Vanishing Tower - Michael Moorcock [58]
But then Elric heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak give a yell and saw that something was covering his face. It was a black and white animal with small black wings which beat in the air. Some offspring of the beasts who attacked him? Elric could not tell. But Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was plainly terrified of it, trying to drag it from his face.
Another figure appeared behind the dwarf. Bright eyes peered from an intelligent face framed by long black hair. He was dressed as ostentatiously as the dwarf, but he was unarmed. He was calling to Elric and the albino strained to catch the words even as another tiger-creature came at him.
Corum saw the newcomer now. "Jhary!" he shouted.
"The one you came to save?" Elric asked.
"Aye."
Elric made to press forward into the room, but Jhary-a-Conel waved him back. "No! No! Stay there!"
Elric frowned, was about to ask why when he was attacked from two sides by the tiger creatures and had to retreat, slashing his scythe this way and that.
"Link arms!" Jhary-a-Conel cried. "Corum in the centre—and you two draw your swords!"
Elric was panting. He slew another tiger-man and felt a new pain shoot through his leg. Blood gushed from his calf.
Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was still struggling with the thing which clung to his face.
"Hurry!" cried Jhary-a-Conel. "It is your only chance—and mine!"
Elric looked at Corum.
"He is wise, my friend," Corum said. "He knows many things which we do not. Here, I will stand in the centre."
Erekosë linked his brawny arm with Corum's and Elric did the same on the other side. Erekosë drew his sword in his left hand and Elric brought forth Stormbringer in his right.
And something began to happen. A sense of energy came back, then a sense of great physical well-being. Elric looked at his companions and laughed. It was almost as if by combining their powers they had made them four times stronger—as if they had become one entity.
A peculiar feeling of euphoria filled Elric and he knew that Erekosë had spoken the truth—that they were three aspects of the same being.
"Let us finish them!" he shouted—and he saw that they shouted the same. Laughing the linked three strode into the chamber and now the two swords wounded whenever they struck, slaying swiftly and bringing them more energy still.
The winged tiger-men became frantic, flapping about the room as the Three Who Were One pursued them. All three were drenched in their own blood and that of their enemies, all three were laughing, invulnerable, acting completely in unison.
And as they moved the room itself began to shake. They heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak screaming.
"The tower! The tower! This will destroy the tower!"
Elric looked up from the last corpse. It was true that the tower was swaying wildly from side to side like a ship in a storm.
Jhary-a-Conel pushed past the dwarf and entered the room of death. The sight seemed obnoxious to him but he controlled his feelings. "It is true. The sorcery we have worked today must have its effect. Whiskers—to me!"
The thing on Voilodion Ghagnasdiak's face flew into the air and settled on Jhary's shoulder. Elric saw that it was a small black and white cat, ordinary in every detail save for its neat pair of wings which it was now folding.
Voilodion Ghagnasdiak sat crumpled in the doorway and he was weeping through sightless eyes. Tears of blood flowed down his handsome face.
Elric ran back into the other room, breaking his link with Corum. He peered through the window slit. But now there was nothing but a wild eruption of mauve and purple cloud.
He gasped. "We are in limbo!"
Silence fell. Still the tower swayed. The lights were extinguished by a strange wind blowing through the rooms and the only illumination came from outside where the mist still swirled.
Jhary-a-Conel was frowning to himself as he joined Elric at the window.
"How did you know what to do?" Elric asked him.
"I knew because I know you, Elric of Melniboné—just as I know Erekosë there—for I travel in many ages and on many planes. That is why