• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 414 0

was perhaps one of its waking names, though not the name by which it identified itself. That name was Kalakak and it knew that somewhere it had kindred which spoke to it, called to it. But Kalakak still dreamed that it lay curled in the egg its mother had laid somewhere in the multiverse, so many millennia ago. Kalakak lay safely in the mud on the bank of a vast river, whose further bank could not be seen. The world river wound between mud flats and beyond the mud flats was the rich warmth of mile-high thick-boled trees, branches twisting and curling and full of living things, all of which tempted its appetite.

Kalakak remembered its appetite. It began to salivate. It remembered Sasuras … that name … the name which called it not to feed but to serve and it was therefore somewhat slower in its response …

Saaasuurrasssh

Kalakak’s tail twitched. Its limbs began to sting and its eyes moved beneath heavy lids.

Saaasuurrasssh

Kalakak’s nostrils moved and tasted murky, amniotic air. Something flickered in the darkness; veins of red fire, streaks of deep green and blue. And Kalakak took a massive breath.

Elric lay in Moonglum’s arms. Dyvim Mar looked on, almost sympathetic. Somewhere, near the ruined gap in the wall, Hored Mevza thrashed and groaned and clawed at an arrow which had found a gap between his helmet and his throat. Princess Semleedaor stood beside him, trying to stop him from moving while she attempted to snap the head of the arrow from the shaft. It stuck out from the side of his neck. She spoke to him as soothingly as she could. Elsewhere Duke Orogino and Princess Nahuaduar peered around their shield rims. A makeshift brand in her hand cast sputtering light across the compound. Out in the square, shadows shifted, running swiftly here and there, shooting arrows, flinging lances. Only by accident had an arrow struck Hored Mevza. The young man dropped to one knee, his eyes wide with horror as the princess at last managed to get the haft out of him and staunch the blood with his own torn shirt. The arrow had not struck the jugular.

Weakly, Elric climbed to his feet, balancing with the spear, the steel sword in his right hand. From above, men’s voices were shouting and it seemed to him that the captured Melnibonéans had broken free and were fighting their captors. Certainly, something was happening up there. He looked over to where the Black Anemonë grew, its tendrils pulsing and lengthening with every passing moment, the flower not yet opened. His mouth was dry, his arms and legs shook. He had difficulty breathing.

“Elric, you’re too enfeebled.” Moonglum spoke reluctantly. “The spell did not work.”

Dyvim Mar was grim: “There is only the Black Sword now.”

Still Elric shook his head. Trembling, he steadied himself with the spear and, sword raised with difficulty, turned to Princess Nahuaduar. “I led us into a trap, I admit. But I promise I will do all I can now …”

She cursed a soldier’s curse and all but spat in his face. “I thought you, of all men, would be the one to help us. Now my father faces dreadful death and your own people, too. You carry an unhappy weird upon you, Elric of Melniboné. Oh, how I wish I had not let you join us …”

He managed to respond, his smile ironic, panting. “Madam, you must try to wait until midnight before you condemn me entirely …”

Another flight of arrows came pouring through the gap. By now they had taken cover. Hored Mevza had stopped screaming and now sat against a wall breathing rapidly, the rag pressed on his wound which no longer bled badly. Princess Semleedaor, sword in hand, darted a quick glance around the ragged gap. “I can see little in this blackness. It sounds as if they’ve gone back into the ruins or the forest.”

Then, as if to contradict her, from above several spears rattled down uselessly. The object of both attacks was to demoralize them. Moonglum’s attention was on the noibuluscus. “It’s bigger! Look!” It reached towards the starlit sky now touched by the first faint traces of the rising moon. Even though Elric had studied all there was to study about the