Elric_ The Stealer of Souls - Michael Moorcock [160]
Elric shook his head, perturbed. He had expected aid by now.
“We cannot wait. We must attack!” Kargan’s voice was pitched higher than usual.
A mood of bitter recklessness came upon Elric, as he gripped the rigging to steady himself on the swaying deck, then he smiled. “Come then. Let’s do so!”
Speedily the squadron coursed towards the disturbing ships of death. Moonglum muttered: “We are going to our doom, Elric. No man would willingly get close to those ships. Only the dead are drawn to them, and they do not go with joy!”
But Elric ignored his friend.
A strange silence descended over the waters and the rhythmic sound of the splashing oars was sharp. The death fleet waited for them, impassively, as if they did not need to prepare for battle. He tightened his grip on Stormbringer. The blade responded to the pounding of his pulse-beat, moving in his hand with each thud of his heart, as if linked to it by veins and arteries. Now they were so close to the Chaos ships that they could make out better the figures crowding the great decks. Horribly, Elric thought he recognized some of the gaunt faces of the dead and, involuntarily, he called to the sea-folk’s king.
“Straasha!”
The waters heaved, foamed and seemed to be attempting to rise but then subsided again. Straasha heard—but he was finding it difficult to fight against the forces of Chaos.
“Straasha!”
It was no good, the waters hardly moved.
In his wild despair Elric screamed to Kargan: “We cannot wait for aid. Swing the ship round the Chaos fleet and we’ll attempt to reach Jagreen Lern’s flagship from the rear!”
Under Kargan’s expert direction, the ship swung to avoid the Ships of Hell in a wide semi-circle. Spray cascaded against Elric’s face, flooding the decks with white foam. He could hardly see through it as they cleared the Chaos ships which had now engaged other craft and were altering the nature of their timbers so that they fell apart and the unfortunate crews were drowned or warped into alien shapes.
To his ears came the miserable cries of the defeated and the triumphantly surging thunder of the Chaos fleet’s music as it pushed forward to destroy the Eastern ships. Timber-tearer was rocking badly and was hard to control, but at last they were around the hell fleet and bearing down on Jagreen Lern’s vessel from behind.
Now they nearly struck the Theocrat’s vessel with their ram, but were swept off-course and had to manoeuvre again. Arrows rose from the enemy’s decks and thudded and rattled on their own. They retaliated as, riding a huge wave, they slid alongside the flagship and flung out grappling irons. A few held, dragging them towards the Theocrat’s vessel as the men of Pan Tang strove to cut the grappling ropes. More ropes followed and then a boarding platform fell from its harness and landed squarely on Jagreen Lern’s deck. Another followed it. Elric ran for the nearest platform, Kargan behind him, and they led a body of warriors over it, searching for Jagreen Lern. Stormbringer took a dozen lives and a dozen souls before Elric had gained the main deck. There a resplendent commander stood, surrounded by a group of officers. But he was not Jagreen Lern. Elric clambered up the gangway, slicing through a warrior’s waist as the man sought to block his path. He yelled at the group: “Where’s your cursed leader? Where’s Jagreen Lern!”
The commander’s face was pale for he had seen in the past what Elric and his hellblade could do.
“He’s not here, Elric, I swear.”
“What? Am I to be thwarted again? I know you are lying!” Elric advanced