Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock [81]
Elric, too, was filled with a sense of loss, knowing that all the places that were familiar to him, even the very continents were gone and replaced by different ones. It was like the loss of childhood and perhaps that was what it was—the passing of the earth's childhood.
He shrugged away the thought and smiled. "I'm supposed to blow the horn for the final time if the earth's new life is to begin. Yet I haven't the strength. Perhaps Fate is to be thwarted after all?"
Moonglum looked at him strangely. "I hope not, friend."
Elric sighed. "We are the last two left, Moonglum, you and I. It is fitting that even the mighty events that have taken place have not harmed our friendship, have not separated us. You are the only friend whose company has not worn on me, the only one I have trusted."
Moonglum grinned a shadow of his old, cocky grin. "And where we've shared adventures, I've usually profited if you have not. The partnership has been complementary. I shall never know why I chose to share your destiny. Perhaps it was no doing of mine, but Fate's, for there is one final act of friendship I can perform ..."
Elric was about to question Moonglum when a quiet voice came from behind him.
"I bear two messages. One of thanks from the Lords of Law—and another from a more powerful entity."
"Sepiriz!" Elric turned to face his mentor. "Well, are you satisfied with my work?"
"Aye—greatly." Sepiriz's face was sad and he stared at Elric with a look of profound sympathy. "You have succeeded in everything but the last act which is to blow the Horn of Fate for the third time. Because of you the world shall know progression and its new people shall have the opportunity to advance by degrees to a new state of being."
"But what is the meaning of it all?" Elric said. "That I have never fully understood."
"Who can? Who can know why the Cosmic Balance exists, why Fate exists and the Lords of the Higher Worlds? There seems to be an infinity of space and time and possibilities. There may be an infinite number of beings, one above the other, who see the final purpose, though, in infinity, there can be no final purpose. Perhaps all is cyclic and this same event will occur again and again until the universe is run down and fades away as the world we knew has faded. Meaning, Elric? Do not seek that, for madness lies in such a course."
"No meaning, no pattern. Then why have I suffered all this?"
"Perhaps even the gods seek meaning and pattern and this is merely one attempt to find it. Look—" he waved his hands to indicate the newly-formed earth. "All this is fresh and moulded by logic. Perhaps the logic will control the newcomers, perhaps a factor will occur to destroy that logic. The gods experiment, the Cosmic Balance guides the destiny of the earth, men struggle and credit the gods with knowing why they struggle—but do the gods know?"
"You disturb me further when I had hoped to be comforted," he sighed. "I have lost wife and world—and do not know why."
"I am sorry. I have come to wish you farewell, my friend. Do what you must."
"Aye. Shall I see you again?"
"No, for we are both truly dead. Our age has gone."
Sepiriz seemed to twist in the air and disappear.
A cold silence remained.
At length Elric's thoughts were interrupted by Moonglum. "You must blow the horn, Elric. Whether it means nothing or much—you must blow it and finish this business forever!"
"How? I have scarcely enough strength to stand on my feet."
"I have decided what you must do. Slay me with Stormbringer. Take my soul and vitality into yourself—then you will have sufficient power to blow the last blast."
"Kill you, Moonglum! The only one left—my only true friend? You babble!"
"I mean it. You must, for there is nothing else to do. Further, we have no place here and must die soon at any rate. You told me how Zarozinia gave you her soul—well, take mine, too!"
"I cannot."
Moonglum paced towards him and reached