Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [114]
YYRKOON (glowering): “I was too crude. Strong sorcery protects my puny cousin. Now I know how and where to defeat him!”
BOOK TWO
THE DREAM OF TWO YEARS:
THE DREAM OF WATER
THE SEA-KING’S SISTER
CHAPTER ONE
Return of the Prince
NOW IMRRYR, the Dreaming City, stands at a node of the moonbeam roads.
Here the roads cross and re-cross the multiverse, taking travelers to worlds of every kind, all versions of our own.
Some worlds are substantial, others barely formed, the ghosts of realms unborn, of dying worlds and worlds who owe their existence only to our dreams.
Back and forth go the travelers on the moonbeam roads, making and destroying worlds, inhabiting dreams and desires, making real that which was unreal. Powerful dreams. Dreams of power. Of deep longing and wild desire.
Would one of these worlds, including our own, exist beyond our dreams? If we stopped dreaming would they fade into nothing? Would we fade with them?
Even old Tanglebones, administering the dream couch of his young master, the Sorcerer Prince Elric, dare not ask that question …
Meanwhile, Elric embarks on the second of his great dream-quests whose outcome will bring him enormous power and decide the fate of the multiverse, should, that is, it exist at all …
A panorama of Melniboné at the centre of a criss-crossing network of the roads between the worlds. A sort of reprise of the moonbeam road sequence in Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse. Elric, on his dream couch, sleeps and there is a suggestion that this is what he dreams … The black crow we have seen in the first book flies between Elric and the dream roads…
Tanglebones and Cymoril walk together in a hanging garden overlooking the harbour of Melniboné.
CYMORIL: “He’s changing, Master Tanglebones. The dreams are changing him …”
TANGLEBONES: “That’s the nature of his education, my dear. Just pray that he is changed to your liking …”
Sadric and the human girl, Arisand, stand on a balcony looking down on Tanglebones and Cymoril.
SADRIC: “I’ll wager that, like us, old Tanglebones and Lady Cymoril are contemplating my son’s fate. Well, what do you say, girl? Does my son become the stuff of emperors? Or should his cousin Yyrkoon be given the throne?”
ARISAND: “He matures, my lord Sadric. Prince Elric grows in character if not in physical energy. Master Tanglebones’s potions keep him strong.”
Elsewhere, deep within the tower, Prince Yyrkoon prepares to lie down on his own dream couch.
His servant, gaunt and Heepish, readies the potion.
SERVANT: “Where would you go in your sleep, master?”
YYRKOON: “I’ll follow my weakling cousin, of course. I have business with him there in the Dream Realms …”
The dream roads. Elric already walks them. In the dream chamber, Tanglebones looks down on Elric’s troubled, dreaming face. Cymoril rushes in, concerned. She’s just learned of Yyrkpon’s decision.
TANGLEBONES (muses): “Now you dream the Dream of Two Years … the Dream of Water. You carry a great burden already, my lord, and it can only grow heavier on your journey.”
CYMORIL: “Master Tanglebones! My brother Yyrkoon—he’s taken to the dream couches. He can mean Elric only harm!”
TANGLEBONES (sadly): “Then Elric’s test will be all the harder. He must fend for himself in those dangerous realms …”
In his dreams, Elric has come to a less magnificent but rather beautiful Melniboné. While he still sports braids and a vaguely Indian look, he is dressed in much more sophisticated clothing. The city itself has yet to grow in might or splendour but is a long way on from the wigwam dwellings we saw in the first book. Beached ships indicate low tides, however, as he walks on to be greeted, again, as White Crow, by the sailors hauling their ships up the beach.
FIRST SAILOR: “Why ‘tis White Crow himself come back to us. The queen will be glad to see you.”
SECOND SAILOR: “Perhaps not. They say she was furious at his leaving. He claimed to be plotting against our enemies, the Falkryn.”
ELRIC: “The tide’s so low. What’s the cause?”
SECOND SAILOR: “You