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heads shot up shoulder-high. They screamed) a wild
paean of flower-music, and he fell among them,
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floundering, sprawling, I heard him scream once,
harshly, hopelessly. I turned my eyes away. There
was a wild thrashing, a flailing, a horrible yell that
died and echoed against the walls of the enclosing
towers. There was a sort of purring murmur from the
flowers.
Then the flowers stilled and were quiet, waving in-
nocently behind their ditches.
Karamy, gold and fire, walked along the winding
path between the trees. And in the space of a second
I forgot the man who lay in the bed of the terrible
flowers.
She was all gold. From the glowing crown of her
hair to the tips of her sandaled feet, she was a
burnished shimmer; there was amber on her brows
and a rod of amber twisted in her hand, and her
smile was a dream. ...
A vision, a fantasy I had seen in my other
world. ...
Great beauty has a stunning effect. It paralyzes oth-
er emotions. So I stared at the golden witch, at the
shining amber rod that seemed to outline my face.
But old habit made me turn my eyes away.
Karamy smiled, turning her cat's eyes to the lifeless
sprawl in the flowers. "So? I thought I heard some-
thing. I wonder how he came so far?" Still watching
me, she spun the shining rod; the flower-song rose
again, a soft keening wail, and two of the zombie
guards moved noiselessly through the garden. At the
silent movement of the amber rod, they lifted the
corpse and bore it away. The music died. Karamy's
eyes were bent on the ground; following the direction
of her glance, I saw something lying there. A
whistle.
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Karamy touched it with one sandaled toe. "Clever,"
she said scornfully, "but not quite clever enough."
Then, eagerly, she raised her face to mine and held
out her delicate hands.
"Adric! Adric! As soon as you are free, they pursue
you again! That is not what you want, is it?"
I didn't answer. One of Adric's memories scuttled
rabbit-fashion across my mind, giving a name to the
man I had betrayed to the flowers.
Karamy slid in front of me so that I had to look at
her. The lovely lazy voice murmured the name I was
beginning to know.
"Adric, you are angry," the soft voice caressed me.
"I knew it was cruel to let Evarin near you, but what
else would have roused your anger enough to bring
you back to yourself? Adric, we need you, Narabedla
needs you. We felt betrayed when you left us, to shut
yourself up alone with old Rhys and the stars! But
now you have returned." Her hands gripped my
shoulders and she clung to me. "Have you forgotten
me, too? Or are you still my lover?"
It rang phony! Phony, was the way I put it to my-
self. Part of me felt like ripping her loose, calling her
a lying, murdering she-devil, and getting that much,
at least, on the record But I was fast acquiring a
double cunning. The animal cunning of Adric's old
habit -- and a desperate, trapped cunning of my own,
born of fear -- fear of this unfamiliar world with ter-
rible dangers at every corner, and magic lurking in
mirrors and flowers. And how could I tell what I,
myself, would do next? There was blood on my
hands already. And if Adric was a pawn between
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warring forces in this world, how could I know what
to do? There was nothing to do except ride along on
the surface, play my hunches, and see where they
took me.
I said, "Who could forget you, Karamy?"
She was very soft and sweet and something more
than lovely in my arms, and I held her crushingly
close while I struggled with a memory that would
not quite come.
Karamy dropped her arms. The mantle of lazy
seductiveness dropped with them. "You are still an-
gry because I sent you out on the Time Ellipse! You
do not yet know it was for your own good! You have
not yet learned your lesson!"
I retorted, "If I were a tame cat, would you have
any use for me?" and pulled her back again. That talk
meant danger for me; I could think of only one way
to silence it. She seemed to like it, but even with her
lips acquiescent under mine, I was wary. Was I fool-
ing her, or was she just playing my own game, and
playing it a little better?
And my mind was not completely on what I was
doing. I was still aware of the fleshy, deadly, waving
flowers. ...
"Now we can make plans," she said, a little later.
"First, Gamine." She looked sharply at me, but I kept
my face expressionless, and she went on, "Gamine is
always with the old Dreamer; she lets him wake far
too long. He is old; he is akin to us, but even so he will
grow too strong. We must send Rhys away from
Narabedla. Gamine may stay, or follow him to exile,
but Rhys must go."
"Rhys must go," I conceded.
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"He should be slain, but Gamine will never do it,"
said Karamy, with a shrug that disposed of Rhys,
"and at least, while Gamine is bound to Rhys,
Gamine seeks no bond with a stronger Dreamer.
Evarin -- " she snapped her jeweled fingers. "His
Dreamer sleeps sound! Evarin fears even his own
powers! As for his Toys, well, they can serve us too.
My Dreamer grows strong but he serves me!" The
beautiful face looked ruthless and savage.
"Your Dreamer walks free in the forest! Only you
can rebind him! You with my help, Adric of the
Crimson Tower!" Her eyes smoldered. "Yes, and my
Dreamer shall serve you, too, until then! I will pay to
put power into your hands!"
The very phrase Evarin had used! Briefly, a shud-
der stung me. But Karamy's glowing face burned
through the sting of fear.
"You have come back to us, Adric and we need
you! Tonight, tonight I go to the Dreamer's Keep, and
you go with me. And after that, you will go to the
forest where the Dreamer walks and end this danger
to Rainbow City forever! And then," her lambent eyes
burned, a flame, a coal, "then there will be no
challenge to our power, in all Narabedla, in all the
world!"
Against my will, I felt the slow kindling of the
flame she roused. Power, power unlimited, and a
beautiful woman with sorcery at her fingertips. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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