Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [17]
The passages of the palace, lined in green, brown and yellow marble to give the feeling of a cool forest, scented with the most exquisite flowering shrubs, led them past rooms of retainers, menageries, tanks of fish and reptiles, a seraglio and an armoury, until Lord Gho arrived at a wooden door guarded by two soldiers in the impractically baroque armour of Quarzhasaat, their own beards oiled and forked into fantastically exaggerated shapes. They presented their engraved halberds as Lord Gho approached.
“Open this,” he ordered. And one took a massive key from within his breastplate, inserting it into the lock.
The door opened upon a small courtyard containing a defunct fountain, a little cloister and a set of living quarters on the far side.
“Where are you? Where are you, my little one? Show yourself! Quickly now!” Lord Gho was impatient.
There was a clink of metal and a figure emerged from the doorway. It had a piece of fruit in one hand, a loop or two of chain in the other and it walked with difficulty for the links were attached to a metal band riveted around its waist. “Ah, master,” it said to Elric, “you have not served me as I would have hoped.”
Elric’s smile was grim. “But maybe as you deserve, eh, Anigh?” He let his anger show. “I did not imprison you, boy. I think the choice, in reality, was probably your own. You tried to deal with a power which clearly recognizes no decencies.”
Lord Gho was unmoved. “He approached Raafi as-Keeme’s manservant,” he said, staring at the boy with a certain interest, “and offered your services. He said he was acting as your agent.”
“Well, so he was,” agreed Elric, his smile more sympathetic in view of Anigh’s evident discomfiture. “But that surely is not against your laws?”
“Certainly not. He showed excellent enterprise.” “Then why is he imprisoned here?”
“That’s a matter of expediency. You appreciate that, Sir Thief?”
“In other circumstances I would suspect some minor infamy,” said Elric carefully. “But I know you, Lord Gho, to be a nobleman. You would not hold this boy in order to threaten me. It would be beneath you.”
“I hope I am a nobleman, sir. Yet in such times as these not all nobles in this city are bound by the old codes of honour. Not when such stakes are played for. You appreciate that, even though you are not yourself a nobleman. Or even, I suppose, a gentleman.”
“In Nadsokor I am thought one,” said Elric quietly.
“Oh, but of course. In Nadsokor.” Lord Gho pointed at Anigh, who smiled uncertainly from one to the other, not following this exchange at all. “And in Nadsokor, I am sure, they would hold a convenient hostage if they could.”
“But this is unfair, sir.” Elric’s voice was trembling with rage and he had to control himself not to reach his right hand towards the Black Sword on his left hip. “If I am killed in pursuit of my goal, the boy dies, just as if I had made my escape.”
“Well, yes, that is true, dear Thief. But I expect you to return, you see. If not—well, the boy will still be useful to me, both alive and dead.”
Anigh no longer smiled. Terror came slowly into his eyes. “Oh, masters!”
“He’ll not be harmed.” Lord Gho placed a cold, powdered hand on Elric’s shoulder. “For you will return with the Pearl at the Heart of the World, will you not?”
Elric breathed deeply, controlling himself. He felt a need deep within him, a need he could not readily identify. Was it bloodlust? Did he want to draw the Black Sword and suck the soul from this scheming degenerate? He spoke evenly. “My lord, if you would release the boy, I will assure you of my best efforts … I will swear …”
“Good Thief, Quarzhasaat is full of men and women who give the most fulsome reassurances and who, I am sure, are sincere when they do so. They will swear great, important oaths upon all that is most holy to them. Yet should circumstances change, they forget those oaths. Some security, I find, is always useful to remind them of obligations undertaken. We are, you will appreciate, playing for the very highest stakes. There are really none higher in the whole world. A seat upon the