Then, from somewhere inside the palace, he heard a movement His heart pounded against his rib-cage^ threatening to break through the bones and hang throbbing on his chest as proof of his mortality.
He heard a sound like the clopping of monstrous hooves and ahead of it the measured steps that must be those of a man.
His eyes fixed themselves on the great golden doors of the palace, half-hidden in shadows that the columns threw.
The doors began to open silently.
Then a figure, dwarfed by the size of the doors, stepped forth and stood there regarding Elric with a horrible anger smouldering in its eyes.
On its body scarlet armour glowed as if red-hot. On its left arm was a shield of the same stuff and in its hand a steel sword.
Jagreen Lern, said in a voice that trembled with rage:
«So, King Elric, you have kept part of your word, after all.»
«And I plan to keep the rest of it, » Elric said with sudden calm. «Step forward, theocrat I’ll meet you fairly in single combat»
Jagreen Lern gave a sneering, hollow laugh.
«Fairly? With that blade in your hand? Once I met it and did not perish, but now it bums with the blood and souls of a score of my best warrior-priests. I would not be so foolish. No-let those you have challenged meet you.»
He stepped to one side.
The doors gaped wider and if Elric expected giant figures to emerge, he was disappointed. The dukes had assumed the forms of men.
But there was a power about them not filled the air as they moved to stand, disdainful of Jagreen Lern, upon the topmost step of the palace.
Elric glimpsed their beautiful, smiling faces and shuddered again, for there was a kind of love on their faces, a kind of pride-a kind of confidence so that, for a moment, he was filled with the wish to jump from his horse and fling himself their feet to plead forgiveness for what he had become.
«Well, Elric, » said Arioch, the leader, softly. «Would you repeat and return to us?» The voice was silvery in its beauty and Elric half-made to dismount.
But then he clapped his hands to his ears, the runesword hanging by its wrist-throng, and cried:
«No! No! I must do what I must! Your time, like mine, is over! »
«Do not speak for us, Elric, » Balan said persuasively, his words passing Elric's hands and whispering in his skull. «Chaos has never been this powerful on Earth-not even in earliest days. We shall make you great-we shall make you a Lord of Chaos, equal to ourselves! We give you immortality, Elric. If you behave so foolishly as you behave now, you will bring yourself only death and none shall remember you.»
«I know that! I would not wish to be remembered in a world ruled by Law! »
Maluk laughed softly.
«That will never come to pass. We block every move that Law makes to try to bring help to Earth.»
«And this is why you must be destroyed! » Elric cried.
«We are immortal-we can never be slain! » Arioch said, and there was a tinge of impatience in his voice.
«Then I shall send you back to Chaos in such a way that you shall never have power on the Earth again! »
Elric swung his runeblade into his hand and it trembled there, moaning quietly as if unsure of itself, just as he was.
«See! » Balan walked part-way down the steps. «See-even your trusted sword knows that we speak truth.»
«You speak a sort of tnidi.» Moonglum said in a quavering tone, astonished at his own bravery. «But I remember something of a greater truth-a law that should bind both Chaos and Law-the Law of the Balance. The Supreme Spirit holds that balance over the earth and it should be that Chaos and Law war to keep that balance straight Sometimes the balance tips one way, sometimes another-and thus are the ages of the Earth created. But an inequal balance of this magnitude is wrong. In your struggling you of Chaos may have forgotten this! »
«We have forgotten it for good reason, mortal. The balance has tipped to such an extent in our favour that it is no longer adjustable. We triumph! »
Elric used this pause to collect himself. Sensing his renewed strength, Stormbringer responded with a confident purr.
The dukes also sensed it and glanced at one another.
Arioch's beautiful face seemed to flare with anger and his pseudo-body glided down the steps towards Elric, his fellow dukes following.
Elric's steed backed away a few paces.
A blot of living fire seemed to appear in Arioch's hand and it shot towards the albino. He felt cold pain in his chest and he staggered in the saddle.
«Your body is unimportant, Elric. But think of a similar blow to your soul! » Arioch screamed, the facade of patience dropping from him.
Elric flung back his head and laughed. Arioch had betrayed himself. If he had remained calm he would have had a greater advantage, but now he showed himself perturbed, whatever he had said to the contrary.
«Arioch - you aided me in the past. You will regret that! »
«There's still time to undo my folly, upstart mortal! » Another bolt came streaking towards him but Elric passed Stormbringer before it and observed, in relief, that it deflected the unholy weapon.
But, against such might, they were surely doomed, unless they could invoke some supernatural aid. But Elric dared not risk summoning his runesword's brothers. Not yet. He must think of some other means.
As he retreated towards the searing bolts, Moonglum behind him whispering almost impotent charms, he thought of the vulture-lions he had sent back to Chaos. Perhaps he could recall them-for a different purpose.
The spell was fresh in his mind, requiring a slightly changed mental state and scarcely changed wording.
Calmly, working mechanically to deflect the bolts of the dukes whose features had changed hideously to retain their previous beauty but take on an increasingly malevolent appearance, he uttered the spell.
From out of the rolling darks of the plaza, the beaked beasts appeared, prowling.
Elric yelled at the dukes. «Mortal weapons cannot harm you! But these are beasts of your own plane-sample their ferocity.» He ordered the vulture-lions upon the dukes.
Obviously put out by this. Arioch and his fellows backed towards the steps again, calling their own commands to the giant animals, but the things advanced, gathering speed.
Elric saw Arioch shout, rave and then his body seemed to split asunder and rise in a new, less recognisable shape as the beasts attacked. All was suddenly ragged colour, sound and disordered matter.
Behind the embattled demons, Elric saw Jagreen Lern running back into his palace. Hoping that the creatures he had summoned would hold the dukes, Elric rode his horse around the boiling mass and galloped up the steps.
Through the doors the two men rode, catching a glimpse of the terrified theocrat running before them.
«Your allies were not so strong as you believed, Jagreen Lern! » Elric yelled as he bore down upon his enemy. «Why, you foolish latecomer, did you think your knowledge notched that of a Melnibonean! »
Jagreen Lern began to climb a winding staircase, labouring up the steps, too afraid even to look back.
Elric laughed again and pulled his horse to a stop, watching the running man:
«Dukes! Dukes! » sobbed Jagreen Lern as he climbed. «Do not desert me now! »
Moonglum whispered. «Surely those creatures will not defeat the aristocracy of hell?»
Elric shook his head. «I do not expect them to, but if I finish Jagreen Lern, at least it could put an end to his conquests and demon-summoning.» He spurred the Nihrain steed up the steps after the theocrat who heard him coming and flung himself into a room. Elric heard a bar fall and bolts squeal.