The guards knew nothing of the runesword. They saw only a slender man who might have been a leper and they saw a young, defenceless boy. They grinned, as if at a joke of their master's, and then drew their blades, advancing almost casually.
Elric pressed Anigh behind him. His hand went to Stormbringer's hilt. "You are unwise to do this," he told the guards. "I have no particular wish to kill you."
Behind the soldiers one of the servants opened the door and slipped out into the corridor. Elric watched her go. "Best copy her," he said. "She has some idea, I think, of what will happen if you threaten us further..."
The guards laughed openly now. "This is a madman," said one. "Lord Gho is well rid of him!"
They came at Elric in a rush and then the runesword was howling in the cool air of that luxurious chamber-howling like a hungry wolf freed from a cage and longing only to kill and to feed.
Elric felt the power surge through him as the blade took the first guard, splitting him from crown to breastbone. The other tried to change direction from attack to flight, stumbled forward and was impaled on the blade's tip, his eyes horrified as he felt his soul being drawn from him into the runesword.
Lord Gho cringed in his great chair, too frightened to move. In one hand he clutched the great Pearl. His other hand was held palm outward as if he hoped to ward off Elric's blow.
But the albino, strengthened by his borrowed energy, sheathed the black blade and took five quick strides across the hall to mount the dais and stare down into Lord Gho's face, which twisted in terror.
'Take the Pearl back. For my life..." whispered the Quarzhasaati. "For my life, thief..."
Elric accepted the offered jewel, but he did not move. He reached into the pouch at his belt and drew forth a flask of the elixir Lord Gho had given him. "Would you care for something to help you wash it down?"
Lord Gho trembled. Beneath the chalky substance on his skin his face had gone still paler. "I do not understand you, thief."
"I want you to eat the Pearl, my lord. If you can swallow it and live, well, it will be clear that the prophecy of your death was premature."
"Swallow it? It is too large. I could hardly get it into my mouth!" Lord Gho sniggered, hoping that the albino joked.
"No, my lord. I think you can. And I think you can swallow it. After all, how else would it have got into the body of a child?"
"It was-they said it was a-a dream..."
"Aye. Perhaps you can swallow a dream. Perhaps you can enter the Dream Realm and so escape your fate. You must try, my lord, or else my runesword drinks your soul. Which would you prefer?"
"Oh, Elric. Spare me. This is not fair. We made a bargain."
"Open your mouth, Lord Gho. Who knows? The Pearl might shrink or your throat expand like a snake's. A snake could easily swallow the Pearl, my lord. And you, surely, are superior to a snake?"
Anigh whispered from the window where he had been staring with studied gaze, unwilling to look upon a vengeance he regarded as just but distasteful. "The servant, Lord Elric. She has alarmed the city."
For a second a desperate hope came into Lord Gho's green eyes and then faded as Elric placed the flask on the arm of the great chair and drew the runesword part-way from its scabbard. "Your soul will help me fight those new soldiers, Lord Oho."
Slowly, weeping and whimpering, the great Lord of Quarzhasaat began to open his mouth.
"Here is the Pearl again, my lord. Put it in. Do your best, my lord. You have some chance of life this way."
Lord Gho's hand shook. But eventually he began to force the lovely jewel between his reddened lips. Elric took the stopper from the elixir and poured some of the liquid into the nobleman's distorted cheeks. "Now swallow, Lord Gho. Swallow the Pearl you would have slain a child to own. And then I will tell you who I am..."
A few moments later the doors crashed inward and Elric recognised the tattooed face of Manag Iss, leader of the Yellow Sect and kinsman to the Lady Iss. Manag Iss looked from Elric to the distorted features of Lord Gho. The nobleman had failed completely to swallow the Pearl.
Manag Iss shuddered. "Elric. I heard that you had returned. They said you were close to death. Clearly this was a trick to deceive Lord Gho."
"Aye," said Elric. "I had this boy to free."
Manag Iss gestured with his own drawn sword. "You found the Pearl?"
"I found it."
"My Lady Iss sent me to offer you anything you desired for it."
Elric smiled. "Tell her I shall be at the Council Meeting House in half an hour. I shall bring the Pearl with me."
"But the others will be there. She wishes to trade privately."
"Would it not be wise to auction so valuable a thing?" said Elric.
Manag Iss sheathed his sword and smiled a little. "You're a cunning one. I do not think they know how cunning you are. Nor who you are. I have yet to tell them that particular speculation."
"Oh, you may tell them what I have just told Lord Gho. That I am the hereditary Emperor of Melniboné," said Elric casually. "For that is the truth of the matter. My Empire has survived rather more successfully than yours, I think."
"That could incense them. I am willing to be your friend, Melnibonéan."
"Thanks, Manag Iss, but I need no more friends from Quarzhasaat. Please do as I say."
Manag Iss looked at the slaughtered guards, at the dead Lord Gho, who had turned a strange colour, at the nervous boy, and he saluted Elric.
"The Meeting House in half an hour, Emperor of Melniboné." He turned on his heel and left the chamber.
After issuing certain specific instructions to Anigh concerning travel and the products of Kwan, Elric went out into the courtyard. The sun had set and there were brands burning all over Quarzhasaat as if the city were expecting an attack.
Lord Gho's house was deserted of servants. Elric went to the stables and found his horse and his saddle. He dressed the Baraudi stallion, carefully placing a heavy bundle over the pommel, then he had mounted and was riding through the streets, seeking the Meeting House where Anigh had told him it would be.
The city was unnaturally silent. Clearly some order had been given to uphold a curfew, for there was not even a city guard on the streets.
Elric rode at an easy canter along the wide Avenue of Military Success, along the Boulevard of Ancient Accomplishment and half a dozen other grandiosely named thoroughfares until he saw the long low building ahead of him which, in its simplicity, could only be the seat of Quarzhasaati power.
The albino paused. At his side the black runesword crooned a little, almost demanding a further letting of blood.
"You must be patient," said Elric. "Could be there will be no need for battle."
He thought he saw shadows moving hi the trees and shrubberies around the Meeting House but he paid them no attention. He did not care what they plotted or who spied on him. He had a mission to fulfill.
At last he had reached the doors of the building and was not surprised to find them standing open. He dismounted, threw the bundle over his shoulder and walked heavily into a large, plain room, without decoration or ostentation, hi which were placed seven tall-backed chairs and a lime-washed oak table. Standing in a semi-circle at one end of the table were six robed figures wearing veils not unlike certain sects of the Sorcerer Adventurers. The seventh figure wore a tall, conical hat which completely covered the face. It was this figure who spoke. Elric was not unsurprised to hear a woman's tones.
"I am the Other," she said. "I believe you have brought us a treasure to add to the glory of Quarzhasaat."