The Dark World Relit

through my brain. I thought: By Llyr, but they'll suffer for this! They'll crawl to my feet like dogs. Begging my mercy!

  Rage had opened the floodgates, and Edwina Bond was no more than a set of thin memories that had slipped from me as the blue cloak had slipped from my shoulders -- the blue cloak of the chosen sacrifice, on the shoulders of the Lady Ganelyn!

  I blinked blindly around the green-clad circle. How had I come here? How dared these woodsrunners stand in defiance before me? Blood roared in my ears and the woodland swam around me. When it steadied I would draw my weapon and reap these upstarts as a mower reaps her wheat.

  But wait!

  First, the Coven, my sworn comrades, had betrayed me. Why, why! They had been glad enough to see me when they brought me back from the other world, the alien land of Earth. The woodsmen I could slay whenever I wished it -- the other problem came first. And Ganelyn was a wise woman. I might need these woods-people to help me in my vengeance. Afterward -- ah, afterward!

  I strove hard with memory. What could have happened to turn the Coven against me? I could have sworn this had not been Medeo's original intention -- he had welcomed me back too sincerely for that. Mathwyn could have influenced him, but again, why, why? Or perhaps it was Edurn, or the Old One herself, Ghyst Rhymi.-In any case, by the Golden Window that opens on the Abyss, they'd learn their error!

  'Edwina!' a man's voice, sweet and frightened, came to me as if from a great distance. I fought my way up through a whirlpool of fury and hatred. I saw a pale face haloed in floating hair, the green eyes troubled. I remembered.

  Beside Ares stood a stranger, a woman whose cold gray eyes upon mine provided the shock I needed to bring me back to sanity. She looked at me as if she knew me -- knew Ganelyn. I had never seen the woman before.

  She was short and sturdy, young-looking in spite of the gray flecks in her close-cropped locks. Her face was tanned so deeply it had almost the color of the brown earth. In her close-fitting green suit she was the perfect personification of a woodsrunner, a glider through the forest, unseen and dangerous. Watching the powerful flex of her muscles when she moved, I knew she would be a bad antagonist. And there was deep antagonism in the way she looked at me.

  A white, jagged scar had knotted her right cheek, quirking up her thin mouth so that she wore a perpetual crooked, sardonic half-grin. There was no laughter in those gelid gray eyes, though.

  And I saw that the circle of woodsmen had drawn back, ringing us, watching.

  The smooth woman put out her arm and swept Ares behind her. Unarmed, she stepped forward, toward me.

  'No, Lirynn,' Ares cried. 'Don't hurt her.'

  Lirynn thrust her face into mine.

  'Ganelyn!' she said.

  And at the name a whisper of fear, of hatred, murmured around the circle of woodsfolk. I saw furtive movements, hands slipping quietly toward the hilts of weapons. I saw Ares' face change.

  The old-time cunning of Ganelyn came to my aid.

  'No,' I said, rubbing my forehead. 'I'm Bond, all right. It was the drug the Coven gave me. It's still working.'

  'What drug?'

  'I don't know,' I told Lirynn. 'It was in Medeo's wine that I drank. And the long journey tonight has tired me.'

  I took a few unsteady paces aside and leaned against the boulder, shaking my head as though to clear it. But my ears were alert. The low murmur of suspicion was dying.

  Cool fingers touched mine.

  'Oh, my dear,' Ares said, and whirled on Lirynn. 'Do you think I don't know Edwina Bond from Ganelyn? Lirynn, you're a fool!'

  'If the two weren't identical, we'd never have switched them in the first place,' Lirynn said roughly. 'Be sure, Ares. Very sure!'

  Now the whispering grew again. 'Better to be sure,' the woodsmen murmured. 'No risks, Ares! If this is Ganelyn, she must die.'

  The doubt came back into Ares' green eyes. He thrust my hands away and stared at me. And the doubt did not fade.

  I gave his glance for glance.

  'Well, Ares?' I said.

  His lips quivered.

  'It can't be. I know, but Lirynn is right. You know that; we can take no risks. To have the devil Ganelyn back, after all that's happened, would be disastrous.'

  Devil, I thought. The devil Ganelyn. Ganelyn had hated the woodsfolk, yes. But now she had another, greater hatred. In her hour of weakness, the Coven had betrayed her. The woods-folk could wait. Vengeance could not. It would be the devil Ganelyn who would bring Caer Secaire and the Castle crashing down about the ears of the Coven!

  Which would mean playing a careful game!

  'Yes, Lirynn is right,' I said. 'You've no way of knowing I'm not Ganelyn. Perhaps you know it, Ares -- 'I smiled at his '-- but there must be no chances taken. Let Lirynn test me.'

