Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [22]
“Agak,” growled Ashnar the Lynx, his eyes narrowing. “At last some sign that the sorcerer is here!”
The others had all crowded in, to stand as far away from the pool as possible, but all stared, fascinated by the variety of the shapes forming and disintegrating in the viscous liquid.
“I WEAKEN… MY ENERGY NEEDS TO BE REPLENISHED …WE MUST BEGIN NOW, AGAK… IT TOOK US SO LONG TO REACH THIS PLACE. I THOUGHT I COULD REST. BUT THERE IS DISEASE HERE. IT FILLS MY BODY. AGAK. AWAKEN, AGAK AWAKEN!”
“Some servant of Agak's, charged with the defense of the chamber?” suggested Hown Serpent-tamer in a small voice.
But Elric continued to stare into the pool as he began, he thought, to realize the truth.
“Will Agak wake?” Brut said. “Will he come?” He glanced nervously around him.
“Agak!” called Ashnar the Lynx. “Coward!”
“Agak!” cried many of the other warriors, brandishing their swords.
But Elric said nothing and he noted, too, that Hawkmoon and Corum and Erekose all remained silent. He guessed that they must be filled with the same dawning understanding.
He looked at them. In Erekose's eyes he saw an agony, a pity both for himself and his comrades.
“We are the Four Who Are One,” said Erekose. His voice shook.
Elric was seized by an alien impulse, an impulse which disgusted and terrified him. “No …” He attempted to sheathe Stormbringer, but the sword refused to enter its scabbard.
“AGAK! QUICKLY!” said the voice from the pool.
“If we do not do this thing,” said Erekose, “they will eat all our worlds. Nothing will remain.”
Elric put his free hand to his head. He swayed upon the edge of that frightful pool. He moaned.
“We must do it, then.” Corum's voice was an echo.
“I will not,” said Elric. “I am myself.”
“And I!” said Hawkmoon.
But Corum Jhaelen Irsei said, “It is the only way for us, for the single thing that we are. Do you not see that? We are the only creatures of our worlds who possess the means of slaying the sorcerers—in the only manner in which they can be slain!”
Elric looked at Corum, at Hawkmoon, at Erekose, and again he saw something of himself in all of them.
“We are the Four Who Are One,” said Erekose. “Our united strength is greater than the sum. We must come together, brothers. We must conquer here before we can hope to conquer Agak.”
“No …” Elric moved away, but somehow he found himself standing at a corner of the bubbling, noxious pool from which the voice still murmured and complained, in which shapes still formed, re-formed and faded. And at each of the other three corners stood one of his companions. All had a set, fatalistic look to them.
The warriors who had accompanied the four drew back to the walls. Otto Blendker and Brut of Lashmar stood near the doorway, listening for anything which might come up the passage to the chamber. Ashnar the Lynx fingered the brand at his belt, a look of pure horror on his rugged features.
Elric felt his arm begin to rise, drawn upward by his sword, and he saw that each of his three companions were also lifting their swords. The swords reached out across the pool and their tips met above the exact centre.
Elric yelled as something entered his being. Again he tried to break free, but the power was too strong. Other voices spoke in his head.
“I understand…” This was Corum's distant murmur. “It is the only way.”
“Oh, no, no …” And this was Hawkmoon, but the words came from Elric's lips.
‘AGAK!’ cried the pool. The stuff became more agitated, more alarmed. “AGAK! QUICKLY! WAKE!”
Elric's body began to shake, but his hand kept a firm hold upon the sword. The atoms of his body flew apart and then united again into a single flowing entity which traveled up the blade of the sword towards the apex. And Elric was still Elric, shouting with the terror of it, sighing with the ecstasy of it.
Elric was still Elric when he drew away from the pool and looked upon himself for a single moment, seeing himself wholly joined with his three other selves.
A being hovered over the pool. On each side of its head was a face and each face belonged to one