Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [95]
BUGGERLY: “Saved! Rose played for our team all along!”
MM hands the Holy Grail to Quelch. It's made out of the Spammer Gain and all her fishlings. It steams with a rich brew of first-flush Assam tea.
MM: “The machinoix said goodbye. You ordered this …”
QUELCH: “At last! A decent cup of Assam …”
Apparently oblivious of drinking from the Grail, Quelch sips the tea appreciatively …
QUELCH: “Perfection itself!”
QUELCH: “Thanks, pard. You've restored an old man's faith in humanity.”
The table's dead now. They're walking out of the Cafe. It's no longer in Biloxi but in Marrakesh, in the Square of the Dead, where our story began …
QUELCH: “We could be in for a few changes, eh?”
ROSE: “Nothing I won't welcome.”
WALTER: “Marrakesh? Mike, you swore we were going back to Maryland …”
MM: “Don't worry, Walter, the pizza's just as good … and everything in the world's a plane ride away, these days …”
COLINDA: “You'll love it. Best root beer in the multiverse.”
JACK: “Routes? They all lead here.”
They're lounging at a table overlooking the Square. The awning over the café says Cafe Terminale. Quelch still sips with relish from his big cup. The Rose is standing up. The helmet is now sprouting very voluptuously.
ROSE: “Well, pards, I must be going. I have a universe to re-pot.”
QUELCH: “Shall we take my schooner, Rosie?”
She looks at him, grins and winks.
ROSE: “Why not?”
We see Rose and Quelch waving farewell, tiny figures on camels…
ROSE: “By the way, Horace, are you any good at gardening?”
Now there's just the four of them sitting round the table. It's sunset and the palms and mountains glow around a glowing city. Another figure's approaching. At first it seems to be a story-teller from the Square. Then we realize it's Moonglum.
MOONGLUM: “Evenin', pards. I thought I'd find you all here.”
Moonglum sits down at the table, fanning out a deck of cards.
MOONGLUM: “HOW about passing the time in a friendly game of chance?”
DUKE ELRIC
(Ridgway)
EPILOGUE—CLOSE RELATIONS
Normandy, Thursday, 18th December, 1039.
Adistant figure (it's an aged Isaak) approaches a church. Outside, a very aged monk (from Part One) is ringing a bell.
Old Isaak and old monk are now inside the church. We see books and scrolls shelved in the background.
ISAAK: “Duke Elric spoke of you as a friend …”
MONK: “His confessor, at least. Our records show he first came here over two hundred years ago. Raving mad. He claimed to be dreaming himself-—a dream which was to last another thousand years!” (pause) “Too much conscience for a demon, their abbot decided …”
MONK (over flashback)’- “He spoke an unknown language. But slowly they communicated. He'd sought and found that horn—but lacked the courage to return to his homeland with it. The brothers learned no more. Our drugs brought him back to health …”
Close-ups of the two men. Isaak looks astonished. Monk stares into the middle distance as he speaks, remembering this flashback where two other monks are tending a sickly Elric who lies on a bed in a cell, raving…
MONK: “In return, he served our great cause—a knight under the Emperor Charlemagne. They said he was a reincarnation of Roland …”
Elric, in helmet and byrnie and other accoutrements of the period, his red eyes blazing, sits a charging white horse, leading his Charlemagnian soldiers into the thick of the battle.
MONK: “We heard only stories of him …until he returned to claim his sword …”
Another close-up of Isaak and the monk, who still has the haunted look to him as he speaks.
ISAAK: “He had a sister, I heard—?”
MONK: “She wasn't his sister …”
ISAAK: “Then, who—?”
MONK: “It's complicated …”
ISAAK: “Was she not his kin?”
MONK: “Well, you know—he—she …”
ISAAK: “He? She? Which?”
The monk is exasperated, hardly able to blurt out in his confusion what he's trying to say (and doesn't really want to say):
MONK: “She was him. He was her. They were male and female versions of the same person