Narayan

But I wasn't. When I came to--it could only have been a few seconds

that I was unconscious--it was to hear Evarin snarling curses and Idris

barking incoherently with rage. I heard Karamy screaming my name, and

started to answer, but the steely fingers were still at my throat

and with that weight on top of me, I hadn't a chance. The fall, or

something, had knocked Adric clean out of me. I was fuzzy-brained, but

sane. I was an innocent bystander again.

I could see Evarin and Idris in the road, casting wary glances at

the brushwood all around them. I could just make out the face of the

man who was holding me pinned to the earth with his body. He had the

general build of a hippopotamus and a face to match. I squirmed, but

the threatening face came closer and I subsided. The man could have

broken me in two like a match.

Around me in the thicket were dozens of crouching forms, fantastic

snipers with weapons at their shoulders. Weapons that could have been

crossbows or disintegrators, or both. "Enter Buck Rogers," I thought

wearily. I was beginning to feel faint again, and old welter-weight

on my stomach didn't help any. Abruptly he moved, delicate fingers

knotting a gag in my gasping mouth; then the intolerable weight on

my chest was suddenly gone and I sucked in air with relief. The fat

man eased himself cautiously up, and I felt a steel point caress my

lowest rib. The threat didn't need words. I could see the Narabedlans

gathered, a tight little knot in the road. The snipers around me were

still holding their weapons, but the fat man commanded in a low voice

"Don't fire! They're sure to have guards riding behind them--" the

voice died to a rasping mutter, and I lay motionless, trying to dredge

up some of Adric's memories that might help; but the only thing I got

was a fleeting memory of my own football days and a flying tackle by a

Penn State halfback that had knocked me ten feet. Adric was gone; clean

gone.

The Narabedlans were talking in low tones, Gamine the rallying-point

round which they clustered. Evarin had his sword out, but even he did

not step toward the mantling thicket. Cynara was holding Evarin's arm,

protesting wildly. "No, no, no, no! They'll kill Adric--"

Suddenly, between two breaths, the road was alive with mounted men. Who

they were, I never knew; I was quickly dragged to my feet and jerked

away. Behind me I heard shouting, and steel, and saw thin flashes of

colored flame. Spots of black danced before my eyes as I stumbled along

between two captors. I felt my sword dragged from my scabbard. Oh well,

I thought wryly, now that Adric's run out on the party I don't know how

to use it anyway.

Under the impetus of a knife I found myself clambering awkwardly into

a saddle, felt the horse running beneath me. There wasn't a chance of

getting away, and the frying pan couldn't be much worse than the fire,

anyway.

Behind us the noises of battle died away. The horse I rode raced,

sure-footed, into the darkness. I hung on with both hands to keep

from falling; only Adric's habitual reflexes kept me from tumbling

ignominiously to the ground. I don't think I had any more coherent

thoughts until the jolting rhythm broke and we came out of the forest

into full moonlight and a glare of open fires.

I raised my head and looked around me. We were in a grove, tree-ringed

like a Druid temple, lit by watch-fires and the waver of torches. Tents

sprouted in the clearing, giving it an untidy, gypsy appearance; at the

back was a white frame house with a flat roof and wide doors, but no

windows.

Men and women were coming out of the tents everywhere. The talk was

a Pentecost of tongues, but I heard one name, repeated over and over

again.

"Narayan! Narayan!" the shouts clamored.

A slim young man, blond, dressed in rough brown, came from one of

the larger tents and walked deliberately toward me. The crowd drew

back, widening to let him approach; before he came within twenty

yards he made a signal to one of the men to untie my gag and let me

down. I stood, clinging to the saddle, exhausted; the young man came

forward until he could almost have touched me, and studied my face

dispassionately. At last he raised his head, turning to the fat man, my

captor.

"This isn't Adric," he said. "This man is a stranger."

I should have been relieved; I don't know why I wasn't. Instead, my

first reaction was bewilderment and angry annoyance. How could he tell

that? I was as furiously embarrassed as if I'd been accused of wearing

stolen clothing. My beefy captor was as angry as I was. "What do you

mean, this isn't Adric?" he demanded belligerently, "We took him right

out of their accursed cavalcade! If it isn't Adric, who is it?"

