A little later I found that Adric and I were staring stupidly at one
another, puzzled, but without animosity. Cynara came and slipped an arm
round Adric, and I turned away, embarrassed, for the man was sobbing
like a child. I was amazed and sick with the enormity of all that I
had seen and done. I stood and shivered and shook with deadly chill. I
suppose it was reaction.
"Steady!" Narayan's steely hand on my shoulder kept me once again from
making an ass of myself. "You've done us a big favor," he said after
a few minutes. "I wish I had some adequate way of thanking you--not
for myself--for millions of people. Perhaps one day we'll find a way
of sending you back to your own world, but--" his shoulders moved
negatively, "I can't say--"
Adric's lean non-human face peered over Narayan's shoulder. He looked
subdued, and spoke with a curious humility. He sounded sane. "There
_will_ be a way, some day. It will take time to find it, now,
but--there will be."
Spontaneously we grinned at each other. I could not hate this man. I
knew him too well. I knew, suddenly, that we would be friends. Which,
indeed, is what happened.
Narayan looked from one to the other of us, troubled; then Gamine's
intent face was at his elbow.
"I'll see to these men," she said quietly. "Narayan, they need you, and
it's your responsibility. They have to be told why they were wakened,
and how; there are slaves to be freed, armies--"
Narayan glanced guiltily over his shoulder at the other Dreamers who
stood huddled together in a bewildered little knot. "That's so," he
acknowledged gravely, and went to his people. I watched him, feeling
as if my one friend here had deserted me; but it had to be that way.
Narayan was not our kind. He was the sort of man who could remodel a
world; but the look he sent us over his shoulder told Adric and I that
we should, if we liked, have a share in that work.
"Now Mike Kenscott," said Gamine, "I want to talk to you."
We left Adric and Cynara in that place, and I cast a wistful glance
back at them. Cynara was lovely, and very human, and I suppose I had
hoped that in some way she would compensate for my enforced stay in
this world. But there was Adric--
Gamine and I stood on the steps of the Dreamer's Keep, and her voice,
soft and wistful, mourned in the grey dawn. "No one ever knew I had the
Dreamer powers--except old Rhys. Rhys and I were bound together--he
knew, and kept me close to him, hid me and helped me. One day Adric
found out. It--changed Adric. He--we freed Narayan together. Then
Karamy made me what I was--what you saw. It hurt Adric--hurt something
in him. I could have cured him, in time, but Karamy had him bewitched.
She stripped him of power, of memory. I do not know, but perhaps some
day, Adric may remember that I was--I was--"
"Gamine! Gamine!" Adric's voice cried from within, and the next
moment he rushed forth--caught the Dreamer woman in his arms, and his
mouth met hers and she stood swaying in his arms, laughing and crying
together. Cynara, following slowly, smiled with gentle satisfaction. I
said, stunned, "What--"
Over Adric's shoulder Gamine's blue eyes met mine in liquid
satisfaction and she finished her interrupted sentence. "I was Adric's
wife," she said, gently.
Cynara's voice was tenderly humorous as we left them together in the
glory of the rising sun. "Poor Gamine," she said, "and poor Adric, too.
I was sorry for them both. But I wish these men would make up their
minds!"