Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [70]
Duke Avan writhed. “Elric! What treachery do you …?” He screamed. “Ah, no!”
He jerked. “Please …”
He quivered. “My soul…”
He died.
Elric withdrew the sword and cut the crewman down as he ran to his master's aid. The action had been without thought.
“Now Arioch has his blood and his souls,” he said coldly. “Let Arioch come!”
Smiorgan and the Creature Doomed to Live had retreated, staring at the possessed Elric in horror. The albino's face was cruel.
“LET ARIOCH COME!”
“I am here, Elric.”
Elric whirled and saw that something stood in the shadow of the statue's legs—a shadow within a shadow.
“Arioch—thou must return to this manifestation and make it leave R'lin K'ren A'a forever.”
“I do not choose to, Elric.”
“Then I must command thee, Duke Arioch.”
“Command? Only he who possesses the Image in the Gem may command Arioch—and then only once.”
“I have the Image in the Gem.” Elric held up the tiny object. “See.”
The shadow within a shadow swirled for a moment as if in anger.
“If I obey your command, you will set in motion a chain of events which you might not desire,” Arioch said, speaking suddenly in Low Melnibonean as if to give extra gravity to his words.
“Then let it be. I command you to enter the Jade Man and pick up its eyes so that it might walk again. Then I command you to leave here and take the curse of the High Ones with you.”
Arioch replied, “When the Jade Man ceases to guard the place where the High Ones meet, then the great struggle of the Upper Worlds begins on this plane.”
“I command thee, Arioch. Go into the Jade Man!”
“You are an obstinate creature, Elric.”
“Go!” Elric raised Stormbringer. It seemed to sing in monstrous glee and it seemed at that moment to be more powerful than Arioch himself, more powerful than all the Lords of the Higher Worlds.
The ground shook. Fire suddenly blazed around the form of the great statue. The shadow within a shadow disappeared.
And the Jade Man stooped.
Its great bulk bent over Elric and its hands reached past him and it groped for the two crystals that lay on the ground. Then it found them and took one in each hand, straightening its back.
Elric stumbled towards the far corner of the square where Smiorgan and J'osui C'reln Reyr already crouched in terror.
A fierce light now blazed from the Jade Man's eyes and the jade lips parted.
“It is done, Elric!” said a huge voice.
J'osui C'reln Reyr began to sob.
“Then go, Arioch.”
“I go. The curse is lifted from R'lin K'ren A'a and from J'osui C'reln Reyr—but a greater curse now lies upon your whole plane.”
“What is this, Arioch? Explain yourself!” Elric cried.
“Soon you will have your explanation. Farewell!”
The enormous legs of jade moved suddenly and in a single step had cleared the ruins and had begun to crash through the jungle. In a moment the Jade Man had disappeared.
Then the Creature Doomed to Live laughed. It was a strange joy that he voiced. Smiorgan blocked his ears.
“And now!” shouted J'osui C'reln Reyr. “Now your blade must take my life. I can die at last!”
Elric passed his hand across his face. He had hardly been aware of any of the recent events. “No,” he said in a dazed tone. “I cannot…”
And Stormbringer flew from his hand—flew to the body of the Creature Doomed to Live and buried itself in its chest.
And as he died, J'osui C'reln Reyr laughed. He fell to the ground and his lips moved. A whisper came from them. Elric stepped nearer to hear.
“The sword has my knowledge now. My burden has left me.”
The eyes closed.
J'osui C'reln Reyr's ten-thousand-year life-span had ended.
Weakly, Elric withdrew Stormbringer and sheathed it. He stared down at the body of the Creature Doomed to Live and then he looked up, questioningly, at Smiorgan.
The burly sea-lord turned away.
The sun began to rise. Grey dawn came. Elric watched the corpse of J'osui C'reln Reyr turn to powder that was stirred by the wind and mixed with the dust of the ruins. He walked back across the square to where Duke Avan's