'What did he say?'
'He said that He who guards the Book would use all his power to stop mankind from using its wisdom.'
'What else?'
'Nothing else. But it is enough, now that I see that my father's warning was truly spoken. It was this guardian who killed him, Elric or one of the guardian's minions. I do not wish to suffer that fate, in spite of what the Book might do for me. I had thought you Powerful enough to aid me but now I doubt it.'
'I have protected you so far, ' Elrie said simply. 'Now tell me what you seek from the Book?’
'I am too ashamed.'
Elric did not press the question, but eventually she spoke softly, almost whispering. 'I sought my wings, ' she said.
'Your wings-y0u mean the Book might give you a spell so that you could grow wings! ' Elric smiled ironically. 'And that is why you seek the vessel of the world's mightiest wisdom! '
'If you Were thought deformed in your own land it would seem important enough to you, ' she shouted defiantly.
Elric turned his face towards her, his crimsonirised eyes burning with a strange emotion. He put a hand to his dead white skin and a crooked smile twisted his lips. 'I, too, have felt as you do, ' lie said quietly. That was all he said and Shaarilla dropped behind him again, shamed.
They rode on in silence until Moonglum, who had been riding discreetly ahead, cocked his overlarge skull on one side and suddenly drew rein. Elric joined him. 'What is it, Moonglum?'
'I hear horses coming this way, ' the little man said. 'And voices which are disturbingly familiar. More of those devil-dogs, Elric and this time accompanied by riders! '
Elric, too, heard the sounds, now, and shouted a warning to Shaarilla.
'Perhaps you were right, ' he called. 'More trouble comes towards us.'
'What now?' Moonglum said, frowning.
'Ride for the mountains, ' Elric replied, 'and we may yet outdistance them.'
They spurred their steeds into a fast gallop and sped towards the hills.
But their flight was hopeless. Soon a black, pack was visible on the horizon and the sharp birdlike baying of the devil-dogs-drew nearer. Elric stared backward at their pursuers. Night was beginning to fall, and visibility was decreasing with every passing moment but he had a vague impression of the riders who raced behind the pack. They were swathed in dark cloaks and carried long spears. Their faces were invisible, lost in the shadow of the hoods which covered their heads. Now Elric and his companions were forcing their horses up a steep incline, seeking the shelter of the rocks which lay above.
'We'll halt here, ' Elric ordered, 'and try to hold them off. In the open they could easily surround us.'
Moonglum nodded affirmatively, agreeing with the good sense contained in Elric's words. They pulled their sweating steeds to a standstill and prepared to join battle with the howling pack and their dark-cloaked masters.
Soon the first of the devil-dogs were rushing up the incline, their beak-jaws slavering and their talons rattling on stone. Standing between two rocks, blocking the way between with their bodies, Elric and Moonglum met the first attack and quickly dispatched three of the animals. Several more took the place of the dead and the first of the riders was visible behind them as night crept closer.
'Arioch! ' swore Elric, suddenly recognising the riders. 'These are the Lords of Dharzi -dead these ten centuries. We're fighting dead men, Moonglum, and the too-tangible ghosts of their dogs. Unless I can think of a sorcerous means to defeat them, we're doomed! '
The zombie-men appeared to have no intention of taking part in the attack for the moment. They waited, their dead eyes eerily luminous, as the devildogs attempted to break through the swinging network of steel with which Elric and his companion defended themselves. Elric was racking his brains trying to dredge a spoken spell from his memory which would dismiss these living dead. Then it came to him, and hoping that the forces he had to invoke would decide to aid him, he began to chant:
Nothing happened. 'I've failed.' Elric muttered hopelessly as he met the attack of a mapping devildog and spitted the thing on his sword. But then the ground rocked and seemed to seethe beneath the feet of the horses upon whose backs the dead men sat. The tremor lasted a few seconds and then subsided.
'The spell was not powerful enough, ' Elric sighed.
The earth trembled again and small craters formed in the ground of the hillside upon which the dead Lords of Dharzi impassively waited: Stones crumbled and the horses stamped nervously. Then the earth rumbled.
'Back! ' yelled Elric warningly. 'Back or we'll go with them! '
They retreated backing towards Shaarilla and their waiting horses as the ground gagged beneath their feet. The Dharzi mounts were rearing and snorting and the remaining dogs turned nervously to regard their masters with puzzled, uncertain eyes. A low moan was coming from the lips of the living dead. Suddenly, a whole area of the surrounding hillside split into cracks, and yawning crannies appeared in the surface. Elric and his companies swung themselves on to their horse, as, with a frightful multi-voiced scream, the dead Lords were swallowed by the earth, returning to the depths from which they had been summoned.
A deep unholy chuckle arose from the shattered pit. It was the mocking laughter of the Earth Kings taking their rightful prey back into their keeping. Whining, the devil-dogs slunk towards the edge of the pit, sniffing around it. Then, with one accord, the black pack hurled itself down into the chasm, following its masters to whatever cold doom awaited them.
Moonglum shuddered. 'You are on familiar terms with the strangest people, friend Elric, ' he said shakily and turned his horse towards the mountains again.
They reached the black mountains on the following day and nervously Shaarilla led them along the rocky route she had memorised. She no longer pleaded with Elric to return she was resigned to whatever fate awaited them. Elric's obsession was burning within him and he was filled with impatience certain that he would find, at last, the ultimate truth of existence in the Dead Gods' Book.
Moonglum was cheerfully skeptical, while Shaarilla was consumed with foreboding.
Rain still fell and the storm growled and crackled above them, And, as the driving rainfall increased with fresh insistence, they came, at last, to the black, gaping mouth of a huge cave.
'I can lead you no further, ' Shaarilla said wearily.
'The Book lies somewhere beyond, the entrance to this cave.'
Elric and Moonglum looked uncertainly at one another, neither of them sure what move to make next.
To have reached their goal seemed somehow anticlimactic-for nothing blocked the cave entrance and
nothing appeared to guard it.
'It is inconceivable, ' said Elric, 'that the dangers which beset us were not engineered by something, yet here we are and no one seeks to stop us entering. Are you sure that this is the right cave, Shaarilla?'
The girl pointed upwards to the rock above the entrance. Engraved in it was a curious symbol which Elric instantly recognized.
'The sigh of Chaos! ' Elric exclaimed. 'Perhaps I should have guessed.'
'What does it mean, Elric?' Moonglum asked.
'That is the symbol of everlasting disruption and anarchy, ' Elric told him. 'We are standing in, territory presided over by the Lords of Entropy or one of their minions. So that is who our enemy is! This can only mean one thing the Book is of extreme importance to the order of things on this plane possibly all the myriad planes of the universe. It was why Arioch was reluctant to aid me he, too, is a Lord of Chaos!’