"The Gate of the Damned" by Janet Fox (1984) Originally appeared in Sword & Sorceress (1984). Plot: Amazon warrior, Scorpia, beats a soldier who is trying to rape her while she bathes. The fight ends when the leader of the soldiers, Telis, shows up. Scorpia joins up with Telis and his band short-term. Telis and his men are mercenaries going to Abzu Rii to fight the locals. In the town of Under-the-Mountain Telis engineers a bar fight so that he can take Scorpia with him to the battle. On their way to the Gate of Damned, a mudslide wipes out half the army. Telis gives Scorpia back her sword when the enemy army comes, made up of men and weird creatures. Scorpia kills one of the gigantic bear-warriors before being knocked out. When she awakens she is captured and taken to a cell. There she meets Ylissa's son, an obscene, fat effeminate that tries to drain her blood. Scorpia knocks him out then kills the Shadow People (the weird creatures that captured her) and escapes. She meets a servant girl who takes her to Ylissa and her captives. Posing as a servant Scorpia finds Telis and the remaining soldiers. Ylissa is a magically beautiful woman. She uses a magic dart-gun on Telis to drive him mad with love. When Scorpia blunders she has no choice but to fight. In the fight with two bear-warriors she pulls down the curtains exposing Ylissa to light. Scorpia sees Ylissa is actually a diseased and hideous creature. The light kills her and her guards. Scorpia releases all the prisoners before she and Telis leave. Once free Telis tries to use the dart-gun on Scorpia to make her his love slave but it doesn't work. Scorpia rides away. Monsters: The Bear-Warriors - these hulking guards are little more than a helmet and bear fur rug when the magic that created them is dispelled. The Shadow People - are thin-legged beast-men, resembling men with animal faces. They are weak compared to a human warrior but attack in numbers. They have a single fang in their top jaw which may contain poison. History: Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote in her intro "'Gate of the Damned', I feel, walks the tightrope between fantasy and pure horror--and does it well." I can't entirely agree with her. The horror elements are no more evident than those in John Jakes' Brak and the Mark of the Demons (1969) or Robert E. Howard's "Red Nails" (1936). The best S&S always has a good dollop of horror. That is what makes it different from Vanilla Fantasy. The rest of the story strikes me as a good Conan adventure. What makes it for MZB is the well-rounded (no pun intended) character of Scorpia. She is no shrinking violet, nor a man-hater. The failure of her relationship is entirely Telis' fault.
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