Corum could hardly keep his balance on the blood-slippery floor.
And then Jhary-a-Conel had entered the room, an expression of faint disgust on his face as he regarded the slaughter. "It is true. The sorcery we have worked today must have its effect. Whiskers—to me!"
And then Corum realized that the creature which had clung to Voilodion Ghagnasdiak's face was the little black-and-white cat. Once again it had been the cause of their salvation. It flew to Jhary's shoulder and settled there, staring about with wide, green eyes.
Elric broke away from the other two and dashed into the other room to peer through the window slit Corum heard him cry, "We are in Limbo!"
Slowly Corum broke his own link with Erekose. He did not have the energy to see what Elric meant, but he guessed that the tower was in that tuneless, spaceless place where once he had been in the sky ship. And it was swaying even more crazily now. He looked at the crumpled figure of the dwarf, who had his hands to his face. Through the fingers welled fountains of blood.
Jhary went past Corum into the other room and spoke to Elric. As he returned Corum heard him say, "Come, friend Elric, help me seek my hat."
"At such a time you look for a—hat?"
"Aye." Jhary winked at Corum and stroked his cat.
"Prince Corum—Lord Erekose—will you come with me, too?"
They went past the weeping dwarf, down the narrow tunnel, until they came to a flight of stairs. The stairs led toward a cellar. The tower quaked. With a lighted brand held aloft Jhary led them down the steps.
When a slab of masonry dislodged itself from the roof and fell at Elric's feet he said quietly, "I would prefer to seek a means of escape from the tower. If it falls now we shall be buried."
"Trust me, Prince Elric."
They came at length to a circular room with a huge metal door set in it.
"Voilodion's vault. Here you will find all the things you seek," said Jhary. "And I, I hope, will find my hat. The hat was specially made and is the only one which properly matches my other clothes . . ."
"How do we open a door like that?" Erekose sheathed his sword in an angry gesture. Then he drew it out again and put the point to the door. "It is made of steel, surely."
Jhary's voice was almost amused again. "If you linked arms again, my friends."
Corum offered Jhary an amused glance in spite of the danger.
"I will show you how the door may be opened," said Jhary.
And so they linked arms again and again the vast, exquisite sense of strength flowed through them and again they laughed to each other, feeling true fulfillment now that they were combined. Perhaps this was their destiny.
Perhaps when they ceased to be individual heroes they would become the one thing again and then they would experience happiness. It offered them hope, this thought.
Jhary said quietly, "And now, Prince Corum, if you would strike with your foot once upon the door ..."
Corum swung his foot and kicked at the solid steel and watched as the door fell down without resistance. He did not like to break the link with his fellow heroes. He could see how they could live as a single entity and know satisfaction. But he was forced to in order to enter the vault.
The tower shook and seemed to fall sideways and the four of them tumbled into Voilodion's vault to land amongst treasure.
Corum picked himself up. Elric was inspecting a golden throne. Erekose had picked up a battle-axe too big for even him to wield.
Here were the things Voilodion had stolen from all his victims as his tower had traveled through the planes.
Corum wondered if ever such a museum had existed before. He went from object to object inspecting them and marveling. Meanwhile Jhary handed something to Elric and spoke with him. Corum heard Elric say to Jhary,
"How can you know all this?"
Jhary made some vague reply and then bent with a cry of pleasure. He picked up his hat and began to slap at the dust which covered it. Then he saw another thing and picked that up. A goblet. "Take it," he told Corum. "It will prove useful, I think."
Jhary walked over to a corner and removed a small sack, placing it on his shoulder. There was a jewel chest nearby and he delved through this until he discovered a ring. This he handed to Erekose. "This is your reward, Erekose, for helping to free me from my captor." He spoke grandly but self-mockingly.
Even Erekose smiled then. "I have the feeling you need no help young man."
"You are mistaken, friend Erekose. I doubt if I have ever been in greater peril." He took a lingering look around the room and then lost his footing as the floor tilted once more.
