A rich water-merchant, anxious to find favour with one who might soon be elected to the Council, personally led Elric's horse through the elegant alleys and impressive avenues until they came to the great palace, all golds and faded greens, of Lord Gho Fhaazi.
The merchant was rewarded by a steward's promise to mention his name to the nobleman, and Elric, now mumbling and whimpering to himself, sometimes groaning a little and licking anxious lips, passed through into the lovely gardens surrounding the main palace.
Lord Gho himself came to meet the albino. He was laughing heartily at the sight of Elric hi such poor condition.
"Greetings, greetings, Elric of Nadsokor! Greetings, white-faced clown-thief. Oh, you are not so proud today! You were profligate with the elixir I gave you and now you return to beg for more-in worse condition than when you first arrived here!"
"The boy..." whispered Elric, as servants helped him from the horse. His arms hung limply as they carried him on their shoulders. "Does he live?"
"In better health than yourself, sir!" Lord Gho Fhaazi's pale green eyes were full of exquisite malice. "And in perfect safety. You were most adamant about that before you set off. And I am a man of my word." The politician stroked the ringlets of his oily beard and chuckled to himself. "And you, Sir Thief, do you also keep your word?"
"To the letter," muttered the albino. His red eyes rolled back hi his head and it appeared for a second that he died. Then he turned a painful gaze in Lord Gho's direction. "Will you give me the antidote and all that you've promised? The water? The wealth? The boy?"
"No doubt, no doubt. But you have a poor bargaining position at present, thief. What of the Pearl? Did you find it? Or are you here to report failure?"
"I found it. And I have it hidden," said Elric. "The elixir has..."
"Yes, yes. I know what the elixir does. You must have a fundamentally strong constitution even to be able to speak by now." The Quarzhasaati supervised the men and women who carried Elric into the cool ulterior of the palace and placed him on great tasselled cushions of scarlet and blue velvet and gave him water to drink and food to eat.
"The craving grows worse, does it not?" Lord Gho took considerable pleasure at Elric's discomfort. "The elixir must feed off you, just as you appear to feed off it. You are cunning, eh, Sir Thief? You have hidden the Pearl, you say? Do you not trust me? I am a nobleman of the greatest city in the world!"
Elric, all dusty from his long ride, sprawled on the cushions and wiped his hands slowly on a cloth. "The antidote, my lord..."
"You know I shall not let you have the antidote until the Pearl is in my hands..." Lord Gho was expansively condescending as he looked down on his victim. "To tell you the truth, thief, I had not expected you to be as coherent as you are! Would you care for another draft of my elixir?" "Bring it if you will."
Elric appeared to be careless, but Lord Gho understood how desperate he must actually be. He turned to give instructions to his slaves.
Then Elric said: "But bring the boy. Bring the boy so that I may see he has come to no harm and hear from his own lips what has taken place while I have been gone..."
It's a small request. Very well." Lord Gho Fhaazi signed to a slave. "Bring the boy Anigh."
The nobleman crossed to a great chair, placed on a small dais between brocaded awnings, and slumped himself down in it while they waited. "I had scarcely expected you to survive the journey, Sir Thief, let alone succeed in finding the Pearl. Our Sorcerer Adventurers are the bravest, most skillful of warriors, trained in all the arts of sorcery and incantation. Yet those I sent, and all their brothers, failed! Oh, this is a happy day for me. I will revive you, I promise, so that you can tell me all that happened. What of the Bauradim? Did you kill many? You will recount everything so that when I present the Pearl to obtain my position I can give the story that goes with it.
This will add to its value, you see. When I am elected, I shall be asked to retail such a story many times, I am sure. The Council will be so envious..." He licked his painted red lips. "Did you have to kill that child? What was the first thing you witnessed, for instance, when you reached the Silver Flower Oasis?"
"A funeral, as I recall..." Elric showed a little more animation. "Aye, that was it."
Two guards brought in a wriggling boy who did not seem greatly overjoyed when he saw Elric stretched upon the cushions. "Oh, master! You are more wretched than before." He stopped his struggling and tried to hide his disappointment. There were no marks of torture on him. He seemed not to have been harmed.
