Elric removed his helmet and wiped sweat from within the rim. In this clime that sweat would soon turn to ice. "An ancient bargain my ancestors made. I was hard-pressed to remember the lines of the spell."
"I'm mightily pleased that you did remember! "
Absently, Elric nodded. He replaced his helmet on his head, staring about him as he did so.
Everywhere stretched the vast, snow-covered Lormyrian steppe.
Moonglum understood Elric's thoughts. He rubbed his chin.
"Aye. We are fairly lost, Lord Elric. Have you any idea where we may be?"
"I do not know, friend Moonglum. We have no means of guessing how far those beasts carried us, but I'm fairly sure it was well to the north of Iosaz. We are further away from the capital than we were...."
"But then so must Theleb K'aarna be! If we were, indeed, being borne to where he dwells...."
"It would be logical, I agree."
"So we continue north?"
"I think not."
"Why so?"
"For two reasons. It could be that Theleb K'aarna's idea was to take us to a place so far away from anywhere that we could not interfere with his plans. That might be considered a wiser action than confronting us and thus risking our turning the tables on him...."
"Aye, I'll grant you that. And what's the other reason?"
"We would do better to try to make for Iosaz where we can replenish both our gear and our provisions and enquire of Theleb K'aarna's whereabouts if he is not there. Also we would be foolish to strike further north without good horses and in Iosaz we shall find horses and perhaps a sleigh to carry us the faster across this snow."
"And I'll grant you the sense of that, too. But I do not think much of our chances in this snow, whichever way we go."
"We must begin walking and hope that we can find a river that has not yet frozen over-and that the river will have boats upon it which will bear us to Iosaz."
"A faint hope, Elric."
"Aye. A faint hope." Elric was already weakened from the energy spent in the invocation to Fileet. He knew that he must almost certainly die. He was not
sure that he cared overmuch. It would be a cleaner death than some he had been offered of late-a less painful death than any he might expect at the hands of the sorcerer of Pan Tang.
They began to trudge through the snow. Slowly they headed south, two small figures in a frozen landscape, two tiny specks of warm flesh in a great waste of ice.
CHAPTER FOUR
Old Castle Standing A lone
A day passed, a night passed.
Then the evening of the second day passed and the two men staggered on, for all that they had long since lost their sense of direction.
Night fell and they crawled.
They could not speak. Their bones were stiff, their flesh and their muscles numb.
Cold and exhaustion drove the very sentience from them so that when they fell in the snow and lay motionless they were scarcely aware that they had ceased to move. They understood no difference now between life and death, between existence and the cessation of existence.
And when the sun rose and warmed their flesh a little they stirred and raised their heads, perhaps in an effort to catch one last glimpse of the world they were leaving.
And they saw the castle,
It stood there in the middle of the steppe and it was ancient. Snow covered the moss and the lichen which grew on its worn, old stones. It seemed to have been there for eternity, yet neither Elric nor Moonglum had ever heard of such a castle standing alone in the steppe. It was hard to imagine how a castle so old could exist in the land once known as World's Edge.
Moonglum was the first to rise. He stumbled through the deep snow to where Elric lay. With chapped hands he tried to lift his friend.
The tide of Elric's thin blood had almost ceased to move in his body. He moaned as Moonglum helped
him to his feet. He tried to speak, but his lips were frozen shut.
Clutching each other, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, they progressed towards the castle.
Its entrance stood open. They fell through it and the warmth issuing from the ulterior revived them sufficiently to allow them to rise and stagger down a narrow passage into a great hall.
It was an empty hall.
It was completely bare of furnishings, save for a huge log fire that blazed in a hearth of granite and quartz built at the far end of the hall. They crossed flagstones of lapis lazuli to reach it.
"So the castle is inhabited."
Moonglum's voice was harsh and thick in his mouth. He stared around him at the basalt walls. He raised his voice as best he could and called:
"Greetings to whoever is the master of this hall. We are Moonglum of Elwher and Elric of Melnibone and we crave your hospitality, for we are lost in your land."
And then Elric's knees buckled and he fell to the floor.
Moonglum stumbled towards him as the echoes of his voice died in the hall. All was silent save for the crackling of the logs in the hearth.
Moonglum dragged Elric to the fire and lay him down near it.
"Warm your bones here, friend Elric. I'll seek the folk who live here."
Then he crossed the hall and ascended the stone stair leading to the next floor of the castle.
This floor was as bereft of furniture or decoration as the other. There were many rooms, but all of them were empty. Moonglum began to feel uneasy, scenting something of the supernatural here. Could this be Theleb K'aarna's castle?
For someone dwelt here, in truth. Someone had laid the fire and had opened the gates so that they might enter. And they had not left the castle in the ordinary
way or he should have noticed the tracks in the snow outside.
Moonglum paused, then turned and slowly began to descend the stairs. Reaching the hall, he saw that Elric had revived enough to prop himself up against the chimneypiece.
"And-what-found you..." said Elric thickly.
Moonglum shrugged. "Nought. No servants. No master. If they have gone a-hunting, then they hunt on flying beasts, for there are no signs of hoofprints in the snow outside. I am a little nervous, I must admit." He smiled slightly. "Aye-and a little hungry, too. I'll seek the pantry. If danger comes, we'd do as well to face it on full stomachs."
There was a door set back and to one side of the hearth. He tried the latch and it opened into a short passage at the end of which was another door. He went down the passage, hand on sword, and opened the door at the end. A parlour, as deserted as the rest of the castle. And beyond the parlour he saw the castle's kitchens. He went through the kitchens, noting that there were cooking things here, all polished and clean but none in use, and came finally to the pantry.
Here he found the best part of a large deer hanging and on the shelf above it were ranked many skins and jars of wine. Below this shelf were bread and some pasties and below that spices.
Moonglum's first action was to reach up on tiptoe and take down a jar of wine, removing the cork and sniffing the contents.
He had smelled nothing more delicate or delicious in his life.
He tasted the wine and he forgot his pain and his weariness. But he did not forget that Elric still waited in the hall.
With his short sword he cut off a haunch of vension and tucked it under his arm. He selected some spices and put them into his belt-pouch. Under his other arm he put the bread and in both hands he carried a jar of wine.
He returned to the hall, put down his spoils and helped Elric drink from the jar.
The strange wine worked almost instantly and Elric offered Moonglum a smile that had gratitude in it.
"You are-a good friend-I wonder why...."
Moonglum turned away with an embarrassed grunt. He began to prepare the meat which he intended to roast over the fire.
He had never understood his friendship with the albino. It had always been a peculiar mixture of reserve and affection, a fine balance which both men were careful to maintain, even in situations of this kind.