Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock [37]
"Creatures! Matik of Melniboné made thee,
From stuff of unformed madness!
If thou wouldst live, then aid me now.
Come hither, or Matik's brew again shall be!"
From out of the rolling darks of the plaza, the beaked beasts prowled. Elric yelled at the dukes: "Mortal weapons cannot harm you! But these are beasts of your own plane! Sample their ferocity!" In the bizarre tongue of Melniboné, he ordered the vulture-lions upon the dukes.
Apprehensively, Arioch and his fellows backed towards the steps again, calling their own commands to the giant animals, but the things advanced, gathering speed.
Elric saw Arioch shout, rave, and then his body split asunder and rise in a new, less recognisable shape as the beasts attacked. All was suddenly ragged colour, shrill sound and disordered matter. Behind the embattled demons, Elric saw Jagreen Lern running back into his palace. Hoping that the creatures he had summoned would hold the dukes, Elric rode his horse around the boiling mass and galloped up the steps.
Through the doors, the two men rode, catching a glimpse of the terrified Theocrat running before them.
"Your allies were not so strong as you believed, Jagreen Lern!" Elric yelled as he bore down upon his enemy. "Why, you foolish latecomer, did you think your knowledge matched that of a Melnibonéan!"
Jagreen Lern began to climb a winding staircase, labouring up the steps, too afraid to look back. Elric laughed again and pulled his horse to a stop, watching the running man.
"Dukes! Dukes!" sobbed Jagreen Lern as he climbed. "Do not desert me now!"
Moonglum whispered, "Surely those creatures will not defeat the aristocracy of Hell?"
Elric shook his head. "I do not expect them to, but if I finish Jagreen Lern, at least it could put an end to his conquests and demon-summoning." He spurred the Nihrain steed up the steps after the Theocrat who heard him coming and flung himself into a room. Elric heard a bar fall and bolts squeal.
When he reached the door, it fell in at a blow of his sword and he was in a small chamber. Jagreen Lern had disappeared.
Dismounting, Elric went to a small door at the farthest corner of the room and again demolished it. A narrow stair led upwards, obviously into a tower. Now he could take his vengeance, he thought, as he reached yet another door at the top of the stair and drew back his sword to smite it. The blow fell, but the door held.
"Curse the thing, it is protected by charms!"
He was about to aim another blow, when he heard Moonglum's urgent calling from below.
'Elric! Elric—they've defeated the creatures. They are returning to the palace!"
He would have to leave Jagreen Lern for the meantime. He sprang down the steps, into the chamber and out on to the stair. In the hall he saw the flowing shapes of the unholy trinity. Half-way up the stair, Moonglum was quaking.
"Stormbringer," said Elric, "it is time to summon your brothers."
The sword moved in his hand, as if in assent. He began to chant the difficult rune that Sepiriz had taught him. Stormbringer moaned a counterpoint to the dirge as the battle-worn dukes assumed different shapes and began to rise menacingly towards Elric.
Then, in the air all about him, he saw shapes appear, shadowy shapes half on his own plane, half on the plane of Chaos. He saw them stir and suddenly it seemed as if the air was filled with a million swords, each a twin to Stormbringer!
Acting on instinct, Elric released his grip on his blade and flung it towards the rest. It hung in the air before them and they seemed to acknowledge it. "Lead them Stormbringer! Lead them against the dukes—or your master perishes and you'll not drink another human soul again!"
The sea of swords rustled and a dreadful moaning emanated from them. The dukes flung themselves upwards towards the albino and he recoiled before the evil hatred that poured from the twisting shapes.
Glancing down, he saw Moonglum slumped in his saddle and did not know if he had perished or fainted.
Then the swords rushed upon the reaching dukes and Elric's head swam with the sight