"Are you well, Anigh?"
"Aye. My chief problem has been in passing the time. Occasionally his lordship there has come to tell me what he will do if you fail to bring back the Pearl, but I have read such things on the walls of the lunatic stockades and they are nothing new to me."
Lord Oho scowled. "Be careful, boy..."
"You must have returned with the Pearl," said Anigh, glancing around him. "That is so, eh, my lord? Or you would not be here?" He was a little more relieved. "Are we to go now?"
"Not yet!" growled Lord Oho.
"The antidote," said Elric. "Do you have it here?"
"You are too impatient, Sir Thief. And your cunning is matched by mine." Lord Gho giggled and raised an admonishing finger. "I must have some proof that you possess the Pearl. Would you give me your sword as surety, perhaps? You are, after all, too weak to wield it. It is of no further use to you." He reached a greedy hand towards the albino's hip and Elric made a feeble movement away from him.
"Come, come, Sir Thief. Be not afraid of me. We are partners in this. Where is the Pearl? The Council congregates this evening at the Great Meeting House. If I can bring them the Pearl then... Oh, I shall be powerful by tonight!"
"The worm is so proud to be king of the dunghill," said Elric.
"Do not anger him, master!" cried Anigh in alarm. "You have still to learn where he hides the antidote!"
"I must have the Pearl!" Lord Gho grew petulant in his impatience. "Where have you hidden it, thief? In the desert? Somewhere in the city?"
Slowly Elric raised his body on the cushions. "The Pearl was a dream," he said. "It took your killers to make it real."
Lord Gho Fhaazi frowned, scratching at his whitened forehead and showing further nervousness. He looked suspiciously at Elric. "If you would have more elixir, you had best not insult me, thief. Nor play any game. The boy could die in an instant, and you with him, and I would be in no worse a position."
"But you would better yourself, my lord, I think. With the price of a place on the Council, I think." Elric seemed to gather strength and now he was upright on the luxurious velvet, signing for the boy to come towards him. The guards looked questioningly at their master, but he shrugged. Anigh walked, his brow furrowed with curiosity, towards the albino. "You are greedy, my lord, I think. You would own the whole of your world. This pathetic monument to your race's ruined pride!"
Lord Gho glared at him. "Thief, if you would recover yourself, if you would take the antidote to make you free of the drug I gave you, you will be more polite to me..."
"Ah, yes," said Elric thoughtfully, reaching into his jerkin. He pulled out a leather pouch. "The elixir which was to make me your slave!" He smiled. He opened the pouch.
Onto his extended palm now rolled the jewel for which Gho Fhaazi had offered half his fortune, for which he had sent a hundred men to their deaths, for which he had been prepared to abduct and kill one child and imprison another.
The Quarzhasaati began to tremble. His painted eyes rounded. He gasped and bent forward, almost fainting.
"It is true," he said. "You have found the Pearl at the Heart of the World..."
"Merely a gift from a friend," said Elric. The Pearl still displayed on his hand, he rose to his feet and put a protective arm around the boy. "In obtaining it I found that my body lost its demand for the elixir and therefore has no need for your antidote, Lord Gho."
Lord Gho hardly heard him. His eyes were fixed on the
great Pearl. "It is monstrous big... Even larger than I had heard... It is real. I can see it is real. The colour... Ah..." And he stretched towards it.
Elric drew his hand back. Lord Gho frowned and looked up at the albino with eyes that were hot with greed. "Did she die? Was it, as some said, in her body?"
Anigh shivered at Elric's side.
Full of loathing, Elric's voice was still soft. "No one died at my hand who was not already dead. As you are already dead, my lord. It was your funeral I witnessed at the Silver Flower Oasis. I am now the agent of the Bauradim prophecy. I am to avenge all the grief you brought to them and their Holy Girl."
"What? The others all sent their soldiers, too! The entire Council and half the candidates had sects of Sorcerer Adventurers seeking the Pearl. Every one. Most of those warriors failed or were killed. Or were executed for their failure. You killed no one, you said. Well, so there's no blood on your hands, eh. All's for the best. I'll give you what I promised, Sir Thief..."
