Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [101]
He thought he saw shadows moving in the trees and shrubberies around the Meeting House but he paid them no attention. He did not care what they plotted or who spied on him. He had a mission to fulfill.
At last he had reached the doors of the building and was not surprised to find them standing open. He dismounted, threw the bundle over his shoulder and walked heavily into a large, plain room, without decoration or ostentation, in which were placed seven tall-backed chairs and a lime-washed oak table. Standing in a semi-circle at one end of the table were six robed figures wearing veils not unlike certain sects of the Sorcerer Adventurers. The seventh figure wore a tall, conical hat which completely covered the face. It was this figure who spoke. Elric was not unsurprised to hear a woman’s tones.
“I am the Other,” she said. “I believe you have brought us a treasure to add to the glory of Quarzhasaat.”
“If you believe this treasure to add to your glory then my journey has not been fruitless,” said Elric. He dropped the bundle to the ground. “Did Manag Iss tell you all I asked him to tell you?”
One of the Councilors stirred and said, almost as an oath: “That you are the progeny of sunken Melniboné, aye!”
“Melniboné is not sunken. Nor does she cut herself off from the world’s realities quite as much as do you.” Elric was contemptuous. “You challenged our power long ago, and defeated yourselves by your own folly. Now through your greed you have brought me back to Quarzhasaat when I would as readily have passed through your city unnoticed.”
“Do you accuse us!” A veiled woman was outraged. “You who have caused us so much trouble? You, who are of the blood of that degenerate unhuman race which couples with beasts for its pleasure and produces—” she pointed at Elric—”the likes of you!”
Elric was unmoved. “Did Manag Iss tell you to be wary of me?” he asked quietly.
“He said you had the Pearl and that you had a sorcerous sword. But he also said you were alone.” The Other cleared her throat. “He said you brought the Pearl at the Heart of the World.”
“I have brought it and that which contains it,” said Elric. He bent down and tugged the velvet free of his bundle to reveal the corpse of Lord Gho Fhaazi, his face still contorted, the great lump in his throat making it seem as if he had an enormously enlarged adam’s apple. “Here is the one who first commissioned me to find the Pearl.”
“We heard you had murdered him,” said the Other with disapproval. “But that would be a normal enough action for a Melnibonéan.”
Elric did not rise to this. “The Pearl is in Lord Gho Fhaazi’s gullet. Would you have me cut it out for you, my nobles?”
He saw at least one of them shudder and he smiled. “You commission assassins to kill, to torture, to kidnap and to perform all other forms of evil in your name, but you would not see a little spilled blood? I gave Lord Gho a choice. He took this one. He talked so much and ate and drank so copiously I thought he might well have succeeded in getting the Pearl into his stomach. But he gagged a little and I fear that was the end of him.”
“You are a cruel rogue!” One of the men came forward to look at his would-be colleague. “Aye, that’s Gho. His colour has improved, I’d say.”
This jest did not meet with the leader’s approval.
“We are to bid for a corpse, then?”
“Unless you wish to cut the Pearl free, aye.”
“Manag Iss,” said one of the veiled women, lifting her head. “Step out, will you, sir?”
The Sorcerer Adventurer emerged from a door at the back of the hall. He looked at Elric almost apologetically. His hand went to his knife.
“We would not have a Melnibonéan spill more Quarzhasaati blood,” said the Other. “Manag Iss will cut the Pearl free.”
The leader of the Yellow Sect drew a deep breath and then approached the corpse. Swiftly he did what he had been ordered to do. Blood poured down his arm as he held up the Pearl at the Heart of the World.
The Council was impressed. Several of the members gasped and they murmured