“True. What aid dost thou now require, Elric of Melniboné?”
“Look upon my plane. Thou wilt see that I am in danger. Canst thou abolish this danger, friend of the Insects?”
Now a filmy shape formed and could be seen as if through several layers of cloudy silk. Elric tried to keep his eyes upon it, but it kept leaving his field of vision and then returning for a few moments. He knew that he looked into another plane of the Earth.
“Canst thou help me, Nnuuurrrr’c’c?”
“Hast thou no patron of thine own species? Some Lord of Chaos who can aid thee?”
“My patron is Arioch and he is a temperamental demon at best. These days he aids me little.”
“Then I must send thee allies, mortal. But call upon me no more when this is done.”
“I shall not summon thee again, Nnuuurrrr’c’c.”
The layers of film disappeared and with them the shape.
The noise of the battle crashed once again on Elric’s consciousness and he heard with sharper clarity than before the screams of the sailors and the hissing of the reptilian savages and when he looked out from his shelter he saw that at least half the crew were dead.
As he came on deck Moonglum rushed up. “I thought you slain, Elric! What became of you?” He was plainly relieved to see his friend still lived.
“I sought aid from another plane—but it does not seem to have materialized.”
“I’m thinking we’re doomed and had best try to swim downstream away from here and seek a hiding place in the jungle,” Moonglum said.
“What of Duke Avan? Is he dead?”
“He lives. But those creatures are all but impervious to our weapons. This ship will sink ere long.” Moonglum lurched as the deck tilted and he reached out to grab a trailing rope, letting his long sword dangle by its wrist-thong. “They are not attacking the stern at present. We can slip into the water there…”
“I made a bargain with Duke Avan,” Elric reminded the Eastlander. “I cannot desert him.”
“Then we’ll all perish!”
“What’s that?” Elric bent his head, listening intently.
“I hear nothing.”
It was a whine which deepened in tone until it became a drone. Now Moonglum heard it also and looked about him, seeking the source of the sound. And suddenly he gasped, pointing upward. “Is that the aid you sought?”
image
There was a vast cloud of them, black against the blue of the sky. Every so often the sun would flash on a colour—a rich blue, green, or red. They came spiraling down towards the ship and now both sides fell silent, staring skyward.
The flying things were like huge dragonflies and the brightness and richness of their colouring was breathtaking. It was their wings which made the droning sound which now began to increase in loudness and heighten in pitch as the huge insects sped nearer.
Realizing that they were the object of the attack the reptile men stumbled backwards on their long legs, trying to reach the shore before the gigantic insects were upon them.
But it was too late for flight.
The dragonflies settled on the savages until nothing could be seen of their bodies. The hissing increased and sounded almost pitiful as the insects bore their victims down to the surface and then inflicted on them whatever terrible death it was. Perhaps they stung with their tails—it was not possible for the watchers to see.
Sometimes a storklike leg would emerge from the water and thrash in the air for a moment. But soon, just as the reptiles were covered by the insect bodies, so were their cries drowned by the strange and blood-chilling humming that arose on all sides.
A sweating Duke Avan, sword still in hand, ran up the deck. “Is this your doing, Prince Elric?”
Elric looked on with satisfaction, but the others were plainly disgusted. “It was,” he said.
“Then I thank you for your aid. This ship is holed in a dozen places and is letting in water at a terrible rate. It’s a wonder we have not yet sunk. I’ve given orders to begin rowing and I hope we make it to the island in time.” He pointed upstream. “There, you can just see it.”
“What if there are more of those savages there?” Moonglum asked.
Avan smiled grimly, indicating the further shore. “Look.” On their peculiar legs a dozen or more of the reptiles were fleeing into the jungle, having witnessed the fate of their comrades. “They’ll be reluctant to attack us again, I think.”
Now the huge dragonflies were rising into the air again and Avan turned away as he glimpsed what they had left behind. “By the gods, you work fierce sorcery, Prince Elric! Ugh!”
