Sailor on the Seas of Fate - Michael Moorcock [16]
"Agak! Quickly!" said the voice from the pool.
"If we do not do this thing," said Erekosë, "they will eat all our worlds. Nothing will remain."
Elric put his free hand to his head. He swayed upon the edge of that frightful pool. He moaned.
"We must do it, then." Corum's voice was an echo.
"I will not," said Elric. "I am myself."
"And I!" said Hawkmoon.
But Corum Jhaelen Irsei said, "It is the only way for us, for the single thing that we are. Do you not see that? We are the only creatures of our worlds who possess the means of slaying the sorcerers—in the only manner in which they can be slain!"
Elric looked at Corum, at Hawkmoon, at Erekosë, and again he saw something of himself in all of them.
"We are the Four Who Are One," said Erekosë. "Our united strength is greater than the sum. We must come together, brothers. We must conquer here before we can hope to conquer Agak."
"No. . . ." Elric moved away, but somehow he found himself standing at a corner of the bubbling, noxious pool from which the voice still murmured and complained, in which shapes still formed, reformed, and faded. And at each of the other three corners stood one of his companions. All had a set, fatalistic look to them.
The warriors who had accompanied the Four drew back to the walls. Otto Blendker and Brut of Lashmar stood near the doorway, listening for anything which might come up the passage to the chamber. Ashnar the Lynx fingered the brand at his belt, a look of pure horror on his rugged features.
Elric felt his arm begin to rise, drawn upward by his sword, and he saw that each of his three companions were also lifting their swords. The swords reached out across the pool and their tips met above the exact center.
Elric yelled as something entered his being. Again he tried to break free, but the power was too strong. Other voices spoke in his head.
"I understand.. . ." This was Corum's distant murmur. "It is the only way."
"Oh, no, no. . . ." And this was Hawkmoon, but the words came from Elric's lips.
"Agak!" cried the pool. The stuff became more agitated, more alarmed. "Agak! Quickly! Wake!"
Elric's body began to shake, but his hand kept a firm hold upon the sword. The atoms of his body flew apart and then united again into a single flowing entity which traveled up the blade of the sword toward the apex. And Elric was still Elric, shouting with the terror of it, sighing with the ecstasy of it.
Elric was still Elric when he drew away from the pool and looked upon himself for a single moment, seeing himself wholly joined with his three other selves.
A being hovered over the pool. On each side of its head was a face and each face belonged to one of the companions. Serene and terrible, the eyes did not blink. It had eight arms and the arms were still; it squatted over the pool on eight legs, and its armor and accouterments were of all colors blending and at the same time separate.
The being clutched a single great sword in all eight hands and both he and the sword glowed with a ghastly golden light.
Then Elric had rejoined this body and had become a different thing—himself and three others and something else which was the sum of that union.
The Four Who Were One reversed its monstrous sword so that the point was directed downward at the frenetically boiling stuff in the pool below. The stuff feared the sword. It mewled.
"Agak, Agak...."
The being of whom Elric was a part gathered its great strength and began to plunge the sword down.
Shapeless waves appeared on the surface of the pool. Its whole color changed from sickly yellow to an unhealthy green. "Agak, I die...."
Inexorably the sword moved down. It touched the surface.
The pool swept back and forth; it tried to ooze over the sides and onto the floor. The sword bit deeper and the Four Who Were One felt new strength flow up the blade. There came a moan; slowly the pool quieted. It became silent. It became still. It became gray.
Then the Four Who Were One descended into the pool to be absorbed.
It could see clearly now. It tested