"We do not travel ourselves-but, naturally, travellers come to us. Some of them have taken caravans to Karlaak and elsewhere. They bring back the occasional slave. They tell us such astonishing lies!" He laughed tolerantly. "But there's a gram of truth, no doubt, in some of what they say. While dreamthieves, for instance, are secretive and circumspect about their origins, we have heard that thieves of every land are welcomed in Nadsokor. It takes little intelligence to draw the obvious conclusion..."
"Especially if one is blessed with only the barest information concerning other lands and peoples." Elric smiled.
Lord Gho Fnaazi did not recognise the albino's sarcasm, or perhaps he ignored it. "Is Nadsokor your home city or did you adopt it?" he asked.
"A temporary home at best," Elric told him truthfully.
"You have superficial looks in common with the people of Melniboné, whose greed led us to our present situation," Lord Gho informed him. "Is there Melnibonéan blood in your ancestry, perhaps?"
"I have no doubt of it." Elric wondered why Lord Gho failed to draw the most obvious conclusion. "Are the folk of the Dragon Isle still hated for what they did?"
"Their attempt upon our empire, you mean? I suppose so. But the Dragon Isle has long since sunk beneath the waves, a victim of our sorcerous revenge, and her puny empire with her. Why should we give much thought to a dead race which was duly punished for its infamy?"
"Indeed." Elric realised that so thoroughly had Quarzhasaat explained away her defeat and provided for herself a reason for taking no action, that she had consigned his entire people to oblivion in her legends. He could not therefore be a Melnibonéan, for Melniboné no longer existed. On that score, at least, he could know some peace of mind. Moreover, so uninterested were these people in the rest of the world and its denizens that Lord Gho Fhaazi had no further curiosity about him. The Quarzhasaatim had decided who and what Elric was and were satisfied. The albino reflected on the power of the human mind to build a fantasy and then defend it with complete determination as a reality.
Elric's chief dilemma now lay in the fact that he had no clear notion at all of the profession he was thought to practise or of the task Lord Gho wished him to perform.
The Quarzhasaati nobleman lowered his hands into a bowl of scented water and washed his beard, ostentatiously letting the liquid fall upon the geometrical mosaics of the floor.
"My servant tells me you understood his references," he said, drying himself upon a gauzy towel. Again it was clear he usually employed slaves for this task but had chosen to dine alone with Elric, perhaps for fear of his secrets being overheard. "The actual words of the prophecy are a little different. You know them?"
"No," said Elric with immediate frankness. He wondered what would happen if Lord Gho realised that he was here under false pretences.
"When the Blood Moon makes fire of the Bronze Tent, then the Path to the Pearl will be opened."
"Aha," said Elric. "Just so."
"And the nomads tell us that the Blood Moon will appear over the mountains in little less than a week. And will shine upon the Waters of the Pearl."
"Exactly," said Elric.
"And so the path to the Fortress shall, of course, be revealed." Elric nodded with gravity and as if in confirmation. "And a man such as yourself, with a knowledge at once supernatural and not supernatural, who can tread between reality and unreality, who knows the ways along the borders of dreams and waking, may break through the defences, overwhelm the guardians and steal the Pearl!" Lord Gho's voice was a mixture of lasciviousness, venality and hot excitement.
"Indeed," said the Emperor of Melniboné.
Lord Gho took Elric's reticence for discretion. "Would you steal that Pearl for me, Sir Thief?"
Elric gave the matter apparent consideration before he spoke. "There is considerable danger in the stealing, I would guess."
"Of course. Of course. Our people are now convinced that none but one of your craft is able even to enter the Fortress, let alone reach the Pearl itself!"
"And where lies this Fortress of the Pearl?"
"I suppose at the Heart of the World."
Elric frowned.
"After all," said Lord Gho with some impatience, "the jewel is known as the Pearl at the Heart of the World, is it not?"
"I follow your reasoning," said Elric, and resisted an urge to scratch the back of his head. Instead he considered a further draft of the marvellous elixir, although he was growing increasingly disturbed, both by Lord Gho's conversation and the fact that the pale liquid was so delicious to him. "But surely there is some other clue ... ?"
