinly, “The Eater of Shadows ?” I felt his gaze upon me, intent. He tit- tered in a voice like the rustling of rotting, poisonous leaves; “Heh-heh-heh . . . New born into this delectable world! You know nothing of the Eater of Shadows? Heh-heh-heh .. . but he is our only form of Death in this world, and many who weary of it go to him. This you do not yet fully perceive since he has not made himself manifest. They are »105 fools,” he whispered viciously. “They should learn, as I have learned, to take their food in the world from which they came. No shadow-fool ... no, no, no... good flesh and body and soul .. . soul, heh-heh-heh!” A shadowy hand snatched at the shin- ing filament, and recoiled, twisting as though seared . . . the gross shadow cringed and wreathed as though in agony. The rustling voice became a vile, high whining. “You are going to your marriage feast ... You will have your own table... a fair table of flesh and blood and soul . ... Of life. Take me with you; take me with you. I can teach you so much!” Something was gathering in the door- way of the half-moon; something forming upon its glimmering surface . . . fathom- less black shadows were grouping them- selves into gigantic featureless face. No, it was not featureless, for there were two apertures like eyes through which the wan phosphorescence shone. And there was a shapeless mouth which gaped, while a writhing ribbon of the dead light — streamed out of it like a tongue. The tongue licked among the shadows and drew them into the mouth, and the lips closed on them . . . then opened again and again the tongue licked out... “Oh, my hunger! Oh, my thirst and hunger! Take me with you. There is so much I can teach you... for such a little price...” I STRUCK at that gibbering shadow and fled from its dreadful whispering; fled with shadowy arms covering my eyes to shut out vision of that vague and dread- ful face... Hunger, Shadow .. . feed only where and when I bid. Thirst, Shadow . . . drink only where and when I bid! .. . And now I knew. I knew where the silver filament was dragging me, and I tore at it with shadowy hands, but could not break it. I tried to run back, against it, and it swung me around, dragging me inexorably on. I knew not what the evil, tittering shadow had known . . . that I was on my way to food and drink . . . to my marriage feast . . . to—Helen! The shadow-land lightened. It became crystalline, Heavier, blacker shadows Eomichooks GoM