Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [58]
He became aware of a rushing sound and Jaspar Colinadous ran towards a high bank of rocks to peer over them and look down. He turned, a little baffled. “A deep chasm. A river. We must find a bridge before we can go on.” He murmured to his winged cat, which immediately took flight over the abyss and was soon lost in the shadows beyond.
Forced to pause, Elric knew sudden gloom. Unable to gauge his physical needs, uncertain of what events took place in the world he had left, perturbed by the knowledge that their time was running short and that Lord Gho would certainly keep his word to torture young Anigh to death, he began to believe that he could well be on a fool’s errand, embarked on an adventure which could only end in disaster for all. He wondered why he had trusted Oone so completely. Perhaps because he had been so desperate, so shocked by the death of Alnac Kreb …
She touched him on the shoulder. “Remember what I told you. Your weariness is not physical here, but it manifests itself in your moods. You must seek spiritual sustenance as assiduously as you would normally seek food and water.”
He looked into her eyes, seeing warmth and kindness there. Immediately his despair began to dissipate. “I must admit I was beginning to know strong doubt …”
“When that feeling overwhelms you, try to tell me,” she said. “I am familiar with it and might be able to help you …”
“So I am entirely in your hands, madam.” He spoke without irony.
“I thought you understood that when you agreed to accompany me,” she said softly.
“Aye.” He turned in time to see the little cat coming back and alighting on Jaspar Colinadous’s shoulder. The turbaned man listened carefully and intelligently and Elric was certain that the cat was speaking.
At last Jaspar Colinadous nodded. “There’s a good bridge not a quarter of a mile from here and it leads to a trail winding directly into the pass. Whiskers tells me that the bridge is guarded by a single mounted warrior. We can hope, I suppose, that he will let us cross.”
They followed the course of the river as the sky overhead grew darker and Elric wished that, together with his lack of hunger and tiredness, he did not feel the rapid drop in temperature which made his body shake. Only Jaspar Colinadous was unaffected by the cold.
The rough walls of rocks at the chasm’s edge gradually fell away, curving inward towards the pass, and very soon they saw the bridge ahead of them, a narrow spur of natural stone pushing outwards over the foaming river below. And they heard the echo of the water as it plunged yet deeper down the gorge. Yet nowhere was there the guard which the little cat had reported.
Elric moved cautiously in the lead now, again wishing he had a weapon to give him reassurance. He reached the bridge and set a foot upon it. Far down at the base of the chasm’s granite walls grey foam leapt and danced and the river gave voice to its own peculiar song, half triumph, half despair, almost as if it were a living thing.
Elric shivered and took another step. Still he saw no figure in that deepening gloom. Another step and he was high above the water, refusing to look down lest the water call him to it. He knew the fascination of such torrents and how one could be drawn into them, hypnotized by their rush and noise.
“See you any guard, Prince Elric?” called Jaspar Colinadous.
“Nothing,” the albino cried back. And he took two more steps.
Oone was behind him now, moving as cautiously as he. He peered to the bridge’s further side. Great slabs of dank rock, covered in lichen and oddly coloured creepers, rose up and disappeared into the dark air above. The sound of the river made him think he heard voices, little skittering sounds, the scuffle of threatening limbs, but still he saw nothing.
Elric was halfway across the bridge before he detected the suggestion of a horse in the shadows of the gorge, the barest hint of a rider, perhaps wearing armour which was the colour of his own bone-white skin.
“Who’s that?” The albino raised his voice. “We come in peace. We mean no harm to anyone here.”
Again it