The Sailor on the Sea of Fate

by Michael Moorcock

  “We killed many.”

  J'osui C'rein Reyr gestured at the others who were staring at him in some discomfort. “And these? Primitives also, eh? They are not of our folk.”

  “There are few of our folk left.”

  “What does he say?” Duke Avan asked.

  “He says that those reptile warriors are called the Olab,” Elric told him.

  “And was it these Olab who stole the Jade Man's eyes?”

  When Elric translated the question the Creature Doomed to Live was astonished. “Did you not know, then?”

  “Know what?”

  “Why, you have been in the Jade Man's eyes! Those great crystals in which you wandered—that is what they are!”

  Chapter 7

  When Elric offered this information to Duke Avan, the Vilmirian burst into laughter. He flung his head back and roared with mirth while the others looked gloomily on. The cloud that had fallen across his features of late suddenly cleared and he became again the man whom Elric had first met.

  Smiorgan was the next to smile and even Elric acknow­ledged the irony of what had happened to them.

  “Those crystals fell from his face like tears soon after the High Ones departed,” continued J'osui C'rein Reyr.

  “So the High Ones did come here.”

  “Aye—the Jade Man brought the message and all the folk departed, having made their bargain with him.”

  “The Jade Man was not built by your people?”

  “The Jade Man is Duke Arioch of Hell. He strode from the forest one day and stood in the square and told the people what was to come about—that our city lay at the centre of some particular configuration and that it was only there that the Lords of the Higher Worlds could meet.”

  “And the bargain?”

  “In return for their city, our Royal line might in future increase their power with Arioch as their patron. He would give them great knowledge and the means to build a new city elsewhere.”

  “And they accepted this bargain without question?”

  “There was little choice, kinsman.”

  Elric lowered his eyes to regard the dusty floor. “And thus they were corrupted,” he murmured.

  “Only I refused to accept the pact. I did not wish to leave this city and I mistrusted Arioch. When all the others set off down the river, I remained here—where we are now—and I heard the Lords of the Higher Worlds arrive and I heard them speak, laying down the rules under which Law and Chaos would fight thereafter. When they had gone, I emerged. But Arioch—the Jade Man—was still here. He looked down on me through his crystal eyes and he cursed me. When that was done the crystals fell and landed where you now see them. Arioch's spirit departed, but his jade image was left behind.”

  “And you still retain all memory of what transpired between the Lords of Law and Chaos?”

  “That is my doom.”

  “Perhaps your fate was less harsh than that which befell those who left,” Elric said quietly. “1 am the last inheritor of that particular doom...”

  J'osui C'rein Reyr looked puzzled and then he stared into Elric's eyes and an expression of pity crossed his face. “I had not thought there was a worse fate—but now I believe there might be...”

  Elric said urgently: “Ease my soul, at least. I must know what passed between the High Lords in those days. I must understand the nature of my existence—as you, at least, understand yours. Tell me, I beg you!”

  J'osui C'rein Reyr frowned and he stared deeply into Elric's eyes. “Do you not know all my story, then?”

  “Is there more?”

  “I can only remember what passed between the High Lords—but when I try to tell my knowledge aloud or try to write it down, I cannot...”

  Elric grasped the man's shoulders. “You must try! You must try!”

  “I know that I cannot.”

  Seeing the torture in Elric's face, Smiorgan came up to him. “What is it, Elric?”

  Elric's hands clutched his head. “Our journey has been useless.” Unconsciously he used the old Melnibonean tongue.

  “It need not be,” said J'osui C'rein Reyr. “For me, at least.” He paused. “Tell me, how did you find this city? Was there a map?”

  Elric produced the map. “This one.”

  “Aye, that is the one. Many centuries ago I put it into a casket which I placed in a small trunk. I launched the trunk into the river, hoping that it would follow my people and they would know what it was.”

  “The casket was found in Melnibone, but no one had bothered to open it,” Elric explained. “That will give you an idea of what happened to the folk who left here...”