"We should take steps to leave," said Elric, the bundle of metal under his arm.
"Exactly." Jhary moved rapidly across the vault. "The last thing. In his pride Voilodion showed me his possessions, but he did not know the value of all of them."
Corum frowned. "What do you mean?"
"He killed the traveler who brought this with him. The traveler was right in assuming he had the means to stop the tower from vanishing, but he did not have time to use it before Voilodion slew him." Jhary displayed the object. It was a small baton of a dull ocher color. It hardly seemed valuable. "Here it is. The Runestaff. Hawkmoon had this with him when I traveled with him to the Dark Empire."
The Second Chapter
To Tanelorn
"What is the Runestaff?" Corum asked.
"I remember one description—but I am poor at naming and explaining things . . ."
Elric almost smiled. "That has not escaped my attention."
Corum looked closely at the staff, unable to believe it had any special significance.
"It is an object," said Jhary, "which can exist only under a certain set of special and physical laws. In order to continue to exist, it must exert a field in which it can contain itself. That field must accord with those laws—the same laws under which we best survive."
Large slabs of masonry fell from the roof.
Erekose growled. "The tower is breaking up!"
Corum saw that Jhary was passing his hand in a stroking motion over the dull ocher staff, tracing out a pattern.
"Please gather near me, my friends."
As the three closed in, the roof of the tower fell. Corum saw great blocks of stone descend to crush him and then he was staring at a blue sky breathing cool air and the ground was firm beneath his feet. Yet from only a few inches on all sides of them there was blackness—the total blackness of Limbo. "Do not step outside this small area," Jhary said,
"or you will be doomed." He frowned. "Let the Runestaff seek what we seek."
Corum knew his friend's voice and he knew that it was not as confident as usual.
The ground changed color, the air was hot and then freezingly cold and Corum realized that they were moving rapidly through the planes as the Vanishing Tower had traveled, but they were not moving at random, he was sure of that.
Now there was sand beneath Corum's feet and a hot wind blowing in his face and Jhary was shouting, "Now!"
Running with the others into the blackness, Corum burst into sunlight and saw a glowing metallic sky.
"A desert," Erekose said softly. "A vast desert..."
On all sides rolled yellow dunes and the wind was sad as it whispered across them.
Jhary was plainly pleased with himself. "Do you recognize it, friend Elric?"
Elric was relieved. "Is it the Sighing Desert?"
"Listen."
Elric listened to the sad wind but he looked at something else. Corum turned his head and saw that Jhary had dropped the Runestaff, that it was fading.
"Are you all to come with me to the defense of Tanelorn?" Elric asked Jhary, doubtless expecting him to assent.
But Jhary shook his head. "No. We go the other way.
We go to seek the device Theleb K'aarna activated with the help of the Lords of Chaos. Where lies it?"
Elric searched the dunes with his eyes. He frowned and then pointed hesitantly. "That way, I think."
"Then let us go to it now."
"But I must try to help Tanelorn!" Elric protested.
"You must destroy the device after we have used it, friend Elric, lest Theleb K'aarna or his like try to activate it again."
"But Tanelorn . . ."
Corum listened with curiosity to the conversation. Why did Jhary know so much of Elric's world and its needs?
"I do not believe," said Jhary calmly, "that Theleb K'aarna and his beasts have yet reached the city."
"Not reached it! But so much time has passed!"
"Less than a day," said Jhary.
Corum wondered if that applied to them all or just to Elric's world. He sympathized with the albino as he rubbed his hand over his face and wondered whether to trust Jhary. Then he said, "Very well. I will take you to the machine."
"But if Tanelorn lies so near," Corum said to Jhary,
"why seek it elsewhere?"
"Because this is not the Tanelorn we wish to find,"
Jhary told him.
"It will suit me," Erekose said almost humbly. "I will remain with Elric. Then, perhaps . .." There was longing in his eyes.
