Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [44]
“Only the Dragon Isle now.” Elric found that his thoughts were going back to Cymoril and he tried to stop himself thinking of her. “But many a reaver’s sought to sail against her and loot her wealth. They discover, however, that she remains too powerful for them. They must continue to trade with her instead.”
“Trade was ever War’s superior,” said Raik Na Seem and looked suddenly back over his shoulder at Alnac’s withered body. The golden outline of the dreamwand was glowing again and throbbing, as it had done from time to time since Alnac had first lain down beside the girl.
“‘Tis a strange organ,” said Raik Na Seem softly. “Almost a second spine.”
He was about to say more when there was a faint movement in Alnac’s features and a dreadful, desolate groan escaped the bloodless lips.
They turned and went to kneel beside him. Alnac’s eyes still blazed blue and Varadia’s were still black.
“He is dying,” whispered the First Elder. “Is it so, Prince Elric?”
Elric knew no more than the Bauradi.
“What can we do for him?” asked Raik Na Seem.
Elric touched the cold, leathery carcass. He lifted an almost weightless wrist and could feel no pulse beating. It was at this moment, startlingly, that Alnac’s eyes turned from blue to black and looked at Elric with all their old intelligence. “Ah, you have come to help me. I have learned where the Pearl lies. But it is too well protected.”
The voice was a whisper from the dusty-dry mouth.
Elric cradled the dreamthief in his arms. “I will help you, Alnac. Tell me how.”
“You cannot. There are caverns … These dreams are defeating me. They are drowning me. They are drawing me in. I am doomed to join those already doomed. Poor company for one such as me, Prince Elric. Poor company…”
The dreamwand pulsed and glowed white as bleached bones. The dreamthief’s eyes turned to blue again, then back to black. The thin air stirred in the leathery remains of his throat. Suddenly there was horror in his face. “Ah, no! I must find the will!”
The dreamwand moved like a snake through his body, then slithered into Varadia, then returned. “Oh, Elric,” said the tiny voice, “help me if you can. Oh, I am trapped. This is the worst I have ever known …”
His words seemed to Elric to call to him directly from the grave, as if his friend was already dead. “Elric, if there is some way …”
Then the body shuddered, filled as if with a single huge breath while the dreamwand flickered and writhed again and then grew still, lying as it had first done with the crook upon the two clasped hands.
“Ah, my friend, I was a fool even to consider myself able to survive this …” The tiny voice faded. “Would that I had understood the nature of her mind. It is so strong! So strong!”
“Who does he speak of?” asked Raik Na Seem. “My child? That which holds her? My daughter is of the Sarangli women. Her grandmother could charm whole tribes to believe they died of disease. I told him as much. What does he not understand?”
“Oh, Elric, she has destroyed me!” There was a tremor in the frail hand as it reached towards the albino.
Then, suddenly, all the colour and life came flooding back into Alnac’s body. It seemed to expand to its former size and vitality. The hooked staff became nothing more than the artifact Elric had originally seen at Alnac’s belt.
The handsome dreamthief grinned. He was surprised. “I live! Elric, I live!”
He took a firmer grip on his staff and made to rise. Then he coughed and something disgusting oozed from his lips, like a gigantic, half-digested worm. It was as if he regurgitated his own rotten organs. He wiped the stuff away. For a moment he was bewildered, the terror returning to his eyes.
“No.” Alnac seemed reconciled suddenly. “I was too