Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [80]
MUSTAPHA: “Think of the tale! I must be the only captain in the Middle Sea to meet the Rose and live!”
Down in their cabin, which they share, Elric and Isaak check that their goods are still all there. Elric's sword, shield and horn are there. Isaacs various bags. But Isaak looks up, puzzled.
ELRIC: “Nothing touched, it seems!”
ISAAK: “Where's the carpet?”
Elric and Isaak have searched the whole cabin. The carpet is gone.
ELRIC: “Stolen! That was what she sought!”
ISAAK: “Our map? She has our map? But why? And how did she know?”
Close-up of Elric and Isaak as the moon finally sinks on the horizon. Everything becomes silvery, especially Elric…
ELRIC: “I'd guess that pair, like me, seeks the Silverskin.”
ISAAK: “And have a better chance than we do of finding it!”
Close-up of Elric staring moodily into an uncertain future.
ELRIC: “Perhaps.”
Mustapha shouts from above:
MUSTAPHA: “Get the hatches battened! There's a storm to larb'rd and she's coming up fast!”
PART FOUR
SOUL IN THE IRON
Mediterranean. Thursday, 26th June, 1000 AD.
Elric, Isaak, Rebecca and Mustapha the Goth are tiny figures aboard their ship as crashing waves descend on them, lightning rends the midnight black and we get a full-strength sturm und drang. Ah, Pathetic Mortals so weak before the Mighty Power of Nature.
Elric on deck realizes his peril and turns to dash towards his cabin.
ELRIC: “Stormbringer!”
Elric fails to reach his sword, shield, etc.
A single great wave descends on the ship and smashes it! All know they are doomed.
And they're in the water, sinking fast in all directions.
Elric begins to drown—in his head he calls a name:
As Elric drowned he called an alien name—
ELRIC: “Stra-aaa-aaa-sha-a-a-a-”
Once it might have invoked a demigod—now it summons only a million memories …
As Elric sinks he is surrounded by all his memories—bizarre landscapes and peoples, bizarre beasts and battles—(if you have any Russell or Gilbert Elric comics those might refresh your memory.)
The panorama of a somewhat over-active life swims before him.
Elric fades…
ELRIC (thinks): “All that was familiar is gone for ever—all that was vivid has faded—it's best I finish like this…”
Next thing he knows Elric is waking up on the beach. Rebecca appears to have given him the kiss of life. She is fastening back her heavy veil. Isaak is there with a potion in a goblet.
ISAAK: “Everything's gone except—by God's grace—my wisdom! My books and medicines were washed ashore.”
ELRIC: “The sword …”
Isaak is not entirely unhappy that the runesword does mumble nearby.
ISAAK: “On the bottom, I fear, with everything—and everyone—else.”
Elric is reconciled to his doom.
ELRIC: “Then I'm doomed.”
Isaak cheerful and trying to cheer Elric up—
ISAAK: “Believe me, you'll feel better if you drink this.”
As Elric reluctantly drinks, Isaak speaks but is interrupted by a yell from up the beach where they see a mounted Mustapha the Goth.
ISAAK: “Our main dilemma is that we're completely lost—”
MUSTAPHA: “By Allah! My prayers are answered! The infidels live!”
And Mustapha has companions—a bunch of heavily armed and armoured Berber warriors, magnificent in their barbaric silver and mother-of-pearl. These handsome, aquiline Berbers have no Arab blood to speak of. Their pale skins are darkened by the sun. These are members of one of the huge tribes making up the Fatimid alliance. Their long spears and small round shields on their backs, they look down arrogantly on the companions. Mustapha indicates them as he speaks to his new pals—
MUSTAPHA: “These are the friends I feared dead! Victims, like me, of Almoravid oppression …”
One of the riders takes Rebecca on his saddle and another takes Isaacs box. With some difficulty Elric rises. He almost falls—
—but Mustapha, seeing something wrong, kindly leans to offer him an arm—
MUSTAPHA: “Almost dead, eh? Come on, Your Dukeship. You can ride with me.”
As they ride in the wake of the rest of the party, Mustapha winks at Elric and tells him