Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [132]
ARIOCH: “Ah, I am a patient demon, you see. I look to the long term. Well, I have done all I can for you here and I’ll say farewell.”
Arioch turns into fading smoke, only his cynical smile remaining for a moment. Scowling back at him, Feneric helps one of the wounded Melnibonéans up the steps of the pit. Elric, too, helps a wounded man, while the princess hovers in the air overhead.
In the passage outside, King Minak has assembled more warriors, but he has taken care not to be in the forefront.
MINAK: “That demon’s abandoned them. Slay them all. Don’t let one escape!”
Elric, his father and the Melnibonéans fight their way to the outside and eventually make it to the top of the abyss, no longer pursued by the Karasim. Elric pauses on the edge of the abyss and looks down. The battle light is still in his eyes and he laughs almost like a demon himself.
ELRIC: “The cowards have had enough. They’re reluctant to pursue us now.”
Elric looks around but can’t see the Princess Dela-Fwaar. ELRIC: “Where’s the princess?”
MELNIBONÉAN: “There—there she goes—flying home!”
They see Princess Dela-Fwaar in outline against the sky as she heads for home.
FENERIC: “Get rid of that blade now, my son, I beg thee. The thing’s addictive. Abandon it before it’s too late!”
Elric finds this amusing but is prepared to humour his father.
ELRIC: “I’ll not become so easily dependent on a mere sword, however powerful…” (He looks at his father’s frightened eyes.) “But if it pleases you, father—”
He hurls the black blade out over the abyss. It falls, turning and twisting, down into the clouded darkness.
ELRIC: “There! It’s gone. It will never perturb you again.”
ELRIC: “And now …”
He signs to his men. Using the “firebags” which the Karasim had used against Melniboné, they ignite brands and start setting fire to the ships.
ELRIC: “They’ll never use these ships to pursue us.”
His father is looking back, still perturbed, but says nothing of his thoughts.
The Melnibonéans, with their worst wounded on the back of Elric’s horse, are now leaving the World’s Edge. The ships are all blazing and they are not pursued by the Karasim.
Elric grins as he turns his eyes away from the scene.
ELRIC: “Let’s for home, Father—to confront your ambitious brother.”
CHAPTER FOUR
The Long Way Home
The dream couches. Cymoril and Tanglebones look down on a disturbed Elric who frowns and moans in his sleep.
TANGLEBONES: “I fear his dream-quest does not go easily for him.”
CYMORIL: “Does he know that he is one person in this life and another in his dream?”
TANGLEBONES: “He is almost certainly unconscious of his two lives—just the same as your brother Yyrkoon … But some instinct drives them both to fulfill a destiny which mirrors the life they inhabit in this world.”
They walk through the dream chambers until they find Arisand, the human girl, together with Sadric, looking down on Yyrkoon who, in contrast to Elric, has a satisfied smirk on his sleeping features.
TANGLEBONES: “Your brother’s dream persona seems to be somewhat happier than your cousin’s, Lady Cymoril.”
They leave Yyrkoon’s chamber.
CYMORIL: “Is there nothing we can do to help Elric?”
TANGLEBONES: “Nothing. That, after all, is the point of dream-quests.”
He pauses, drawing his brows together.
TANGLEBONES: “We can only pray to the powers of fate that Prince Elric has the resources to defeat what dangers and temptations wait for him in his dreams …”
Though there was no immediate threat from the Karasim, the Melnibonéans had fled without provisions or mounts and the march home was to be long and grueling, while King Minak was eventually to overcome his caution as well as the loss of his sky ships and raise an army of pursuit…
By the following winter, King Feneric, his son and his warriors had reached the Melmane Marshes and Minak had their scent …
Elric and the Melnibonéans are hiding in a forest of peculiar trees on the edge of a desolate peat bog criss-crossed by waterways. The Melnibonéans are watching the far horizon