Elric_ The Stealer of Souls - Michael Moorcock [146]
Then he heard a shout of a different quality, thought for a moment that he had been observed, but one of Hozel’s men was pointing to the north and mouthing something.
Elric looked in that direction and saw the brave sails of the Purple Towns. They were fighting ships, better equipped for battle than those of the merchant princes. Their brightly painted sails caught the light. The only rich decoration the austere sea-lords allowed themselves was upon their sails. Elric’s old friend Kargan must command them.
But they had arrived belatedly. Even if they had sailed with the other Southern vessels it would have been unlikely that they could have turned the day against Pan Tang.
At that moment, staring around him, Jagreen Lern saw Elric and bellowed at his men who moved forward warily and reluctantly, approaching the albino in a wide semi-circle.
Elric cursed the brave sea-lords who had added a further factor to his indecision.
Menacingly he swung the moaning runeblade about him as he advanced to meet the half-terrified Pan Tang warriors. They dropped back, some of them groaning as the blade touched them. The way was now clear to Jagreen Lern.
But the ships of the Purple Towns were drawing closer, almost within catapult range.
Elric looked directly into Jagreen Lern’s frightened face and snarled: “I doubt if my blade has the strength to pierce your burning armour with one blow, and one blow is all I have time for. I leave you now, Theocrat, but remember that even if you conquer all the world including the unknown lands of the East, I’ll have my sword drink your black soul at length.”
With that he dropped Moonglum’s unconscious body overboard and dived after it into the choppy sea.
The blade gave him superhuman strength and he swam towards the leading ship of the sea-lords, which he recognized as Kargan’s, dragging Moonglum’s body after him.
Now, behind him, Jagreen Lern and his men saw their own flagship blazing. Elric had done his work well.
That, too, would serve to divert attention from Kargan’s fleet.
Trusting to the sea-lords’ famed seamanship, he swam directly in the path of the leading galleon, shouting Kargan’s name.
The ship veered slightly and he saw bearded faces at the rail, saw ropes flicker towards him and grasped one, letting them haul him upwards with his burden.
As the seamen pulled them both over the rail, Elric saw Kargan staring at him with shocked eyes. The sea-lord was dressed in the tough brown leather armour of his folk. He had an iron cap on his massive head and his black beard bristled. “Elric! We thought you dead—lost on your voyage south!”
Elric spat salt water from his mouth and said urgently: “Turn your fleet, Kargan! Turn it back the way it has come, there is no hope of saving the Southlanders—they are doomed. We must preserve our forces for a later struggle.”
Hesitating momentarily, Kargan gave the order which was swiftly relayed to the rest of his sixty-strong fleet.
As the ships turned away, Elric noted that hardly a Southern ship remained afloat. For more than a mile the water burned and the sputtering of the flaming, sinking ships was blended with the screams of the maimed and drowning.
“With the Southern seapower crushed so decisively,” Kargan said, watching the physician who was tending to Moonglum, “the lands will not last long before Pan Tang’s marching hordes. Like us, the South relied too much on its ships. It has taught me that we must strengthen our land defenses if we are to have any chance at all.”
“From now on we’ll use your island as our main headquarters,” Elric said. “We’ll fortify the whole place and from there keep in close touch with what is happening in the South. How is my friend, physician?