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dwarf, on Cynara kneeling white and radiant with
joy, on Adric who stood staring at Gamine like a man
released from a spell.
Gamine spoke at last "Rhys was right; the time
had come. The time is here, now. What next?"
The circle of Dreamers turned one to another, but
Gamine shook her head, her long pale hair lifting
electrically around her face. "No. Why should they
die? They are only an old dwarf, a silly fool who
could not make up his mind." Her eyes dwelt first on
Idris, then on Adric. "And Karamy. They have no
power, now we are freed. They had not even power
to see me as I was, not entirely. Pity them in their
weakness. Now we are freed."
Adric drew himself upright. His slackly-parted lips
set firmly, and he looked at Narayan with a dis-
passionate, stubborn shrug. Then he turned back to
Gamine.
"Mil me, if you like."
But it was Narayan who answered, stepping to
ward the man in crimson with a strange, choking
excitement. "No, Adric. I want you to see what you
saw before, to see what sent you away, to see the
thing that drove you mad. Gamine, Gamine, show
him what he saw then."
Gamine came slowly forward to where Karamy
knelt..
"Stand up, witch."
Slowly, Karamy rose to her feet. There was no hope
in her eyes, no mercy in Gamine's. The two pairs of
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eyes, cat-yellow and blue, fought for a moment.
"And was I wrong?" Karamy demanded at last,
raising her head, her beautiful face set and cold with
pride. "I knew you would destroy us, Gamine, and
destroy our world. For that I was willing to fight you
to the death, and if it is my death, still. What I have
done was what had to be done!"
Gamine smiled, faintly. "And by that you stand or
fall or die, Karamy?" She turned to the others.
"Karamy is beautiful, is she not?"
I suppose no woman on Earth has ever been, or
ever will be, as beautiful as Karamy the golden. She
stood there, proud and straight, amber and golden
and tiger-tawny and turned her eyes on Adric, and I
saw longing an 1 love break forth in the man's eyes.
He gazed and gazed, and Karamy held out her arms,
and Adric, bemused, went toward her. ...
"Hold him," Narayan commanded tersely.
One of the Dreamers made a curious sign with his
left hand, and Adric, arrested, stood gripped in a vice
of invisible force.
"This was Karamy's power," said Gamine in her
clear ringing voice, "but now see Karamy shorn of the
Illusion her Dreamer threw to guard her! See the
form of Karamy that she made me wear! This!"
She reached out and touched Karamy lightly with
the little talisman Toy she held.
There was a gasp of horror from many throats.
Karamy -- Karamy the golden, the exquisite. There are
no words for the kind and type of change that took
place before our eyes. I was sick and retching with
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horror before the metamorphosis was half complete;
Cynara was sobbing softly and piteously; but Adric,
frozen, could not look away.
Gamine's laugh -- low and sweet, and doubly dead-
ly for its sweetness -- reached our ears. "Yet I should
be grateful," she murmured, mockingly, "for
Karamy's magic kept my true shape hidden. So I am
free, Karamy, free and a Dreamer, and you, shall I
lend you my veils, sister?" Again, the horrible laugh.
"No? Go forth!" Her voice was a lashing whip, and
with a broken wail, the thing that had been Karamy
threw up an arm across the staring sockets and fled
away into the night. And we never saw it again. ...
So that was the end of Karamy the Golden, the end.
A little later I found that Adric and I were staring
stupidly at one another, puzzled, but without
animosity. Cynara came and slipped a protecting
arm around Adric and I turned away, embarrassed,
for the man was sobbing like a child.
I was amazed and sick with the enormity of all I
had seen and done; I shook and shivered with deadly
chill. I suppose it was reaction.
"Steady!" Narayan's steely hand on my shoulder
kept me once again from making a fool of myself
"You've done a great deal for us," he said. "I wish
we had some way of thanking you, not for myself, for
millions of people. Perhaps some day we'll find a
way of sending you back to your own world, but
with Rhys and Karamy gone -- "
Adric, looking subdued and speaking with a
curious humility, looked at me over Narayan's shoul-
der. "There will be a way, some day. It will take time
to find it, but some day -- "
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I knew what they meant. The magic of the
Dreamers could not be used again in the old ways,
and now their power was an unknown quantity.
Adric said, "In the meantime -- "
"In the meantime, you seem to be stuck with me,"
I said, and spontaneously we grinned at each other. I
could not hate this man. We had known one another
too well. Freed of his enchantments ...
He chuckled. "Rainbow City's big enough for us
both."
Narayan looked from Adric to me; then Gamine's
intent face was at his elbow. "I'll see to these men,"
she said. "Narayan, they need you." She motioned to
the wakened Dreamers, standing in a dazed circle.
"They must be told why they were wakened, and
how. There are slaves to be freed, armies -- "
Narayan glanced guiltily over his shoulder. "That's
so," he acknowledged, gravely; squared his shoulders
and went to his people. I watched him go, feeling as
if my one friend here had deserted me. But it had to
be that way. Narayan was not our kind. He was the
sort of man who could remodel a world, but the look
he gave Adric and me told us that we should have a
share, if we liked, in the rebuilding.
Gamine took my hand, and I left Adric and Cynara
with a wistful glance. Cynara was lovely, and very
human, and I suppose I had hoped that in some way
she would compensate for my enforced stay in this
world. But if Adric was himself again, could I hope
that?
Gamine and I stood on the steps of the Dreamer's
Keep and her voice, soft and wistful, mourned in the
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darkness. "Old Rhys knew I had been born with
Dreamer powers, even before I was bound to him. He [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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