  The strange man nodded gravely. “And was there still a seal upon the map?”

  “There was. I have it.”

  “An image of one of the manifestations of Arioch, embedded in a small ruby?”

  “Aye, I thought I recognized the image, but I could not place it.”

  “The Image in the Gem,” murmured J'osui C'rein Reyr. “As I prayed, it has returned—borne by one of the Royal line!”

  “What is its significance?”

  Smiorgan interrupted. “Will this fellow help us to escape, Elric? We are becoming somewhat impatient...”

  “Wait,” the albino said. “I will tell you everything later.”

  “The Image in the Gem could be the instrument of my release,” said the Creature Doomed to Live. “If he who possesses it is of the royal line, then he can command the Jade Man.”

  “But why did you not use it?”

  “Because of the curse that was put on me. I had the power to command but not to summon the demon. It was a joke, I understand, of the High Lords.”

  Elric saw bitter sadness in the eyes of J'osui C'rein Reyr. He looked at the white, naked flesh and white hair and the body that was neither old nor young, at the shaft of the arrow sticking out above the third rib on the left side.

  “What must I do?” he asked.

  “You must summon Arioch and then you must command him to enter his body again and recover his eyes so that he may see to walk away from R'lin K'ren A'a.”

  “And when he walks away?”

  “The curse goes with him.”

  Elric was thoughtful. If he did summon Arioch—who was plainly reluctant to come—and then commanded him to do something he did not wish to do, he stood the chance of making an enemy of that powerful, if unpredictable, entity. Yet they were trapped here by the Olab warriors, with no means of escaping them. If the Jade Man walked the Olab would almost certainly flee and there would be time to get back to the ship and reach the sea. He explained everything to his companions. Both Smiorgan and Avan looked dubious and the remaining Vilmirian crewman looked positively terrified.

  “I must do it,” Elric decided, “for the sake of this man. I must call Arioch and lift the doom that is on R'lin K'ren A'a.”

  “And bring a greater doom to us!” Duke Avan said, putting his hand automatically upon his sword hilt. “No. I think we should take our chances with the Olab. Leave this man—he is mad—he raves. Let's be on our way.”

  “Go if you choose,” Elric said. “But I will stay with the Creature Doomed to Live.”

  “Then you will stay here forever. You cannot believe his story!”

  “But I do believe it.”

  “You must come with us. Your sword will help. Without it, the Olab will certainly destroy us.”

  “You saw that Stormbringer has little effect against the Olab.”

  “And yet it has some. Do not desert me, Elric!”

  “I am not deserting you. I must summon Arioch. That summoning will be to your benefit, if not to mine.”

  “I am unconvinced.”

  “It was my sorcery you wanted on this venture. Now you shall have my sorcery.”

  Avan backed away. He seemed to fear something more than the Olab, more than the summoning. He seemed to read a threat in Elric's face of which even Elric was unaware.

  “We must go outside,” said J'osui C'
rein Reyr. “We must stand beneath the Jade Man.”

  “And when this is done,” Elric asked suddenly, “how will we leave R'lin K'ren A'a?”

  “There is a boat. It has no provisions, but much of the city's treasure is on it. It lies at the west end of the island.”

  “That is some comfort,” Elric said. “And you could not use it yourself?”

  “I could not leave.”

  “Is that part of the curse?”

  “Aye—the curse of my timidity.”

  “Timidity has kept you here ten thousand years?”

  “Aye...”

  They left the chamber and went out into the square. Night had fallen and a huge moon was in the sky. From where Elric stood it seemed to frame the Jade Man's sightless head like a halo. It was completely silent. Elric took the Image in the Gem from his pouch and held it between the forefinger and thumb of his left hand. With his right he drew Stormbringer. Avan, Smiorgan and the Vilmirian crewman fell back.

  He stared up at the huge jade legs, the genitals, the torso, the arms, the head, and he raised his sword in both hands and screamed:

  “ARIOCH!”

  Stormbringer's voice almost drowned his. It pulled in his hands, it threatened to leave his grasp altogether as it howled.

