But then his cloak was caught from above and he hung swaying in the air. Looking up he saw that several eagles had grasped his clothing in their claws and beaks and were slowing his descent so that he struck the snow with little more than a painful bump.

  The eagles flew back to the fray.

  A few yards away Moonglum came down, deposited by another flight of eagles which immediately returned to where their comrades were fighting the remaining Oonai.

  Moonglum picked up the sword which had fallen from his hand. He rubbed his right calf. “I’ll do my best never to eat fowl again,” he said feelingly. “So you remembered a spell, eh?”

  “Aye.”

  Two more piglike corpses thudded down not far away.

  For a few moments the birds performed a strange, wheeling dance in the sky, partly a salute to the two men, partly a dance of triumph, and then they divided into their groups of species and flew rapidly away. Soon there were no birds at all in the ice-blue sky.

  Elric picked up his bruised body and stiffly he sheathed his sword Stormbringer. He drew a deep breath and peered upwards.

  “Fileet, I thank thee again.”

  Moonglum still seemed dazed. “How did you summon them, Elric?”

  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.

  4 Old Castle Standing Alone

  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 interior 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 Melniboné 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 ahunting, 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 venison 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.

  Elric, since his passion for Cymoril had resulted in her death and the destruction of the city he loved, had at all times feared bestowing any tender emotion on those he fell in with.

  He had run away from Rai-u Th’ee, the sculptress of Séred-Öma, and from Shaarilla of the Dancing Mist who had loved him dearly. He had fled from Queen Yishana of Jharkor who had offered him her kingdom to rule, in spite of her subjects’ hatred of him. He disdained most company save Moonglum’s, and Moonglum, too, became quickly bored by anyone other than the crimson-eyed prince of Imrryr. Moonglum would die for Elric and he knew that Elric would risk any danger to save his friend. But was not this an unhealthy relationship? Would it not be better if they went their different ways? He could not bear the thought. It was as if they were part of the same entity—different aspects of the character of the same man.

  He could not understand why he should feel this. And he guessed that, if Elric had ever considered the question, the Melnibonéan would be equally hard put to find an answer.

  He contemplated all this as he roasted the meat before the fire, using his long sword as a spit.

  Meanwhile Elric took another draft of wine and began, almost visibly, to thaw out. His skin was still badly blistered by chilblains, but both men had escaped serious frostbite.

  They ate the venison in silence, glancing around the hall, puzzling over the non-appearance of the owner, yet too tired to care greatly where he was.

  Then they slept, having put fresh logs on the fire, and in the morning they were almost completely recovered from their ordeal in the snow.

  They breakfasted on cold venison and pasties and wine.

  Moonglum found a pot and heated water in it so that they might shave and wash and Elric found some salve in his pouch which they could put on their blisters.

  “I looked in the stables,” Moonglum said as he shaved with the razor he had taken from his own pouch. “But I found no horses. There are signs, however, that some beasts have been kept there recently.”

  “There is only one other way to travel,” Elric said. “There might be skis somewhere in the castle. It is the sort of thing you might expect to find, for there is snow in these parts for at least half the year. Skis would speed our progress back towards Iosaz. As would a map and a lodestone if we could find one.”

  Moonglum agreed. “I’ll search the upper levels.” He finished his shaving, wiped his razor and replaced it in his pouch.

  Elric got up. “I’ll go with you.”

  Through the empty rooms they wandered, but they found nothing.

  “No gear of any kind.” Elric frowned. “And yet there is a strong sense that the castle is inhabited—and evidence, too, of course.”

  They searched two more floors and there was not even dust in the rooms.

  “Well, perhaps we walk after all,” Moonglum said in resignation. “Unless there was wood with which we could manufacture skis of some kind. I might have seen some in the stables…”

  They had reached a narrow stair which wound up to the highest tower of the castle.

  “We’ll try this and then count our quest unsuccessful,” Elric said.

  And so they climbed the stair and came to a door at the top which was half-open. Elric pushed it back and then he hesitated.

  “What is it?” Moonglum, who was below him, asked.

  “This room is furnished,” Elric said quietly.

  Moonglum ascended two more steps and peered round Elric’s shoulder. He gasped.

  “And occupied!”

  It was a beautiful room. Through crystal windows came pale light which sparkled and fell on hangings of many-coloured silk, on embroidered carpets and tapestries of hues so fresh they might have been made only a moment before.

  In the centre of this room was a bed, draped in ermine, with a canopy of white silk.

