Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [77]
The seller turns towards his piled stock behind him reaching his hand towards a certain carpet whose patterns will be significant to us later…
SELLER: “Even a—magic carpet?”
Elric shows open skepticism at this.
ELRIC: “Magic? Now what magic can a carpet work?”
Isaak joins him at the stall. He can't believe Elric seems to be falling for the man's scam …
ISAAK: “You're falling for the oldest line in Arabia!”
ELRIC: “HOW much?”
SELLER: “For such a carpet I must ask a thousand dirham.”
ELRIC: “But it is only worth a ten to me …”
And so the long bargaining began …
Night. Cordova. The Bazaar. Isaak is even more disbelieving as darkness settles in, the street lights are lit, the activities of the evening begin, and still Elric bargains …
ISAAK: “It's the ugliest carpet I've ever seen! At least look at something with a bit of elegance to it…”
ELRIC: “I've taken pity on it. Twenty—and five for your inventive story …”
SELLER: “If I sell for less than a hundred my children will starve.”
ELRIC: “Then fly them on the carpet to where there is food!”
At last a bargain is struck-Money changes hands and everyone seems satisfied. Elric has the carpet over his shoulder. Isaak looks thoroughly disgusted.
SELLER: “YOU have a great bargain, sir.”
ELRIC: “Time will tell, my friend. Thanks.”
ISAAK: “Magic carpet? Bah! It's the work of a crazed spider!”
At the caravanserai where they would spend the night…
It's an opulent caravanserai (a place where travelers can be under cover, water their beasts, cook their food and so on) with all mod. cons. Ostlers care for the beasts and there are women who cook. Elric, Isaak and Rebecca purchase plates of “tajin” (stew named after the pot it's cooked in) with kus-kus from one of these stalls. Elric still has the carpet over his shoulder.
ISAAK: “I took you for a man of sophistication! Then you behave like a foolish tourist! That carpet is trash!”
ELRIC (smiling): “It's worth all I own.”
In a quiet corner of the caravanserai, where red-gold firelight casts deep shadows, Elric opens up the carpet and, with an ornamental brass lamp in his hand, shows Isaak what they actually have. The markings incorporate the eight arrows of Chaos, but more as geographical markings in this case. Everything radiates out from a centre and there are words woven into the fabric, in à language that is neither Arabic nor Latin, nor Greek-The carpet incorporates in its central circular panel a complicated (for the eleventh century) map. Around the edge are rather crude zodiacal signs, perhaps imitated from Persian work. Isaacs eyes widen as he begins to understand what Elric has bought… Even Rebecca shows interest.
ISAAK: “A map! But the language is gibberish!”
ELRIC: “Not to me. This could lead us to King Silverskin.”
As usual with maps of the day, Jerusalem lay at the centre …
A better look at the map. Where we'll be going will be towards the rich and independent kingdoms of Timbuktu, Ghana (not the same Ghana) and perhaps Mali before we reach our city even further into the African hinterland. The language is a corrupted form of Melnibonean, with Anglo-Saxon additions. Elric points at the place they seek-
ELRIC: “T'aan-al-Oorn, City of the Silverskin—and, legend says, source of all Africa's treasure, the richest city in the world.”
Isaak looks at Elric with a new admiration. Rebecca's interest in the albino also increases. Elric glances down as he replies to Isaak.
ISAAK: “So it's treasure you seek!”
ELRIC: “You could call it that.”
Isaak embraces Elric, kissing him. Elric's a little sardonic.
ISAAK: “God has been good to us—we thought you a demon, but you reveal yourself as an angel!”
ELRIC: “You're a prudent man, Sir Isaak. Why not reserve your judgment of me until we find the Silverskin?”
Cordova's luxuries behind them, they came eventually to one of the ancient Pillars of Hercules, the great rock of Jebel-al-Tarik, where a Moor could stand and see his mother country with the naked eye. Here, less water separated