Elric in the Dream Realms - Michael Moorcock [99]
“You will not keep your original bargain, my lord?”
“There was talk—but no bargain. The only bargain involved the boy’s freedom and the antidote to the elixir. You were mistaken.”
“You remember nothing of your promises …?”
“Promises? Certainly not.” The ringleted beard and hair quivered.
“… and mine?”
“No, no. You are irritating me.” His eyes were still upon the Pearl. He fondled it as another might fondle a beloved child. “Go, sir. While I am still pleased with you.”
“I have many oaths to fulfill,” said Elric, “and I do not break my word.”
Lord Gho looked up, his expression hardening. “Very well. I am tired of this. By this evening I shall be a member of the Six and One Other. By threatening me you threaten the Council. You are therefore enemies of Quarzhasaat. You are traitors to the empire and must be disposed of accordingly! Guards!”
“Oh, you are a foolish fellow,” said Elric. Then Anigh cried out, for unlike Lord Gho, he had not forgotten the power of the Black Sword.
“Do as he demands, Lord Gho!” shouted Anigh, fearing as much for himself as the nobleman. “I beg you, great lord! Do what he says!”
“This is not how a member of the Council is addressed.” Lord Gho’s tone was that of a baffled, reasonable individual. “Guards—take them from my hall at once. Have them strangled or cut their throats—I care not…”
The guards knew nothing of the runesword. They saw only a slender man who might have been a leper and they saw a young, defenseless boy. They grinned, as if at a joke of their master’s, and they drew their blades, advancing almost casually.
Elric pressed Anigh behind him. His hand went to Stormbringer’s hilt. “You are unwise to do this,” he told the guards. “I have no particular wish to kill you.”
Behind the soldiers one of the servants opened the door and slipped out into the corridor. Elric watched her go. “Best copy her,” he said. “She has some idea, I think, of what will happen if you threaten us further…”
The guards laughed openly now. “This is a madman,” said one. “Lord Gho is well rid of him!”
They came at Elric in a rush and then the runesword was howling in the cool air of that luxurious chamber—howling like a hungry wolf freed from a cage and longing only to kill and to feed.
Elric felt the power surge through him as the blade took the first guard, splitting him from crown to breastbone. The other tried to change direction from attack to flight, stumbled forward and was impaled on the blade’s tip, his eyes horrified as he felt his soul being drawn from him into the runesword.
Lord Gho cringed in his great chair, too frightened to move. In one hand he clutched the great pearl. His other hand was held palm outwards as if he hoped to ward off Elric’s blow.
But the albino, strengthened by his borrowed energy, sheathed the black blade and took five quick strides across the hall to mount the dais and stare down into Lord Gho’s face which twisted in terror.
“Take the Pearl back. For my life …” whispered the Quarzhasaati. “For my life, thief…”
Elric accepted the offered jewel, but he did not move. He reached into the pouch at his belt and drew forth a flask of the elixir Lord Gho had given him. “Would you care for something to help you wash it down?”
Lord Gho trembled. Beneath the chalky substance on his skin his face had gone still paler. “I do not understand you, thief.”
“I want you to eat the Pearl, my lord. If you can swallow it and live, well, it will be clear that the prophecy of your death was premature.”
“Swallow it? It is too large. I could hardly get it into my mouth!” Lord Gho sniggered, hoping that the albino joked.
“No, my lord. I think you can. And I think you can swallow it. After all, how else would it have got into the body of a child?”
“It was—they say it was a—a dream …”
“Aye. Perhaps you can swallow a dream. Perhaps you can enter the Dream Realm and so escape your fate. You must