Michael Moorcock: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate

"And how may they best be overwhelmed?" asked Hawkmoon.

"By courage and ingenuity, " said the captain.

"You are not very explicit, sir, " said Elric.

"I am as explicit as I can be. Now, my friends, I suggest you rest and prepare your arms."

As they returned to their cabins, Erekosл sighed.

"We are fated, " he said. "We have little free will, for all we deceive ourselves otherwise. If we perish or live through this venture, it will not count for much in the overall scheme of things."

"I think you are of a gloomy turn of mind, friend, " said Hawkmoon.

The mist snaked through the branches of the mast, writhing in the rigging, flooding the deck. It swirled across the faces of the other three men as Elric looked at them.

"A realistic turn of mind, " said Corum.

The mist massed more thickly upon the deck, mantling each man like a shroud. The timbers of the ship creaked and to Elric's ears took on the sound of a raven's croak. It was colder now. In silence they went to their cabins to test the hooks and buckles of their armor, to polish and to sharpen their weapons and to pretend to sleep.

"Oh, I've no liking for sorcery, " said Brut of Lashmar, tugging at his golden beard, "for sorcery it was resulted in my shame." Elric had told him all that the captain had said and had asked Brut to be one of the four who fought with him when they landed.

"It is all sorcery here, " Otto Blendker said. And he smiled wanly as he gave Elric his hand. "I'll fight beside you, Elric."

His sea-green armor shimmering faintly in the lantern light, another rose, his casque pushed back from his face. It was a face almost as white as Elric's, though the eyes were deep and near-black. "And I, " said Hown Serpent-tamer, "though I fear I'm little use on still land."

The last to rise, at Elric's glance, was a warrior who had said little during their earlier conversations. His voice was deep and hesitant. He wore a plain iron battle-cap and the red hair beneath it was braided. At the end of each braid was a small fingerbone which rattled on the shoulders of his byrnie as he moved. This was Ashnar the Lynx, whose eyes were rarely less than fierce. "I lack the eloquence or the breeding of you other gentlemen, " said Ashnar. "And I've no familiarity with sorcery or those other things of which you speak, but I'm a good soldier and my joy is in fighting. I'll take your orders, Elric, if you'll have me."

"Willingly, " said Elric.

"There is no dispute, it seems, " said Erekosл to the remaining four who had elected to join him. "All this is doubtless preordained. Our destinies have been linked from the first."

"Such philosophy can lead to unhealthy fatalism, " said Terndrik of Hasghan. "Best believe our fates are our own, even if the evidence denies it."

"You must think as you wish, " said Erekosл. "I have led many lives, though all, save one, are remembered but faintly." He shrugged. "Yet I deceive myself, I suppose, in that I work for a time when I shall find this Tanelorn and perhaps be reunited with the one I seek. That ambition is what gives me energy, Terndrik."

Elric smiled. "I fight, I think, because I relish the comradeship of battle. That, in itself, is a melancholy condition in which to find oneself, is it not?"

"Aye." Erekosл glanced at the floor. "Well, we must try to rest now."

The outlines of the coast were dim. They waded through white water and white mist, their swords held above their heads. Swords were their only weapons. Each of the Four possessed a blade of unusual size and design, but none bore a sword which occasionally murmured to itself as did Elric's Stormbringer. Glancing back, Elric saw the captain standing at the rail, his blind face turned toward the island, his pale lips moving as if he spoke to himself. Now the water was waist-deep and the sand beneath Elric's feet hardened and became smooth rock. He waded on, wary and ready to carry any attack to those who might be defending the island. But now the mist grew thinner, as if it could gain no hold on the land, and there were no obvious signs of defenders.

Tucked into his belt, each man had a brand, it's end wrapped in oiled cloth so that it should not be wet when the time came to light it. Similarly, each was equipped with a handful of smoldering tinder in a little firebox in a pouch attached to his belt, so that the brands could be instantly ignited.

"Only fire will destroy this enemy forever, " the captain had said again as he handed them their brands and their tinderboxes.

As the mist cleared, it revealed a landscape of dense shadows. The shadows spread over red rock and yellow vegetation and they were shadows of all shapes and dimensions, resembling all manner of things. They seemed cast by the huge blood-colored sun which stood at perpetual noon above the island, but what was disturbing about them was that the shadows themselves seemed without a source, as if the objects they represented were invisible or existed elsewhere than on the island itself. The sky, too, seemed full of these shadows, but whereas those on the island were still, those in the sky sometimes moved, perhaps when the clouds moved. And all the while the red sun poured down its bloody light and touched the twenty men with its unwelcome radiance just as it touched the land.

And at times, as they advanced cautiously inland, a peculiar flickering light sometimes crossed the island so that the outlines of the place became unsteady for a few seconds before returning to focus. Elric suspected his eyes and said nothing until Hown Serpent-tamer (who was having difficulty finding his landlegs) remarked:

"I have rarely been ashore, it's true, but I think the quality of this land is stranger than any other I've known. It shimmers. It distorts."

Several voices agreed with him.

"And from whence come all these shadows?" Ashnar the Lynx stared around him in unashamed superstitious awe. "Why cannot we see that which casts them?"

"It could be, " Corum said, "that these are shadows cast by objects existing in other dimensions of the Earth. If all dimensions meet here, as has been suggested, that could be a likely explanation." He put his silver hand to his embroidered eye-patch. "This is not the strangest example I have witnessed of such a conjunction."

"Likely?" Otto Blendker snorted. "Pray let none give me an unlikely explanation, if you please! "

They pressed on through the shadows and the lurid light until they arrived at the outskirts of the ruins.

These ruins, thought Elric, had something in common with the ramshackle city of Ameeron, which he had visited on his quest for the Black Sword. But they were altogether more vast-more a collection of smaller cities, each one in a radically different architectural style.

"Perhaps this is Tanelorn, " said Corum, who had visited the place, "or, rather, all the versions of Tanelorn there have ever been. For Tanelorn exists in many forms, each form depending upon the wishes of those who most desire to find her."

"This is not the Tanelorn I expected to find, " said Hawkmoon bitterly.

"Nor I, " added Erekosл bleakly.

"Perhaps it is not Tanelorn, " said Elric. "Perhaps it is not."

"Or perhaps this is a graveyard, " said Corum distantly, frowning with his single eye. "A graveyard containing all the forgotten versions of that strange city."

They began to clamber over the ruins, their arms clattering as they moved, heading for the center of the place. Elric could tell by the introspective expressions in the faces of many of his companions that they, like him, were wondering if this were not a dream. Why else should they find themselves in this peculiar situation, unquestioningly risking their lives-perhaps their souls-in a fight with which none of them was identified?