Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [36]
“Raik Na Seem is First Elder to the Bauradi Clan,” Alnac said, “and a father to me.”
“I am blessed by a good, brave son.” Raik Na Seem gestured back towards the tents. “Come. Take refreshment in my tent.”
“Willingly,” said Alnac. “I would learn why you are burying an empty casket and who your enemy is that he should merit such elaborate ceremony.”
“Oh, he is the worst of villains, make no mistake of that.” A deep sigh escaped the old man as he led them through the throngs of tents until he reached a massive pavilion into which they followed him, their feet treading on richly patterned carpets. The pavilion was actually a series of compartments, one leading into another, each occupied by members of Raik Na Seem’s family, which seemed vast enough to be almost a tribe in itself. The smell of delicious food came through to them as they were seated on cushions and offered bowls of scented water with which to wash themselves.
Eventually, as they ate, the old man told his story and, while it unfolded, Elric came to realize that fate had brought him to the Silver Flower Oasis at an auspicious time, for he slowly recognized the significance of what was being said. At the time of the last Blood Moon, said Raik Na Seem, a group of men had come to the Silver Flower Oasis asking after the road to the Place of the Pearl. The Bauradim had recognized the name, for it was in their literature, but they understood the references to be poetic metaphor, something for scholars and other poets to discuss and interpret. They had told the newcomers this and hoped that they would leave, for they were Quarzhasaatim, members of the Sparrow Sect of Sorcerer Adventurers and as such notorious for their murky wizardry and cruelty. The Bauradim wanted no quarrel, however, with any Quarzhasaatim, with whom they traded. The men of the Sparrow Sect did not leave, though, but continued to ask anyone they could about the Place of the Pearl, which was how they came to learn of Raik Na Seem’s daughter.
“Varadia?” Alnac Kreb knew alarm. “They surely did not think she knew anything of this jewel?”
“They heard that she was our Holy Girl, the one we believe will grow to be our spiritual leader and bring wisdom and honour to our clan. They believed that, because we say that our Holy Girl is the receptacle of all our knowledge, she must know where this pearl was to be found. They attempted to steal her.”
Alnac Kreb growled with sudden anger. “What did they do, father?”
“They drugged her, then made to ride away with her. We learned of their crime and followed them. We caught them before they had completed half the length of the Red Road back to Quarzhasaat and in their terror they threatened us with the power of their master, the man who had commissioned them to seek out the Pearl and use any means to bring it back to him.”
“Was his name Lord Gho Fhaazi?” asked Elric softly.
“Aye, prince, it was.” Raik Na Seem looked at him with new curiosity. “Do you know him?”
“I know him. And I know him for what he is. Is that the man you buried?”
“It is.”
“When do you plan his death?”
“We do not plan it. We have been promised it. The Sorcerer Adventurers attempted to use their arts against us, but we have such people of our own and they were easily countered. It is not something we like to use, that power, but sometimes it is necessary. A certain creature was summoned from the netherworld. It devoured the men of the Sparrow Sect and before it left it granted us a prophecy, that their master would die within the year, before the next Blood Moon had faded.”
“But Varadia?” said Alnac Kreb urgently. “What became of your daughter, your Holy Girl?”
“She had been drugged, as I said, but she lived. We brought her back.”
“And she recovered?”
“She half-wakes, perhaps once a month,” said Raik Na Seem, controlling his sadness. “But the sleep will not lift from her. Shortly after we found her she opened her eyes and told us to take her to the Bronze Tent. There she sleeps, as she has slept for almost a year, and we know that only a dreamthief may save her. That