Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [55]
Without hesitation, the small man handed it to her. “A straight road. It’s always a straightish road, eh? And only one. That’s the joy of these dream realms. One can interpret and control them so simply. Unless, of course, they swallow one up completely. Which they are wont to do.”
“You have the advantage of me,” said Elric, “for I know nothing of this world. Neither was I aware that there are others like it.”
“Aha! Then you have so much wonder to anticipate, sir! So many marvels yet to witness. I would tell you of them, but my own memory is not what it should be. I frequently have only the vaguest of recollections. But there is an infinity of worlds and some are yet unborn, some so old they have grown senile, some born of dreams, some destroyed by nightmares.” Jaspar Colinadous paused apologetically. “I grow over-enthusiastic. I do not intend to confuse you, sir. Just know you that I am a little confused myself. I am ever that. Does my map make sense to you, Lady Dreamthief?”
“Aye.” Oone was frowning over the parchment. “There is only one pass through those mountains, which are called the Shark’s Jaws. If we assume that the mountains are lying to our north, then we must bear to the north-east and find the Shark’s Gullet, as it’s named here. We are much obliged to you, Master Jaspar Colinadous.” She rolled up the map and returned it to him. It disappeared into one of his sleeves and the cat crept down to lie, purring, in the crook of his arm.
For a moment, Elric had the strongest instinct that this likable individual had been called up by Oone from her own imagination, though it was impossible to believe he did not exist in his own right, such a self-confident personality was he. Indeed, Elric had the passing fancy that perhaps he, himself, was the phantasy.
“You’ll note there are dangers in that pass,” said Jaspar Colinadous casually, as he fell in beside them. “I’ll let Whiskers scout for us, if you like, when we get closer.”
“We should be much obliged to you, sir,” said Oone.
They continued their journey across the bleak landscape, with Jaspar Colinadous telling tales of previous adventures, most of which he could only half recall, of people he had known, whose names escaped him, and of great moments in the histories of a thousand worlds whose importance now eluded him. To hear him was like coming upon the old halls of Imrryr, on the Dragon Isle, where once huge series of windows had told in pictures the tales of the first Melnibonéans and how they had come to their present home. Now they were mere shards, small fragments of the story, brilliant details whose context was only barely imaginable and whose information was gone for ever. Elric ceased trying to follow Jaspar Colinadous’s conversation but, as he had learned to do with the fragments of glass, let himself enjoy them for their texture and their colour instead.
The consistency of the light had begun to disturb him and eventually he interrupted the little man in his flow and asked him if he, too, were not made uncomfortable by it.
Jaspar Colinadous took this opportunity to stop and remove his slippers, shaking sand from them as Oone waited ahead of them, her stance impatient. “No, sir. Supernatural worlds are frequently sunless, for they obey none of the laws we are familiar with in our own. They may be flat, half-spheres, oval, circular, even shaped like cubes. They exist only as satellites to those realms we call ‘real’, and therefore are dependent not upon any sun or moon or planetary system for their ordering, but upon the demands—spiritual, imaginative, philosophical and so on—of worlds which do, in fact, require a sun to heat them and a moon to move their tides. There is even a theory that our worlds are the satellites and that these supernatural worlds are the birthplaces of all our realities.” His shoes again free from sand, Jaspar Colinadous began to follow Oone, who was some distance on, having refused to wait upon them.
“Perhaps this is the land ruled by Arioch, my patron Duke of Hell,” said Elric. “The land from which