"I had thought such things your sphere, Sir Thief. You must go, of course, to the Silver Flower Oasis. It is the time when the nomads hold one of their gatherings. Some significance, no doubt, concerning the Blood Moon. It is most likely that at the Silver Flower Oasis the path will be opened to you. You have heard of the oasis, naturally."
"I have no map, I fear," Elric informed him, a little lamely.
"That will be provided. You have never travelled the Red Road?"
"As I've explained. I'm a stranger to your empire, Lord Gho."
"But your geographies and histories must concern themselves with us!"
"I fear we are a little ignorant, my lord. We of the Young Kingdoms, so long in the shadow of wicked Melniboné, had not the opportunity to discover the joys of learning."
Lord Gho raised his unnatural eyebrows. "Yes," he said, "that would be the case, of course. Well, well, Sir Thief, we'll provide you with a map. But the Red Road's easy enough to follow since it leads from Quarzhasaat to the Silver Flower Oasis and beyond are only the mountains the nomads call the Ragged Pillars. They're of no interest to you, I think. Unless the Path of the Pearl takes you through them. That's a more mysterious road and not, you'll appreciate, marked on any conventional map at least. None that we possess. And our libraries are the most sophisticated in the world."
So determined was Elric to get the best from his reprieve that he was prepared to continue with this farce until he was clear of Quarzhasaat and riding for the Young Kingdoms again. "And a steed, I hope. You'll give me a mount."
"The finest. Will you need to redeem your crooked staff? Or is that merely a kind of sign of your calling?"
"I can find another."
Lord Gho put his hand to his peculiar beard. "Just as you say, Sir Thief."
Elric determined to change the subject. "You have said little about the nature of my fee." He drained his goblet and clumsily Lord Gho filled it again.
"What would you usually ask?" said the Quarzhasaati.
"Well, this is an unusual commission." Elric grew amused again at the situation. "You understand that there are very few of my skill or indeed standing, even in the Young Kingdoms, and fewer still who come to Quarzhasaat..."
"If you bring me that specific Pearl, Sir Thief, you will have all manner of wealth. At least enough to make you one of the most powerful men in the Young Kingdoms. I would furnish you with an entire nobleman's household. Clothes, jewels, a palace, slaves. Or, if you wished to continue your travels, a caravan capable of purchasing a whole nation in the Young Kingdoms. You could become a prince there, possibly even a king!"
"A heady prospect," said the albino sardonically.
"Add to that what I have already paid and shall be paying and I think you'll judge the reward handsome enough."
"Aye. Generous, no doubt." Elric frowned, glancing around the great room, with its hangings, its rich gem-work, its mosaics of precious stones, its elaborately ornamental cornices and pillars. He had it in mind to bargain further, because he guessed it was expected of him. "But if I have a notion of the Pearl's worth to you, Lord Gho- what it will purchase for you here-you'll admit that the price you offer is not necessarily a large one."
Lord Gho Fhaazi grew amused in turn. "The Pearl will buy me the place on the Council of Six which shall shortly be vacated. The Nameless Seventh has given the Pearl as her price. It is why I must have it s
o soon. It is already promised. You have guessed this. There are rivals, but none who has offered so much."
"And do these rivals know of your offer?"
"Doubtless there are rumours. But I would warn you to keep silent on the nature of your task..."
"You do not fear that I could look for a better bargain elsewhere in your city?"
"Oh, there will be those who would offer you more, if you were so greedy and so disloyal. But they could not offer you what I offer, Sir Thief." And Lord Gho Fhaazi let his mouth form a terrible grin.
"Why so?" Elric felt suddenly trapped and his instinct was to reach for Stormbringer.
"They do not possess it." Lord Gho pushed the flask towards the albino and Elric was a little surprised to see that he had already drunk another goblet of the elixir. He filled his cup once more and drank thoughtfully. Some of the truth was coming to him and he feared it
"What can be as rare as the Pearl?" The albino put down his goblet. He believed he had an idea of the answer.
Lord Gho was staring at him intently. "You understand, I think." Lord Gho smiled again.
