Vanishing Tower - Michael Moorcock [60]
Erekosë smiled. "I have the feeling you needed no help, young man."
"You are mistaken, friend Erekosë. I doubt if I have ever been in greater peril." He looked vaguely about the vault, staggering as the floor tilted alarmingly.
Elric said: "We should take steps to leave."
"Exactly." Jhary-a-Conel crossed swiftly to the fat side of the vault. "The last thing. In his pride Voilodion showed me his possessions, but he did not know the value of all of them."
"What do you mean?" asked the Prince in the Scarlet Robe.
"He killed the traveller who brought this with him. The traveller was right in assuming he had the means to stop the tower from vanishing, but he did not have time to use it before Voilodion had slain him." Jhary picked up a small staff coloured a dull ochre. "Here it is. The Runestaff. Hawkmoon had this with him when I travelled with him to the Dark Empire. . . ."
Noticing their puzzlement, Jhary-a-Conel, Companion to Champions, apologised. "I am sorry. I sometimes forget that not all of us have memories of other careers. . . ."
"What is the Runestaff?" Corum asked.
"I remember one description—but I am poor at naming and explaining things. . . ."
"That has not escaped my notice," Elric said, almost smiling.
"It is an object which can only exist under a certain set of spatial and temporal laws. In order to continue to exist, it must exert a field in which it can contain itself. That field must accord with those laws—the same laws under which we best survive."
More masonry fell.
"The tower is breaking up!" Erekosë growled.
Jhary stroked the dull ochre staff. "Please gather near me, my friends."
The three heroes stood around him. And then the roof of the tower fell in. But it did not fall on them for they stood suddenly on firm ground breathing fresh air. But there was blackness all around them. "Do not step outside this small area," Jhary warned, "or you will be doomed. Let the Runestaff seek what we seek."
They saw the ground change colour, breathed warmer, then colder, air. It was as if they moved from plane to plane of the universe, never seeing more than the few feet of ground upon which they stood.
And then there was harsh desert sand beneath their feet and Jhary shouted. "Now!" The four of them rushed out of the area and into the blackness to find themselves suddenly in sunlight beneath a sky like beaten metal.
"A desert," Erekosë murmured. "A vast desert. . . ."
Jhary smiled. "Do you not recognise it, friend Elric?"
"Is it the Sighing Desert?"
"Listen."
And sure enough Elric heard the familiar sound of the wind as it made its mournful passage across the sands. A little way away he saw the Runestaff where they had left it. Then it was gone.
"Are you all to come with me to the defence of Tanelorn?" he asked Jhary.
Jhary shook his head. "No. We go the other way. We go to seek the device Theleb K'aarna activated with the help of the Lords of Chaos. Where lies it?"
Elric tried to get his bearings. He lifted a hesitant finger. "That way, I think."
"Then let us go to it now."
"But I must try to help Tanelorn."
"You must destroy the device after we have used it, friend Elric, lest Theleb K'aarna or his like try to activate it again."
"But Tanelorn . . ."
"I do not believe that Theleb K'aarna and his beasts have yet reached the city."
"Not reached it! So much time has passed!"
"Less than a day."
Elric rubbed at his face. He said reluctantly: "Very well. I will take you to the machine."
"But if Tanelorn lies so near," Corum said to Jhary, "why seek it elsewhere?"
"Because this is not the Tanelorn we wish to find," Jhary told him.
"It will suit me," Erekosë said. "I will remain with Elric. Then, perhaps . . ."
A look almost of terror spread over Jhary's features then. He said sadly: "My friend—already much of time and space is threatened with destruction. Eternal barriers could soon fall—the fabric of the multiverse could decay. You do not understand. Such a thing as has happened in the Vanishing Tower can only happen