It rang phony! Phony, was the way I put it to myself. Part of me felt like calling her a lying she-devil and having that much, at least, on 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 a desperate fear of this unfamiliar world. There was nothing I could do except ride on the surface and let my hunches take me where they would. Karamy 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. Who was Karamy? Who--and what--was I? Karamy dropped her arms. The mantle of lazy seductiveness dropped with them. She spoke with eager annoyance. "You are still angry because I sent you on the Time Ellipse! You do not know it was for your own good--you haven't learned your lesson yet--" 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 fooling her--or was she only playing my own game, and playing it a little better? "Now we can make plans," she said a little later, "First, Gamine." She looked sharply at me, but I kept my face expressionless. "Gamine is always with the old Dreamer; she lets him wake; 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. "He should be slain, but Gamine will never do it," said Karamy with a shrug that disposed of Rhys. "Evarin--" she snapped her jewelled fingers. "His Dreamer sleeps sound! Evarin fears even his own power! 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 re-bind him. You, with my help--Adric of the Crimson Tower!" Her eyes smoldered. "Yes, and my Dreamer shall serve you as well, till then!" She breathed. "I will pay to put power in your hands!" The very phrase Evarin had used! A shudder stung me briefly. Her glowing face burned through my sting of fear. "I go to the Dreamer this night, Adric! Ride with me, and he shall lead you where the Dreamer walks--and lead you back to power! I have said enough--" the lambent eyes tilted at me, "Have I not?" She had, and too much. For I knew now how the Dreamer must be paid. And the small part of me that was still Mike Kenscott cowered; the rest of me accepted the memory with a shrug. It was this Adric part that spoke. "I'll go. And afterward, I'll go into the forest where the Dreamer walks--and bring him back to you!" But even as I swept Karamy into my arms and bent her head back roughly under my mouth, a warning prickle iced my spine. I said, insinuatingly "And then, Karamy--" but my eyes narrowed over her golden head. Karamy had tricked me before this. CHAPTER FOUR Trapped!