"Aye." Elric felt his spirits drop and he knew a frisson of deep terror mixed with a growing anger. "The elixir, I suppose..."
"Oh, that's relatively easy to make. It is, of course, a poison-a drug which feeds off its user, giving him only an appearance of vitality. Eventually there is nothing left for the drug to feed upon and the death which results is almost always unpleasant. What a wretch the stuff makes of men and women who only a week or so earlier believed themselves powerful enough to rule the world!" Lord Gho began to laugh, his little ringlets bobbing at his face and on his head. "Yet, dying, they will beg and beg for the thing which has killed them. Is that not an irony, Sir Thief? What's so rare as the Pearl? you ask. Why, the answer must be clear to you now, eh? An individual's life, is it not?"
"So I am dying. Why then should I serve you?"
"Because there is, of course, an antidote. Something which replaces everything the other drug steals, which does not cause a craving in the one who drinks it, which restores the user to full health in a matter of days and drives out the need for the original drug. So you see, Sir Thief, my offer to you was by no means an empty one. I can give you enough of the elixir to let you complete your task and, so long as you return here in good time, I can give you the antidote. You'll have gained much, eh?"
Elric straightened himself in his chair and put his hand upon the pommel of the Black Sword. "I have already informed your courier that my life has only limited worth to me. There are certain things I value more."
"I understood as much," said Lord Gho Fhaazi with cruel joviality, "and I respect you for your principles, Sir Thief. Your point's well put. But there's another life to consider, is there not? That of your accomplice?"
"I have no accomplice, sir."
"Have you not? Have you not, Sir Thief? Would you come with me?"
Elric, mistrustful of the man, still saw no reason not to follow him when he strode arrogantly through the huge, curving doorway of the hall. At his belt once more Stormbringer grumbled and stirred like a suspicious hound.
The passages of the palace, lined in green, brown and yellow marble to give the feeling of a cool forest, scented with the most exquisite flowering shrubs, led them past rooms of retainers, menageries, tanks of fish and reptiles, a seraglio and an armoury, until Lord Gho arrived at a wooden door guarded by two soldiers hi the unpractically baroque armour of Quarzhasaat, their own beards oiled and forked into fantastically exaggerated shapes. They presented their engraved halberds as Lord Gho approached.
"Open this," he ordered. And one took a massive key from within his breastplate, inserting it into the lock.
The door opened upon a small courtyard containing a defunct fountain, a little cloister and a set of living quarters on the far side.
"Where are you? Where are you, my little one? Show yourself! Quickly now!" Lord Gho was impatient.
There was a clink of metal and a figure emerged from the doorway. It had a piece of fruit in one hand, a loop or two of chain in the other, and it walked with difficulty for the links were attached to a metal band riveted around its waist. "Ah, master," it said to Elric, "you have not served me as I would have hoped."
Elric's smile was grim. "But maybe as you deserve, eh, Anigh?" He let his anger show. "I did not imprison you, boy. I think the choice, in reality, was probably your own. You tried to deal with a power which clearly recognises no decencies."
Lord Gho was unmoved. "He approached Raafi as-Keeme's manservant," he said, staring at the boy with a certain interest, "and offered your services. He said he was acting as your agent."
"Well, so he was," agreed Elric, his smile more sympathetic in view of Anigh's evident discomfiture. "But that surely is not against your laws?"
"Certainly not. He showed excellent enterprise."
"Then why is he imprisoned?"
"That's a matter of expediency. You appreciate that, Sir Thief?"
"In other circumstances I would suspect some minor infamy," said Elric carefully. "But I know you, Lord Gho, to be a nobleman. You would not hold this boy in order to threaten me. It would be beneath you."
"I hope I am a nobleman, sir. Yet in such times as these not all nobles in this city are bound by the old codes of honour. Not when such stakes are played for. You appreciate that even though you are not yourself a nobleman. Or even, I suppose, a gentleman."
"In Nadsokor I am thought one," said Elric quietly.
"Oh, but of course. In Nadsokor." Lord Gho pointed at Anigh, who smiled uncertainly from one to the other, not following this exchange at all. "And in Nadsokor, I am sure, they would hold a convenient hostage if they could."
