Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [141]
He frowns trustingly down at the albino.
GROME: “The Black Sword has been stolen again. Uprooted from the rock in which I secured it. I suspect grave sorcery was involved. I need you to find it again …”
ELRIK: “Again? Why should I know where it is?”
Grome places a vast finger against Elrik’s chest and smiles—
GROME: “Because you have an affinity for the blade. Among mortals, only a ‘silverskin’ of your blood can handle it. If it is not returned to me, then great harm will fall upon our world.”
ELRIK: “Doubtless, ‘tis my duty to seek it. Yet how could I begin …?”
GROME: “You must go to the city of Tanelorn and ask the Grey Lords. They will help you.”
ELRIK: “Very well, sire. That’s the city I seek, even now. Tell me how to find Tanelorn.”
GROME: “‘Tis hard to find, mortal. Best I take you there myself.”
Grome picks up Elric and starts off through the night, but now the black crow flies ahead of them. Grome pauses at one point when he sees Elric’s horse.
GROME: “Hmm. You’ll be needing him …”
Grome picks up the startled horse and tucks it under his other arm.
Next morning …
Elrik is astonished by what Grome reveals to him. It is an incredibly beautiful city, with a somewhat mediaeval appearance, the sun rising behind it. It is Tanelorn, the beautiful. The mythical city where all warriors are said to find peace, where there is no conflict and which exists on every plane of the multiverse, perhaps in every persons heart. The black crow flies away into the city.
GROME: “Not all can find Tanelorn. I am blessed. And now you are also blessed.”
GROME: “Go in peace, young mortal. Discover what you need in holy Tanelorn …”
Grome lopes away over the horizon.
GROME: “Farewell. Find the Black Sword and return it to where it belongs.”
Elric/Elrik walks through the peaceful streets of Tanelorn, leading his horse.
ELRIK: “I’ve never known a more beautiful, nor more civilized place. A man could settle here and know peace for ever …”
A big, hearty fellow, clearly a warrior, but without weapons, grins down at Elric as the albino asks him a question.
HEARTY: “How can I help you, friend?”
ELRIK: “Where shall I find the Grey Lords?”
HEARTY: “Ho! Ho! You’ll not find them! But they’ll find you, friend.” HEARTY: “Go to any tavern and ask.”
We see Elric entering a tavern and speaking to the landlord, who also smiles in reply, pointing behind him to a bench at which sit five old, grey men, playing chess and drinking porter.
Elric approaches the table and politely addresses the five old men.
ELRIK: “Pardon me, gentlemen. I gather you are the rulers of this city…”
FIRST GREY MAN: “Not us, young sir. We rule nothing and no-one. In Tanelorn, citizens rule themselves.”
ELRIK: “I’m sorry. I understood you were the Grey Lords …”
SECOND GREY MAN: “So we are, young sir. So we are.”
THIRD GREY MAN: “But we merely counsel—to maintain the peace of Tanelorn.”
FOURTH GREY MAN: “Whatever is necessary, my boy. That’s our only calling—to be called …”
FIFTH GREY MAN: “How can we help you?”
ELRIK: “I seek the Black Sword.”
FIRST GREY MAN: “In the one place it’s least likely to exist?”
FOURTH GREY MAN: “A pretty irony. Who sent you, my boy?”
ELRIK: “King Grome.”
FIRST: “Our old friend.”
SECOND: “If he trusts you, then so shall we.”
THIRD: “You must look for the Chasm of Nihrain, far, far from here.”
FOURTH: “Then ask the black crow …”
FIFTH: “Only he will know …”
ELRIK: “How will I find this place?”
LANDLORD: “I have a map. But it is on the world’s farthest edge.”
More years were to pass until. …
… on the far side of the world…
Elrik is riding through black mountains, whose peaks rise to spikes all around him.
A dreary, morbid place, with no apparent life. He is weary, battered and no longer has his horse. There are no arrows left in his quiver and it is clear he has been through the wars in order to get here. He has only a drop of water left in his flask.
ELRIK (thinks): “Food gone. Horse gone. Water almost gone.