The Dark World | Page 7

this was impossible!
"I don't remember!" I said harshly. "It can't have happened. I know who
I am! I know everything that ever happened to Edward Bond. You can't
tell me that all this is only illusion. It's too clear, too real!"
"Ganelon, Ganelon," Edeyrn crooned to me, a smile in her voice.
"Think of the rebel tribes. Try, Ganelon. Try to remember why they did
what they did to you. The woods-runners, Ganelon -- the disobedient
little men in green. The hateful men who threatened us. Ganelon, surely
you remember!"
It may have been a form of hypnotism. I thought of that later. But at
that moment, a picture did swim into my mind. I could see the
green-clad swarms moving through the woods, and the sight of them
made me hot with sudden anger. For that instant I was Ganelon, and a
great and powerful lord, defied by these underlings not fit to tie my
shoe.
"Of course you hated them," murmured Edeyrn. She may have seen the

look on my face. I felt the stiffness of an unfamiliar twist of feature as
she spoke. I had straightened where I sat, and my shoulders had gone
back arrogantly, my lip curling a feeling of scorn. So perhaps she did
not read my mind at all. What I thought was plain in my face and
bearing.
"Of course you punished them when you could," she went on. "It was
your right and duty. But they duped you, Ganelon. They were cleverer
than you. They found a door that would turn on a temporal axis and
thrust you into another world. On the far side of the door was Edward
Bond who did not hate them. So they opened the door."
Edeyrn's voice rose slightly and in it I detected a note of mockery.
"False memories, false memories, Ganelon. You put on Edward Bond's
past when you put on his identity. But he came into our world as he
was, free of any knowledge of Ganelon. He has given us much trouble,
my friend, and much bewilderment. At first we did not guess what had
gone wrong. It seemed to us that as Ganelon vanished from our Coven,
a strange new Ganelon appeared among the rebels, organizing them to
fight against his own people." She laughed softly. "We had to rouse
Ghast Rhymi from his sleep to aid us. But in the end, learning the
method of door-opening, we came to Earth and searched for you, and
found you. And brought you back. This is your world, Lord Ganelon!
Will you accept it?"
I shook my head dizzily.
"It isn't real. I'm still Edward Bond."
"We can bring back your true memories. And we will. They came to
the surface for a moment, I think, just now. But it will take time.
Meanwhile, you are one of the Coven, and Edward Bond is back upon
Earth in his old place. Remembering -- " She laughed softly.
"Remembering, I am sure, all he left undone here. But helpless to
return, or meddle again in what does not concern him. But we have
needed you, Ganelon. How badly we have needed you!"

"What can I do? I'm Edward Bond."
"Ganelon can do much -- when he remembers. The Coven has fallen
upon evil days. Once we were thirteen. Once there were other Covens
to join us in our Sabbats. Once we ruled this whole world, under Great
Llyr. But Llyr is falling asleep now. He draws farther and farther away
from his worshippers. By degrees the Dark World has fallen into
savagery. And, of all the Covens, only we remain, a broken circle,
dwelling close to Caer Llyr where the Great One sleeps beyond his
Golden Window."
She fell silent for a moment.
"Sometimes I think that Llyr does not sleep at all," she said. "I think he
is withdrawing, little by little, into some farther world, losing his
interest in us whom he created. But he returns!" She laughed. "Yes, he
returns when the sacrifices stand before his Window. And so long as he
comes back, the Coven has power to force its will upon the Dark
World.
"But day by day the forest rebels grow stronger, Ganelon. With our
help, you were gathering power to oppose them -- when you vanished.
We needed you then, and we need you more man ever now. You are
one of the Coven, perhaps the greatest of us all. With Matholch you
were --"
"Wait a minute," I said. "I'm still confused. Matholch? Was he the wolf
I saw?"
"He was."
"You spoke of him as though he were a man."
"He is a man -- at times. He is lycanthropic. A shape-changer."
"A werewolf? That's impossible. It's a myth, a bit of crazy folklore."
"What