Oone linked her arm in Elric's, a gesture of comradeship, of reconciliation. "Come," she said, "let us join the celebrations."
They had only walked a few more paces before they were lifted on the shoulders of the crowd and soon they were borne, laughing and infected by the general joyousness, over the desert towards the Silver Flower Oasis.
The celebrations began at once, as if the Bauradim and all the other desert clans had been preparing for this moment. Every kind of delicious food was prepared until the air was rich with an enormous variety of mouth-watering smells and it seemed all the great spice warehouses of the world had been made to release their contents. Cooking fires blazed everywhere, as did great brands and lamps and candles, and from out of the Kashbeh Moulor Ka Riiz, overlooking the great oasis, rode the Aloum'rit guardians in all the glory of their ancient armour, their red-gold helmets and breastplates, their weapons of bronze and brass and steel. They had huge forked beards and massive turbans wound around the spikes of their helms. They wore surcoats of elaborate brocade and cloth-of-silver and their high boots were embroidered with designs almost as intricate as those on their shirts. They were proud, good-humoured men who rode at the sides of their wives, who were also armoured and carried bows and slender spears. All had soon mingled with the enormous crowd who had erected a large platform and placed a carved chair upon it and sat the smiling Varadia in the chair so that all could see the Holy Girl of the Bauradim restored to her clan, bringing back their history, their pride and their future.
Raik Na Seem still wept. Whenever he saw Oone and Elric he grasped them and pulled them to him, thanking them, telling them, as best he could, what it meant to him to have such friends, such saviours, such heroes.
"Your names will be remembered by the Bauradim for all time. And whatever favour you shall ask of us, so long as it be honourable, as we know it shall, then we shall grant it to you. If you are in danger ten thousand miles away you will send a message to the Bauradim and they will come to your aid. Meanwhile you must know that you have freed the spirit of a good-hearted child from dark captivity."
"And that is our reward," said Oone, smiling.
"Our wealth is yours," said the old man.
"We have no need of wealth," Oone told him. "We have discovered better resources, I think."
Elric agreed with her. "Besides, there is a man in Quarzhasaat who has promised me half an empire if I but do him a small service."
Oone understood Elric's reference and laughed.
Raik Na Seem was a little disturbed. "You go to Quarzhasaat? You still have business there?"
"Aye," said Elric. "There is a boy who is anxiously awaiting my return."
"But you have time to celebrate with us, to talk with us, to feast with myself and Varadia? You have scarcely exchanged a word with the child!"
"I think we know her pretty well," said Elric. "Enough to think highly of her. She is indeed the greatest treasure of the Bauradim, my lord."
"You were able to hold conversations in that gloomy realm where she was held prisoner?"
Elric thought to enlighten the First Elder, but Oone was quick to interrupt, so familiar was she with such questions.
"Some, my lord. We were impressed by her intelligence and her courage."
Raik Na Seem's brow furrowed as another thought occurred to him. "My son," he said to Elric, "were you able to sustain yourself in that realm without pain?"
"Without pain, aye," said Elric. Then he realised what had been said. For the first time he understood what good had come about from his adventure. "Aye, sir. There are benefits to assisting a dreamthief. Great benefits which I had not until now appreciated!"
With relish now Elric joined in the feasting, treasuring these hours with Oone, the Bauradim and all the other nomad clans. Again he felt as if he had come home, so welcoming were the people, and he wished that he could spend his life here, learning their ways, their philosophies and enjoying their pastimes.
Later, as he lay beneath a great date palm, rolling one of the silver flowers between his fingers, he looked up at Oone, who sat beside him, and said: "Of all the temptations I faced in the Dream Realm, this temptation is perhaps the greatest, Oone. This is simple reality and I am reluctant to leave it. And you."
"We have no further destiny together, I think." She sighed. "Not in this life, at any rate, or this world, perhaps. You shall be first a legend, then there will be none left to remember you."
"My friends will all die? I shall be alone?"
"I believe so. While you serve Chaos."
"I serve myself and my people."
"If you would believe that, Elric, you must do more to achieve it. You have created a little reality and perhaps will create a little more. But Chaos cannot be a friend without it betraying you. In the end, we have only ourselves to look to. No cause, no force, no challenge, will ever replace that truth..."
"It is to be myself that I travel as I do, Lady Gone," he reminded her. He looked out over the desert, over the tranquil waters of the oasis. He breathed in the cool, scented desert air.
"And you will leave here soon?" she asked.
"Tomorrow," he said. "I must. But I am curious to know what reality I have created."
"Oh, I think a dream or two has come true," she said cryptically, kissing nun on the cheek. "And another will come true soon enough."
He did not pursue the question, for she had taken the great Pearl from the pouch at her belt and held it out to him.
"It exists! It was not the chimera we believed it to be! You still have it!"
"It is for you," she said. "Use it how you will. But that is what brought you here to the Silver Flower Oasis. It is what brought you to me. I think I will not trade it at the Dream Market. I would like you to have it. I think it might be yours by right, Elric. Be that as it may, the Holy Girl gave it to me and now I give it to you. It is what Alnac Kreb died because of, what all those assassins died to possess..."
"I thought you said that the Pearl did not exist before the Sorcerer Assassins sought to find it."
"That is true. But it exists now. Here it is. The Pearl at the Heart of the World. The great Pearl of legend. Have you no use for it?"
"You must explain to me..." he began, but she cut him short.
"Ask me not how dreams take substance, Prince Elric. That is a question that concerns philosophers in all ages and all places. I ask you again-have you no use for it?"
He hesitated, then reached out to take the lovely thing. He held it in his two palms, rolling it back and forth. He wondered at its richness, its pale beauty. "Aye," he said. "I think I have a use for it."
When he had placed the jewel in his own pouch, Oone said very softly: "I think it is an evil thing, that Pearl."
He agreed with her. "I think so, too. But sometimes evil can be used to counter evil."
"I cannot accept that argument" She seemed troubled.
"I know," he said, "you have already said as much." And then it was his turn to reach towards her and kiss her tenderly upon the lips. "Fate is cruel, Oone. It would be better if it provided us with one unaltering path. Instead it forces us to make choices and then never to know if those choices were for the best."
"We are mortals," she said with a shrug. "That is our particular doom."
She stroked his forehead. "You have a troubled mind, my lord. I think I will steal a few of the smaller dreams which make you uneasy."
"Can you steal pain, Oone, and turn it into something to sell in your market?"
"Oh, frequently," she said.