Elric_ The Stealer of Souls - Michael Moorcock [142]
Jagreen Lern looked up at him.
“Enjoy the comparatively painless days left you, Elric. I leave you to anticipate what I have in store for you. I must away and instruct my men in the final preparations for the war-fleet soon to sail against the South. I won’t waste time with crude torture now, for all the while I shall be scheming the most exquisite tortures conceivable. You shall take long years to die, I swear.”
He left the cell and, as the door slammed, Elric heard Jagreen Lern instructing the guard.
“Keep the brazier at full blast. Let them sweat like damned souls. Feed them enough to keep them alive, once every three days. They will soon be crying for water. Give them only sufficient to sustain their lives. They deserve far worse than this and they’ll get their deserts when my mind has had time to work on the problem.”
A day later, the real agony began. Their bodies gave out the last of their sweat. Their tongues were swollen in their heads and all the time as they groaned in their torment they were aware that this terrible torture would be nothing to what they might expect. Elric’s weakened body would not respond to his desperate struggling and at length his mind dulled, the agony became constant and familiar, and time was non-existent.
Finally, through a pain-thick daze, he recognized a voice. It was the hate-filled voice of Jagreen Lern.
Others were in the chamber. He felt their hands seize him and his body was suddenly light as he was borne, moaning, from the cell.
Though he heard disjointed phrases, he could make no sense of Jagreen Lern’s words. He was taken to a dark place that rolled about, hurting his scorched chest.
Later, he heard Moonglum’s voice and strained to hear the words.
“Elric! What’s happening? We’re aboard a ship at sea, I’d swear!”
But Elric mumbled without interest. His deficient body was weakening faster than would a normal man’s. He thought of Zarozinia, whom he would never see again. He knew he would not live to know whether Law or Chaos finally won, or even if the Southlands would stand against the Theocrat.
And these problems were fading in his mind again.
Then the food started to come and the water and it revived him somewhat. At one stage, he opened his eyes and stared upwards into the thinly smiling face of Jagreen Lern.
“Thank the gods,” said the Theocrat. “I feared we’d lost you. You’re a delicate case to be sure, my friend. You must stay alive longer than this. To begin my entertainment, I have arranged for you to sail on my own flagship. We are now crossing the Dragon Sea, our fleet well-protected by charms against the monsters roaming these parts.” He frowned. “Thanks to you, we haven’t the same call for the charms which would have borne us safely through the Chaos-torn waters. The seas are almost normal for the moment. But that will soon be changed.”
Elric’s old spirit returned for a moment and he glared at his enemy, too weak to voice the loathing he felt.
Jagreen Lern laughed softly and stirred Elric’s gaunt white head with the toe of his boot. “I think I can brew a drug which will give you a little more vitality.”
The food, when it came, was foul-tasting, and had to be forced between Elric’s mumbling lips, but after a while he was able to sit up and observe the huddled body of Moonglum. Evidently, the little man had totally succumbed to his torture. To his surprise, Elric discovered he was unfettered and he crawled the agonizing distance between himself and the Eastlander, shaking Moonglum’s shoulder. He groaned, but did not otherwise respond.
A shaft of light suddenly struck through the darkness of the hold and Elric blinked, looking up to see that the hatch-cover had been prised aside and Jagreen Lern’s bearded face stared down at him.
“Good, good. I see the brew had its effect. Come,