  “ARIOCH!”

  All the watchers saw now was the throbbing, radiant sword, the white face and hands of the albino and his crimson eyes glaring through the blackness.

  “ARIOCH!”

  And then a voice which was not Arioch's came to Elric's ears and it seemed that the sword itself spoke.

  “Elric—Arioch must have blood and souls. Blood and souls, my lord... “

  “No. These are my friends and the Olab cannot be harmed by Stormbringer. Arioch must come without the blood, without the souls.”

  “Only those can summon him for certain!” said a voice, more clearly now. It was sardonic and it seemed to come from behind him. He turned, but there was nothing there.

  He saw Duke Avan's nervous face and, as his eyes fixed on the Vilmirian's countenance, the sword swung round twisting against Elric's grip and plunging towards the duke.

  “No!” cried Elric. “Stop!”

  But Stormbringer would not stop until it had plunged deep into Duke Avan's heart and quenched its thirst. The crewman stood transfixed as he watched his master die.

  Duke Avan writhed. “Elric! What treachery do you...?” He screamed. “Ah, no!”

  He jerked. “Please...”

  He quivered. “My soul...”

  He died.

  Elric withdrew the sword and cut the crewman down as he ran to his master's aid. The action had been without thought.

  “Now Arioch has his blood and his souls,” he said coldly. “Let Arioch come!”

  Smiorgan and the Creature Doomed to Live had retreated, staring at the possessed Elric in horror. The albino's face was cruel.

  “LET ARIOCH COME!”

  “I am here, Elric.”

  Elric whirled and saw that something stood in the shadow of the statue's legs—a shadow within a shadow.

  “Arioch—thou must return to this manifestation and make it leave R'lin K'ren A'a forever.”

  “I do not choose to, Elric.”

  “Then I must command thee, Duke Arioch.”

  “Command? Only he who possesses the Image in the Gem may command Arioch—and then only once.”

  “I have the Image in the Gem.” Elric held the tiny object up. “See.”

  The shadow within a shadow swirled for a moment as if in anger.

  “If I obey your command, you will set in motion a chain of events which you might not desire,” Arioch said, speaking suddenly in Low Melnibonean as if to give extra gravity to his words.

  “Then let it be. I command you to enter the Jade Man and pick up its eyes so that it might walk again. Then I command you to leave here and take the curse of the High Ones with you.”

  Arioch replied: “When the Jade Man ceases to guard the place where the High Ones meet, then the great struggle of the Upper Worlds begins on this plane.”

  “I command thee, Arioch. Go into the Jade Man!”

  “You are an obstinate creature, Elric.”

  “Go!” Elric raised Stormbringer. It seemed to sing in monstrous glee and it seemed at that moment to be more powerful than Arioch himself, more powerful than all the Lords of the Higher Worlds.

  The ground shook. Fire suddenly blazed around the form of the great statue. The shadow within a shadow disappeared.

  And the Jade Man stooped.

  Its great bulk bent over Elric and its hands reached past him and it groped for the two crystals that lay on the ground. Then it found them and took one in each hand, straightening its back.

  Elric stumbled towards the far corner of the square, where Smiorgan and J'osui C'rein Reyr already crouched in terror.

  A fierce light now blazed from the Jade Man's eyes and the jade lips parted.

  “It is done, Elric!” said a huge voice.

  J'osui C'rein Reyr began to sob.

  “Then go, Arioch.”

  “I go. The curse is lifted from R'lin K'ren A'a and from J'osui C'rein Reyr—but a greater curse now lies upon your whole plane.”

  “What is this, Arioch? Explain yourself!” Elric cried.

  “Soon you will have your explanation. Farewell!”

  The enormous legs of jade moved suddenly and in a single step had cleared the ruins and had begun to crash through the jungle. In a moment the Jade Man had disappeared.

  Then the Creature Doomed to Live laughed. It was a strange joy that he voiced. Smiorgan blocked his ears.

