"I think he is giving much in his attempt to save my daughter," said Raik Na Seem. "Perhaps more than anyone should give."
"He would give everything," Elric said. "I think that it is in his nature. That is why you call him your son and why you trust him."
"Aye," said Raik Na Seem. "But now I fear that I lose a son as well as a daughter." And he sighed and was troubled, perhaps wondering, if, after all, he had been wise in begging this service of Alnac Kreb.
For more than a day and a night Elric sat with Raik Na Seem and the men and women of the Bauradim within the shelter of the Bronze Tent, their eyes fixed upon the strangely wizened body of Alnac the Dreamthief which occasionally stirred and murmured yet still seemed as lifeless as the mummified goats which the sand-dunes sometimes revealed. Once Elric thought he heard the Holy Girl make a sound and once Raik Na Seem rose to put his hand on his daughter's brow, then returned shaking his head.
"This is not the time to despair, father of my friend," said Elric.
"Aye." The First Elder of the Bauradim drew himself up, then settled down again beside Elric. "We set high store by prophecies here in the desert. It seems that our longing for help might have coloured our reason."
They looked out of the tent into the morning. Smoke from the still burning brands drifted across the lilac-coloured sky, borne upward and to the north by the light breeze. Elric found the smell almost sickening now, but his concern for his new friend made bun forgetful of his own health. Occasionally he drank sparingly of Lord Gho's elixir, unable to do more than control his craving, and when Raik Na Seem offered him water from his own flask Elric shook his head. Within him there were still many conflicts. He felt a strong comradeship with these people, a liking for Raik Na Seem which he valued. He had grown to care for Alnac Kreb, who had helped save his life in an action clearly as generous as the man's general character. Elric was grateful for the Bauradim's trust of him. Having heard his tale,; they would have been within their rights to banish him at very least from the Silver Flower Oasis. Rather, they had taken him to the Bronze Tent when the Blood Moon burned, allowing him to follow Lord Gho's instructions, trusting him not to abuse their action. He was bound to them now by a loyalty he could never break. Perhaps they knew this. Perhaps they read his character as easily as they read Alnac's. This sense of their trust heartened him, though it made his task all the more difficult, and he was determined hi no way, however inadvertently, to betray it.
Raik Na Seem sniffed the wind and looked back towards the distant oasis. A column of black smoke marched into the sky, growing taller and taller, mingling with the smoke closer at hand: some released afrit joining its fellows. Elric would not have been surprised if it had taken shape before his eyes, so familiar had he become with strange events in past days.
"There has been another attack," said Raik Na Seem. He spoke unconcernedly. "Let us hope it is the last. They are burning the bodies."
"Who attacks you?"
"More men of the Sorcerer Adventurer societies. I suspect their decisions have something to do with the internal politics of the city. Dozens of them are battling for some favour or other-perhaps the seat on the Council you mentioned. From tune to tune their machinations involve us. This is familiar to us. But I suppose the Pearl at the Heart of the World has become the only price which will pay for the seat, eh? So as the story spreads, more and more of these warriors are sent here to find it!" Raik Na Seem spoke with fierce humour. "Let us hope they must soon run out of inhabitants and eventually only the scheming lords themselves will be left, squabbling for nonexistent power over a non-existent people!"
Elric watched as a whole tribe of nomads rode past, keeping some distance away from the Bronze Tent in order to show their respect. These tanned, white-skinned people had burning blue eyes as bright as those which stared into nothing within the tent and, when their hoods were thrown back, startlingly blond hair, also like Varadia's. Their clothing distinguished them, however, from the Bauradim. It was predominantly of a rich lavender shade with gold and dark green trimming. They were heading towards the Silver Flower Oasis, driving herds of sheep and riding the odd humped bull-like beasts which, as Alnac had declared, were so well adapted to the desert.
