Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [161]
Dyvim Kang silences the man. He is interested in Aubec. Perhaps he recognizes in Aubec that peculiar quality of character already noted by Micella. “Are you a sorcerer?” he asks. “You have not the sorcerer’s manner?”
“I disdain sorcery,” answers Aubec, “just as I disdain all that Melniboné stands for. But my quarrel is not with the Bright Empire. Let me go on about my own business and you concern yourselves with yours. A small skiff’s all I need to get me to Hikach.”
“We are not in the habit of dispensing gifts to human folk,” Dyvim Kang says. “Why do you journey to Hikach?”
Aubec briefly tells him of the projected raid. Dyvim Kang nods. He already appears to know something of the Argimilites’ plans. He seems half-prepared to let Aubec have his skiff, but then thinks better of it and orders that the few remaining warriors be used for sport and Aubec be brought before the Dragon Throne.
There follows Aubec’s first confrontation with King Gadric the Eleventh, whose deep green pupilless eyes are a reminder that his mother was the near-immortal Terhali, the Green Empress. Gadric, too, is impressed with Aubec and summons a “friend.” The friend ap-pears—actually Lord Balan of Chaos—a youth of frightening beauty. Balan knows of Aubec, knows that the earl serves Donblas of Law (though Aubec is not aware of this). They ascertain that Aubec really is bent on aiding the Argimilites and this amuses them greatly. It dawns on Aubec that Micella was right—this raid is the creation of Melniboné and her gods. But Aubec, always obstinate, refuses to consider the implications. He will continue with his original plans.
Aubec, by sorcerous means that he finds distasteful, is transported to Hikach. Here he prepares to sail against Kachor. The fleet sets sail. Micella appears with evidence that his son is held by King Ronon of Argimiliar—to ensure Aubec’s good faith should he change his mind en route.
Aubec is in a quandary. He doesn’t know whether to trust Micella’s word or not, whether to continue with the raid or rescue his son.
“Even if I did turn back now,” he tells Micella, “Ronon would have word of my coming and Haminak would be put to the sword—”
“—or worse,” agrees Micella. But she then tells him that he has an ally in a “certain person possessed of considerable power.”
“Why should this person aid me?”
“Because you aid him,” she replies.
Aubec is more than ordinarily suspicious as she hands him a bracelet of oddly glowing metal and tells him to wear it. Instead he casually places it as a collar around the neck of his cat. “Whose bracelet is this?” he asks. “Yours?”
“No.” She smiles mysteriously. “Where would you wish to be now?”
“Naturally, I would wish to be in Hikach, madam!” he replies pettishly.
The ship fades. He is in the streets of Hikach, his cat looking as startled as he feels. He is furious, convinced he has been duped by Micella. The cat runs off in fright. Aubec decides to investigate Ronon’s castle and manages to sneak in. Searching the castle at night he can find no trace of his son and is doubly convinced of Micella’s treachery.
Seized suddenly by Ronon’s guards, Aubec fights his way free. But then he is trapped by Ronan’s tame Pan Tang sorcerer. Ronon is furious. Aubec’s son is not in the castle—the sorcerer has seen to that. He is in the city of Nieva, in the Argimilian hinterland, bound by spells. Now the boy will perish!
Ronon has Aubec chained in his armour over a slow fire. “We are going to cook you in your own shell.”
The sorcerer leaves for Nieva to deal with the boy.
Ronon glowers. Aubec’s turncoat trick might well have lost him the spoils of Kachor.
Aubec roasts. He is half-dead when his cat arrives, somewhat sheepishly, having found his master at last. Aubec decides to try out the bracelet and orders himself free. The chains drop off him. He uses the brazier as a weapon to fight Ronon’s guards, gets his own great sword back, mounts a horse, the cat clinging to his shoulder, and rides for Nieva.
But in Nieva the sorcerer has gone, taking Aubec