Elric_ The Sleeping Sorceress - Michael Moorcock [29]
The dandy arranged his cloak about him and glowered at the floor.
Elric stepped aside. Uncertainly the Tarkeshite merchant moved forward and then ran for the darkness of the street, his companions tumbling behind him. Elric heard their footsteps running on the cobbles and he began to laugh. At the sound of his laugh the footfalls became a scamper and the party had soon reached the quayside where the water gleamed, turned a corner and disappeared.
Elric smiled and looked up beyond Old Hrolmar’s baroque skyline at the stars. Now there were more footsteps coming from the other end of the street. He turned and saw the newcomers step into a pool of light thrown from the window of a nearby office.
It was Moonglum. The stocky Eastlander was returning in the company of two women who were scantily dressed and heavily painted and who were without doubt Vilmirian whores from the other side of the city. Moonglum had an arm about each waist and he was singing some obscure but evidently disgraceful ballad, pausing frequently to have one of the laughing girls pour wine down his throat. Both the whores had large stone flasks in their free hands and they were matching Moonglum drink for drink.
As Moonglum stepped unsteadily nearer he recognized Elric and hailed him, winking. “You see I have not forgotten you, Prince of Melniboné. One of these beauties is for you.”
Elric made an exaggerated bow. “You are very good to me. But I thought you planned to find some gold for us. Was that not the reason for coming to Old Hrolmar?”
“Aye!” Moonglum kissed the cheeks of the girls. They snorted with laughter. “Indeed! Gold it is—or something as good as gold. I have rescued these young ladies from a cruel whoremaster on the other side of town. I have promised to sell them to a kinder master and they are grateful to me!”
“You stole these slaves?”
“If you wish to say so—I ‘stole’ them. Aye, then, ‘steal’ I did. I stole in with my steel and I released them from a life of degradation. A humanitarian deed. Their miserable life is no more! They may look forward to . . .”
“Their miserable lives will be no more—as, indeed, will be ours when the whoremaster discovers the crime and alerts the watch. How found you these ladies?”
“They found me! I had made my swords available to an old merchant, a stranger to the city. I was to escort him about the murkier regions of Old Hrolmar in return for a good purse of gold (better, I think, than he expected to give me). While he whored above, as he could, I had a drink or two below in the public rooms. These two beauties took a liking to me and told me of their unhappiness. It was enough. I rescued them.”
“A cunning plan,” Elric said sardonically.
“’Twas theirs! They have brains as well as—”
“I’ll help you carry them back to their master before the city guards descend upon us.”
“But Elric!”
“But first . . .” Elric seized his friend and threw him over his shoulder, staggering with him to the quay at the end of the street, taking a good hold on his collar and lowering him suddenly into the reeking water. Then he hauled him up and stood him down. Moonglum shivered and looked sadly at Elric.
“I am prone to colds, as you know.”
“And prone to drunken plans, too! We are not liked here, Moonglum. The watch needs only one excuse to set upon us. At best we should have to flee the city before our business was done. At worst we shall be disarmed, imprisoned, perhaps slain.”
They began to walk back to where the two girls still stood. One of the girls ran forward and knelt to take Elric’s hand and press her lips against his thigh. “Master, I have a message . . .”
Elric bent to raise her to her feet.
She screamed. Her painted eyes widened. He stared at her in astonishment and then, following her gaze, turned and saw the pack of bravos who had stolen round the corner and were now rushing at himself and Moonglum. Behind the bravos Elric thought he saw the young dandy he had earlier chased from the tavern. The dandy wished for revenge. Poignards glittered in the darkness and their owners wore the black hoods of professional