Elric aimed a blow at the head of the nearest creature, struck off its ear so that it howled. Stormbringer howled back and stabbed at the thing's throat.
But the sword hardly penetrated and served only to put the tiger-man slightly off balance.
As the thing staggered Elric wrenched the scythe from its hands and reversed the weapon, drawing the blade across the chest. The tiger-man screamed as blood spurted from the wound.
"I was right! " Elric shouted at the others. "Only their own weapons can harm them! " He moved forward with the scythe in one hand and Stormbringer in the other. The tiger-men backed off and then began to flap upwards to hover near the ceiling.
Elric ran towards Voilodion Ghagnasdiak. The dwarf gave a yell of terror and disappeared through a doorway too small easily to admit Elric.
Then, with thundering wings, the tiger creatures descended again.
This tune the other two strove to capture scythes from their enemies. Driving back those who attacked
him, the albino prince took Corum's main assailant from behind and the thing fell with its head sliced off. Corum sheathed his longsword and plucked up the scythe, killing a third tiger-man almost immediately and kicking the fallen scythe towards Erekose. Black feathers drifted in the stinking air. The flagstones of the floor were slippery with blood. The three heroes drove a path through their enemies into the smaller room they had lately left. Still the tiger creatures came on, but now they had to pass through the door and this was more easily defended.
Glancing back Elric saw the window slit of the tower. Outside the scenery altered constantly as the Vanishing Tower continued its erratic progress through the planes of existence. But the three were wearying and all had lost some blood from minor wounds. Scythes clashed on scythes as the fight continued, wings beat loudly and the snarling faces spat at them and spoke words which could barely be understood. Without the strength supplied him by his hell-forged sword Elric was weakening rapidly. Twice he staggered and was borne up by the others. Was he to die in some alien world with his friends never knowing how he had perished? But then he remembered that his friends were even now under attack from the reptilian beasts Theleb K'aarna had sent against Tanelorn, that they, too, would soon be dead. This knowledge gave him a little more strength and enabled him to sweep his scythe deep into the belly of another tiger creature.
This gap in the ranks of the sorcerous things enabled him to see the small doorway on the far side of the other room. Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was crouched there, hurling still more of the yellow globes. New winged tiger-men grew up to replace those who had fallen.
But then Elric heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak give a yell and saw that something was covering his face. It was a black and white animal with small black wings which beat in the air. Some offspring of the beasts who attacked him? Elric could not tell. But Voilodion Ghag nasdiak was plainly terrified of it, trying to drag it from his face.
Another figure appeared behind the dwarf. Bright eyes peered from an intelligent face framed by long black hair. He was dressed as ostentatiously as the dwarf, but he was unarmed. He was calling to Elric and the albino strained to catch the words even as another tiger-creature came at him.
Corum saw the newcomer now. "Jhary! " he shouted.
"The one you came to save?" Elric asked.
"Aye."
Elric made to press forward into the room, but Jhary-a-Conel waved him back. "No! No! Stay there! "
Elric frowned, was about to ask why when he was attacked from two sides by the tiger creatures and had to retreat, slashing his scythe this way and that.
"Link arms! " Jhary-a-Conel cried. "Corum in the centre-and you two draw your swords! "
Elric was panting. He slew another tiger-man and felt a new pain shoot through his leg. Blood gushed from his calf.
Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was still struggling with the thing which clung to his face.
"Hurry! " cried Jhary-a-Conel. "It is your only chance-and mine! "
Elric looked at Corum.
"He is wise, my friend, " Corum said. "He knows many things which we do not. Here, I will stand in the centre."
Erekose linked his brawny arm with Corum's and Elric did the same on the other side. Erekose drew his sword in his left hand and Elric brought forth Stormbringer in his right.
And something began to happen. A sense of energy came back, then a sense of great physical well-being. Elric looked at his companions and laughed. It was almost as if by combining their powers they had made them four tunes stronger-as if they had become one entity.
A peculiar feeling of euphoria filled Elric and he
knew that Erekose had spoken the truth-that they were three aspects of the same being.
"Let us finish them! " he shouted-and he saw that they shouted the same. Laughing the linked three strode into the chamber and now the two swords wounded whenever they struck, slaying swiftly and bringing them more energy still.
The winged tiger-men became frantic, flapping about the room as the Three Who Were One pursued them. All three were drenched in their own blood and that of their enemies, all three were laughing, invulnerable, acting completely in unison.
And as they moved the room itself began to shake. They heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak screaming.
"The tower! The tower! This will destroy the tower! "
Elric looked up from the last corpse. It was true that the tower was swaying wildly from side to side like a ship in a storm.
Jhary-a-Conel pushed past the dwarf and entered the room of death. The sight seemed obnoxious to him but he controlled his feelings. "It is true. The sorcery we have worked today must have its effect. Whiskersto me! "
The thing on Voilodion Ghagnasdiak's face flew into the air and settled on Jhary's shoulder. Elric saw that it was a small black and white cat, ordinary in every detail save for its neat pair of wings which it was now folding.
Voilodion Ghagnasdiak sat crumpled in the doorway and he was weeping through sightless eyes. Tears of blood flowed down his handsome face.
Elric ran back into the other room, breaking his link with Corum. He peered through the window slit. But now there was nothing but a wild eruption of mauve and purple cloud.
He gasped. "We are in limbo! "
Silence fell. Still the tower swayed. The lights were extinguished by a strange wind blowing through the
rooms and the only illumination came from outside where the mist still swirled.
Jhary-a-Conel was frowning to himself as he joined Elric at the window.
"How did you know what to do?" Elric asked him.
"I knew because I know you, Elric of Melnibone"just as I know Erekose there-for I travel in many ages and on many planes. That is why I am sometimes called Companion to Champions. I must find my sword and my sack-also my hat. Doubtless all are in Voilodion's vault with his other loot."
"But the tower? If it is destroyed shall we, too, be destroyed?"
"A possibility. Come, friend Elric, help me seek my hat."
"At such a time, you look for a-hat?"
"Aye." Jhary-a-Conel returned to the larger room, stroking the black and white cat. Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was still there and he was still weeping. "Prince Corum-Lord Erekose-will you come with me, too."
Corum and the black giant joined Elric and they squeezed into the narrow passage, inching their way along until it widened to reveal a flight of stairs leading downward. The tower shuddered again. Jhary lit a brand and removed it from its place in the wall. He began to descend the steps, the three heroes behind him.
A slab of masonry fell from the roof and crashed just in front of Elric. "I would prefer to seek a means of escape from the tower, " he said to Jhary-a-Conel. "If it falls now, we shall be buried."
"Trust me, Prince Elric, " was all that Jhary would say.