Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [124]
Yyrkoon staggers away on the arm of his slave, snarling. Cymoril moves to embrace Elric.
YYRKOON: “There’ll be other opportunities, I’m sure …”
Meanwhile the brooding Sadric frowns as he looks down on the scene from a gallery high above the room… The mysterious Arisand stands beside him.
SADRIC: “So once again my enfeebled son survives. But for how long? How long? The crown’s not yet decided …”
BOOK THREE
THE DREAM OF FIVE YEARS:
THE DREAM OF AIR
THE SOUTH WIND’S SOUL
CHAPTER ONE
Death from Above
SUNRISE IN MELNIBONÉ …
Three small panels across the top of a large panel:
Yyrkoon is getting up from his bed, donning his robe and talking to the human woman Arisand.
Prince Yyrkoon, Eiric’s rival, rises …
YYRKOON: “The dream’s done! Two more still to dream … And that weakling dog lives on. How to destroy my feeble cousin and make myself old Sadric’s heir?”
Sadric, brooding as always, stares into the rising sun from his balcony.
… while Elric’s father Sadric broods on…
SADRIC: “Two dreams, two powerful allies gained. My son does well, but can his success be sustained?”
Elric is about to mount the dream couch and is sipping a concoction handed him by Cymoril as he addresses Tanglebones.
TANGLEBONES: “You’ll sleep, Lord Elric, for twenty hours. Each four hours represents a year in the dream lands of our common past.”
ELRIC: “Thanks, Master Tanglebones.” (Addresses Cymoril:) “Shall I find your brother lying in wait to murder me again, my dear Cymoril?”
CYMORIL: “No doubt, in some guise. You can be killed as readily in your dream reality as you can here. You must take care, my love.”
And so the fresh dream begins.
It is some eight thousand years earlier, when Melniboné had achieved economic ascendancy over the peoples of the “Old Kingdoms” but had not yet begun to build her empire …
From the viewpoint of Melnibonéan King Feneric and his teenage son, Sil-verskin (Elric in this dream), we look out across a stylized map of the Old Kingdoms (which, believe it or not, preceded the Young Kingdoms). The map can be based on the Cawthorn map in the White Wolf editions, but many of the names will be different. I’ll do a rough drawing of the map and send it to Walter and Joey [Cavalieri, editor of the book at DC]. It will show, among other things, the distant Mountains of the Myyrrhn, the port city (across the sea from Melniboné) of Port Norvaknol in the Kingdom of Forin’Shen and so on. The outlines of the main continent will be the same, of course, but many of the names will be different. These are the “Old Kingdoms” which will disappear with the rise of Melniboné, replaced with the “Young Kingdoms.”
KING FENERIC: “Our island nation grows in power and influence. We trade across the wide world. My son, you must learn diplomacy if you would rule in Melniboné’s interest. You must ever respect the Old Kingdoms who were here before us …”
ELRIC/SILVERSKIN: “You teach me my duty, Father, and my responsibilities. Respect, I think, is at the heart of all.”
FENERIC: “Trade is the source of our power. If we are fair and honourable, our power is well earned and will never be threatened …”
Feneric is taking his son through a market where Melnibonéans trade with strange-looking people from all over the Old Kingdoms, including the Pukwadji we saw in the first story. All are humanoid, but some are distinctly alien.
FENERIC: “But should we seek to maintain that power by the sword, Melniboné shall inevitably fall. That is the fate of all who would force their will upon the world. Our ancestors knew that and passed their wisdom down to us.”
ELRIC: “I have learned that much, at least. If we remain adaptable, we remain strong. If we force others to accept our traditions and values, we ultimately grow weak …”
FENERIC (smiles): “How well you learn the statecraft of Melniboné. You will make a great king one day…”
His brother Ederic strides up, all arrogance and swaggering power.
EDERIC: “My lord Feneric!”
FENERIC: “Ah, Ederic, brother!