Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [86]
ELRIC AND HIS companions had come at last to the legendary Valley of the Phoorn …
Our travelers can now see the first of the great pyramids, each as huge as the Great Pyramid of Giza and topped by the peculiar “crown.” The object of this page and the next two is to show the extraordinary scale of the pyramids. Already the riders are dwarfed—and they are nowhere near the first pyramid.
REBECCA: “The capital of the great Phoorn lords who were banished from Egypt ten thousand years ago …”
ISAAK: “And built their empire when the Sahara was green …”
ELRIC: “And knew the real purpose of the pyramids …”
The pyramids stretch as far as the eye can see. It's crucial to get the sense of scale. Most are of roughly the same gigantic size, but there are a few smaller ones set beside the larger ones, as at Giza. Each one is topped by the remains (in different states of decay) of the metal-and-leather “crowns.” They march in orderly ranks the length and breadth of the long, shallow valley. In comparison, the figures of our protagonists in the foreground are tiny. Perhaps a suggestion of the huge skeletons and remains we'll see later.
ISAAK: “Holy Abraham! What is it? A titan's necropolis?”
ELRIC: “Not a necropolis, Sir Isaak. At least not originally—but you might call it a dormitory.”
LBG: “Our legends speak of the Phoorn as witch-folk, shape-changers who consorted with snakes and crocodiles. All feared them, but none ever saw their capital …”
ELRIC: “Their capital, Qu'of, perished in a single catastrophic moment. It took far longer for the inhabitants of this place to die …My folk and the Phoorn share common blood.”
The companions ride closer to the pyramids now. They are totally dwarfed by the nearest structures. Suggestion of dragon skulls and bones buried in the surrounding sand. Elric tells a little more of the story of the Phoorn. Isaak marvels.
ISAAK: “Hard to believe these structures were made by men!”
ELRIC: “If you call the Phoorn ‘men.’ They built these pyramids with their own hands—to honour the folk with whom they shared their power …And who were also called the Phoorn … A fruitful symbiosis while Qu'of ruled the lushest part of the continent…”
Elric continues talking as they ride past a huge reptilian ribcage.
ELRIC: “But her farmers took too much and gave back too little, until—almost in an instant—the earth turned to dust—forests, fields and orchards became an endless waste of sand …which covered everything except this valley—leaving the ancient Phoorn without help, foraging further and further for food …and slowly falling into a sleep of centuries …and from sleep into death …”
ISAAK: “NO doubt these are their monuments. Do any still live?”
ELRIC: “I doubt it…”
LBG: “The gods be thanked. Theirs was an evil empire maintained by unnatural sorcery and foul alliances with the underworld …”
Inset of Elric raising a sardonic eyebrow.
ELRIC: “Indeed?”
Suddenly, to Elric's astonishment, the faintest whiff of sulphur …
Alerted by the smell of sulphur, Elric looks up.
A great dragon skull could be in the foreground here as they ride under the shadow of a pyramid from near the top of which will come the voice of the unseen dragon who rests on the pyramids—they are dragon “beds” or “thrones”—using the “crown” for their long jaws and unfolding their wings down the sides of the pyramid. Elric is half-turning at the sound of a voice, perhaps the faintest drift of vapour, from above and is looking upward to the top of the pyramid for the source. There is a softness, a pleasure to Elric's surprise. Their horses now show some agitation. Lo-bin-Gha looks distinctly unhappy with the situation.
ELRIC: “Is that you, old friend …?”
A hint of the dragon—perhaps a pyramid “throne” seen past Elric's head…
VOICE: “I have waited, master. I have waited ten thousand years, and now at last you have cornel”
PART NINE
IMPROBABLE MEETINGS
Deep Sahara. September, 1000 AD. A ten-thousand-year reunion …
The face of a dragon who is at least thirty thousand years old and has