Elric smiled and shrugged. “It is effective, Duke Avan.” He sheathed his runesword. It seemed reluctant to enter the scabbard and it moaned as if in resentment.
Moonglum glanced at it. “That blade will want to feast soon, Elric, whether you desire it or not.”
“Doubtless it will find something to feed on in the forest,” said the albino. He stepped over a piece of broken mast and went below.
Moonglum looked at the new scum on the surface of the water and he shuddered.
CHAPTER FOUR
The wrecked schooner was almost awash when the crew clambered overboard with lines and began the task of dragging it up the mud that formed the banks of the island. Before them was a wall of foliage that seemed impenetrable. Moonglum followed Elric, lowering himself into the shallows. They began to wade ashore.
As they left the water and set foot on the hard, baked earth, Moonglum stared at the forest. No wind moved the trees and a peculiar silence had descended. No birds called from the trees, no insects buzzed, there were none of the barks and cries of animals they had heard on their journey upriver.
“Those supernatural friends of yours seem to have frightened more than the savages away,” Moonglum murmured. “This place seems lifeless.”
Elric nodded. “It is strange.”
Duke Avan joined them. He had discarded his finery—ruined in the fight, anyway—and now wore a padded leather jerkin and doeskin breeks. His sword was at his side. “We’ll have to leave most of our men behind with the ship,” he said regretfully. “They’ll make what repairs they can while we press on to find R’lin K’ren A’a.” He drew his light cloak about him. “Is it my imagination, or is there an odd atmosphere?”
“We have already remarked on it,” Moonglum said. “Life seems to have fled the island.”
Duke Avan grinned. “If all we face is as timid, we have nothing further to fear. I must admit, Prince Elric, that if I had wished you harm and then seen you conjure those monsters from thin air, I’d think twice about getting too close to you! Thank you, by the way, for what you did. We should have perished by now if it had not been for you.”
“It was for my aid that you asked me to accompany you,” Elric said wearily. “Let’s eat and rest and then continue with our expedition.”
A shadow passed over Duke Avan’s face then. Something in Elric’s manner had disturbed him.
Entering the jungle was no easy matter. Armed with axes the six members of the crew (all that could be spared) began to hack at the undergrowth. And still the unnatural silence prevailed…
By nightfall they were less than half a mile into the forest and completely exhausted. The forest was so thick that there was barely room to pitch their tent. The only light in the camp came from the small, sputtering fire outside the tent. The crewmen slept where they could in the open.
Elric could not sleep, but now it was not the jungle which kept him awake. He was puzzled by the silence, for he was sure that it was not their presence which had driven all life away. There was not a single small rodent, bird or insect anywhere to be seen. There were no traces of animal life. The island had been deserted by all but vegetation for a long while—perhaps for centuries or tens of centuries. He remembered another part of the old legend of R’lin K’ren A’a. It had been said that when the gods came to meet there not only the citizens fled, but also all the w
ildlife. Nothing had dared see the High Lords or listen to their conversation. Elric shivered, turning his white head this way and that on the rolled cloak that supported it, his crimson eyes tortured. If there were dangers on this island, they would be subtler dangers than those they had faced on the river.
The noise of their passage through the forest was the only sound to be heard on the island as they forced their way on the next morning.
With lodestone in one hand and map in the other, Duke Avan Astran sought to guide them, directing his men where to cut their path. But the going became even slower and it was obvious that no creatures had come this way for many ages.
By the fourth day they had reached a natural clearing of flat volcanic rock and found a spring there. Gratefully they made camp. Elric began to wash his face in the cool water when he heard a yell behind him. He sprang up. One of the crewmen was reaching for an arrow and fitting it to his bow.
“What is it?” Duke Avan called.
“I saw something, my lord!”
