III

Save that it faced in the opposite direction, the other cabin resembled the first in almost every detail. Here, too, were seated some dozen men, all experienced soldiers of fortune by their features and their clothing. Two sat together at the center of the table's starboard side. One was bareheaded, fair, and careworn, the other had features resembling Elric's own and he seemed to be wearing a silver gauntlet on his left hand while the right hand was naked; his armor was delicate and outlandish. He looked up as Elric entered and there was recognition in his single eye (the other was covered by a brocade-work patch).

"Elric of Melnibonи! " he exclaimed. "My theories become more meaningful! " He turned to his companion. "See, Hawkmoon, this is the one of whom I spoke."

"You know me, sir?" Elric was nonplussed.

"You recognize me, Elric. You must! At the Tower of Voilodion Ghagnasdiak? With Erekosл-though a different Erekosл."

"I know of no such tower, no name which resembles that, and this is the first I have seen of Erekosл. You know me and you know my name, but I do not know you. I find this disconcerting, sir."

"I, too, had never met Prince Corum before he came aboard, " said Erekosл, "yet he insists we fought together once. I am inclined to believe him. Time on the different planes does not always run concurrently. Prince Corum might well exist in what we would term the future."

"I had thought to find some relief from such paradoxes here, " said Hawkmoon, passing his hand over his face. He smiled bleakly. "But it seems there is none at this present moment in the history of the planes. Everything is in flux and even our identities, it seems, are prone to alter at any moment."

"We were Three, " said Corum. "Do you not recall it, Elric? The Three Who Are One?"

Elric shook his head.

Corum shrugged, saying softly to himself, "Well, now we are Four. Did the captain say anything of an island we are supposed to invade?"

"He did, " said Elric. "Do you know who these enemies might be?"

"We know no more or less than do you, Elric, " said Hawkmoon. "I seek a place called Tanelorn and two children. Perhaps I seek the Runestaff, too. Of that I am not entirely sure."

"We found it once, " said Corum. "We three. In the Tower of Voilodion Ghagnasdiak. It was of considerable help to us."

"As it might be to me, " Hawkmoon told him. "I served it once. I gave it a great deal."

"We have much in common, " Erekosл put in, "as I told you, Elric. Perhaps we share masters in common, too?"

Elric shrugged. "I serve no master but myself."

And he wondered why they all smiled in the same strange way.

Erekosл said quietly, "On such ventures as these one is inclined to forget much, as one forgets a dream."

"This is a dream, " said Hawkmoon. "Of late I've dreamed many such."

"It is all dreaming, if you like, " said Corum. "All existence."

Elric was not interested in such philosophizing. "Dream or reality, the experience amounts to the same, does it not?"

"Quite right, " said Erekosл with a wan smile.

They talked on for another hour or two until Corum stretched and yawned and commented that he was feeling sleepy. The others agreed that they were all tired and so they left the cabin and went aft and below where there were bunks for all the warriors. As he stretched himself out in one of the bunks, Elric said to Brut of Lashmar, who had climbed into the bunk above:

"It would help to know when this fight begins."

Brut looked over the edge, down at the prone albino. "I think it will be soon, " he said.

Elric stood alone upon the deck, leaning upon the rail and trying to make out the sea, but the sea, like the rest of the world, was hidden by white curling mist. Elric wondered if there were waters flowing under the ship's keel at all. He looked up to where the sail was tight and swollen at the mast, filled with a warm and powerful wind. It was light, but again it was not possible to tell the hour of the day. Puzzled by Corum's comments concerning an earlier meeting, Elric wondered if there had been other dreams in his life such as this might bedreams he had forgotten completely upon awakening. But the uselessness of such speculation became quickly evident and he turned his attention to more immediate matters, wondering at the origin of the captain and his strange ship sailing on a stranger ocean.

"The captain, " said Hawkmoon's voice, and Elric turned to bid good morning to the tall, fair-haired man who bore a strange, regular scar in the center of his forehead, "has requested that we four visit him in his cabin."

The other two emerged from the mist and together they made their way to the prow, knocking on the reddish-brown door and being at once admitted into the presence of the blind captain, who had four silver wine-cups already poured for them. He gestured them toward the great chest on which the wine stood. "Please help yourselves, my friends."

They did so, standing there with the cups in their hands, four tall, doomhaunted swordsmen, each of a strikingly different cast of features, yet each bearing a certain stamp which marked them as being of a like kind. Elric noticed it, for all that he was one of them, and he tried to recall the details of what Corum had told him on the previous evening.

"We are nearing our destination, " said the captain. "It will not be long before we disembark. I do not believe our enemies expect us, yet it will be a hard fight against those two."

"Two?" said Hawkmoon. "Only two?"

"Only two." The captain smiled. "A brother and a sister. Sorcerers from quite another universe than ours. Due to recent disruptions in the fabric of our worlds- of which you know something, Hawkmoon, and you, too, Corum-certain beings have been released who would not otherwise have the power they now possess. And possessing great power, they crave for more-for all the power that there is in our universe. These beings are amoral in a way in which the Lords of Law or Chaos are not. They do not fight for influence upon the Earth, as those gods do; their only wish is to convert the essential energy of our universe to their own uses. I believe they foster some ambition in their particular universe which would be furthered if they could achieve their wish. At present, in spite of conditions highly favorable to them, they have not attained their full strength, but the time is not far off before they do attain it. Agak and Gagak is how they are called in human tongue and they are outside the power of any of our gods, so a more powerful group has been summoned-yourselves. The Champion Eternal in four of his incarnations (and four is the maximum number we can risk without precipitating further unwelcome disruptions among the planes of Earth) Erekosл, Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon. Each of you will command four others, whose fates are linked with your own and who are great fighters in their own right, though they do not share your destinies in every sense. You may each pick the four with whom you wish to fight. I think you will find it easy enough to decide. We make landfall quite shortly now."

"You will lead us?" Hawkmoon said.

"I cannot. I can only take you to the island and wait for those who survive-if any survive."

Elric frowned. "This fight is not mine, I think."

"It is yours, " said the captain soberly. "And it is mine. I would land with you if that were permitted me, but it is not."

"Why so?" asked Corum.

"You will learn that one day. I have not the courage to tell you. I bear you nothing but goodwill, however. Be assured of that."

Erekosл rubbed his jaw. "Well, since it is my destiny to fight, and since I, like Hawkmoon, continue to seek Tanelorn, and since I gather there is some chance of my fulfilling my ambition if I am successful, I for one agree to go against these two, Agak and Gagak."