But Jhary was horrified. "My friend," he said sadly,
"already much of time and space is threatened with destruction. Eternal barriers could soon fall—the fabric of the multiverse could decay. You do not understand. Such a thing as has happened in the Vanishing Tower can happen only once in an eternity and even then it is dangerous to all concerned. You must do as I say. I promise that you will have just as good a chance of finding Tanelorn where I take you."
Erekose bowed his head. "Very well."
"Come." Elric was impatient, already walking away from them. "For all your talk of time, there is precious little left for me."
"For all of us," said Jhary feelingly.
They stumbled through the desert and the mourning wind found an echo of sadness in their own souls, but at last they came to a place of rocks, a natural amphitheater which had in its center a deserted camp. Tent flaps slapped as the wind blew them, but it was not the tent which drew their attention, it was the great bowl in the center of the amphitheater—a bowl which contained something far stranger than anything Corum had seen in Gwlas-an-Gwrys or in the world of Lady Jane Pentallyon. It had many planes and curves and angles of many colors and it dizzied him to look upon it too long.
"What is it?" he murmured.
"A machine," Jhary told him, "used by the ancients. It is what I have been seeking to take us to Tanelorn."
"But why not go with Elric to his Tanelorn?"
"We have the geography but we still need the time and the dimension," Jhary said. "Bear with me, Corum, for, unless we are stopped, we shall soon see the Tanelorn we seek."
"And we shall find aid against Glandyth?"
"That I cannot tell you."
Jhary went up to the machine in the bowl and he walked around it as if familiar with it. He seemed satisfied. He began to trace patterns on the bowl and these brought responses in the machine. Something deep within it began to pulse like a heart. The planes and curves and angles began to shift subtly and change color. A sense of urgency came about Jhary's movements then. He made Corum and Erekose stand with their backs pressed against the bowl and he took a small vial from his jerkin, handing it to Elric.
"When we have departed," said Jhary, "hurl this through the top of the bowl, take your horse, which I still see yonder and ride as fast as you can for Tanelorn. Follow these instructions perfectly and you will serve us all."
Gingerly, Elric took the vial. "Very well."
Jhary smiled a secret smile as he stood beside the other two. "And please give my compliments to my brother Moonglum."
Elric's crimson eyes widened. "You know him?
What—?"
"Farewell, Elric. We shall doubtless meet many times in the future, though we may not recognize each other."
Elric stood there, his white face stained by the light from the bowl.
"And that will be for the best, I suppose," Jhary added under his breath, looking at the albino with some sympathy.
But Elric was gone, as was the desert, as was the machine in the bowl.
Then something like an invisible hand threw them backward.
Jhary sighed with satisfaction. "The machine is destroyed. That is good."
"But how may we return to our own plane?" Corum asked. They were surrounded by tall, waving grass—grass so high that it grew over their heads. "Where is Erekose?"
"Gone on. Gone down his own road to Tanelorn," Jhary said. He looked at the sun. He took a bunch of the thick grass and wiped his face with it. There was dew on the grass and it refreshed him. "As we must now go down ours."
"Tanelorn is close?" Excitement suffused Corum. "Is it close, Jhary?"
"It is close. I feel its closeness."
"This is your city? You know its inhabitants?"
"This is my city. Tanelorn is ever my city. But this Tanelorn I do not know. I think I know of it, however—I hope I do or all my poor scheming will be for nothing."
"What are those schemes, Jhary? You must tell me more."
"I can tell you little. I knew of Elric's plight because I once rode with Elric—still do as far as he is concerned.
Also I knew how to aid Erekose, because I was once—or shall be—his friend, too. But it is not wisdom which guides me, Prince Corum. It is instinct. Come."
And he led the way through the tall, waving grass as if he followed a well-marked road.
The Third Chapter
The Conjunction of the Million Spheres
And there was Tanelorn.
