"What mean you?"
"It is beautiful and it is wondrous, but it might almost be some false Tanelorn or some counter-Tanelorn, or some Tanelorn existing in an utterly different logic…"
"I hardly follow you. You spoke of peace. Well, this Tanelorn is peaceful. You said that there were many Tanelorns and that they have existed before the beginning of time and will exist when time is ended. And if this Tanelorn is stranger than some you know, what of that?"
Jhary drew a heavy breath. "I believe I have some inkling of the truth now. If Tanelorn exists upon the only area in the multiverse not subject to flux, then it might have other purposes than to act as a resting place for weary heroes and the like…"
"You think we are in danger there?"
"Danger? It depends what you regard as dangerous. Some wisdom may be dangerous to one man and not to another. Danger is contained in safety, as you have discovered, and safety in danger. The nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witnesses to a paradox and therefore-I should have considered this before- Tanelorn must be a paradox, too. We had best enter the city, Corum, and learn why we have been drawn here."
Corum hesitated. "Mabelrode threatens to vanquish Law. Glandyth-a-Krae aims to conquer my plane. Rhalina is lost. We have much to sacrifice if we have made a mistake, Jhary."
"Aye. All."
"Then should we not first make certain that we are not victims of some cosmic deceit."
Jhary turned and laughed aloud. "And how may we decide that, Corum Jhaelen Irsei?"
Corum glared at Jhary and then lowered his eyes. "You are right. We will enter this Tanelorn."
They crossed a lawn made blue by the light from the city and they stood at the beginning of a wide avenue lined with blue plants and breathed air which was not quite like the air of any of the planes they had visited.
And Corum began to weep at the sight of so much marvellous beauty, falling to his knees as if in worship, feeling that he would give his life to it willingly. And Jhary, standing beside his friend and placing a hand on his bowed shoulder, murmured, "Ah, this is still truly Tanelorn."
Corum's very body seemed lighter as he and Jhary wandered down the avenue and looked for the inhabitants of Tanelorn. Corum began to feel sure that there would be help here, that Mabelrode could, after all, be defeated, that his folk and the folk of Lywm-an-Esh could be stopped from slaying one another. And yet, though they wandered long, no citizens of Tanelorn emerged to greet them. All there was was silence.
At the end of the avenue Corum now made out a shape standing framed against a complicated fountain of blue water. The shape seemed to be that of a statue, the first representation of its kind Corum had seen in the city. And there was a slight suggestion of familiarity about it which made him begin to hope, for, in the back of his mind, he equated this statue with salvation, though he did not know why.
He began to walk more swiftly until Jhary held him back, a restraining hand on his arm. "Rush not, Corum, in Tanelorn."
The statue's detail became clearer as they advanced.
It was more barbaric in appearance than the rest of the city and it was predominantly green rather than blue. It did not seem to be of the same manufacture as the spires and the domes. It stood upon four legs arranged at each corner of its torso. It had four arms, two folded and two at its side. It had a large, human head but no nose. Instead, its nostrils were set directly into the head. The mouth was much wider than a human mouth and it was molded so that it grinned. The eyes glittered and they too were completely unlike human eyes but rather resembled clusters of jewels.
"The eyes…" Corum murmured, drawing still closer.
"Aye." Jhary knew what he meant.
The statue was not much taller than Corum and its whole body was encrusted with the dark, glowing jewels, He reached out to touch it but then stopped, for he had seen one of the folded arms and realization was beginning to freeze his bones. On the right arm was a six-fingered hand. But on the left arm was no hand at all. The mate of the right hand was attached to Corum's wrist. He tried to retreat, his heart beating and his head pounding so that he could hear nothing else.
Slowly the grin on the statue's alien face widened still further. Slowly the hands at the sides came up toward Corum.
Then came the voice.
Never had Corum heard such a mixture of sound. Intelligent, savage, humorous, barbaric, cold, warm, soft, and harsh, there were a thousand qualities in it as it said, "The key may still not be mine until it is offered willingly."
The faceted eyes, twins of the one in Corum's skull, gleamed and shifted, while still the other two arms remained folded and the four legs remained as if paralyzed.
In his shock, Corum could not speak. He was as petrified as the being seemed to be. Jhary stepped up beside him.
Quietly the dandy said, "You are Kwll."
"I am Kwll."
"And Tanelorn is your prison?"
"It has been my prison…"
"… for only Timeless Tanelorn may hold a being of your power. I understand."
"But even Tanelorn cannot hold me unless I am incomplete."
Jhary lifted Corum's limp left arm. He touched the six-fingered hand which was grafted there. "And this will make you complete."
"It is the key to my release. But the key may still not be mine until it is offered willingly."
"And you have worked for this, have you not, through the power of your brain, which is not held by Tanelorn. It was not the Balance which allowed Elric and Erekose to join this part of them called Corum. It was you, for only you or your brother is strong enough, though you be prisoners, to defy the essential laws-the Law of the Balance."
"Only Kwll and Rhynn are so strong, for only one law rules them."
"And you broke it. Eternities ago, you broke it. You fought each other and Rhynn struck off your hand while, Kwll, you took out Rhynn's eye. You forgot your vows to each other-the sole vows you would ever consider obeying-and Rhynn, he-"
"He brought me here to Tanelorn and here I have remained, through all those cycles, those many cycles."
"And Rhynn, your brother? What punishment did you decree he suffer?"
"That he search, without rest, for his missing eye, but that he must find the eye alone, not with the hand."
"And the eye and hand have always been together."
"As they are now."
"And so Rhynn has never succeeded."
"It is as you say, mortal. You know much."
"It is because," answered Jhary, seeming to speak to himself, "because I am one of those mortals doomed to immortality."
"The key must be offered willingly," said Kwll again.
"Was it your shadow I saw in the Flamelands?" Corum asked suddenly, moving back from the being on trembling legs. "Was it you I saw on the hill from Castle Erorn?"
"You saw my shadow, aye. But you did not, could not see me. And I saved your life in the Flamelands and elsewhere, I used my hand and I killed your enemies."
"They were not enemies." Corum clutched the six-fingered hand to him, looking at it with loathing. "And you gave the hand the power to summon the dead to my aid?"
"The hand has that power. It is nothing. A trick."
"And you did this merely with your brain-your thoughts?"
"I have done more than that The key must be offered willingly. I cannot force you, mortal, to give me back my hand."
"And if I keep it?"
"Then I shall have to wait through the Cycle of Cycles once again until the Million Spheres are again in conjunction. Have you not understood that?"
"I have come to understand it," Jhary said gravely. "How else could so many planes be open to mortals? How eke could so many discover fragments of wisdom usually denied them? How else could three aspects of the same entity exist upon the same plane? How else could I remember other existences? It is the Conjunction of the Million Spheres. A conjunction which takes place so rarely that a being could think he lived for eternity and still not witness it. And when that conjunction takes place, I have heard, old laws are broken and new ones established-the very nature of space and time and reality are altered."