Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [149]
Cymoril hurries from the room, back to Elric’s chamber.
Where Tanglebones is reviving a very faint, weak Elric, whose eyes will scarcely open.
TANGLEBONES: “He revives—but barely …”
ELRIC: “Arioch. He possessed my sister. No—two beings possessed her—who was the other…?”
Tanglebones tries to soothe his master.
TANGLEBONES: “My lord, you must not tax yourself. It was but a bad dream.”
Elric glares up at Tanglebones.
ELRIC: “No! It was all too real. All too dark and terrible. It was how we let ourselves become what we are today. Creatures bereft of mercy or real happiness …”
Cymoril speaks soothingly to him:
CYMORIL: “Some of us feel it is a mercy you are saved from oblivion, my lord. And some of us are happy that you live.”
Elric softens as he takes Cymoril’s hand.
ELRIC: “Oh, sweet love. Yet you and I are still Melnibonéans. Still what our history has made of us …”
CYMORIL: “Cannot our will overcome such things, my lord?”
ELRIC: “I do not know. That terrible dream. It fades now. Yet I seem to have learned lessons which permeate my very bones. No matter what our will, we must always be thwarted by dark destiny.”
CYMORIL: “No, Elric. No, my lord. Our love will overcome any so-called ‘destiny’. We can carve a new fate for ourselves. One that allows our love to flourish.”
ELRIC: “I hope so, sweet Cymoril. I hope so.”
But when we look into his face, into his brooding eyes, it is clear he holds no such hope.
There is a step in the corridor. We catch a glimpse of Sadric as he comes towards the dream chambers.
Emperor Sadric stared at his son without speaking. He seemed to be reading something there.
It was as if he understood what had happened in that dream …
Sadric enters, pausing at the entrance to the dream chamber.
Pausing for only a moment, he made his way to the next dream chamber, occupied by his nephew …
Sadric looks down at Yyrkoon, who is snarling, though still very groggy. He looks at the body of Arisand still sprawled there.
SADRIC: “What happened here?”
YYRKOON: “The bitch—or whatever the creature was—betrayed me. She said she’d aid me against that bloodless weakling. Instead, she died. I—I cannot remember how …”
SADRIC: “You killed her? You killed my only consolation?”
Yyrkoon simply cannot remember what happened. He tries to explain himself to Sadric, but cannot.
YYRKOON: “N-no, my lord—at least, I d-do not think so…”
Wordlessly, the emperor turned his back on his nephew and returned to where his son still tried to rid himself of his last, long dream…
Sadric looks down on Elric. He is not smiling. It is almost as if he is reluctant to voice the words he speaks. But speak them he does…
SADRIC: “The tests are complete. The duel is done. You have won, my son. Though it will bring you scant satisfaction, you will be the next emperor of Melniboné.”
There was no more to be said. Sadric returned to his books and his solitary misery.
Elric’s eyes still carried the shadows of that terrible dream.
He felt no triumph in his father’s decision. Yet there was some comfort in the embrace of the beautiful young woman beside him …
Cymoril embraces Elric, who is now pretty much recovered, though there are still shadows in his eyes as he tries to forget, rather than recall, the dream he has emerged from.
CYMORIL: “It means we can be wed, my lord. As emperor and empress we shall bring a new era of prosperity and power to Melniboné. We’ll learn, as you say, to live with the humans of the Young Kingdoms, to win their friendship and offer them ours …”
ELRIC: “Yet we shall still be Melnibonéans, my darling. We shall still be what we are. For Chaos remains our ally.”
Tanglebones turns his head suddenly, for he thinks he sees something behind him.
There, hanging like smoke in the far corner of the chamber, is a triumphantly smiling face. It is the face of Arioch, but what we can see of the body seems to bear the clothes of Arisand.
Tanglebones frowns, lost in his own thoughts, and a black raven