Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock [25]
"Then let us try."
Moonglum rode beside his friend as the little party rode off towards the nearest port of Nio.
Nio was a small town that nowadays saw little trade. It kept itself by fishing mainly, but a few merchantmen still called there. The captains were approached and bribes were offered, but only Lans Burta, half-bred man of Pan Tang and Tarkesh, was greedy enough to listen. His pale face was thoughtful as he faced the four in an ill-smelling tavern near the quay.
"I'll take the girl," he said, "but Jagreen Lern's sorcery is powerful—it could smell out an enemy such as you my Lord Elric. I daren't risk taking you."
"She'll not travel alone," Elric said decisively, rising from the table.
Lans Burta said hastily: "Then one other—him—or him—" he pointed at Dyvim Slorm and Moonglum in turn.
Moonglum glanced at Elric. "I'd rather be with you, Elric—as in the past—but..."
Elric nodded. "Then Dyvim Slorm will escort Zarozinia home. We'll look for a boat of our own—one of these fishing boats might do—and risk the crossing that way."
Lans Burta frowned. "The waters are mysteriously plagued, these days, my lord. The influence of Chaos is strong on them."
"No matter. This is the best way."
"Very well," said the half-breed. "Now—to terms."
The terms were agreed, the partings made, and Elric and Moonglum crept down to the quays where the fishing boats were moored, to select the best.
Seven
Dawn came swimming over the horizon, showing a heaving waste of grey water with no land in sight. The wind had dropped and the air was warmer. Banks of purple clouds bearing veins of saffron and scarlet, poured into the sky, like the smoke of some monstrous pyre. Soon they were sweating beneath a moody sun and the wind had dropped so that the sail hardly moved and yet, at the same time, the sea began to heave as if lashed by a storm.
The sea was moving like a living entity, thrashing in nightmare-filled sleep. Moonglum glanced at Elric from where he lay sprawled in the prow of the boat. Elric returned the gaze, shaking his head and releasing his half-conscious grip of the tiller. It was useless to attempt steering the boat in conditions like these. The boat was being swept about by the wild waves, yet no water seemed to enter it, no spray wet them. Everything had become unreal, dream-like, and for a while Elric felt that even if he had wished to speak, he would not have been able to.
Then, in the distance at first, they heard a low droning which grew to a whining shriek and suddenly the boat was sent half-flying over the rolling waves and driven down into a trench. Above them, the blue and silver water seemed for a moment to be a wall of metal—and then it came crashing down towards them.
His mood broken, Elric clung to the tiller, yelling: "Hang on to the boat, Moonglum! Hang on, or you're lost!"
Tepid water groaned down and they were flattened beneath it as if swatted by a gigantic palm. The boat dropped deeper and deeper until it seemed they would be crushed on the bottom by the surging blow. Then, they were flung upwards again, and down, and as he glimpsed the boiling surface, Elric saw three mountains pushing themselves upwards, gouting flame and lava. The boat wallowed, half-full of water, and they set to frantically bailing it out as the boat was swirled back and forth, being driven nearer to the new-formed volcanoes.
Elric dropped his bailing pan and flung his weight against the tiller, forcing the boat away from the mountains of fire. It responded sluggishly, but began to drift in the opposite direction.
Elric saw Moonglum, pale-faced, attempting to shake out the sodden sail. The heat from the volcanoes was hardly bearable. He glanced upwards to try and get some kind of bearing, but the sun seemed to have swollen and broken so that he saw a million fragments of flame.
"This is the work of Chaos, Moonglum!" he shouted. "And only a taste, I fancy, of what it can become!"
"They must know we are here and seek to destroy us!" Moonglum swept sweat from his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Perhaps, but I think