“Nonsense, there are no—”
“Look!” The man drew back the string and let fly into the upper terraces of the forest. Something did seem to stir then and Elric thought he saw a flash of grey among the trees.
“Did you see what kind of creature it was?” Moonglum asked the man.
“No, master. I feared at first it was those reptiles again.”
“They’re too frightened to follow us onto this island,” Duke Avan reassured him.
“I hope you’re right,” Moonglum said nervously.
“Then what could it have been?” Elric wondered.
“I—I thought it was a man, master,” the crewman stuttered.
Elric stared thoughtfully into the trees. “A man?”
Moonglum knew his friend well. “You were hoping for this, Elric?”
“I am not sure…”
Duke Avan shrugged. “More likely the shadow of a cloud passing over the trees. According to my calculations we should have reached the city by now.”
“You think, after all, that it does not exist?” Elric said.
“I am beginning not to care, Prince Elric.” The duke leaned against the bole of a huge tree, brushing aside a vine which touched his face. “Still there’s naught else to do. The ship won’t be ready to sail yet.” He looked up into the branches. “I did not think I should miss those damned insects that plagued us on our way here…”
The crewman who had shot the arrow suddenly shouted again. “There! I saw him! It is a man!”
While the others stared but failed to discern anything Duke Avan continued to lean against the tree. “You saw nothing. There is nothing here to see.”
Elric turned towards him. “Give me the map and the lodestone, Duke Avan. I have a feeling I can find the way.”
The Vilmirian shrugged, an expression of doubt on his square, handsome face. He handed the things over to Elric.
They rested the night and in the morning they continued, with Elric leading the way.
And at noon they broke out of the forest and saw the ruins of R’lin K’ren A’a.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nothing grew among the ruins of the city. The streets were broken and the walls of the houses had fallen, but there were no weeds flowering in the cracks and it seemed that the city had but recently been brought down by an earthquake. Only one thing still stood intact, towering over the ruins. It was a gigantic statue of white, grey and green jade—the statue of a naked youth with a face of almost feminine beauty that turned sightless eyes towards the north.
“The eyes!” Duke Avan Astran said. “They’re gone!”
The others said nothing as they stared at the statue and the ruins surrounding it. The area was relatively small and the buildings had had little decoration. The inhabitants seemed to have been a simple, well-to-do folk—totally unlike the Melnibonéans of the Bright Empire. Elric could not believe that the people of R’lin K’ren A’a had been his ancestors. They had been too sane.
“The statue’s already been looted,” Duke Avan continued. “Our damned journey’s been in vain!”
Elric laughed. “Did you really think you would be able to prise the Jade Man’s eyes from their sockets, my lord?”
The statue was as tall as any tower of the Dreaming City and the head alone must have been the size of a reasonably large building. Duke Avan pursed his lips and refused to listen to Elric’s mocking voice. “We may yet find the journey worth our while,” he said. “There were other treasures in R’lin K’ren A’a. Come…”
He led the way into the city.
Very few of the buildings were even partially standing, but they were nonetheless fascinating if only for the peculiar nature of their building materials, which were of a kind the travelers had never seen before.
The colours were many, but faded by time—soft reds and yellows and blues—and they flowed together to make almost infinite combinations.
Elric reached out to touch one wall and was surprised at the cool feel of the smooth material. It was neither stone nor wood nor metal. Perhaps it had been brought here from another plane?
He tried to visualize the city as it had been before it was deserted. The streets had been wide, there had been no surrounding wall, the houses had been low and built around large courtyards. If this was, indeed, the original home of his people, what had happened to change them from the peaceful citizens of R’lin K’ren A’a to the insane builders of Imrryr’s bizarre and dreaming towers? Elric had thought he might find a solution to a mystery here, but instead he had found another mystery. It was his fate, he thought, shrugging to himself.
And then the first crystal disc hummed past his head and smashed against a collapsing wall.
