Elric to Rescue Tanelorn - Michael Moorcock [22]
“You are a fatalist,” I said.
“I am a realist,” he said.
“Could not peace terms be arranged?”
He shook his head. “What use is it to talk?” he asked me bitterly. “You humans, I pity you. Why will you always identify our motives with your own? We do not seek power—only peace—peace. But that, I suppose, this planet shall never have until Humanity dies of old age.”
I stayed with Arjavh for another day before he released me, on trust, and I rode back expecting, when I arrived, to find Ermizhad gone. But she was not. She was still in captivity. On learning this I visited her in her chambers.
“Ermizhad—you were to be traded for me, those were the terms. Where is the king? Why has he not kept his word?”
“I knew nothing of this,” she said. “I did not know Arjavh was so close, otherwise…”
I interrupted her. “Come with me. We’ll see the king and get you on your journey home.”
I found the king and Katorn in the king’s private chambers. I burst in upon them. “King Rigenos, what is the meaning of this? My word was given to Arjavh that Ermizhad was to leave here freely upon my release. He allowed me to leave his camp on trust and now I return to find the Lady Ermizhad still in captivity. I demand that she be released immediately.”
The king and Katorn laughed at me. “Fool,” said Katorn. “Who needs to keep his word to an Eldren jackal? Now we have our War Champion back and still retain our chief hostage. Forget it, Erekosë, my friend, there is no need to regard the Eldren as humans.”
“You refuse to release her, then?” I said grimly.
Ermizhad smiled. “Do not worry, Erekosë. I have other friends.” She closed her eyes and began to croon. At first the words came softly, but their volume rose until she was giving voice to a weird series of verbal harmonies.
Katorn jumped forward, dragging out his sword. “Sorcery! The bitch invokes her demon kind.” I drew my own sword and held it warningly in front of me, protecting Ermizhad. I had no idea what she was doing, but I was going to give her the chance, now, to do whatever she wanted.
Her voice stopped abruptly. Then she cried: “Brethren! Brethren of the Ghost Worlds—aid me!”
Quite suddenly there materialized in the chamber some dozen or so Eldren, their faces but slightly different from others I had seen. I recognized them as halflings.
“There!” shouted Rigenos. “Evil sorcery. She is a witch—I told you.”
“If that is the extent of her sorcery,” I said, “then her brethren shall, indeed, aid her to return.”
The halflings were silent. They surrounded Ermizhad until all their bodies touched hers and one another’s. Then Ermizhad shouted: “Away, brethren—back to the camps of the Eldren!”
Their forms began to flicker so that they seemed half in our dimension, half in some other. “Goodbye, Erekosë,” she cried. “I hope we shall meet in happier circumstances.”
“I hope so,” I shouted back—and then she vanished.
“Traitor,” cursed King Rigenos. “You aided her escape!”
“You should die by torture,” added Katorn, thwarted.
“I’m no traitor, as well you know,” I said evenly. “You are traitors—traitors to your words. You have no case against me.”
They could not answer. I turned and left the chamber, seeking out Iolinda.
I found her in our apartments and I kissed her, needing at that moment a woman’s friendly sympathy, but I seemed to meet a block. She was not, it seemed, prepared to give me help, although she kissed me. At length, I ceased to embrace her and stood back a little, looking into her eyes.
“Is anything wrong?” I asked her.
“No—why should there be? You are safe. I had feared you dead.”
Was it me, then? Was it…? I pushed the thought from me. But can a man force himself to love a woman? Can he love two women at the same time? I was desperately clinging to the strands of the love I had felt for her when we first met.
“Ermizhad is safe,” I blurted. “She called her halfling brothers to aid her and, when she returns to the Eldren camp, Arjavh will