Trembling with lust, Lord Gho extended his plump hand to take the Pearl.
Elric smiled and to Anigh's astonishment let the nobleman lift the Pearl from his palm.
Breathing heavily, Lord Gho caressed his prize. "Oh, it is lovely. Oh, it is so good..."
Elric spoke again, just as levelly as before. "And our reward, Lord Gho?"
"What?" He looked up absently. "Why yes, of course. Your lives. You no longer need the antidote, you say. Excellent. So you may go."
"I believe you also offered me a large fortune. All manner of wealth. Great stature amongst the lords of Quarzhasaat?"
Lord Gho dismissed this. "Nonsense. The antidote would have sufficed. You are not the type of person to enjoy such things. Breeding is required if they are to be used wisely and with appropriate discretion. No, no. I will let you and the boy go..."
"You will not keep your original bargain, my lord?"
"There was talk-but no bargain. The only bargain involved the boy's freedom and the antidote to the elixir. You were mistaken."
"You remember nothing of your promises...?"
"Promises? Certainly not." The ringletted beard and hair quivered.
"...and mine?"
"No, no. You are irritating me." His eyes were still upon the Pearl. He fondled it as another might fondle a beloved child. "Go, sir. While I am still pleased with you."
"I have many oaths to fulfill," said Elric, "and I do not break my word."
Lord Gho looked up, his expression hardening. "Very well. I am tired of this. By this evening I shall be a member of the Six and One Other. By threatening me, you threaten the Council. You are therefore enemies of Quarzhasaat. You are traitors to the Empire and must be disposed of accordingly! Guards!"
"Oh, you are a foolish fellow," said Elric. Then Anigh cried out, for unlike Lord Gho, he had not forgotten the power of the Black Sword.
"Do as he demands, Lord Gho!" shouted Anigh, fearing as much for himself as for the nobleman. "I beg you, great lord! Do what he says!"
"This is not how a member of the Council is addressed." Lord Gho's tone was that of a baffled, reasonable individual. "Guards-take them from my hall at once. Have them strangled or cut their throats-I care not..."
The guards knew nothing of the runesword. They saw only a slender man who might have been a leper and they saw a young, defenceless boy. They grinned, as if at a joke of their master's, and then drew their blades, advancing almost casually.
Elric pressed Anigh behind him. His hand went to Stormbringer's hilt. "You are unwise to do this," he told the guards. "I have no particular wish to kill you."
Behind the soldiers one of the servants opened the door and slipped out into the corridor. Elric watched her go. "Best copy her," he said. "She has some idea, I think, of what will happen if you threaten us further..."
The guards laughed openly now. "This is a madman," said one. "Lord Gho is well rid of him!"
They came at Elric in a rush and then the runesword was howling in the cool air of that luxurious chamber-howling like a hungry wolf freed from a cage and longing only to kill and to feed.
Elric felt the power surge through him as the blade took the first guard, splitting him from crown to breastbone. The other tried to change direction from attack to flight, stumbled forward and was impaled on the blade's tip, his eyes horrified as he felt his soul being drawn from him into the runesword.
Lord Gho cringed in his great chair, too frightened to move. In one hand he clutched the great Pearl. His other hand was held palm outward as if he hoped to ward off Elric's blow.
But the albino, strengthened by his borrowed energy, sheathed the black blade and took five quick strides across the hall to mount the dais and stare down into Lord Gho's face, which twisted in terror.
'Take the Pearl back. For my life..." whispered the Quarzhasaati. "For my life, thief..."
Elric accepted the offered jewel, but he did not move. He reached into the pouch at his belt and drew forth a flask of the elixir Lord Gho had given him. "Would you care for something to help you wash it down?"
Lord Gho trembled. Beneath the chalky substance on his skin his face had gone still paler. "I do not understand you, thief."
"I want you to eat the Pearl, my lord. If you can swallow it and live, well, it will be clear that the prophecy of your death was premature."
"Swallow it? It is too large. I could hardly get it into my mouth!" Lord Gho sniggered, hoping that the albino joked.
"No, my lord. I think you can. And I think you can swallow it. After all, how else would it have got into the body of a child?"
