Vanishing Tower - Michael Moorcock [47]
She came forward, bringing a goblet from beneath her robes. It was full to the brim with a cool, silvery liquid. "Drink," she said.
He did not lift his hands towards the cup. "I am not pleased to see you, Lady Myshella."
"Why? Because you are afraid to love me?"
"If it flatters you to think that—aye."
"It does not flatter me. I know you are reminded of Cymoril and that I made the mistake of letting Kaneloon become that which you most desire—before I understood that it is also what you most fear."
He lowered his head. "Be silent!"
"I am sorry. I apologised then. We drove away the desire and terror together for a little while, did we not?"
He looked up and she was staring intently into his eyes. "Did we not?"
"We did." He took a deep breath and stretched out his hands for the goblet. "Is this some potion to sap my will and make me work for your interests?"
"No potion could do that. It will revive you, that is all."
He sipped the liquid and immediately his mouth was clean and his head clear. He drained the goblet and he felt a glow of strength in all his limbs and vitals.
"Do you still wish to die?" she asked as she received back the cup, replacing it beneath her robes.
"If death will bring me peace."
"It will not—not if you die now. That I know."
"How did you find me here?"
"Oh, by a variety of means, some of them sorcerous. But my bird brought me to you." She extended her right arm to point behind him.
He turned and there was the bird of gold and silver and brass which he himself had once ridden while in Myshella's service. Its great metallic wings were folded but there was intelligence in its emerald eyes as it waited for its mistress.
"Have you come, then, to return me to Tanelorn?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. I have come to tell you where you may discover our enemy Theleb K'aarna."
He smiled. "He threatens you again?"
"Not directly."
Elric shook sand from his cloak. "I know you well, Myshella. You would not interfere in my destiny unless it had again become in some way linked with your own. You have said that I am afraid to love you. That may be true, for I think I am afraid to love any woman. But you make use of love—the men to whom you give your love are men who will serve your purpose."
"I do not deny that. I love only heroes—and only heroes who work to ensure the presence of the Power of Law upon this plane of our Earth. . . ."
"I care not whether Law or Chaos gains predominance. Even my hatred of Theleb K'aarna has waned—and that was a personal hatred, nothing to do with any cause."
"What if you knew Theleb K'aarna once again threatens the folk of Tanelorn?"
"Impossible. Tanelorn is eternal."
"Tanelorn is eternal—but its citizens are not. I know. More than once has some catastrophe fallen upon those who dwell in Tanelorn. And the Lords of Chaos hate Tanelorn, though they cannot attack it directly. They would aid any mortal who thought he could destroy those whom the Chaos Lords regard as traitors."
Elric frowned. He knew of the enmity of the Lords of Chaos to Tanelorn. He had heard that on more than one occasion they had made use of mortals to attack the city.
"And you say Theleb K'aarna plans to destroy Tanelorn's citizens? With Chaos' aid?"
"Aye. Your thwarting of his schemes concerning Nadsokor and Rackhir's caravan made him extend his hatred to all dwelling in Tanelorn. In Troos he discovered some ancient grimoires—things which survived from the Age of the Doomed Folk."
"How can that be? They existed a whole time cycle before Melniboné!"
"True—but Troos itself has lasted since the Age of the Doomed Folk and these were people who had many great inventions, a means of preserving their wisdom. . . ."
"Very well. I will accept that Theleb K'aarna found their grimoires. What did those grimoires tell him?"
"They showed him the means of causing a rupture in the division which separates one plane of Earth from another. This