Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [117]
The startled Germans swung round, staring into the barrel of LeBec's serviceable Hachette.38. They looked from him to Klosterheim to Mrs. Persson. Only the woman found some amusement in this reversal, yet she did not move either to comply or to resist.
At LeBec's demand, Captain Hess drew his elaborate, ornamental dagger from the scabbard at his belt and cut the ropes binding the metatemporal detectives. Reluctantly, he returned their weapons. Hess's deep-set eyes were dreamy, as if he believed himself the victim of an hallucination. Constantly his gaze returned to the great scintillating scales adjusting gently in constant balance, their movement continuing to create the deep booming, the heartbeat of the multiverse.
Klosterheim snarled. “Do you think you can defeat my plans now merely by turning the tables on my servants?” And without warning, arms outstretched, he rushed at Hess and pushed the startled Nazi to the edge of the moonbeam road. Before the detectives could reach him, he shoved again, and this time Hess's awkward arms flailed as he fought to keep his balance. He reached towards Klosterheim, yelling something unintelligible, and then fell backwards.
They all watched him drop, spinning and waving, like a scarecrow, falling, falling, down towards the Balance, passing the swaying beam until he hung frozen in the pulsing light rising from one of the cups. They heard him scream, a high-pitched and terrible noise, and when he had disappeared momentarily into the light, the cup suddenly flared scarlet.
Klosterheim stepped to the edge and watched with an air of satisfaction. “A sign of my good faith, I hope.”
Colonel Hitler swore in German. “You bastard! You killed him. You killed my closest friend!”
Klosterheim shrugged. “It is perhaps disputable that he's actually dead, but my master needs blood and souls.” He shrugged then. “The Grail—”
“That thing is not the Grail!” growled Rohm. “There cannot be two grails!”
Now Klosterheim smiled openly. “Not in your mythology, perhaps. But one cup holds the stuff of Chaos, the other holds the stuff of Law. That is what regulates the multiverse. Combined they become the Balance, but remain in constant conflict.”
Still cursing Klosterheim, the Nazi colonel reached down and picked up his fallen Luger. In one movement he pointed and pulled the trigger, firing shot after shot into the mocking figure. Again came that cold, humourless chuckle, as Klosterheim spread his arms and looked down at his unwounded body. “I am not so easily killed, you see, Colonel Hitler. How can you take away the soul of a man who does not have one?”
Still Una Persson did not move. She seemed to be waiting for something, perhaps to watch the opposed groups destroy one another. Yet enigmatic amusement continued to glow in her indigo eyes.
Only when Rohm retrieved his own automatic pistol and pointed it at her did her expression change. Begg was sure, eternal though she might be, that she was not invulnerable.
“Arioch! Ariochl Aid me now!” called Klosterheim in that leaden voice which seemed to deaden the air it filled.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Old Souls
Begg knew he could not kill Klosterheim easily and that the Nazis would soon return their attention to the detectives. He raised his Webley and, taking careful aim, shot Rohm between the eyes. The captain's expression changed from anger to surprise, and then he, too, lost his footing and fell, his body spinning rapidly downwards then stopping suddenly, as if in the grip of some powerful magnetic force which held him spreadeagled and screaming silently in space above the Balance.
Another shot. This time it was Lapointe who sent Captain Goering into the void to hang in the air immediately above the cup which held the weight of Chaos.
“No!” cried Una Persson suddenly. “No! Don't kill them! Not yet! You don't know what you're doing. There is a plan—”
But Begg had no choice, for the malevolent clubfooted Goebbels screamed something about betrayal and turned his gun on her. The Webley's bullet found