Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [65]
“Aye—but it's cryptic enough. It says: ‘If thou hast come to slay me, then thou art welcome. If thou hast come without the means to awaken the Jade Man, then begone …’”
“Is it addressed to us, I wonder,” Avan mused, “or has it been there for a long while?”
Elric shrugged. “It could have been inscribed at any time during the past ten thousand years …”
Smiorgan walked up to the wall and reached out to touch it. “I would say it was fairly recent,” he said. “The paint still being wet.”
Elric frowned. “Then there are inhabitants here still. Why do they not reveal themselves?”
“Could those reptiles out there be the denizens of R'lin K'ren Aa?” Avan said. “There is nothing in the legends that says they were humans who fled this place …”
Elric's face clouded and he was about to make an angry reply when Smiorgan interrupted.
“Perhaps there is just one inhabitant. Is that what you are thinking, Elric? The Creature Doomed to Live? Those sentiments could be his …”
Elric put his hands to his face and made no reply.
“Come,” Avan said. “We've no time to debate on legends.” He strode across the floor and entered another doorway, beginning to descend steps. As he reached the bottom they heard him gasp.
The others joined him and saw that he stood on the threshold of another hall. But this one was ankle-deep in fragments of stuff that had been thin leaves of a metallic material which had the flexibility of parchment. Around the walls were thousands of small holes, rank upon rank, each with a character painted over it.
“What is it?” Smiorgan asked.
Elric stooped and picked up one of the fragments. This had half a Melnibonean character engraved on it. There had even been an attempt to obliterate this.
“It was a library,” he said softly. “The library of my ancestors. Someone has tried to destroy it. These scrolls must have been virtually indestructible, yet a great deal of effort has gone into making them indecipherable.” He kicked at the fragments. “Plainly our friend—or friends—is a consistent hater of learning.”
“Plainly,” Avan said bitterly. “Oh, the value of those scrolls to the scholar! All destroyed!”
Elric shrugged. “To limbo with the scholar—their value to me was quite considerable!”
Smiorgan put a hand on his friend's arm and Elric shrugged it off. “I had hoped …”
Smiorgan cocked his bald head. “Those reptiles have followed us into the building, by the sound of it.”
They heard the distant sound of strange footsteps in the passages behind them.
The little band of men moved as silently as they could through the ruined scrolls and crossed the hall until they entered another corridor which led sharply upward.
Then, suddenly, daylight was visible.
Elric peered ahead. “The corridor has collapsed ahead of us and is blocked, by the look of it. The roof has caved in and we may be able to escape through the hole.”
They clambered upward over the fallen stones, glancing warily behind them for signs of their pursuers.
At last they emerged in the central square of the city. On the far sides of this square were placed the feet of the great statue, which now towered high above their heads.
Directly before them were two peculiar constructions which, unlike the rest of the buildings, were completely whole. They were domed and faceted and were made of some glasslike substance which diffracted the rays of the sun.
From below they heard the reptile men advancing down the corridor.
“We'll seek shelter in the nearest of those domes,” Elric said. He broke into a trot, leading the way.
The others followed him through the irregularly shaped opening at the base of the dome.
Once inside, however, they hesitated, shielding their eyes and blinking heavily as they tried to discern their way.
“It's like a maze of mirrors!” Smiorgan gasped. “By the gods, I've never seen a better. Was that its function, I wonder.”
Corridors seemed to go off in all directions—yet they might be nothing more than reflections of the passage they were in. Cautiously Elric began to continue further into the maze, the five others following him.
“This smells