The Vanishing Tower

  "I fear I have summoned you two to your destruc­tion," Corum panted. "I had no warning that our powers would be so limited here. The tower must shift so fast that even the ordinary laws of sorcery do not apply within its walls."

  "They seem to work well enough for the dwarf," Elric said as he brought up his blade to block first one scythe and then another. "If I could slay but a sin­gle . . ."

  His back was hard against the wall, a scythe nicked his cheek and drew blood, another tore his cloak, another slashed his arm. The tiger faces were grinning now as they closed in.

  Elric aimed a blow at the head of the nearest crea­ture, struck off its ear so that it howled. Stormbringer howled back and stabbed at the thing's throat.

  But the sword hardly penetrated and served only to put the tiger-man slightly off balance.

  As the thing staggered Elric wrenched the scythe from its hands and reversed the weapon, drawing the blade across the chest. The tiger-man screamed as blood spurted from the wound.

  "I was right!" Elric shouted at the others. "Only their own weapons can harm them!" He moved for­ward with the scythe in one hand and Stormbringer in the other. The tiger-men backed off and then began to flap upwards to hover near the ceiling.

  Elric ran towards Voilodion Ghagnasdiak. The dwarf gave a yell of terror and disappeared through a doorway too small easily to admit Elric.

  Then, with thundering wings, the tiger creatures descended again.

  This time the other two strove to capture scythes from their enemies. Driving back those who attacked him, the albino prince took Corum's main assailant from behind and the thing fell with its head sliced off. Corum sheathed his longsword and plucked up the scythe, killing a third tiger-man almost immediately and kicking the fallen scythe towards Erekose. Black feath­ers drifted in the stinking air. The flagstones of the floor were slippery with blood. The three heroes drove a path through their enemies into the smaller room they had lately left. Still the tiger creatures came on, but now they had to pass through the door and this was more easily defended.

  Glancing back Elric saw the window slit of the tower. Outside the scenery altered constantly as the Vanishing Tower continued its erratic progress through the planes of existence. But the three were wearying and all had lost some blood from minor wounds. Scythes clashed on scythes as the fight continued, wings beat loudly and the snarling faces spat at them and spoke words which could barely be understood. Without the strength supplied him by his hell-forged sword Elric was weakening rapidly. Twice he staggered and was borne up by the others. Was he to die in some alien world with his friends never knowing how he had perished? But then he remembered that his friends were even now under attack from the reptilian beasts Theleb K'aarna had sent against Tanelorn, that they, too, would soon be dead. This knowledge gave him a little more strength and enabled him to sweep his scythe deep into the belly of another tiger creature.

  This gap in the ranks of the sorcerous things enabled him to see the small doorway on the far side of the other room. Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was crouched there, hurling still more of the yellow globes. New winged tiger-men grew up to replace those who had fallen.

  But then Elric heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak give a yell and saw that something was covering his face. It was a black and white animal with small black wings which beat in the air. Some offspring of the beasts who attacked him? Elric could not tell. But Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was plainly terrified of it, trying to drag it from his face.

  Another figure appeared behind the dwarf. Bright eyes peered from an intelligent face framed by long black hair. He was dressed as ostentatiously as the dwarf, but he was unarmed. He was calling to Elric and the albino strained to catch the words even as another tiger-creature came at him.

  Corum saw the newcomer now. "Jhary!" he shouted.

  "The one you came to save?" Elric asked.

  "Aye."

  Elric made to press forward into the room, but Jhary-a-Conel waved him back. "No! No! Stay there!"

  Elric frowned, was about to ask why when he was attacked from two sides by the tiger creatures and had to retreat, slashing his scythe this way and that.

  "Link arms!" Jhary-a-Conel cried. "Corum in the centre—and you two draw your swords!"

  Elric was panting. He slew another tiger-man and felt a new pain shoot through his leg. Blood gushed from his calf.

  Voilodion Ghagnasdiak was still struggling with the thing which clung to his face.

  "Hurry!" cried Jhary-a-Conel. "It is your only chance—and mine!"

  Elric looked at Corum.

  "He is wise, my friend," Corum said. "He knows many things which we do not. Here, I will stand in the centre."

  Erekose linked his brawny arm with Corum's and Elric did the same on the other side. Erekose drew his sword in his left hand and Elric brought forth Storm­bringer in his right.

  And something began to happen. A sense of energy came back, then a sense of great physical well-being. Elric looked at his companions and laughed. It was al­most as if by combining their powers they had made them four times stronger—as if they had become one entity.

  A peculiar feeling of euphoria filled Elric and he knew that Erekose had spoken the truth—that they were three aspects of the same being.

  "Let us finish them!" he shouted—and he saw that they shouted the same. Laughing the linked three strode into the chamber and now the two swords wounded whenever they struck, slaying swiftly and bringing them more energy still.

  The winged tiger-men became frantic, flapping about the room as the Three Who Were One pursued them. All three were drenched in their own blood and that of their enemies, all three were laughing, invulnerable, acting completely in unison.

  And as they moved the room itself began to shake. They heard Voilodion Ghagnasdiak screaming.

