Vanishing Tower - Michael Moorcock [4]
Elric flung back his head and drew out his great sword and raised it skyward. It pulsed and moaned and a strange, black radiance poured from it, casting peculiar shadows over its owner's blanched features.
The Shazarian horse screamed and reared and words began to pour from Elric's tormented face.
"Arioch! Arioch! Arioch! Lord of the Seven Darks, Duke of Chaos, aid me! Aid me now, Arioch!"
Moonglum's own horse had backed away in panic and the little man was having great difficulty in controlling it. His own features were almost as pale as Elric's.
"Arioch!"
Overhead the chimerae began to circle.
"Arioch! Blood and souls if you will aid me now!"
Then, some yards away, a dark mist seemed to well up from nowhere. It was a boiling mist that had strange, disgusting shapes in it
"Arioch!"
The mist grew still thicker.
"Arioch! I beg you—aid me now!"
The horse pawed at the air, snorting and screaming, its eyes rolling, its nostrils flaring. Yet Elric, his lips curled back over his teeth so that he looked like a rabid wolf, continued to keep his seat as the dark mist quivered and a strange, unearthly face appeared in the upper part of the shifting column. It was a face of wonderful beauty, of absolute evil. Moonglum turned his head away, unable to regard it.
A sweet, sibilant voice issued from the beautiful mouth. The mist swirled languidly, becoming a mottled scarlet laced with emerald green.
"Greetings, Elric," said the face. "Greetings, most beloved of my children."
"Aid me, Arioch!"
"Ah," said the face, its tone full of rich regret. "Ah, that cannot be. . . ."
"You must aid me!"
The chimerae had hesitated in their descent, sighting the peculiar mist.
"It is impossible, sweetest of my slaves. There are other matters afoot in the Realm of Chaos. Matters of enormous moment to which I have already referred. I offer only my blessings.
"Arioch—I beg thee!"
"Remember your oath to Chaos and remain loyal to us in spite of all. Farewell, Elric."
And the dark mist vanished.
And the chimerae came closer.
And Elric drew a racking breath while the runesword whined in his hand and quivered and its radiance dimmed a little.
Moonglum spat on the ground. "A powerful patron, Elric, but a damned inconstant one." Then he flung himself from his saddle as a creature which changed its shape a dozen times as it arrowed towards him reached out huge claws which clashed in the air where he had been. The riderless horse reared again, striking out at the beast of Chaos.
A fanged snout snapped.
Blood vomited from the place where the horse's head had been and the carcass kicked once more before falling to the ground to pour more gore into the greedy earth.
Bearing the remains of the head in what was first a scaled snout, then a beak, then a sharklike mouth, the Oonai thrashed back into the air.
Moonglum picked himself up. His eyes contemplated nothing but his own imminent destruction.
Elric, too, leapt from his horse and slapped its flank so that convulsively it began to gallop away towards the river. Another chimera followed it.
This time the flying thing seized the horse's body in claws which suddenly sprouted from its feet. The horse struggled to get free, threatening to break its own backbone in its struggles, but it could not. The chimera flapped towards the clouds with its catch.
Snow fell thicker now, but Elric and Moonglum were oblivious of it as they stood together and awaited the next attack of the Oonai.
Moonglum said quietly: "Is there no other spell you know, friend Elric?"
The albino shook his head. "Nothing specific to deal with these. The Oonai always served the folk of Melniboné. They never threatened us. So we needed no spell against them. I am trying to think. . . ."
The chimerae cackled and yelled in the air above the two men's heads.
Then another broke away from the pack and dived to the Earth.
"They attack individually," Elric said in a somewhat detached tone, as if studying insects in a bottle. "They never attack in a pack. I know not why."
The Oonai had settled on the ground and