It was a blue city and it gave off a strong blue aura which merged with the expanse of the blue sky which framed it, but its buildings were of such a variety of shades of blue as to make them seem many-colored. These tall spires and domes clustered together and intersected and adjoined each other and rose in wild spirals and curves, seeming to fling themselves joyfully at the heavens as if silently delighting in their own blue beauty, in all their colors from near-black to pale violet, in all their shapes of shining metal.
"It is not a mortal settlement," whispered Corum Jhaelen Irsei as he emerged with Jhary-a-Conel from the tall grass and drew his scarlet robe about him, feeling insignificant beneath the splendor of the city.
"I'll grant you that," said Jhary almost grimly. "It is not a Tanelorn which I have seen before. Why this is almost sinister, Corum . . ."
"What mean you?"
"It is beautiful and it is wondrous, but it might almost be some false Tanelorn or some counter-Tanelorn, or some Tanelorn existing in an utterly different logic . . ."
"I hardly follow you. You spoke of peace. Well, this Tanelorn is peaceful. You said that there were many Tanelorns and that they have existed before the beginning of time and will exist when time is ended. And if this Tanelorn is stranger than some you know, what of that?"
Jhary drew a heavy breath. "I believe I have some inkling of the truth now. If Tanelorn exists upon the only area in the multiverse not subject to flux, then it might have other purposes than to act as a resting place for weary heroes and the like ..."
"You think we are in danger there?"
"Danger? It depends what you regard as dangerous.
Some wisdom may be dangerous to one man and not to another. Danger is contained in safety, as you have discovered, and safety in danger. The nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witnesses to a paradox and therefore—I should have considered this before—
Tanelorn must be a paradox, too. We had best enter the city, Corum, and learn why we have been drawn here."
Corum hesitated. "Mabelrode threatens to vanquish Law. Glandyth-a-Krae aims to conquer my plane. Rhalina is lost. We have much to sacrifice if we have made a mistake, Jhary."
"Aye. All."
"Then should we not first make certain that we are not victims of some cosmic deceit."
Jhary turned and laughed aloud. "And how may
we decide that, Corum Jhaelen Irsei?"
Corum glared at Jhary and then lowered his eyes. "You are right. We will enter this Tanelorn."
They crossed a lawn made blue by the light from the city and they stood at the beginning of a wide avenue lined with blue plants and breathed air which was not quite like the air of any of the planes they had visited.
And Corum began to weep at the sight of so much marvellous beauty, falling to his knees as if in worship, feeling that he would give his life to it willingly. And Jhary, standing beside his friend and placing a hand on his bowed shoulder, murmured, "Ah, this is still truly Tanelorn."
Corum's very body seemed lighter as he and Jhary wandered down the avenue and looked for the inhabitants of Tanelorn. Corum began to feel sure that there would be help here, that Mabelrode could, after all, be defeated, that his folk and the folk of Lywm-an-Esh could be stopped from slaying one another. And yet, though they wandered long, no citizens of Tanelorn emerged to greet them. All there was was silence.
At the end of the avenue Corum now made out a shape standing framed against a complicated fountain of blue water. The shape seemed to be that of a statue, the first representation of its kind Corum had seen in the city. And there was a slight suggestion of familiarity about it which made him begin to hope, for, in the back of his mind, he equated this statue with salvation, though he did not know why.
He began to walk more swiftly until Jhary held him back, a restraining hand on his arm. "Rush not, Corum, in Tanelorn."
The statue's detail became clearer as they advanced.
It was more barbaric in appearance than the rest of the city and it was predominantly green rather than blue. It did not seem to be of the same manufacture as the spires and the domes. It stood upon four legs arranged at each corner of its torso. It had four arms, two folded and two at its side.
It had a large, human head but no nose. Instead, its nostrils were set directly into the head. The mouth was much wider than a human mouth and it was molded so that it grinned.
The eyes glittered and they too were completely unlike human eyes but rather resembled clusters of jewels.