"But this is unfair, sir." Elric's voice was trembling with rage and he had to control himself not to reach his right hand towards the Black Sword on his left hip. "If I am killed in pursuit of my goal, the boy dies, just as if I had made my escape."
"Well, yes, that is true, dear thief. But I expect you to return, you see. If not-well, the boy will still be useful to me, both alive and dead."
Anigh no longer smiled. Terror came slowly into his eyes. "Oh, masters!"
"He'll not be harmed." Lord Gho placed a cold, powdered hand on Elric's shoulders. "For you will return with the Pearl at the Heart of the World, will you not?"
Elric breathed deeply, controlling himself. He felt a need deep within him; a need he could not readily identify. Was it bloodlust? Did he want to draw the Black Sword and suck the soul from this scheming degenerate? He spoke evenly. "My lord, if you would release the boy, I will assure you of my best efforts... I will swear..."
"Good thief, Quarzhasaat is full of men and women who give the most fulsome reassurances and who, I am sure, are sincere when they do so. They will swear great, important oaths upon all that is most holy to them. Yet should circumstances change, they forget those oaths. Some security, I find, is always useful to remind them of obligations undertaken. We are, you will appreciate, playing for the very highest stakes. There are really none higher in the whole world. A seat upon the Council." This last sentence was emphasised without mockery. Clearly Lord Gho Fhaazi could see no greater goal. Disgusted by the man's sophistry and contemptuous of his provincialism, Elric turned his back on Lord Gho. He addressed the lad. "You'll observe, Anigh, that little luck befalls those who league themselves with me. I warned you of this. Yet still I shall endeavour to return and save you." His next sentence was uttered in the thievish cant. "Meanwhile do not trust this filthy creature and make every sensible effort to escape on your own."
"No gutter patois here!" cried Lord Gho, suddenly alarmed, "or you both die at once!" Evidently he did not understand the cant as his courier had done.
"Best not to threaten me, Lord Gho." Elric returned his hand to the hilt of his sword.
The nobleman laughed. "What? Such belligerence! Understand you not, Sir Thief, that the elixir you drink is already killing you? You have three we
eks before only the antidote will save you! Do you not feel the gnawing need for the drug? If such an elixir were harmless, why, sir, we should all use it and become gods!"
Elric could not be sure if it was his mind or his body which felt the pangs. He realised that even as his instincts drove him to kill the Quarzhasaati nobleman his craving for the drug threatened to dominate him. Even close to death when his own drugs failed him he had never craved anything so much. He stood with his whole body trembling as he sought to master it again. His voice was icy. "This is more than minor infamy, Lord Gho. I congratulate you. You are a man of the cruellest and most unpleasant cunning. Are all those who serve upon the Council as corrupt as yourself?"
Lord Gho grew still more genial. "This is unworthy of you, Sir Thief. All I am doing is assuring myself that you'll follow my interests for a while." Again he chuckled. "I have assured myself, in fact, that for this period of time your interests become mine. What is so wrong with that? I would not think it befitting in a self-confessed .thief, to insult a noble of Quarzhasaat merely because he knows how to strike a good bargain!"
Elric's hatred for the man, who originally he had only disliked, still threatened to consume him. But a new, colder mood took him as his hold over his own emotions returned. "So you are saying that I am your slave, Lord Gho."
"If you wish to put it so. At least until you bring me back the Pearl at the Heart of the World."
"And should I find this Pearl for you, how do I know you will supply me with the poison's antidote?"
Lord Gho shrugged. "That is for you to determine. You are an intelligent man for an outlander, and have survived this long, I'm sure, on your wits. But make no mistake. This potion is brewed for me alone and you'll not find the identical recipe anywhere else. Best hold to our bargain, Sir Thief, and depart from here ultimately a rich man. With your little friend all in one piece."
Elric's mood had changed to one of grim humour. With his strength returned, no matter how artificially, he could wreak considerable destruction to Lord Gho and, indeed, the whole city if he chose. As if reading his mind, Stormbringer seemed to stir against his hip and Lord Gho permitted himself a small, nervous glance towards the great runesword.
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