"It was-they said it was a-a dream..."
"Aye. Perhaps you can swallow a dream. Perhaps you can enter the Dream Realm and so escape your fate. You must try, my lord, or else my runesword drinks your soul. Which would you prefer?"
"Oh, Elric. Spare me. This is not fair. We made a bargain."
"Open your mouth, Lord Gho. Who knows? The Pearl might shrink or your throat expand like a snake's. A snake could easily swallow the Pearl, my lord. And you, surely, are superior to a snake?"
Anigh whispered from the window where he had been staring with studied gaze, unwilling to look upon a vengeance he regarded as just but distasteful. "The servant, Lord Elric. She has alarmed the city."
For a second a desperate hope came into Lord Gho's green eyes and then faded as Elric placed the flask on the arm of the great chair and drew the runesword part-way from its scabbard. "Your soul will help me fight those new soldiers, Lord Oho."
Slowly, weeping and whimpering, the great Lord of Quarzhasaat began to open his mouth.
"Here is the Pearl again, my lord. Put it in. Do your best, my lord. You have some chance of life this way."
Lord Gho's hand shook. But eventually he began to force the lovely jewel between his reddened lips. Elric took the stopper from the elixir and poured some of the liquid into the nobleman's distorted cheeks. "Now swallow, Lord Gho. Swallow the Pearl you would have slain a child to own. And then I will tell you who I am..."
A few moments later the doors crashed inward and Elric recognised the tattooed face of Manag Iss, leader of the Yellow Sect and kinsman to the Lady Iss. Manag Iss looked from Elric to the distorted features of Lord Gho. The nobleman had failed completely to swallow the Pearl.
Manag Iss shuddered. "Elric. I heard that you had returned. They said you were close to death. Clearly this was a trick to deceive Lord Gho."
"Aye," said Elric. "I had this boy to free."
Manag Iss gestured with his own drawn sword. "You found the Pearl?"
"I found it."
"My Lady Iss sent me to offer you anything you desired for it."
Elric smiled. "Tell her I shall be at the Council Meeting House in half an hour. I shall bring the Pearl with me."
"But the others will be there. She wishes to trade privately."
"Would it not be wise to auction so valuable a thing?" said Elric.
Manag Iss sheathed his sword and smiled a little. "You're
a cunning one. I do not think they know how cunning you are. Nor who you are. I have yet to tell them that particular speculation."
"Oh, you may tell them what I have just told Lord Gho. That I am the hereditary Emperor of Melniboné," said Elric casually. "For that is the truth of the matter. My Empire has survived rather more successfully than yours, I think."
"That could incense them. I am willing to be your friend, Melnibonéan."
"Thanks, Manag Iss, but I need no more friends from Quarzhasaat. Please do as I say."
Manag Iss looked at the slaughtered guards, at the dead Lord Gho, who had turned a strange colour, at the nervous boy, and he saluted Elric.
"The Meeting House in half an hour, Emperor of Melniboné." He turned on his heel and left the chamber.
After issuing certain specific instructions to Anigh concerning travel and the products of Kwan, Elric went out into the courtyard. The sun had set and there were brands burning all over Quarzhasaat as if the city were expecting an attack.
Lord Gho's house was deserted of servants. Elric went to the stables and found his horse and his saddle. He dressed the Baraudi stallion, carefully placing a heavy bundle over the pommel, then he had mounted and was riding through the streets, seeking the Meeting House where Anigh had told him it would be.
The city was unnaturally silent. Clearly some order had been given to uphold a curfew, for there was not even a city guard on the streets.
Elric rode at an easy canter along the wide Avenue of Military Success, along the Boulevard of Ancient Accomplishment and half a dozen other grandiosely named thoroughfares until he saw the long low building ahead of him which, in its simplicity, could only be the seat of Quarzhasaati power.
The albino paused. At his side the black runesword crooned a little, almost demanding a further letting of blood.
"You must be patient," said Elric. "Could be there will be no need for battle."
He thought he saw shadows moving hi the trees and shrubberies around the Meeting House but he paid them no attention. He did not care what they plotted or who spied on him. He had a mission to fulfill.
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