  “And now!” shouted J'osui C'rein Reyr. “Now your blade must take my life. I can die at last!”

  Elric passed his hand across his face. He had hardly been aware of any of the recent events. “No,” he said in a dazed tone. “I cannot...”

  And Stormbringer flew from his hand—flew to the body of the Creature Doomed to Live and buried itself in his chest.

  And as he died, J'osui C'rein Reyr laughed. He fell to the ground and his lips moved. A whisper came from them. Elric stepped nearer to hear.

  “The sword has my knowledge now. My burden has left me.”

  The eyes closed.

  J'osui C'rein Reyr's ten-thousand-year life span had ended.

  Weakly, Elric withdrew Stormbringer and sheathed it. He stared down at the body of the Creature Doomed to Live and then he looked up, questioningly, at Smiorgan.

  The burly sealord turned away.

  The sun began to rise. Grey dawn came. Elric watched the corpse of J'osui C'rein Reyr turn to powder that was stirred by the wind and mixed with the dust of the ruins. He walked back across the square to where Duke Avan's twisted body lay and he fell to his knees beside it.

  “You were warned, Duke Avan Astran of Old Hrolmar, that ill befell those who linked their fortunes with Elric of Melnibone. But you thought otherwise. Now you know.” With a sigh he got to his feet.

  Smiorgan stood beside him. The sun was now touching the taller parts of the ruins. Smiorgan reached out and gripped his friend's shoulder.

  “The Olab have vanished. I think they've had their fill of sorcery.”

  “Another man has been destroyed by me, Smiorgan. Am I forever to be tied to this cursed sword? I must discover a way to rid myself of it or my heavy conscience will bear me down so that I cannot rise at all.”

  Smiorgan cleared his throat but was otherwise silent.

  “I will lay Duke Avan to rest,” Elric said. “You go back to where we left the ship and tell the men that we come.”

  Smiorgan strode across the square towards the east.

  Elric tenderly picked up the body of Duke Avan and went towards the opposite side of the square, to the underground room where the Creature Doomed to Live had lived out his life for ten thousand years.

  It seemed so unreal to Elric now, but he knew that it had not been a dream, for the Jade Man had gone. His tracks could be se
en through the jungle. Whole clumps of trees had been flattened.

  He reached the place and descended the stairs and laid Duke Avan down on the bed of dried grasses. Then he took the duke's dagger and, for want of anything else, dipped it in the duke's blood and wrote on the wall above the corpse:

  “This was Duke Avan Astran of Old Hrolmar. He explored the world and brought much knowledge and treasure back to Vilmir, his land. He dreamed and became lost in the dream of another and so died. He enriched the Young Kingdoms—and thus encouraged another dream. He died so that the Creature Doomed to Live might die, as he desired...”

  Elric paused. Then he threw down the dagger. He could not justify his own feelings of guilt by composing a high-sounding epitaph for the man he had slain.

  He stood there, breathing heavily, then once again picked up the dagger.

  “He died because Elric of Melnibone desired a peace and a knowledge he could never find. He died by the Black Sword.”

  Outside in the middle of the square, at noon, still lay the lonely body of the last Vilmirian crewman. Nobody had known his name. Nobody felt grief for him or tried to compose an epitaph for him. The dead Vilmirian had died for no high purpose, followed no fabulous dream. Even in death his body would fulfil no function. On this island there was no carrion to feed. In the dust of the city there was no earth to fertilize.

  Elric came back into the square and saw the body. For a moment, to Elric, it symbolized everything that had transpired here and would transpire later.

  “There is no purpose,” he murmured.

  Perhaps his remote ancestors had, after all, realized that, but had not cared. It had taken the Jade Man to make them care and then go mad in their anguish. The knowledge had caused them to close their minds to much.

  “Elric!”

  It was Smiorgan returning. Elric looked up.

  “The Olab dealt with the crew and the ship before they came after us. They're all slain. The boat is destroyed.”

  Elric remembered something the Creature Doomed to Live had told him. “There is another boat,” he said. “On the east side of the island.”