Two
Two nights later they stood on the quayside in the city of Jadmar while a cold wind sliced its way inland.
«There she is, » Elric said, pointing down at the small boat rocking and bumping in the water below.
«A small craft, » Moonglum said dubiously. «She scarcely looks sea-worthy.»
«She’ll stay afloat longer than a larger vessel in a heavy storm.» Elric clambered down the iron steps. «Also, » he added, as Moonglum put a cautious foot on the rung above him, «shall be less noticeable and won't draw the attention of any enemy vessels which might be scouting in these waters.»
He jumped and the boat rocked crarily. He leaned over, grasped a rung and steadied the boat so that Moonglum could dimb aboard.
The cocky little Eastlander pushed a hand through his shock of red hair and stared up at the troubled sky.
«Bad weather for this time of year, » he noted. 'Ifs hard to understand. All the way from Karlaak we've had every sort of weather, freak snow-storms, thunder-storms, hail and winds as hot as a furnace blast. Those rumours were disturbing, too-a rain of blood in Bakshaan, balls of fiery metal falling in the West of Vilmir, unprecedented earthquakes in Jadmar a few hours before we arrived. It seems nature has gone insane.»
«Not far from the truth, » Elric said grimly, untying the mooring line. «Lift the sail will you, and tack into the wind?»
«What do you mean?» Moonglum began to loosen the sail. It billowed into his face and his voice was muffled. «Jagreen Lern's hordes haven't reached this part of the world yet.»
«They haven't needed to. I told you the forces of nature were being disrupted by Chaos. We have only experienced the backwash of what is going on in the West. If you think these weather conditions are peculiar, you would be horrified by the effect which Chaos has on those parts of the world where its rule is almost total! »
«I wonder if you haven’t taken on too much in this fight.» Moonglum adjusted the sail and it filled to send the little boat scudding between the two long harbour walls towards the open sea.
As they passed the beacons, guttering in the cold wind, Elric gripped the tiller tighter, taking a south-easterly course past the Vilmirian peninsula. Overhead the stars were sometimes obscured by the tattered shreds of Clouds streaming before the cold, unnatural blast of the wind. Spray splashed in his face, stinging it in a thousand places, but he ignored it. He had not answered Moonglum, for he also had doubts about his ability to save the world from Chaos.
Moonglum had learned to judge his friend's moods. For some years before they had travelled the world together and had learned to respect one another. Lately, since Elric had near-permanent residence in his wife's city of Karlaak, Moonglum had continued to travel and had been in command of a small mercenary army patrolling the Southern marches of Picarayd, driving back the barbarians inhabiting the hinterland of that country. He had immediately relinquished this command when Elric's news reached him and now, as the tiny ship bore them towards a hazy and perilfraught destiny, savoured the familiar mixture of excitement and perturbation which he had felt a dozen times before when their escapades had led them into conflict with the unknown supernatural forces so closely linked with Elric's destiny. He had come to accept as a fact that his destiny was bound to Elric's and felt, in the deepest places of his being, that when the time came they would both die together in some mighty adventure.
Was this death imminent! he wondered, as he concentrated on the sail and shivered in the blasting wind. Not yet, perhaps, but he felt, fatalistically, that it was not far away, for the time was looming when the only deeds of men would be dark, desperate and great and even these might not serve to form a bastion against the inrush of the creatures of Chaos.
Elric, himself, contemplated nothing, kept his mind clear and relaxed as much as he could. His quest for the aid of the White Lords was one which could well prove fruitless, but he chose not to dwell no this until he knew for certain whether their help could be invoked or not.
Dawn came swimming over the horizon, showing a heaving waste of grey water with no land in sight. The wind had dropped and the air was warmer. Banks of purple cloud bearing veins of saffron and scarlet poured into the sky line the smoke of some monstrous pyre. Soon they were sweating beneath a moody sun and the wind had dropped so that the sail hardly moved and yet, at the same time, the sea began to heave as if lashed by a storm.
The sea was moving like a living entity thrashing in nightmare-filled sleep. Moonglum glanced at Brie from where he lay sprawled in the prow of the boat Elric returned the gaze, shaking his head and releasing his half-conscious grip of the tiller. It was useless to attempt steering the boat in conditions like these. The boat was being swept about by the wild waves, yet no water seemed to enter it, no spray wet them. Everything had become unreal, dream-like and for a white Elric felt that even if he had wished to speak he would not have been able to do so.
Then, in the distance at first, they heard a tow droning which grew to a whining shriek and suddenly the boat was sent half-flying over the rolling waves and driven down into a trench. Above them the blue and silver water seemed for a moment to be a wall of metal-and men it came crashing down towards them. His mood broken, Elric clung to the tiller and yelled, »Hang on to the boat, Moonglum! Hang on or you're lost! «
Tepid water groaned down and they were flattened beneath it as if swatted by a gigantic palm. The boat dropped deeper and deeper until it seemed they would be crushed on the bottom by the surging blow. Then they were flung upwards again and down and, as he glimpsed the boiling surface, Elric saw three mountains pushing themselves upwards, gouting flame and lava. The boat wallowed, half-full of water tend they set to frantically baling it out as the boat was swirled back and forth, being driven nearer and nearer to the newformed volcanoes.
Elric dropped his baling pan and flung his weight against the tiller, forcing the boat away from the mountains of fire. It responded sluggishly, but began to drift in the opposite direction.
Elric saw Moonglum, pate-faced, attempting to shake out the sodden sail. He glanced upwards to try and get some kind of bearing, but the sun seemed to have swollen and broken so that he saw a million fragments of flame.
«This is the work of Chaos, Moonglum, » he shouted, »and only a taste, I fancy, of what it can become! »
'They must know of our plan and seek to stop us! » Moonglum swept sweat from his eyes with the back of his hand.
«Perhaps - but I think not.» Now he looked up again and the sun seemed almost normal. He took a bearing and found they were many miles off their original course.
He had planned to sail to the South of Melnibone, Isle of the Dragon, and avoid the Dragon Sea lying to the North, for it was well-known that the last great sea-monsters still roamed this stretch. But now it was obvious that they were, in fact, north of Melnibone and being driven further north all the time-towards Pan Tang.
There was no chance of heading for Melnibone itself-he wondered if the Isle of the Dragon had even survived the monstrous upheavals. He would have to make straight for Sorcerers' Isle if he could.
The ocean was calmer now, but the water had almost reached boiling point so that every drop that fell on his skin seemed to scald him. Bubbles formed on the surface and it was as if they sailed in a gigantic witch's cauldron. Dead fish and half-reptilian forms drifted about, as thick as sea-weed, threatening to clog the boat's passage. But the wind, though strong, had begun to blow in one direction and Moonglum grinned in relief as it filled the sail.