Two
With his milk-white hair streaming behind him and his red eyes blazing with purpose, Elric lashed his stallion through the cold darkness of the night, through a disturbed land which awaited Jagreen Lern's attack in trepidation, for it could mean not only their deaths, but the drawing of their souls into the servitude of Chaos.
Already the standards of a dozen Western and Southern monarchs fluttered with Jagreen Lern's as the kings of the conquered lands chose his command rather than death-and placed their peoples under his dominance so that they became marching, blank-faced creatures with enslaved souls, their wives and children dead, tormented or feeding the bloodwashed altars of Pan Tang where the priests send up invocations to the Chaos Lords, and, ever-willing to further their power on Earth, the Lords answered with support.
And not only the entities themselves, but the stuff of their own weird cosmos was entering the Earth, so that where their power was, the land heaved like the sea, or the sea flowed like lava, mountains changed shape and trees sprouted ghastly blossoms never seen on Earth before.
Wherever Jagreen Lern conquered, the warping influence of Chaos was manifest. The very spirits of nature were tortured into becoming what they should not be-air, fire, water and earth, all became unstable, for Jagreen Lern and his allies were tampering not only with the lives and souls of men, but the very constituents of the planet itself. And there were none of sufficient power to punish them for these crimes. None.
With this knowledge within him, Elric's progress was swift and wild, as he strove to reach the Isle of the Purple Towns before his pitifully inadequate fleet sailed to do battle with Chaos.
Two days later he arrived in the port of Uhaio, at the tip of the smallest of the three Vilmirian peninsulas, and took ship at once to the Isle of the Purple Towns, where he disembarked and rode into the interior towards the ancient fortress Ma-ha-kil-agra which had withstood every siege ever made against it' and was regarded as the most impregnable construction in the whole of the lands still free from Chaos. Its name was in an older language than any known to those who lived in the current Age of the Young Kingdoms. Only Elric knew what the name signified. The fortress had been there long before the present races came to dominance, even before Elric’s ancestors had begun their conquerings. Ma-ha-kil-agra-me Fort of Evening, where long ago, a lonely race had come to die.
As he arrived in the courtyard, Moonglum, the Eastlander, came rushing from the entrance of a tower.
«Elric! We have been awaiting your arrival, for time grows scarce before we must embark against the enemy. We nave Bent out ship-borne spies to estimate the size and power of Jagreen Lern's fleet. Only four returned and all were uselessly insane. The fifth has Just come back, but -»
«But what?»
«See for yourself. He has been-altered, Elric.»
«Altered! Altered! Let me see him. Take me to him.» Elric nodded surly to the other captains who had come out to greet him. He passed them and followed behind Moonglum through the stone corridors of the fortress, lit badly by spluttering rushes.
Leading Elric to an antechamber, Moonglum stopped outside, running his fingers through his thick, red hair. «He is therein. Would you care to interview him alone? I'd rather not set eyes on him again! »
«Very well, » Elric opened the door, wondering how this spy would be changed. Sitting at the plain wooden table, was the remains of a man. It looked up. As Moonglum had warned him-it had been altered.
Elric felt pity for the man, but he was not nauseated or horrified like Moonglum, for in his sorcery-working he had seen far worse creatures. It was as if the whole of one side of the spy's body had become at one stage viscous, had flowed, and men coiled in a random shape. Side of head, shoulder, arm, torso, leg, all were replaced by streamers of flesh like rat's tails, lumps of matter like swollen boils, weirdly mottled. The spy spread his good band and some of the streamer seemed to jerk and wave in unison.
Elric spoke quietly. «What magic wrought his drastic change?»
A kind of Chuckle came from the lopsided face. «I entered the Realm of Chaos, lord. And Chaos did this, it changed me as you see. The boundaries are being extended. I did not know it. I was inside before I realised what had happened. The area of Chaos is being widened! » He leant forward, his shaking voice almost screaming. «With it sail the massed fleets of Jagreen Lern-great waves of warships, squadrons of invasion craft, thousands of transports, shun mounting great war engines, fire-ships-ships of all kinds, bearing a multitude of standards-the kings of the south left live have sworn loyally to Jagreen Lern and he has used all their resources and his own to marshal this sea-horde! As he sails, he extends the area of Chaos, so whereas his sailing is dower than normal, when he reaches us here-Chaos will be with him. I saw such ships not could be of no earthly contriving-the size of castles-each one seeming to be a dazzling combination of all colours! »
«So he has managed to bring more supernatural allies to his standard, » Elric roused. «Those are the Ships of Hell, Sepiriz mentioned...»
«Aye-and even if we beat the natural craft, » the messenger said, hysterically, «we could not beat born the ships of Chaos and the stuff of Chaos which boils around them and did to me what you observe! It boils, it warps, it changes constantly. That is all I know, save that Jagreen Lern and unhuman allies are unharmed by it as I was harmed. When his change began to take place in my body, I fled to the Dragon Up of Melnibone, which seems to have withstood the process and is the only safe land in all the waters of the world. My body-healed-swiftly, and I chanced another sailing to bring me here.»
«You were courageous, » Elric said hollowly. «You will be well rewarded, I promise.»
«I want only one reward, my lord.»
«What is that?»
«Death. I can no longer live with the horror of my body burrowing the horror in my brains! »
«I will see to it, » Elric promised. He remained brooding for a few seconds before nodding farewell to the spy and leaving the room.
Moonglum met him outside.
«It looks blade for us, Elric.» he said softly.
Elric sighed. «Aye-perhaps I should have gone to seek the Chaos Shield first.»
«What's that?»
Elric explained all Sepiriz had told him.
«We could do with such a defence, » Moonglum agreed. «But there it is - the priority is tomorrow's sailing. Your captains await you in the conference chamber.»
«I will see them in a short while, » Elric promised. «First I wish to go to my own room to collect my thoughts. Tell them I’ll join them when that's done.»
When he reached his room, Elric locked the door behind him, still thinking of the spy's information. He knew that without supernatural aid no ordinary fleet, no matter bow large or how courageously manned, could possibly withstand Jagreen Lern. And the fact was that he had only a comparatively small Beet, no supernatural entities for allies, no means of combatting the disrupting chaotic forces. If only he had the Chaos Shield beside him now... But it was useless to regret a decision of the kind he'd made. If he sought the shield now, he couldn't fight the battle in any case.
For weeks he had consulted the grimoires that, in the form of scrolls, tablets, books and sheets of precious metals engraved with ancient symbols, littered his room. The Elementals had helped him in the past, but, so disrupted were they by Chaos, that they were weak for the most part.
He unstrapped his hell-sword and filing it on the bed of tumbled silks and furs. Wryly he thought back to earlier times when he had given in to despair and how those incidents which had engendered the mood seemed merely gay escapades in comparison to the task which now weighed on his mind. Though weary, he chose not to draw Stormbringer's stolen energy into himself, for the feeling that was so dose to ecstasy was leavened by the guilt-the guilt which had possessed him since a child when he had first realised that the expression on his remote father's face had not been one of love, but of disappointment that he should have spawned a deficient weakling-a pale albino, good for nothing, without the aid of drugs or sorcery.