"The Waued Nii," said Raik Na Seem. "They are amongst the last at any gathering. They come from the very edge of the desert and they trade with Elwher, bringing that lapis lazuli and jade carving we all value so much. In the winter, when the storms grow too intense for them, they even raid across the plains and into the cities. Once, they boast, they looted Phum, but we believe it was some other, smaller place which they mistook for Phum." This was clearly a joke the desert peoples enjoyed at the expense of the Waued Nii.
"I had a friend who was once of Phum," said Elric. "His name was Rackhir and he sought Tanelorn."
"Rackhir I know. A good bowman. He travelled with us for a few weeks last year."
Elric was strangely pleased by this news. "He was well?"
"In excellent health." Raik Na Seem was glad of a subject to draw his mind away from the fate of his daughter and his adoptive son. "He was a welcome guest and hunted for us when we went close to the Ragged Pillars, for there's game there which we lack the skill to find. He spoke of his friend. A friend who had many thoughts and whose thoughts led him to many quandaries. That was you, no doubt. I remember now. He must have been joking. He said that you were a little on the pale side. He wondered what had become of you. He cared for you, I think."
"And I for him. We had something in common. As I feel a bond with your folk and with Alnac Kreb."
"You shared dangers together, I gather."
"We had many strange experiences. He, however, was tired of the quest for such things and hoped to retire, to find peace. Know you where he went from here?"
"Aye. As you say, he was searching for legendary Tanelorn. When he had learned all he could from us, he bade us farewell and rode on to the West. We counselled him not to waste himself in pursuit of a myth, but he believed he knew enough to continue. Did you not wish to journey with your friend?"
"I have other duties which call me, though I, too, have sought Tanelorn." He would have added more but thought better of it. Any further explanation would have led him into memories and problems he had no wish to contemplate at present. His main concern was for Alnac Kreb and the girl.
"Ah, yes. Now I recall. You are a king in your own country, of course. But a reluctant one, eh? The duties are hard for a young man. Much is expected of you and you bear upon your shoulders the weight of the past, the ideals and loyalties of an entire people. It is difficult to rule well, to make good judgements, to dispense justice fairly. We have no kings here amongst the Bauradim, merely a group of men and women elected to speak for the whole clan, and I think it is better to share those burdens. If all share the burden, if all are responsible for themselves, then no single individual has to carry a weight that is too much for them."
"The reason I travel is to learn more of such means of administering justice," said Elric. "But I will tell you this, Raik Na Seem, my people are as cruel as any in Quarzhasaat, and have more real power. We have a scanty notion of justice, and the obligations of rule involve little more than inventing new terrors by which we may cow and control others. Power, I think, is a habit as terrible as the potion I must now sip in order to sustain myself. It feeds upon itself. It is a hungry beast, devouring those who would possess it and those who hate it-devouring even those who own it."
"The hungry beast is not power itself," said the old man. "Power is neither good nor evil. It is the use one makes of it which is good or evil. I know that Melniboné once ruled the world, or that part of it she could find and the part she did not destroy."
"You seem to know more of my nation than my nation knows of you!" The albino smiled.
"It is said by our folk that we all came to the desert because we fled first Melniboné and then Quarzhasaat. Each was as cruel as the other, each as corrupting, and it did not matter to us which d
estroyed which. We had hoped they would extinguish each other, of course, but that was not to be. The second best thing occurred: Quarzhasaat almost destroyed herself and Melniboné forgot all about her-and us! I believe that soon after their war, Melniboné became bored with expansion and withdrew to rule only the Young Kingdoms. Now I hear she rules even less."
"Only the Dragon Isle now." Elric found that his thoughts were going back to Cymoril and he tried to stop himself from thinking of her. "But many a reaver's sought to sail against her and loot her wealth. They discover, however, that she remains too powerful for them. They must continue to trade with her instead."
'Trade was ever War's superior," said Raik Na Seem, and looked suddenly back over his shoulder at Alnac's withered body. The golden outline of the dreamwand was glowing again and throbbing, as it had done from time to time since Alnac had first lain down beside the girl.
"Tis a strange organ," said Raik Na Seem softly. "Almost a second spine."
