Moonglum muttered: «We are going to our doom, Elric. No man would willingly get close to those ships. Only the dead are drawn to them, and they do not go with joy! »
But Elric ignored his friend.
A strange silence seemed to come upon the waters so that the sound of the splashing oars was sharp. The death fleet waited for them, impassively, as if they did not need to prepare for battle.
He tightened his grip on Stormbringer. The blade seemed to respond to the pounding of his pulse-beat, moving in his hand with each thud of his heart as if linked to it by veins and arteries.
Now they were so close to the Chaos ships that they could make out better the figures crowding the great decks. Horribly, Elric thought he recognised some of the gaunt faces of the dead and, involuntarily, he called to the sea-folk's king.
«Straasha! »
The waters heaved, foamed and seemed to be attempting to rise but then subsided again. Straasha heard-but he was finding it difficult to fight against the forces of Chaos.
«Straasha.»
It was no good, the waters hardly moved.
A mood of wild despair came over Elric. He screamed to Kargan: «We cannot wait for aid. Swing the ship round the Chaos fleet and we'll attempt to reach Jagreen Lern's flagship from the rear.»
Under Kargan's expert direction, the ship swung to avoid the Ships of Hell in a wide semi-circle. Spray cascaded against Elric's face, flooding the decks. He could hardly see through it as they cleared the Chaos ships which had now engaged other craft and were altering the nature of their timbers so that they fell apart and the unfortunate crews were drowned or warped into alien shapes.
To his ears came the miserable cries of the defeated and the triumphantly surging thunder of the Chaos Fleet's music as it pushed forward to destroy the eastern ships.
Timber-tearer was rocking badly and was hard to control, but at last they were around the hell fleet and bearing down on Jagreen Lern's vessel from the rear.
Elric, having but recently been a prisoner upon it, recognized it at once. Now they nearly struck the Theocrat's vessel with their ram, but were swept off-course and had to manoeuvre again. Arrows rose from the enemy's decks and thudded and rattled on their own. They retaliated as, riding a huge wave, they slid alongside the flagship and flung out grappling irons. A few held, dragging them towards the Theocrat's vessel as the men of Pan Tang strove to cut the grappling ropes. More ropes followed and then a boarding platform fell from its harness and landed squarely on Jagreen Lern's deck. Another followed it.
Elric ran for the nearest platform. Kargan behind him, and they led a body of warriors over it, searching for Jagreen Lern.
Stormbringer took a dozen lives and a dozen souls before Elric had gained the main-deck. There a resplendent commander stood, surrounded by a group of officers. But it was not Jagreen Lern. Elric clambered up the gangway, slicing through a warrior's waist as the man sought to block his path. He yelled at the group: «Where's your cursed leader? Where's Jagreen Lern?»
The commander's face was pale for he had seen in the past what Elric and his hell-blade could do.
«He's not here, Elric, I swear.»
«What? Am I to be thwarted again? I know you are lying! » Elric advanced on the group who backed away, their swords ready.
«Our theocrat does not need to protect himself by means of lies, doom-fostered one! » sneered a young officer, braver than the rest.
«Perhaps not, » cried Elric with a wild laugh as he rushed towards him swinging Stormbringer in a shrieking arc, «but at least I’ll have your life before I put the truth of your words to the test. My sword and I need revitalising-and your soul should make an appetiser before I take Jagreen Lern's! »
The man put up his blade to block Stormbringer's swing. The runesword cut through the metal with a triumphant cry, swung back again and plunged itself into the officer's side. He gasped, but remained standing with his hands clenched.
«No! » he groaned. «Oh, not my soul! No! » His eyes widened, tears streamed from them and madness came into them for a second before Stormbringer satiated itself and Elric drew it out, replenished. He had no sympathy for the man. «Your soul would have gone to the depths of hell in any case, » he said lightly. «But now I've put it to some use at least»
Two other officers scrambled over the rail, seeking to escape their comrade's fate.
Elric hacked at the hand of one so that he fell, screaming, to the deck, his hand still grasping the rail. The other he skewered in the bowels and, as Stormbringer sucked out his soul, he hung there, pleading incoherently, in an effort to avert the inevitable.
So much vitality flowed into Elric now, that as he rushed at the remaining group around the commander, he seemed almost to fly over the deck and rip into them, slicing away Umbs as if they were stalks of Sowers, until he encountered the commander himself.
The commander said softly, weakly: «I surrender. Do not take my soul»
«Where is Jagreen Lern?»
The commander pointed into the distance, where the Chaos fleet could be seen creating havoc amongst the eastern ships. «There! He sails with Lord Pyaray of Chaos whose fleet that is. You cannot reach him there for any man not protected or not already dead-would turn to flowing, liquid flesh once he neared the fleet»
«That cursed hellspawn still cheats me, » Elric spat «Here's payment for your information-»
Without mercy for one of those who had wasted and eat slaved two continents, Elric struck his blade through the ornate armour and, delicately, with all the old malevolence of his sorcerer ancestors, tickled the man's heart before finishing him.
He looked around for Kargan, but could not see him. Then he saw that the Chaos fleet had turned back! At first he « thought it was because Straasha had at last brought aid, but then he saw that the remnants of his fleet were fleeing.
Jagreen Lern was victorious. Their plans, their formations their courage-none of these had been capable of withstanding the horrible warpings of Chaos.
And now the dreadful fleet was bearing down on the two flagships, locked together by their grapples. There was no chance of cutting one of them free before the fleet arrived.
Elric yelled to Dyviro Slorm and Moonglum whom he saw naming towards him from the other end of the deck.
«Over the side! Over the side for your lives-and swim as far as you can away from here, the Chaos fleet comes! »
They looked at him, startled, teen realised the truth of his words. Other men of both sides were already leaping into the Moody water. Elric sheated his sword and dived. The left was cold, for all the warm blood in it, and he gasped as he swam in the direction of Moonglum’s red head, which he could see ahead, and, dose to it, Dyvim Slorm's honey coloured hair.
He turned once and saw the very timbers of the two ships begin to melt, to twist and curl in strange patterns as the Ships of Hell arrived. He felt very relieved he had not been aboard.
He reached his two friends.
«A short-term measure this, » said Moonglum, spitting water from his mouth. «What now, Elric? Shall we strike for the Purple Towns?» Moonglum's capacity for facetiousness had not, it seemed, been limited by witnessing the defeat of their fleet and the advance of Chaos. The Isle was too far away.
Then, to their left they saw the water froth and form itself into what was to Elric a familiar shape.
«Straashal»
I could not aid thee, I could not aid thee. Though I tried, my ancient enemy was too strong for me. Forgive me. In recompense let me take you and your friends back with me to my own land and save you, at least from Chaos.