Sailor on the Seas of Fate - Michael Moorcock [17]
Agak had awakened too late, but he was awakening at last, roused by the dying cries of his sister Gagak, whose body the mortals had first invaded and whose intelligence they had overwhelmed, whose eye they now used and whose powers they would soon attempt to utilize.
Agak did not need to turn his head to look upon the being he still saw as his sister. Like hers, his intelligence was contained within the huge eight-sided eye.
"Did you call me, sister?"
"I spoke your name, that is all, brother." There were enough vestiges of Gagak's life-force in the Four Who Were One for it to imitate her manner of speaking.
"You cried out?"
"A dream." The Four paused and then it spoke again: "A disease. I dreamed that there was something upon this island which made me unwell."
"Is that possible? We do not know sufficient about these dimensions or the creatures inhabiting them. Yet none is as powerful as Agak and Gagak. Fear not, sister. We must begin our work soon."
"It is nothing. Now I am awake."
Agak was puzzled. "You speak oddly."
"The dream . . ." answered the creature which had entered Gagak's body and destroyed her.
"We must begin," said Agak. "The dimensions turn and the time has come. Ah, feel it. It waits for us to take it. So much rich energy. How we shall conquer when we go home!"
"I feel it," replied the Four, and it did. It felt its whole universe, dimension upon dimension, swirling all about it. Stars and planets and moons through plane upon plane, all full of the energy upon which Agak and Gagak had desired to feed. And there was enough of Gagak still within the Four to make the Four experience a deep, anticipatory hunger which, now that the dimensions attained the right conjunction, would soon be satisfied.
The Four was tempted to join with Agak and feast, though it knew if it did so it would rob its own universe of every shred of energy. Stars would fade, worlds would die. Even the Lords of Law and Chaos would perish, for they were part of the same universe. Yet to possess such power it might be worth committing such a tremendous crime.... It controlled this desire and gathered itself for its attack before Agak became too wary.
"Shall we feast, sister?"
The Four realized that the ship had brought it to the island at exactly the proper moment. Indeed, they had almost come too late.
"Sister?" Agak was again puzzled. "What...?"
The Four knew it must disconnect from Agak. The tubes and wires fell away from his body and were withdrawn into Gagak's.
"What's this?" Agak's strange body trembled for a moment. "Sister?"
The Four prepared itself. For all that it had absorbed Gagak's memories and instincts, it was still not confident that it would be able to attack Agak in her chosen form. And since the sorceress had possessed the power to change her form, the Four began to change, groaning greatly, experiencing dreadful pain, drawing all the materials of its stolen being together so that what had appeared to be a building now became pulpy, unformed flesh. And Agak, stunned, looked on.
"Sister? Your sanity..."
The building, the creature that was Gagak, threshed, melted, and erupted. It screamed in agony.
It attained its form.
It laughed.
Four faces laughed upon a gigantic head. Eight arms waved in triumph, eight legs began to move. And over that head it waved a single, massive sword.
And it was running.
It ran upon Agak while the alien sorcerer was still in his static form. Its sword was whirling and shards of ghastly golden light fell away from it as it moved, lashing the shadowed landscape. The Four was as large as Agak. And at this moment it was as strong.
But Agak, realizing his danger, began to suck. No longer would this be a pleasurable ritual shared with his sister. He must suck at the energy of this universe if he were to find the strength to