  And on the bed lay a young woman.

  Her hair was black and it shone. Her gown was of the deepest scarlet. Her limbs were like rose-tinted ivory and her face was very fair, the lips slightly parted as she breathed.

  She was asleep.

  Elric took two steps towards the woman on the bed and then he stopped suddenly. He was shuddering. He turned away.

  Moonglum was alarmed. He saw bright tears in Elric’s crimson eyes.

  “What is it, friend Elric?”

  Elric moved his white lips but was incapable of speech. Something like a groan came from his throat.

  “Elric…”

  Moonglum placed a hand on his friend’s arm. Elric shook it off.

  Slowly the albino turned again towards the bed, as if forcing himself to behold an impossibly horrifying sight. He breathed deeply, straightening his back and resting his left hand on the pommel of his sorcerous blade.

  “Moonglum…”

  He was forcing himself to speak. Moonglum glanced at the woman on the bed, glanced at Elric. Did he recognise her?

  “Moonglum—this is a sorcerous sleep…”

  “How know you that?”

  “It—it is a similar slumber to that in which my cousin Yyrkoon put my Cymoril…”

  “Gods! Think you that…?”

  “I think nothing!”

  “But it is not—”

  “—it is not Cymoril. I know. I—she is like her—so like her. But unlike her, too… It is only that I could not have expected…”

  Elric bowed his head.

  He spoke in a low voice. “Come, let’s be gone from here.”

  “But she must be the owner of this castle. If we awakened her we could—”

  “She cannot be awakened by such as we. I told you, Moonglum…” Elric drew another deep breath. “It is an enchanted sleep she is in. I could not wake Cymoril from it, with all my powers of sorcery. Unless one has certain magical aids, some knowledge of the exact spell used, there is nothing that can be done. Quickly, Moonglum, let us depart.”

  There was an edge to Elric’s voice which made Moonglum shiver.

  “But…”

  “Then I will go!”

  Elric almost ran from the room. Moonglum heard his footsteps echoing rapidly down the long staircase.

  He went up to the sleeping woman and stared down at her beauty.

  He touched the skin. It was unnaturally cold. He shrugged and made to leave the chamber, pausing for a moment only to notice that a number of ancient battle-shields and weapons hung on one wall of the room, behind the bed. Strange trophies with which a beautiful woman should wish to decorate her bedroom, he thought. He saw the carved wooden table below the trophies. Something lay upon it. He stepped back into the room. A peculiar sensation filled him as he saw that it was a map. The castle was marked and so was the Zaphra-Trepek river.

  Holding the map down to the table was a lodestone, set in silver on a long silver chain.

  He grabbed the map in one hand and the lodestone in the other and ran from the room.

  “Elric! Elric!”

  He raced down the stairs and reached the hall. Elric had gone. The door of the hall was open.

  He followed the albino out of the mysterious castle and into the snow.

  “Elric!”

  Elric turned, his face set and his eyes tormented.

  Moonglum showed him the map and the lodestone.

  “We are saved, after all, Elric!”

  Elric looked down at the snow. “Aye. So we are.”

  5 Doomed Lord Dreaming

  And two days later they reached the upper reaches of the Zaphra-Trepek and the trading town of Alorasaz with its towers of finely carved wood and its beautifully made timber houses.

  To Alorasaz came the fur trappers and the miners, the merchants from Iosaz, downriver, or from afar as Trepesaz on the coast. A cheerful, bustling town with its streets lit and heated by great, red braziers at every corner. These were tended by citizens specially commissioned to keep them burning hot and bright. Wrapped in thick woollen clothing, they hailed Elric and Moonglum as they entered the city.

  For all they had been sustained by the wine and meat Moonglum had thought to bring, they were weary from their walk across the steppe.

  They made their way through the rumbustious crowd—laughing, red-cheeked women and burly, fur-swathed men whose breath steamed in the air, mingling with the smoke from the braziers, as they took huge swallows from gourds of beer or skins of wine, conducting their business with the slightly less bucolic merchants of the more sophisticated townships.

  Elric was looking for news and he knew that if he found it anywhere it would be in the taverns. He waited while Moonglum followed his nose to the best of Alorasaz’s inns and came back with the news of where it could be found.

  They walked a short distance and entered a rowdy tavern crammed with big wooden tables and benches on which were jammed more traders and more merchants all arguing cheerfully, holding up furs to display their quality or to mock their worthlessness, depending on which point of view was taken.