Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock [54]
But Elric laughed and carried on his work. As he finished another warrior and there were no others in the immediate area, Rackhir seized him by the arm. "Elric—"
Stormbringer turned in Elric's hand, howling its satiated glee and clove down at Rackhir. Seeing his fate, the Red Archer sobbed and sought to avoid the blow. But it landed in his shoulder blade and sheared down to his breast-bone. "Elric! Not my soul, too!"
And so died the hero Rackhir the Red Archer, famous in the Eastlands as the Saviour of Tanelorn. Cloven by a friend's treacherous blade.
And Elric laughed until realisation came and he tugged his sword away though it was too late. The stolen energy still pulsed in him, but his grief no longer gave it the same control over him. Tears streamed down his tortured face and a great groan came from him.
"Ah, Rackhir—will it never cease?"
On opposite sides of the slain-strewed field, his two remaining companions stood regarding him. Dyvim Slorm had done with killing, but only because there were none left to kill. He gasped, staring around him half in bewilderment. Moonglum glared at Elric with horrified eyes which yet held a gleam of sympathy for his friend, for he knew well Elric's doom and knew that the life of one close to Elric was coveted by Stormbringer.
"There was no gentler hero than Rackhir," he said, "no man more desirous of peace and order than him." Then he shuddered.
Elric raised himself to his feet and turned to look at the huge castle of granite and bluestone which waited in enigmatic silence as if for his next action. On the battlements of the topmost turret he could make out a figure which could only be the giant.
In silence, he led the other two through the open portal of Mordaga's castle and was immediately in a rich and barbarically furnished hall.
"Mordaga!" he cried. "We have come to fulfill a prophecy!"
They waited impatiently, until at last a bulky figure came through a great arch at the end of the vast hall. Mordaga was as tall as two men, but his back was bent. He had long, curling black hair and was clad in a deep blue smock belted at the waist. Upon his great feet were simple leather sandals. His black eyes were full of a sorrow such as Moonglum had only seen before in Elric's eyes.
Upon the sad giant's arm was a round shield which bore upon it the eight amber arrows of Chaos. It was of a silvery green colour and very beautiful. He had no other weapon.
"I know the prophecy," he said in a voice that was like a lonely, roaring wind. "But still I must seek to avert it. Will you take the shield and leave me in peace, human? I do not want death."
Elric felt a kind of sympathy for sad Mordaga and he knew something of what the fallen god must feel at this moment. "The prophecy says death," he said softly.
"Take the shield," Mordaga lifted it off his mighty arm and held it towards Elric. "Take the shield and change fate this once."
Elric nodded. "I will."
With a tremendous sigh, the giant deposited the Chaos Shield upon the floor.
"For thousands of years I have lived in the shadow of that prophecy," he said, straightening his back. "Now, though I die in old age, I shall die in peace and, though once I did not think so, I shall welcome such a death after all this time, I think."
"The whole world seems to sigh for death," Elric replied, "but you may not die naturally, for Chaos comes and will engulf you as it will engulf everything unless I can stop it. But at least, it seems, you'll be in a more philosophical frame of mind to meet it."
"Farewell and I thank you," said the giant turning, and he plodded back towards the entrance through which he had come.
As Mordaga disappeared, Moonglum dashed forward on fleet feet and followed him through the entrance before either Elric and Dyvim Slorm could cry out or stop him.
Then they heard a