Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [97]
“I found it. And I have it hidden,” said Elric. “The elixir has …”
“Yes, yes. I know what the elixir does. You must have a fundamentally strong constitution even to be able to speak by now.” The Quarzhasaati supervised the men and women who carried Elric into the cool interior of the palace and placed him on great tasseled cushions of scarlet and blue velvet and gave him water to drink and food to eat.
“The craving grows worse, does it not?” Lord Gho took considerable pleasure at Elric’s discomfort. “The elixir must feed off you, just as you appear to feed off it. You are cunning, eh, Sir Thief. You have hidden the Pearl, you say? Do you not trust me? I am a nobleman of the greatest city in the world!”
Elric sprawled on the cushions, all dusty from his long ride, and wiped his hands slowly on a cloth. “The antidote, my lord…”
“You know I shall not let you have the antidote until the Pearl is in my hands …” Lord Gho was expansively condescending as he looked down on his victim. “To tell you the truth, thief, I had not expected you to be as coherent as you are! Would you care for another draft of my elixir?”
“Bring it if you will.”
Elric appeared to be careless, but Lord Gho understood how desperate he must actually be. He turned to give instructions to his slaves.
Then Elric said: “But bring the boy. Bring the boy so that I may see he has come to no harm and hear from his own lips what has taken place while I have been gone …”
“It’s a small request. Very well.” Lord Gho Fhaazi signed to a slave. “Bring the boy Anigh.”
The nobleman crossed to a great chair, placed on a small dais between brocaded awnings, and slumped himself down in it while they waited. “I had scarcely expected you to survive the journey, Sir Thief, let alone succeed in finding the Pearl. Our Sorcerer Adventurers are the bravest, most skillful of warriors, trained in all the arts of sorcery and incantation. Yet those I sent, and all their brothers, failed! Oh, this is a happy day for me. I will revive you, I promise, so that you can tell me all that happened. What of the Bauradim? Did you kill many? You will recount everything so that when I present the Pearl to obtain my position I can give the story that goes with it. This will add to its value, you see. When I am elected, I shall be asked to retell such a story many times, I am sure. The Council will be so envious …” He licked his painted red lips. “Did you have to kill that child? What was the first thing you witnessed, for instance when you reached the Silver Flower Oasis?”
“A funeral, as I recall …” Elric showed a little more animation. “Aye, that was it.”
Two guards brought in a wriggling boy who did not seem greatly overjoyed when he saw Elric stretched upon the cushions. “Oh, master! You are more wretched than before.” He stopped his struggling and tried to hide his disappointment. There were no marks of torture on him. He seemed not to have been harmed. “Are you well, Anigh?”
“Aye. My chief problem has been in passing the time. Occasionally his lordship there has come to tell me what he will do if you fail to bring back the Pearl, but I have read such things on the walls of the lunatic stockades and they are nothing new to me.”
Lord Gho scowled. “Be careful, boy …”
“You must have returned with the Pearl,” said Anigh, glancing around him. “That is so, eh, my lord? Or you would not be here?” He was a little more relieved. “Are we to go now?”
“Not yet!” growled Lord Gho.
“The antidote,” said Elric. “Do you have it here?”
“You are too impatient, Sir Thief. And your cunning is matched by mine.” Lord Gho giggled and raised an admonishing finger. “I must have some proof that you possess the Pearl. Would you give me your sword as surety, perhaps? You are, after all, too weak to wield it. It is of no further use to you.” He reached a greedy hand towards the albino’s hip and Elric made a feeble movement away from him.
“Come, come, Sir Thief. Be not afraid of me. We are partners in this. Where is the Pearl? The