I gripped my hand on the knife in my belt. It had a comforting feel. I needed that. A framed archway let us look down into the inside of the Keep. Below us a voice cried out despairingly--unbelievingly. "Adric--" we heard Cynara cry out, "Adric, no--oh, no--" Under our combined weight the glass shattered; we hurled inward. We found ourselves standing on a great shelf, about ten feet above the interior floor of the Keep, looking down at a scene framed in stark horror. Golden Karamy, dwarfed Idris, Evarin--stood in a close circle about a ring of coffins which gleamed crystal--glowed with scintillant radiance. In the hand of each of them was a tiny, jewelled, faceted Toy, and in the coffins-- Gamine screamed. "The Dreamers--" Not till then did we see Adric and what he was doing. In the center of the ring of coffins a dais rose upright, horribly altar-like, and a line of the mindless slaves, nude, vacant-eyed, defiled before the altar. As each slave stepped forward there was a shuddering moan from the others, the tiny swords rose and fell and in a brilliant flame of blue light, the slave--was not! And Adric--Cynara struggling between his hands--was thrusting her forward, into the space between the coffins, toward the nexus of the blue light--toward the Sacrifice-stone of the Dreamers! The sight put us beyond caution. We threw ourselves from the ledge--and went down into a writhing, sprawling mass of living flesh. A barked command from Idris, and the slaves swarmed on us, drowning us in smothering bodies. I kicked and sprawled and thrashed and scratched and bit my way to the top of the heap and somehow for a second, I rolled free. That instant was enough. I was on my feet, the knife in my hand. Dragging bodies clung at my heels; I kicked out savagely, felt my boot strike naked flesh, felt and heard the pulpy sound of a skull crushing under the impact of my heel. The sound rocked my stomach, but I was not in a position to be fastidious. My eyes were swimming in trickling blood. Gamine clawed and thrust free and together we elbowed out of the press. Evarin sprang at me. I thrust blindly with the knife in my hand, ripped into his shoulder, missing the throat by inches. I caught the Toy from his hand as it fell free. A moment of the clinging, tearing melee--then we three--Gamine and Narayan and I were standing back to back in the centre of the ring of coffins. There was a long howl of pain and terror from Evarin and the four Narabedlans flung themselves backward in a panic terror. For within the coffins the Dreamers were waking! But Adric was no coward. He threw himself quickly forward--caught at Cynara again, and with all the force in his lean arms he flung her--straight toward the nexus of blue light! Narayan and Gamine stood frozen, bound by the Toys in their hands against the light, but I broke free--I passed straight across the cone of blue lightning--