He was about to say more when there was a faint movement in Alnac's features and a dreadful, desolate groan escaped the bloodless lips.
They turned and went to kneel beside him. Alnac's eyes still blazed blue and Varadia's were still black.
"He is dying," whispered the First Elder. "Is it so, Prince Elric?"
Elric knew no more than the Bauradi.
"What can we do for him?" asked Raik Na Seem.
Elric touched the cold, leathery carcass. He lifted an almost weightless wrist and could hear no pulse beating. It was at this moment, startlingly, that Alnac's eyes turned from blue to black and looked at Elric with all their old intelligence. "Ah, you have come to help me. I have learned where the Pearl lies. But it is too well protected."
The voice was a whisper from the dust-dry mouth.
Elric cradled the dreamthief in his arms. "I will help you, Alnac. Tell me how."
"You cannot. There are caverns... These dreams are defeating me. They are drowning me. They are drawing me in. I am doomed to join those already doomed. Poor company for one such as me, Prince Elric. Poor company..."
The dreamwand pulsed and glowed white as bleached bones. The dreamthief's eyes turned to blue again, then back to black. The thin air stirred in the leathery remains of his throat. Suddenly there was horror in his face. "Ah, no! I must find the will!"
The dreamwand moved like a snake through his body, then slithered into Varadia, then returned. "Oh, Elric," said the tiny voice, "help me if you can. Oh, I am trapped. This is the worst I have ever known..."
His words seemed to Elric to call to him directly from the grave, as if his friend were already dead. "Elric, if there is some way..."
Then the body shuddered, filled as if with a single huge breath, while the dreamwand flickered and writhed again and then grew still, lying as it had first done with the crook upon the two clasped hands.
"Ah, my friend, I was a fool even to consider myself able to survive this..." The tiny voice faded. "Would that I had understood the nature of her mind. It is so strong! So strong!"
"Who does he speak of?" asked Raik Na Seem. "My child? That which holds her? My daughter is of the Sarangli women. Her grandmother could charm whole tribes to believe they died of disease. I told him as much. What does he not understand?"
"Oh, Elric, she has destroyed me!" There was a tremor in the frail hand as it reached towards the albino.
Then, suddenly, all the colour and life came flooding back into Alnac's body. It seemed to expand to its former size and vitality. The hooked staff became nothing more than the artefact Elric had originally seen at Alnac's belt.
The handsome dreamthief grinned. He was surprised. "I live! Elric, I live!"
He took a firmer grip on his staff and made to rise. Then he coughed and something disgusting oozed from his lips, like a gigantic, half-digested worm. It was as if he regurgitated his own rotten organs. He wiped the stuff away. For a moment he was bewildered, the terror returning to his eyes.
"No." Abac seemed reconciled suddenly. "I was too proud. I die, of course." He collapsed backward onto the sheet as Elric again tried to hold him. With his old irony the dreamthief shook his head. "A little too late, I think. It's not my fate, after all, to be your companion, Sir Champion, in this plane."
Elric, to whom the words made no sense, believed Alnac to be raving and sought to quieten him.
Then the staff fell from the dreamthief's grasp and he rolled onto his side before a wavering, sickly scream came out of him, then a stink which threatened to drive Elric and Raik Na Seem from the Bronze Tent. It was as if his body putrefied before their eyes even as the dreamthief tried to speak again and failed.
And then Alnac Kreb was dead.
Elric, mourning a brave, good man, felt then that his own doom and that of Anigh had been determined. The dreamthief's death suggested forces at work of which the albino understood nothing, for all his sorcerous wisdom. He had come across no grimoire which even hinted of such a fate. He had seen worse befall those who meddled with sorcery, but here was a sorcery which he could not begin to interpret.
"He is gone, then," said Raik Na Seem.
"Aye." Elric's own breath shuddered in his throat. "Aye. His courage was greater than any of us suspected. Including, I think, himself."
The First Elder walked slowly to where his child still slept in her terrible trance. He looked down into her blue eyes as if he almost hoped to see the black eyes somewhere there within her.
