The Weird of the White Wolf - Michael Moorcock [52]
“Immortality offers little to me, my lord.”
“Ah, Elric, have the men of Melniboné become as the half-apes who now dominate Earth with their puny 'civilisations'? Are you no better than these Young Kingdom upstarts? Think what we offer!”
“I shall, my lord, when the time you mention comes.” Elric's head was still lowered.
“You shall indeed,” Arioch raised his arms. “Now to transport this toy of Balo's to its proper Realm, and redress the trouble he has caused, lest some hint reaches our opponents before the proper time.”
Arioch's voice swelled like the singing of a million brazen bells and Elric sheathed his sword and clapped his hands over his ears to stop the pain.
Then Elric felt his body seem to shred apart, swell and stretch until it became like smoke drifting on air. Then, faster, the smoke began to be drawn together, becoming denser and denser and he seemed to be shrinking now. All around him were rolling banks of colour, flashes and indescribable noises. Then came a vast blackness and he closed his eyes against the images that seemed reflected in the blackness.
When he opened them he stood in the valley and the singing citadel was gone. Only Yishana and a few surprised-looking soldiers stood there. Yishana ran towards him.
“Elric—was it you who saved us?”
“I must claim only part of the credit,” he said.
“Not all my soldiers are here,” she said, inspecting the men. “Where are the rest—and the villagers abducted earlier?”
“If Balo's tastes are like his masters', then I fear they now have the honour of being part of a demigod. The Lords of Chaos are not flesh-eaters, of course, being of the Higher Worlds, but there is something they savour in men which satisfies them . . .”
Yishana hugged her body as if in cold. “He was huge—I cannot believe that his citadel could contain his bulk!”
“The citadel was more than a dwelling-place, that was obvious. Somehow it changed size, shape—and other things I cannot describe. Arioch of Chaos transported it and Balo back to where they belong.”
“Arioch! But he is one of the Greatest Six! How did he come to Earth?”
“An old pact with my remote ancestors. By calling him they allow him to spend a short time in our realm, and he repays them with some favour. This was done.”
“Come, Elric,” she took his arm. “Let's away from the valley.”
Elric was weak and enfeebled by the efforts of summoning Arioch, and the experiences he had had before and since the episode. He could hardly walk; and soon it was Yishana who supported him as they made slow progress, the dazed warriors following in their wake, towards the nearest village, where they could obtain rest and horses to take them back to Dhakos.
FIVE
* * *
As they staggered past the blasted ruins of Thokara, Yishana pointed suddenly at the sky.
“What is that?”
A great shape was winging its way towards them. It had the appearance of a butterfly, but a butterfly with wings so huge they blotted out the sun.
“Can it be some creature of Balo's left behind?” she speculated.
“Hardly likely,” he replied. “This has the appearance of a monster conjured by a human sorcerer.”
“Theleb K'aarna!”
“He has surpassed himself,” Elric said wryly. “I did not think him capable.”
“It is his vengeance on us, Elric!”
“That seems reasonable. But I am weak, Yishana—and Stormbringer needs souls if it is to replenish my strength.” He turned a calculating eye on the warriors behind him who were gaping up at the creature as it came nearer. Now they could see it had a man's body, covered with hairs or feathers hued like a peacock's.
The air whistled as it descended, its fifty-foot wings dwarfing the seven feet of head and body. From its head grew two curling horns, and its arms terminated in long talons.
“We are doomed, Elric!”