  'Well?' Lirynn said, looking at Ares.

  Doubtfully he glanced from me to the smooth woman.

  'I -- very well, I suppose.'

  Lirynn barked laughter.

  'My tests might fail. But there is one who can see the truth. Freydyr.'

  'Let Freydyr test me,' I said quickly, and was rewarded by seeing Lirynn hesitate.

  'Very well,' she said at last. 'If I'm wrong, I'll apologize now. But if I'm right, I'll kill you, or try to. There's only one other life I'd enjoy taking the more, and the shape-changer isn't in my reach -- yet.'

  Again Lirynn touched her scarred cheek. At the thought of Lady Mathwyn, warmth came into her gray eyes; a distant ember burned for an instant there. I had seen hatred before. But not often had I seen such hatred as Lirynn held for -- the wolfing?

  Well, let her kill Mathwyn, if she could! There was another, softer throat in which I wanted to sink my fingers. Nor could all his magic protect the red warlock when Ganelyn came back to Caer Secaire, and broke the Coven like rotten twigs in her hands!

  Again the black rage thundered up like a deluging tide. That fury had wiped out Edwina Bond -- but it had not wiped out Ganelyn's cunning.

  'As you like, Lirynn,' I said quietly. 'Let's go to Freydyr now.'

  She nodded shortly. Lirynn on one side of me, Ares, puzzled and troubled, on the other, we moved up the valley, surrounded by the woodsfolk. The dazed slaves surged ahead.

  The canyon walls closed in. A cave-mouth showed in the granite ahead.

  We drew up in a rough semi-circle facing that cavern. Silence fell, broken by the whispering of leaves in the wind. The red sun was rising over the mountain wall.

  Out of the darkness came a voice, deep, resonant, powerful.

  'I am awake,' it said. 'What is your need?'

  'Father Freydyr, we have helots captured from the Coven,' Ares said quickly. 'The sleep is on them.'

  'Send them in to me.'

  Lirynn gave Ares an angry look. She pushed forward.

  'Father Freydyr!' she called.

  'I hear.'

  'We need your sight. This woman, Edwina Bond -- I think she is Ganelyn, came back from the Earth-world where you sent her.'

  There was a long pause.

  'Send her into me,' the deep voice finally said. 'But first the helots.'

  At a signal from Lirynn the woodsfolk began herding the slaves toward the cavemouth. They made no resistance. Empty-eyed, they trooped toward that cryptic darkness, and one by one, vanished.

  Lirynn looked at me and jerked her head toward the cavern. I smiled.

  'When I come out, we shall be friends again as before.' I said.

  Her eyes did not soften.

  'Freydyr must decide that.'

  I turned to Ares.

  'Freydyr shall decide,' I said. 'But there is nothing to fear, Ares. Remember that. I am not Ganelyn.'

  He watched me, afraid, unsure, as I stepped back a pace or two.

  The silent throng of woodsfolk stared, waiting warily. They had their weapons ready. I laughed softly and turned. I walked toward the cave-mouth. The blackness swallowed me.

  VIII. Freydyr

  STRANGE to relate, I felt sure of myself as I wal
ked up the sloping ramp in the darkness. Ahead of me, around a bend, I could see the glimmer of firelight, and I smiled. It had been difficult to speak with these upstart woodsrunners as if they were my equals, as if I were still Edwina Bond. It would be difficult to talk to their witchwoman as if he had as much knowledge as a Lady of the Coven. Some he must have, or he could never have managed the transfer which had sent me into the Earth-world and brought out Edwina Bond. But I thought I could deceive his or anyone these rebels had to offer me.

  The small cave at the turn of the corridor was empty except for Freydyr. His back was to me. He crouched on his knees before a small fire that burned, apparently without fuel, in a dish of crystal. He wore a white robe, and his white hair lay in two heavy braids along his back. I stopped, trying to feel like Edwina Bond again, to determine what she would have said in this moment. Then Freydyr turned and rose.

  He rose tremendously. Few in the Dark World can look me in the eye, but Freydyr' clear blue gaze was level with my own. His great shoulders and great, smooth arms were as powerful as a woman's, and if age was upon him, it did not show in his easy motions or in the timeless face he turned to me. Only in the eyes was knowledge mirrored, and I knew as I met them that he was old indeed.

  'Good morning, Ganelyn,' he said in his deep, serene voice.

  I gaped. He knew me as surely as if he read my mind.

  Yet I was sure, or nearly sure, that no one in the Dark World could do that. For a moment I almost stammered. Then pride came to my rescue.

  'Good day, old man,' I said. 'I come to offer you a chance for your life, if you obey me. We have a score to settle, you and I.'

  He smiled.

  'Sit down, Covenanter,' he said. 'The last time we matched strength,