Elric Swords and Roses - Michael Moorcock [65]
“Why, sir, I thought you’d guessed. Tomorrow we set sail into the Heavy Sea.”
CHAPTER THREE
Unusual Methods of Sea Travel; Disappointments of Piracy. A Hellblade Misplaced.
It was not until Ulshinir was well below the horizon and the reefs still invisible ahead that Gaynor the Damned gave the order to “let some light on the poor toad” and the sailors obeyed with perhaps a touch of reluctance, drawing off and rolling up the black canvas to reveal the iron bars of a large cage from which, blinking, appeared two enormous green-lidded eyes set in a gnarled reptilian head whose nostrils flared and whose long scarlet mouth opened to reveal a pink, flickering tongue, while the extraordinarily dense weight of scaly flesh was supported on massive webbed feet, limbs as thick as elm-trunks, the whole thing shuddering and rippling with the effort of its breathing.
The eyes, like dark, semi-precious stones, sought Gaynor and fixed on him where he stood below, looking up at the cage. The red, spongy lips opened and closed and deep, groaning sounds issued from the monster. It was only after a moment of listening that Elric realized the reptile was speaking.
“I am discontented, master. I am hungry.”
“Soon you will be allowed to feed, my pretty one. Very soon.” Gaynor chuckled as he climbed the companionway and gripped the bars of the cage with his gauntleted hands and peered at the gigantic toad which was five times his size and weight, at least.
Wheldrake had no wish, himself, to get closer. He hung back as Charion Phatt, laughing at his hesitation, went to the toad which responded to her cluckings and cooings with more grumblings and shufflings.
“It’s a self-pitying creature,” said Elric, staring at the thing with a certain sympathy. “Where did you find it? Is it a gift of Count Mashabak’s, something even Chaos will not suffer?”
“Khorghakh is a native of a nearby realm, Prince Elric.” Gaynor was amused. “He will help us to cross the Heavy Sea.”
“And what lies beyond?” Elric asked, watching as Charion Phatt took her sword and scratched the toad’s belly, making him grunt with a certain pleasure and seem to relax a little, though he still insisted he was hungry.
“Khorghakh is a denizen of the Heavy Sea?”
“Not exactly,” said Gaynor, “a denizen. But he is familiar with that singular ocean, or so I have been reassured. After three years of seeking him I acquired Khorghakh from some adventurers we encountered. They were coasting the islands looking for Ulshinir …”
“Looking for you,” said Charion. “I knew you were here. It was only later that I sensed the presence of the three sisters. I had thought they were following you. Yet you sensed them, also. I did not know you were clairvoyant.”
“I am not,” said Elric. “At least, not in the way you imply. I had no choice in my destination. For you, as I can see, some years have passed. For me, very little has occurred since the moment I followed you all into the Chaos pit. Wheldrake has had at least a year of wandering. It suggests that even if we should find the three sisters or, indeed, your family, they could be children or wizened oldsters by the time we reach them.”
“I like not this randomness at all,” says Wheldrake. “Chaos was never to my taste, though my critics did not believe that. I was raised to accept that there were certain universal laws obeyed by all. To discover that this hyper-reality has only a few fundamental rules which, on occasions, may also be changed, is disturbing to me.”
“It disturbed my uncle, also,” said Charion. “It was why he elected to lead a life of quiet domesticity. Of course, he was not allowed that choice, after all. He lost my mother, his brother and his wife to the machinations of Chaos. For my part, I have accepted the inevitable. I am aware that I live in the multiverse which, though it follows certain courses and measures, though, as I have been told, it obeys a great and inviolable logic, is so vast, so variable, so varied, that it appears to be ruled by Chance alone. So I will accept that my life is subject not