Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock [5]
Now Elric rode close to the Western Marches, near the Jharkorian border. Here lived sturdy foresters and harvesters in better times. But now the forests were blackened and burnt and the crops of the field were ruined.
His journey, which was speedy for he wasted no time, took him through one of the stark forests where remnants of trees cast cold silhouettes against the grey, seething sky. He raised the hood of his cloak over his head so that the heavy black fabric completely hid his face, and rode on as rain rushed suddenly down and beat through the skeleton trees, sweeping across the distant plains beyond so that all the world seemed grey and black with the hiss of the rain a constant and depressing sound.
Then, as he passed a ruined hovel which was half cottage and half hole in the earth, a cawing voice called out:
"Lord Elric!"
Astonished that he should be recognised, he turned his bleak face in the direction of the voice, pushing his hood back as he did so. A ragged figure appeared in the hole's opening. It beckoned him closer. Puzzled, he walked his horse towards the figure and saw that it was an old man, or perhaps a woman, he couldn't tell.
"You know my name. How?"
"Thou art a legend throughout the Young Kingdoms. Who could not recognise that white face and heavy blade thou art carrying?"
"True, perhaps, but I have a notion there is more to this than chance recognition. Who are you and how do you know the High Speech of Melniboné?" Elric deliberately used the coarse Common Speech.
"Thou shouldst know that all who practise dark sorcery use the High Tongue of those who are pastmasters in its arts. Wouldst thou guest with me a while?"
Elric looked at the hovel and shook his head. He was fastidious at the best of times. The wretch smiled and made a mock bow, restoring to the Common Speech and saying: "So the mighty lord disdains to grace my poor home. But does he not perhaps wonder why the fire which raged through this forest a while ago did not, in fact, harm me?"
"Aye," said Elric thoughtfully, "that is an interesting riddle."
The hag took a step towards him. "Soldiers came not a month gone—from Pan Tang they were. Devil Riders with their hunting tigers running with them. They despoiled the harvest and burnt even the forests that those who fled them might not eat game or berries here. I lived in this forest all my life, doing a little simple magic and prophecy for my needs. But when I saw the walls of flame soon to engulf me, I cried the name of a demon I knew—a thing from Chaos which, latterly, I had dared not summon. It came.
" 'Save me,' cried I. 'And what would ye do in return?' said the demon. 'Anything,' I quoth. 'Then bear this message for my masters,' it said. 'When the kinslayer known as Elric of Melniboné shall pass this way, tell him that there is one kinsman he shall not slay and he will be found in Sequaloris. If Elric loves his wife, he will play his role. If he plays it well, his wife shall be returned.' So I fixed the message in my mind and now give it thee as I swore."
"Thanks," said Elric, "and what did you give in the first place for the power to summon such a demon?"
"Why, my soul, of course. But it was an old one and not of much worth. Hell could be no worse than this existence."
"Then why did you not let yourself burn, your soul un-bartered?"
"I wish to live," said the wretch, smiling again. "Oh, life is good. My own life, perhaps,