  "The tower! The tower! This will destroy the tower!"

  Elric looked up from the last corpse. It was true that the tower was swaying wildly from side to side like a ship in a storm.

  Jhary-a-Conel pushed past the dwarf and entered the room of death. The sight seemed obnoxious to him but he controlled his feelings. "It is true. The sorcery we have worked today must have its effect. Whiskers—to me!"

  The thing on Voilodion Ghagnasdiak's face flew into the air and settled on Jhary's shoulder. Elric saw that it was a small black and white cat, ordinary in every detail save for its neat pair of wings which it was now folding.

  Voilodion Ghagnasdiak sat crumpled in the doorway and he was weeping through sightless eyes. Tears of blood flowed down his handsome face.

  Elric ran back into the other room, breaking his link with Corum. He peered through the window slit. But now there was nothing but a wild eruption of mauve and purple cloud.

  He gasped. "We are in limbo!"

  Silence fell. Still the tower swayed. The lights were extinguished by a strange wind blowing through the rooms and the only illumination came from outside where the mist still swirled.

  Jhary-a-Conel was frowning to himself as he joined Elric at the window.

  "How did you know what to do?" Elric asked him.

  "I knew because I know you, Elric of Melnibone"—just as I know Erekose there—for I travel in many ages and on many planes. That is why I am sometimes called Companion to Champions. I must find my sword and my sack—also my hat. Doubtless all are in Voilodion's vault with his other loot."

  "But the tower? If it is destroyed shall we, too, be destroyed?"

  "A possibility. Come, friend Elric, help me seek my hat."

  "At such a time, you look for a—hat?"

  "Aye." Jhary-a-Conel returned to the larger room, stroking the black and white cat. Voilodion Ghagnas­diak was still there and he was still weeping. "Prince Corum—Lord Erekose—will you come with me, too."

  Corum and the black giant joined Elric and they squeezed into the narrow passage, inching their way along until it widened to reveal a flight of stairs leading downward. The tower shuddered again. Jhary lit a brand and removed
it from its place in the wall. He began to descend the steps, the three heroes behind him.

  A slab of masonry fell from the roof and crashed just in front of Elric. "I would prefer to seek a means of escape from the tower," he said to Jhary-a-Conel. "If it falls now, we shall be buried."

  "Trust me, Prince Elric," was all that Jhary would say.

  And because Jhary had already shown himself to possess great knowledge Elric allowed the dandy to lead him further into the bowels of the tower.

  At last they reached a circular chamber and in it was set a huge metal door.

  "Voilodion's vault," Jhary told them. "Here you will find all the things you seek. 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 asked. "It is made of steel, surely!" He hefted the black blade he still bore in his left hand.

  "If you link arms again, my friends," Jhary suggested with a kind of mocking deference, "I will show you how the door may be opened."

  Once again Elric, Corum and Erekose linked their arms together. Once again the supernatural strength seemed to flow through them and they laughed at each other, knowing that they were all part of the same creature.

  Jhary's voice seemed to come faintly to Elric's ears. "And now, Prince Corum, if you would strike with your foot once upon the door. . . ."

  They moved until they were close to the door. That part of them which was Corum struck out with his foot at the slab of steel—and the door fell inward as if made of the lightest wood.

  This time Elric was much more reluctant to break the link which held them. But he did so at last as Jhary stepped into the vault chuckling to himself.

  The tower lurched. All three were flung after Jhary into Voilodion's vault. Elric fell heavily against a great golden chair of a kind he had once seen used as an elephant saddle. He looked around the vault. It was full of valuables, of clothes, shoes, weapons. He felt nau­seated as he realised that these had been the posses­sions of all those Voilodion had chosen to call his guests.

  Jhary pulled a bundle from under a pile of furs. "Look, Prince Elric. These are what you will need where Tanelorn is concerned." It seemed to be a bunch of long sticks rolled in thin sheets of metal.

  Elric accepted the heavy bundle. "What is it?"

  "They are the banners of bronze and the arrows of quartz. Useful weapons against the reptilian men of Pio and their mounts."

  "You know of those reptiles? You know of Theleb K'aarna, too?"

  "The sorcerer of Pan Tang? Aye."

  Elric stared almost suspiciously at Jhary-a-Conel. "How can you know all this?"

  "I have told you. I have lived many lives as a Friend of Heroes. Unwrap this bundle when you return to Tanelorn. Use the arrows of quartz like spears. To use the banners of bronze, merely unfurl them. Aha!" Jhary reached behind a sack of jewels and came up with a somewhat dusty hat. He smacked off the dust and placed it on his head. "Ah!" He bent again and displayed a goblet. He offered this to Prince Corum. "Take it. It will prove useful, I think."

  From another corner Jhary took a small sack and put it on his shoulder. Almost as an afterthought he hunted about in a chest of jewels and found a gleaming ring of unnamable stones and peculiar metal. "This is your reward, Erekose, in helping to free me from my captor."

  Erekose smiled. "I have the feeling you needed no help, young man."

  "You are mistaken, friend Erekose. I doubt if I have ever been in greater peril." He looked vaguely about the vault, staggering as the floor tilted alarmingly.

