Proud, poor, beautiful, her flaming red hair cascading onto her shoulders, Agnes de la Fere has fled her arranged marriage to a brutal husband in 16th Century France. Her instinctive skill in combat wins her the name of Dark Agnes, Sword Woman. That skill is tested in the benighted alleys of Chartres, as she faces the vengeance of an executed sorcerer who will not die. Contains the fragment "Mistress of Death" and the non-Agnes story "Gates of Empire".