Vanishing Tower - Michael Moorcock [59]
"But the tower? If it is destroyed shall we, too, be destroyed?"
"A possibility. Come, friend Elric, help me seek my hat."
"At such a time, you look for a—hat?"
"Aye." Jhary-a-Conel returned to the larger room, stroking the black and white cat. Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was still there and he was still weeping. "Prince Corum—Lord Erekosë—will you come with me, too."
Corum and the black giant joined Elric and they squeezed into the narrow passage, inching their way along until it widened to reveal a flight of stairs leading downward. The tower shuddered again. Jhary lit a brand and removed it from its place in the wall. He began to descend the steps, the three heroes behind him.
A slab of masonry fell from the roof and crashed just in front of Elric. "I would prefer to seek a means of escape from the tower," he said to Jhary-a-Conel. "If it falls now, we shall be buried."
"Trust me, Prince Elric," was all that Jhary would say.
And because Jhary had already shown himself to possess great knowledge Elric allowed the dandy to lead him further into the bowels of the tower.
At last they reached a circular chamber and in it was set a huge metal door.
"Voilodion's vault," Jhary told them. "Here you will find all the things you seek. And I, I hope, will find my hat. The hat was specially made and is the only one which properly matches my other clothes. . . ."
"How do we open a door like that?" Erekosë asked. "It is made of steel, surely!" He hefted the black blade he still bore in his left hand.
"If you link arms again, my friends," Jhary suggested with a kind of mocking deference, "I will show you how the door may be opened."
Once again Elric, Corum and Erekosë linked their arms together. Once again the supernatural strength seemed to flow through them and they laughed at each other, knowing that they were all part of the same creature.
Jhary's voice seemed to come faintly to Elric's ears. "And now, Prince Corum, if you would strike with your foot once upon the door. . . ."
They moved until they were close to the door. That part of them which was Corum struck out with his foot at the slab of steel—and the door fell inward as if made of the lightest wood.
This time Elric was much more reluctant to break the link which held them. But he did so at last as Jhary stepped into the vault chuckling to himself.
The tower lurched. All three were flung after Jhary into Voilodion's vault. Elric fell heavily against a great golden chair of a kind he had once seen used as an elephant saddle. He looked around the vault. It was full of valuables, of clothes, shoes, weapons. He felt nauseated as he realised that these had been the possessions of all those Voilodion had chosen to call his guests.
Jhary pulled a bundle from under a pile of furs. "Look, Prince Elric. These are what you will need where Tanelorn is concerned." It seemed to be a bunch of long sticks rolled in thin sheets of metal.
Elric accepted the heavy bundle. "What is it?"
"They are the banners of bronze and the arrows of quartz. Useful weapons against the reptilian men of Pio and their mounts."
"You know of those reptiles? You know of Theleb K'aarna, too?"
"The sorcerer of Pan Tang? Aye."
Elric stared almost suspiciously at Jhary-a-Conel. "How can you know all this?"
"I have told you. I have lived many lives as a Friend of Heroes. Unwrap this bundle when you return to Tanelorn. Use the arrows of quartz like spears. To use the banners of bronze, merely unfurl them. Aha!" Jhary reached behind a sack of jewels and came up with a somewhat dusty hat. He smacked off the dust and placed it on his head. "Ah!" He bent again and displayed a goblet. He offered this to Prince Corum. "Take it. It will prove useful, I think."
From another corner Jhary took a small sack and put it on his shoulder. Almost as an afterthought he hunted about in a chest of jewels and found a gleaming ring of unnamable stones and peculiar metal.