The Dark World | Page 5

darkness stole in.
I felt that deadly, evil shadow creep through me, and submerge my mind under ebon waves.
"He has the power," Edeyrn murmured. "He was sealed to Llyr. Let him call on -- Llyr."
"No. No. I dare not. Llyr?" But Medea's face was turned to me questioningly.
At my feet the wolf snarled and strained, as though by sheer brute strength it might wrench open a gateway between locked worlds.
Now the black sea submerged me utterly. My thought reached out and was repulsed by the dark horror of sheer infinity, stretched forth again and --
Touched -- something!
Llyr...Llyr!
"The gateway opens," Edeyrn said.
The gray emptiness was gone. Golden clouds thinned and vanished. Around me, white pillars rose to a vault far, far above. We stood on a raised dais upon which curious designs were emblazoned.
The tide of evil which had flowed through me had vanished.
But, sick with horror and self-loathing, I dropped to my knees, one arm shielding my eyes.
I had called on -- Llyr!

III. Locked Worlds
ACHING IN every muscle, I woke and lay motionless, staring at the low ceiling. Memory flooded back. I turned my head, realizing that I lay on a soft couch padded with silks and pillows. Across the bare, simply furnished room was a recessed window, translucent, for it admitted light, but I could see only vague blurs through it.
Seated beside me, on a three-legged stool, was the dwarfed, robed figure I knew was Edeym.
Not even now could I see the face; the shadows within the cowl were too deep. I felt the keen glint of a watchful gaze, though, and a breath of something unfamiliar -- cold and deadly. The robes were saffron, an ugly hue that held nothing of life in the harsh folds. Staring, I saw that the creature was less than four feet tall, or would have been had it stood upright.
Again I heard that sweet, childish, sexless voice.
"Will you drink, Lord Ganelon? Or eat?"
I threw back the gossamer robe covering me and sat up. I was wearing a thin tunic of silvery softness, and trunks of the same material. Edeyrn apparently had not moved, but a drapery swung apart in the wall, and a man came silently in, bearing a covered tray.
Sight of him was reassuring. He was a big man, sturdily muscled, and under a plumed Etruscan-styled helmet his face was tanned and strong. I thought so till I met his eyes. They were blue pools in which horror had drowned. And ancient fear, so familiar that it was almost submerged, lay deep in his gaze.
Silently he served me and in silence withdrew.
Edeyrn nodded toward the tray.
"Eat and drink. You will be stronger, Lord Ganelon."
There were meats and bread, of a sort, and a glass of colorless liquid that was not water, as I found on sampling it. I took a sip, set down the chalice, and scowled at Edeyrn.
"I gather that I'm not insane," I said.
"You are not. Your soul has been elsewhere -- you have been in exile -- but you are home again now."
"In Caer Llyr?" I asked, without quite knowing why.
Edeyrn shook the saffron robes.
"No. But you must remember?"
"I remember nothing. Who are you? What's happened to me?"
"You know that you are Ganelon?"
"My name's Edward Bond."
"Yet you almost remembered -- at the Need-fire," Edeym said. "This will take time. And there is danger always. Who am I? I am Edeyrn -- who serves the Coven."
"Are you --"
"A woman," she said, in that childish, sweet voice, laughing a little. "A very old woman, the oldest of the Coven, it has shrunk from its original thirteen. There is Medea, of course, Lord Matholch -- " I remembered the wolf -- "Ghast Rhymi, who has more power than any of us, but is too old to use it. And you, Lord Ganelon, or Edward Bond, as you name yourself. Five of us in all now. Once there were hundreds, but even I cannot remember that time, though Ghast Rhymi can, if he would."
I put my head in my hands.
"Good heavens, I don't know! Your words mean nothing to me. I don't even know where I am!"
"Listen," she said, and I felt a soft touch on my shoulder. "You must understand this. You have lost your memories."
"That's not true."
"It is true, Lord Ganelon. Your true memories were erased, and you were given artificial ones. All you think you recall now, of your life on the Earth-world -- all that is false. It did not happen. At least, not to you."
"The Earth-world? I'm not on Earth?"
"This is a different world," she said. "But it is your own world. You came from here originally. The Rebels, our enemies, exiled you and changed your memories."
"That's impossible."
"Come here," Edeyrn said, and went to the window. She touched something, and the pane grew transparent. I looked over her