  Elric said: "We should take steps to leave."

  "Exactly." Jhary-a-Conel crossed swiftly to the fat side of the vault. "The last thing. In his pride Voilodion showed me his possessions, but he did not know the value of all of them."

  "What do you mean?" asked the Prince in the Scarlet Robe.

  "He killed the traveller who brought this with him. The traveller 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 had slain him." Jhary picked up a small staff coloured a dull ochre. "Here it is. The Runestaff. Hawkmoon had this with him when I travelled with him to the Dark Empire. . . ."

  Noticing their puzzlement, Jhary-a-Conel, Companion to Champions, apologised. "I am sorry. I some­times forget that not all of us have memories of other careers. . . ."

  "What is the Runestaff?" Corum asked.

  "I remember one description—but I am poor at naming and explaining things. . . ."

  "That has not escaped my notice," Elric said, al­most smiling.

  "It is an object which can only exist under a certain set of spatial and temporal 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."

  More masonry fell.

  "The tower is breaking up!" Erekose growled.

  Jhary stroked the dull ochre staff. "Please gather near me, my friends."

  The three heroes stood around him. And then the roof of the tower fell in. But it did not fall on them for they stood suddenly on firm ground breathing fresh air. But there was blackness all around them. "Do not step outside this small area," Jhary warned, "or you will be doomed. Let the Runestaff seek what we seek."

  They saw the ground change colour, breathed warmer, then colder, air. It was as if they moved from plane to plane of the universe, never seeing more than the few feet of ground upon which they stood.

  And then there was harsh desert sand beneath their feet and Jhary shouted. "Now!" The four of them rushed out of the area and into the blackness to find themselves suddenly in sunlight beneath a sky like beaten metal.

  "A desert," Erekose murmured. "A vast desert...."

  Jhary smiled. "Do you not recognise it, friend Elric?"

  "Is it the Sighing Desert?"

  "Listen."

  And sure enough Elric heard the familiar sound of the wind as it made its mournful passage across the sands. A little way away he saw the Runestaff where they had left it. Then it was gone.

  "Are you all to come with me to the defence of Tanelorn?" he asked Jhary.

  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 tried to get his bearings. He lifted a hesitant finger. "That way, I think."

  "Then let us go to it now."

  "But I must try to help Tanelorn."

  "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 . . ."

  "I do not believe that Theleb K'aarna and his beasts have yet reached the city."

  "Not reached it! So much time has passed!"

  "Less than a day."

  Elric rubbed at his face. He said reluctantly: "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. "I will remain with Elric. Then, perhaps . . ."

  A look almost of terror spread over Jhary's features then. He said sadly: "My friend—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 only happen once or twice 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. Your opportunity lies in Elric's future."

  Erekose bowed his head. "Very well."

  "Come," Elric said impatiently, beginning to strike off to the Northeast. "For all your talk of Time, there is precious little left for me."

  Chapter Six

  Pale Lord Sh
outing in Sunlight

  The machine in the bowl was where Elric had last seen it, just before he had attacked it and found himself plunged into Corum's world.

  Jhary seemed completely familiar with it and soon had its heart beating strongly. He shepherded the other two up to it and made them stand with their backs against the crystal. Then he handed something to Elric. It was a small vial.

  "When we have departed," he said, "hurl this through the top of the bowl, then take your horse which I see is yonder and ride as fast as you can for Tanelorn. Follow these instructions perfectly and you will serve us all."

  Elric accepted the vial. "Very well."

  "And," Jhary said finally as he took his place with the others, "please give my compliments to my brother Moonglum."

  "You know him? What—?"

  "Farewell, Elric! We shall doubtless meet many times in the future, though we may not recognise each other."

  Then the beating of the thing in the bowl grew louder and the ground shook and the strange darkness surrounded it—then the three figures had gone. Swiftly Elric hurled the vial upwards so that it fell through the opening of the bowl, then he ran to where his golden mare was tethered, leapt into the saddle with the bun­dle Jhary had given him under his arm, and galloped as fast as he could go towards Tanelorn.

  Behind him the beating suddenly ceased. The darkness disappeared. A tense silence fell. Then Elric heard something like a giant's gasp and blinding blue light filled the desert. He looked back. Not only the bowl and the device had gone—so also had the rocks which had once surrounded it.

  He came up behind them at last, just before they reached the walls of Tanelorn. Elric saw warriors on those walls.

  The massive reptilian monsters bore their equally re­pulsive masters upon their backs, their feet leaving deep marks in the sand as they moved. And Theleb K'aarna rode at their head on a chestnut stallion—and there was something draped across his saddle.

  Then a shadow passed over Elric's head and he looked up. It was the metal bird which had borne Myshella away. But it was riderless. It wheeled over the heads of the lumbering reptiles whose masters raised their strange weapons and sent hissing streams of fire in its direction, driving it higher into the sky. Why was the bird here and not Myshella? A peculiar cry came again and again from its metal throat and Elric realised what that cry resembled—the pathetic sound of a mother bird whose young is in danger.