A Shaft of dim light appeared and Elric looked up to see not the hatch-cover had been prised aside and Jagreen Lern stared down at him.
«I see the brew had its effect. Come, Elric, smell the invigorating sea and fed the warm sun on your body. We are not many miles from the coasts of Argimiliar and our scout-ships report quite a sizeable fleet sailing hence.»
Elric cursed. «By Arioch, I hope they send you all to the bottom! »
Jagreen Lern pursed his lips mockingly. «By whom? Arioch? Do you not remember what ensued in my own palace? Arioch cannot be invoked. Not by you-not by me. Your stinking spells saw to that.»
He turned to an invisible lieutenant «Bind him and bring him on deck. You know what to do with him.»
Two warriors dropped into the hold and grasped the still weak Elric, tying his arms and legs and manhandling him on to the deck. He gasped as the sun's glare struck his eyes.
«Prop him up so he may see all, » Jagreen Lern ordered.
The warriors obeyed and Elric was lifted to a sending position, seeing Jagreen Lern's huge, black flagship with its silken deck canopies flapping in a steady westerly breeze, its three banks of straining oarsmen and its tall ebony mast bearing a sail of dark red.
Beyond the ship's rails, Elric saw a massive fleet surging in the flagship's wake. As well as the vessels of Pan Tang and Dharijor there were many from Jharkor, Shazar and Tarkesh but on every scarlet sail the Merman blazon of Pan Tang was painted.
Depression filled Elric, for he knew that the Southlands, however strong, could not notch a fleet like this. «We have been at sea for only three days, » said Jagreen Lern, »but thanks to a witch-wind, we're almost at our destination. A scout ship has recently reported that the Lormyrian navy, hearing rumours of our superior sea-power, is sailing to join with us. A wise move of King Montan - for the moment, at any rate. I’ll make use of him for the time being and, when his usefulness is over, I’ll have him killed for the treacherous turncoat he is.»
«Why do you tell me all this?» Elric whispered, his teeth gritted against the pain that came with any slight movement of his face or body.
«Because I want you to witness for yourself the defeat of the South. I want you to know that what you sought to avert will come to pass. After we have subdued the South and sucked her of her treasures, we'll vanquish the Isle of tee Purple Towns and press forward to sack Vilmir and Ilmion. That will be an easy matter don't you agree?»
When Elric did not reply, Jagreen Lern gestured impatiently to his men.
«Tie him to the mast so that he may get a good view of the battle. I’ll put a protective charm around his body, for I do not want him to be killed by a stray arrow and cheat me of my full vengeance.»
Elric was borne up and roped to the mast, but he was scarcely aware of it, for his head lolled on his right shoulder, only semi-conscious.
The massive fleet plunged onwards, certain of victory.
By mid-afternoon Elric was aroused from his stupor by the shout of the helmsman. «Sad to the south-east! Lormyrian fleet approaches.»
With impotent anger, Elric saw the fifty two-masted ships, their sails bright against the sombre scarlet of Jagreen Lern's vessels, come into line with the others.
Lormyr, though a smaller power than Argimiliar, had a larger navy. Elric judged that King Mootan's treachery had cost the south more than a quarter of its strength.
Now he knew there was absolutely no hope for the south and that Jagreen Lern's certainty of victory was well-founded.
Night fell and the huge fleet lay at anchor. A guard came to feed Elric a mushy porridge containing another dose of the revitalising drug. As he revived, his anger increased, and Jagreen Lern paused by the mast on two occasions, taunting him savagely.
«Soon after dawn we shall meet the southern fleet, » Jagreen Lern smiled, »and by noon what is left of it will float as bloody driftwood behind us as we press on to establish our reign over those nations who so foolishly relied on their seapower as defence.»
Elric remembered how he had warned the Icings of the Southlands that this was likely to happen if they stood alone against the theocrat. But he wished that he had been wrong. With the defeat of the south, the conquest of the east seemed bound to follow and, when Jagreen Lern ruled the world, Chaos would dominate and the earth revert to the sniff from which it had been formed millions of years before.
All through that moonless night he brooded, pulling his thoughts together, summoning all his strength for a plan that was, as yet, only a shadow in the back of his mind.
Six
The rattle of anchors woke him.
Shaking in the light of the watery sun. he saw the southern fleet on the horizon, riding gracefully in hollow pomp towards the ships of Jagreen Lern.
Either, he thought, the southern kings were very brave or else they did not understand the strength of their enemies.
Beneath him, on Jagreen Lern's foredeck, a great catapult rested, and slaves had already filled its cup with a large hall of flaming pitch. Normally. Elric knew, such catapults were an encumbrance, since when they reached that size they were difficult to rewind and gave lighter war-machines the advantage. Yet obviously Jagreen Lern's engineers were not fools. Elric noted extra mechanisms on the big catapult and realised they were equipped to rewind rapidly.
The wind had dropped and five hundred pairs of muscles alone strove to row Jagreen Lern's galley along. On the deck, in disciplined order, his warriors took their posts beside the great boarding platforms that would drop down on to opponent ships and grapple them at the same time as they formed a bridge between the vessels.
Elric was forced to admit that Jagreen Lern had used foreright. He had not relied wholly on supernatural aid. His ships were the best equipped he had ever seen.
The southern fleet, Elric decided, was doomed. To fight Jagreen Lern was not bravery-it was insanity.
But Jagreen Lern had made one mistake. He had, in his gnawing desire for vengeance, ensured that Elric's vitality was restored for a few hours and this vitality extended to his mind as well as his body.
Stormbringer had vanished. With the sword he was, among men, all but invincible. Without it, he was helpless. These were facts. Therefore he must somehow regain the blade. But how? It had returned to the plane of Chaos with its brothers, presumably drawn back there by the overwhelming force of the rest.
He must contact it
He dare not summon the entire horde of blades with spell, that would be tempting providence too far.
He heard the sudden thwack and roar as the giant catapult discharged its first shot. The flame-shrouded pitch went arching over the ocean and landed short, boiling the sea around it as it guttered and sank. Swiftly the war-engine was rewound and he marvelled at the speed as another ball of flaring pitch was forked into its cup. Jagreen Lern looked up at him and laughed.
«My pleasure will be short-there are not enough of them to put up a decent fight. Watch them perish, Elric! »
Brie said nothing, pretended to be dazed and frightened.
The next fireball struck one of the leading ships directly and Elric saw tiny figures scampering about, striving desperately to quench the spreading pitch, but within a minute the whole ship was ablaze, a gouting mass of flame as the figures now jumped overboard, unable to save their vessel.
Now the air around him sounded to the rushing heat of the fireballs and within range now, the southerners retaliated with their lighter machines until it seemed the sky was filled with a thousand comets and the heat almost equalled that which Elric had experienced in the torture chamber.