"Varadia?"
She did not respond.
Solemnly Raik Na Seem took the Holy Girl and placed her back upon the raised block, settling her into the cushions as if she merely slept a natural sleep and he, her father, laid her down for her nightly rest.
Elric stared at the remains of the dreamthief. He had doubtless understood the cost of failure and perhaps that was the secret he had refused to share.
"It is over," said Raik Na Seem gently. "Now I can think of nothing to do for her. He gave too much." He was fighting not to lose himself in either self-mortification or despair. "We must try to think what to do. Will you help me in this, friend of my son?"
"If I can."
As Elric rose, shaking, to his feet he heard a sound behind him. He thought at first it was some Bauradi woman come to mourn. He looked back at the light which streamed in through the tent and saw only her outline.
It was a young woman, but she was not of the Bauradim. She entered the tent slowly and there were tears in her eyes as she stared down at Alnac Kreb's ruined body.
"I am too late, then?"
Her musical voice was full of the most intense sorrow. She reached a hand to her face. "He should not have attempted such a task. They told me at the Silver Flower Oasis that you had come here. Why could you not have waited a little longer? Just a day more?"
It was with great effort that she controlled her grief and Elric felt a sudden, obscure kinship with her.
She took another step towards the body. She was an inch or so shorter than Elric, with a heart-shaped face framed by thick, brown hair. Slender and well-muscled, she wore a padded jerkin slashed to show its red silk lining. She had soft velvet breeches, embroidered felt riding boots and over all this an almost transparent cotton dust-cloak pushed back from her shoulders. At her belt was a sword, and cradled above her left shoulder was a hooked staff of gold and ebony, a more elaborate version of the one which lay on the carpet beside Alnac's corpse.
"I taught him all he knew of his craft," she said. "But it was not enough for this. How could he ever have thought that it would be! He could never have achieved such a goal. He had not the character for it." She turned away, brushing at her face. When she looked back her tears had gone and she stared directly back into Elric's eyes.
"I am Oone," she said. She bowed briefly to Raik Na Seem. "I am the dreamthief you sent for."
PART TWO
Is there a daughter born in dreams
Whose flesh is snow, whose ruby eyes
Stare into realms whose substance
seems
Strong as agony, soft as lies?
Is there a girlchild born of dreams
Who carries blood as old as Time,
Destined one day to blend with mine
And give new lands a newer queen?
The Chronicle of the Black Sword
1 How a Thief May Instruct an Emperor
Oone removed a date stone from her mouth and dropped it into the sand of the Silver Flower Oasis. She reached her hand towards one of the brilliant cactus flowers which gave the place its name. She stroked the petals with long, delicate fingers. She sang to herself and it seemed to Elric that her words were a lament.
Respectfully he remained silent, sitting with his back to a palm tree looking to the distant camp and its continuing activity. She had asked bun to accompany her but had said little to him. He heard a calling from the kashbeh high above but when he peered in that direction he saw nothing. The breeze blew over the desert and red dust raced like water towards the Ragged Pillars on the horizon.
It was almost noon. They had returned to the Silver Flower Oasis that morning and the few remains of Alnac Kreb were to be burned with honour according to the customs of the Bauradim that night.
Oone's staff was no longer slung on her back. Now she held the dreamwand in both hands, turning it over and over, watching the light on its burnish and polish as if she had only now seen it for the first time. The other wand, Alnac's, she had tucked into her belt.
"It would have made my task a little easier," she said suddenly, "if Alnac had not acted so precipitously. He did not realise I was coming and was doing his best to save the child, I know. But a few more hours and I could have used his help, perhaps successfully. Certainly I might have saved him."
"I do not understand what happened to him," said Elric.
"Even I do not know the exact cause of his fall," she said. "But I will explain what I can. That is why I asked you to come with me. I would not wish to be overheard. And I must demand your word that you will be discreet."
The Fortress of the Pearl eas-2 Page 9
