"And you loosed a Dreamer!" he cried. "A Dreamer with all his power
hardly come upon him! He is harmless as yet--but he wakes, and he
walks! And one day the power will come upon him--and he will destroy
us all!" Evarin's thin features were drawn with despair; not arrogant,
now, but full of suffering. "A Dreamer--", he sighed. "A Dreamer, and
you had been made one with him already! Can you see now why we do not
trust you--brother?"
Without answering I rose and went to the window. This window did not
look on the neat little park, but on a vast tract of wild country. Far
away, curious trails of smoke spiralled up into the sunlight and a
wispy fog lay in the bottomlands.
"Down there," said Evarin in a low voice, "Down there the Dreamer walks
and waits! Down there--"
But I did not hear the rest, for my mind completed it. Down there--
Down there is my lost memory. Down there was my life.
Somewhere down there I had left my soul.
CHAPTER THREE
Flowers of Danger
I turned my back on the window. "Rhys is a Dreamer," I said with slow
certainty. "What is Gamine?"
Evarin nodded slowly, ignoring the question. "Rhys is a Dreamer, yes.
He is old--so old he is almost mortal now; so he wakes, and he too
walks. But he was one of us once--the only Dreamer ever born within the
Rainbow City. His loyalty is double; but he will never harm Narabedla,
because he is of our blood." Evarin cleared his throat. "So Gamine
takes what knowledge can be had from his old, old mind. And does not
pay."
"Who is Gamine?" I asked again. Evarin still hesitated.
"Karamy hates Gamine," he said, after minutes. "So no man sees Gamine's
face. I would not ask too many questions--unless you ask them of
Karamy." A smile flickered on the mobile features. "Ask Karamy," he
said gleefully, "She will tell!"
"She will?" I said stupidly, because I could think of nothing else to
say. Evarin's grin was delicately malicious. "Oh, I am sure of that!
Karamy is quick to strike. Gamine and I have little love lost, but we
agree on one thing; that Karamy's procession of slaves is monstrous.
And that you are a fool to help Karamy pay for her--desires. Karamy is
far too fond of power in her own hands, to pay to put it into yours."
Karamy. Karamy who took my memory--
"She did." Evarin murmured, and I realized I had spoken aloud. The room
seemed full of a weighty silence. Evarin's prowling footsteps made no
noise as he came to my side. "I can give it back to you, though. I have
made you a Toy." His effete voice rather disgusted me, and I moved
away, but he followed. "Look here, and find your memory."
And he put something small and hard into my hand; something wrapped in
silvery silks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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