"I wish I knew," Narayan muttered under his breath. His eyes, still

fixed on my face, were level, disconcerting. He was tall and straightly

built, with pale blond hair cut square around his shoulders like a

squire from a Provencal ballad, and grey eyes that looked grave,

but friendly. I liked his looks, but he had a trace of the uncanny

stillness I'd noticed in old Rhys, in Gamine. For a moment I decided to

tell my whole fantastic story to this man with the grave eyes. He would

surely believe it. But to my surprise, he spoke and called me Adric;

definitely, as if he had forgotten his doubts.

"Adric," he said, "Do you still remember me? Or did Karamy take that

too?"

I sighed. I didn't dare tell the truth, and I felt too chilled and

exhausted and disoriented to lie convincingly. Yet lie I must, and do

it well.

The fat man scowled and fronted Narayan. "Karamy--Zandru's eyelashes!"

he growled. "Look you, did Brennan come back this afternoon? He knows

his way around Rainbow City. Ask Adric what happened to Brennan!"

The clamoring broke out around us again, but Narayan never took his

eyes from my face as he answered gently, "There is always danger, Raif.

Blame no man unjustly. Brennan knew he faced all the dangers of Rainbow

City. And even Adric is not to blame if a she-witch has him under her

spells."

"Traitor!" Raif snarled at me and spat.

I loosed the saddle-horn and stepped dizzily forward. "You might try

asking me," I said with a weary anger.

"Are you Adric of the Crimson Tower?" fat Raif snapped.

"I don't know--" I said tiredly. "I don't know, I don't know!"

Narayan's eyes met mine in skeptical puzzlement. Abruptly he put out

one hand and took my wrist in a firm grip. "We can't talk here, whoever

you are," he said, "Come along."

He led me through the thinning crowd into the frame house at the

grove's edge; Raif and one other man trailed after us, the rest

clustering hive-fashion around the door. Inside, in a great timbered

room, a fire burned and glowing globes chased away darkness. I went

gratefully toward the fire; I was stiff with riding and I felt chilled

and stupid and empty with the cold. From a wood settle near the fire,

a woman rose. She was slight and dark and around her shoulders the

luminescent shimmer of her winged cloak flowed like another flame.

Cynara.

"Adric--" she said half-aloud, holding out her hands. I took them,

partly because she seemed to expect it, partly because the girl seemed

the only thing real in a world gone haywire. She flung her arms

suddenly around my neck and held herself to me with a shy deliberation.

"Adric, Adric, Adric--" she begged, "I slipped away in the dark--I

suppose Gamine knows--but they'll never find me here, no, never--"

Narayan's hand pulled the girl sternly away from me; she shrank before

the annoyance in his eyes. "Please--Narayan, no--"

The blond man looked at her without speaking for long moments. At last

he said gravely, "Sister, you must go back to Narabedla. I would not

make you go if there was another way; but you must, for a time." He

beckoned to one of the men. "Kerrel--" he commanded, "Take Cynara back

to Rainbow City, but don't get caught. Cynara; tell them you were lost

in the woods, or that you were caught and escaped."

The childish mouth trembled, and she turned to me appealingly, but I

gave a little shrug. What was I supposed to do? Narayan gave Cynara a

gentle push. "Go with Kerrel, little sister," he ordered in a quiet

voice; Kerrel took her arm and they hurried out of the room, the winged

cloak she wore fluttering on her shoulders. Narayan motioned to Raif to

follow them through the door. "I'll talk with him alone."

Raif's thick lips set stubbornly. He looked as if he'd be nasty in a

fight. "If he's Adric, and if he's under Karamy's devilments, then--"

"I have faced Adric, and Karamy too," said Narayan with a friendly grin

at the man. "Get out, Raif; you're not my bodyguard, or even my nurse!"

The fat man accepted dismissal reluctantly, and Narayan came to my

side. There was real friendliness in his grin. "Well," he said, "Now we

will talk. You cannot kill me, any more than I could kill you, so we

may as well be truthful with each other. Why did you leave us, Adric?

What has Karamy done to you this time?"

The room reeled around me. I put out a hand to steady myself--when the

dizziness cleared, Narayan's arm was around my shoulders and he was

holding me up with a strength surprising in his slight frame. He let

me settle down on the seat Cynara had left. "You have been roughly

handled," he said in apology, "Just sit still a minute. My men--" he

made a deprecating little gesture, "have had orders. And if I know

Karamy's ways, you've been heavily drugged for a long time." His eyes

studied me intently. "Better come and have a drink. And--when did you

eat last? You look half starved. That's the way of the _sharig_--"