The verdict was, attack!

So we rode all the way back and nothing followed us. When we reached the Keep of Ganelon, we fell to planning. Our troops were ready-over-ready, perhaps — and we decided to strike within a fortnight.

As I lay with Lorraine, I told her of these things. For I felt that she should know. I possessed the power to spirit her away into Shadow — that very night, if she would agree. She did not.

“I’ll stay with you,” she said.

“Okay.”

I did not tell her that I felt everything lay within my hands, but I have a feeling she knew and that for some reason she trusted me. I would not have, but that was her affair.

“You know how things might be,” I said.

“I know,” she said, and I knew that she knew and that was it.

We turned our attention to other subjects, and later we slept.

She’d had a dream.

In the morning, she said to me, “I had a dream.”

“What about?” I asked.

“The coming battle,” she told me. “I see you and the horned one locked in combat.”

“Who wins?”

“I don’t know. But as you slept, I did a thing that might help you.”

“I wish you had not,” I said. “I can take care of myself.”

“Then I dreamed of my own death, in this time.”

“Let me take you away to a place I know.”

“No, my place is here,” she told me.

“I don’t pretend to own you,” I said, “but I can save you from whatever you’ve dreamed. That much lies within my power, believe me.”

“I do believe you, but I will not go.”

“You’re a damned fool.”

“Let me stay.”

“As you wish… Listen, I’ll even send you to Cabra…”

“No.”

“You’re a damned fool.”

“I know. I love you.”

“…And a stupid one. The word is ‘like.’ Remember?”

“You’ll do it,” she said.