The next disc split the skull of a crewman and a third nicked Moonglum’s ear before they had thrown themselves flat amongst the rubble.
“They’re vengeful, those creatures,” Avan said with a hard smile. “They’ll risk much to pay us back for their comrades’ deaths!”
Terror was on the face of each surviving crewman and fear had begun to creep into Avan’s eyes.
More discs clattered nearby, but it was plain that the party was temporarily out of sight of the reptiles. Moonglum coughed as white dust rose from the rubble and caught in his throat.
“You’d best summon those monstrous allies of yours again, Elric.”
Elric shook his head. “I cannot. My ally said he would not serve me a second time.” He looked to his left where the four walls of a small house still stood. There seemed to be no door, only a window.
“Then call Arioch,” Moonglum said urgently. “Anything.”
“Arioch? I am not sure…”
Then Elric rolled over and sprang for the shelter, flinging himself through the window to land on a pile of masonry which grazed his hands and knees.
He staggered upright. In the distance he could see the huge blind statue of the god dominating the city. This was said to be an image of Arioch—though it resembled no image of Arioch Elric had ever seen manifested. Did that image protect R’lin K’ren A’a—or did it threaten it? Someone screamed. He glanced through the opening and saw that a disc had landed and chopped through a man’s forearm.
He drew Stormbringer and raised it, facing the jade statue.
“Arioch!” he cried. “Arioch—aid me!”
Black light burst from the blade and it began to sing, as if joining in Elric’s incantation.
“Arioch!”
Would the demon come? Of late the patron of the kings of Melniboné refused to materialize, claiming that more urgent business called him—business concerning the eternal struggle between Law and Chaos.
“Arioch!”
Sword and man were now wreathed in a palpitating black mist and Elric’s white face was flung back, seeming to writhe as the mist writhed.
“Arioch! I beg thee to aid me! It is Elric who calls thee!”
And then a voice reached his ears. It was a soft, purring, reasonable v
oice. It was a tender voice.
“Elric, I am fondest of thee. I love thee more than any other mortal—but aid thee I cannot—not yet.”
Elric cried desperately: “Then we are doomed to perish here!”
“Thou canst escape this danger. Flee alone into the forest. Leave the others while thou hast time. Thou hast a destiny to fulfill elsewhere and elsewhen…”
“I will not desert them.”
“Thou art foolish, sweet Elric.”
“Arioch—since Melniboné’s founding thou hast aided her kings. Aid her last king this day!”
“I cannot dissipate my energies. A great struggle looms. And it would cost me much to return to R’lin K’ren A’a. Flee now. Thou shalt be saved. Only the others will die.”
And then the Duke of Hell had gone. Elric sensed the passing of his presence. He frowned, fingering his belt pouch, trying to recall something he had once heard. Slowly, he resheathed the reluctant sword. Then there was a thump and Moonglum stood panting before him.
“Well, is aid on the way?”
“I fear not.” Elric shook his head in despair. “Once again Arioch refuses me. Once again he speaks of a greater destiny—a need to conserve his strength.”
“Your ancestors could have picked a more tractable demon as their patron. Our reptilian friends are closing in. Look…” Moonglum pointed to the outskirts of the city. A band of about a dozen stilt-legged creatures were advancing, their huge clubs at the ready.
There was a scuffling noise from the rubble on the other side of the wall and Avan appeared, leading his men through the opening. He was cursing.
“No extra aid is coming, I fear,” Elric told him.
The Vilmirian smiled grimly. “Then the monsters out there knew more than did we!”
“It seems so.”
“We’ll have to try to hide from them,” Moonglum said without much conviction. “We’d not survive a fight.”
The little party left the ruined house and began to inch its way through what cover it could find, moving gradually nearer to the centre of the city and the statue of the Jade Man.
A sharp hiss from behind them told them that the reptile warriors had sighted them again and another Vilmirian fell with a crystal disc protruding from his back. They broke into a panicky run.
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