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Smiorgan rubbed at his beard. "Gods! What then? What did your ancestor do?"
"He knew remorse."
"Of course! "
"Not so, for a Melnibonиan. Remorse is a rare emotion with us. Few have ever experienced it. Torn by guilt, Earl Saxif D'Aan left Melnibonи, never to return. It was assumed that he had died in some remote land, trying to make amends for what he had done to the only creature he had ever loved. But now, it seems, he sought the Crimson Gate, perhaps thinking it an opening into Hell."
"But why should he plague me! " the girl cried. "I am not she! My name is Vassliss. I am a merchant's daughter, from Jharkor. I was voyaging to visit my uncle in Vilmir when our ship was wrecked. A few of us escaped in an open boat. More storms seized us. I was flung from the boat and was drowning when"-she shuddered- "when his galley found me. I was grateful, then ..."
"What happened?" Elric pushed the matted hair away from her face and offered her some of their wine. She drank gratefully.
"He took me to his palace and told me that he would marry me, that I should be his empress forever and rule beside him. But I was frightened. There was such pain in him-and such cruelty, too. I thought he must devour me, destroy me. Soon after my capture, I took the money and the boat and fled for the gateway, which he had told me about...."
"You could find this gateway for us?" Elric asked.
"I think so. I have some knowledge of seamanship, learned from my father. But what would be the use, sir? He would find us again and drag us back. And he must be very near, even now."
"I have a little sorcery myself, " Elric assured her, "and will pit it against Saxif D'Aan's, if I must." He turned to Count Smiorgan. "Can we get a sail aloft quickly?"
"Fairly quickly."
"Then let's hurry, Count Smiorgan Baldhead. I might have the means of getting us through this Crimson Gate and free from any further involvement in the dealings of the dead! "
IV
While Count Smiorgan and Vassliss of Jharkor watched, Elric lowered himself to the deck, panting and pale. His first attempt to work sorcery in this world had failed and had exhausted him.
"I am further convinced, " he told Smiorgan, "that we are in another plane of existence, for I should have worked my incantations with less effort."
"You have failed."
Elric rose with some difficulty. "I shall try again."
He turned his white face skyward; he closed his eyes; he stretched out his arms and his body tensed as he began the incantation again, his voice growing louder and louder, higher and higher, so that it resembled the shrieking of a gale.
He forgot where he was; he forgot his own identity; he forgot those who were with him as his whole mind concentrated upon the summoning. He sent his call out beyond the confines of the world, into that strange plane where the elementals dwelled-where the powerful creatures of the air could still be found-the sylphs of the breeze, and the sharnahs, who lived in the storms, and the most powerful of all, the h'Haarsha
And now at last some of them began to come at his summons, ready to serve him as, by virtue of an ancient pact, the elementals had served his forefathers. And slowly the sail of the ship began to fill, and the timbers creaked, and Smiorgan raised the anchor, and the ship was sailing away from the island, through the rocky gap of the harbor, and out into the open sea, still beneath a strange blue sun.
Soon a huge wave was forming around them, lifting up the ship and carrying it across the ocean, so that Count Smiorgan and the girl marveled at the speed of their progress, while Elric, his crimson eyes open now, but blank and unseeing, continued to croon to his unseen allies.
Thus the ship progressed across the waters of the sea, and at last the island was out of sight and the girl, checking their position against the position of the sun, was able to give Count Smiorgan sufficient information for him to steer a course.
As soon as he could, Count Smiorgan went up to Elric, who still straddled the deck, still as stiff-limbed as before, and shook him.
"Elric! You will kill yourself with this effort. We need your friends no longer! "
At once the wind dropped and the wave dispersed and Elric, gasping, fell to the deck.
"It is harder here, " he said. "It is so much harder here. It is as if I have to call across far greater gulfs than any I have known before."
And then Elric slept.
He lay in a warm bunk in a cool cabin. Through the porthole filtered diffused blue light. He sniffed. He caught the odor of hot food, and turning his head, saw that Vassliss stood there, a bowl of broth in her hands. "I was able to cook this, " she said. "It will improve your health. As far as I can tell, we are nearing the Crimson Gate. The seas are always rough around the gate, so you will need your strength."
Elric thanked her pleasantly and began to eat the broth as she watched him.
"You are very like Saxif D'Aan, " she said. "Yet harder in a way-and gentler, too. He is so remote. I know why that girl could never tell him that she loved him."
Elric smiled. "Oh, it's nothing more than a folktale, probably, the story I told you. This Saxif D'Aan could be another person altogether-or an impostor, even, who has taken his name-or a sorcerer. Some sorcerers take the names of other sorcerers, for they think it gives them more power."
There came a cry from above, but Elric could not make out the words.
The girl's expression became alarmed. Without a word to Elric, she hurried from the cabin.
Elric, rising unsteadily, followed her up the companion-way.
Count Smiorgan Baldhead was at the wheel of his ship and he was pointing toward the horizon behind them. "What do you make of that, Elric?"
Elric peered at the horizon, but could see nothing. Often his eyes were weak, as now. But the girl said in a voice of quiet despair:
"It is a golden sail."
"You recognize it?" Elric asked her.
"Oh, indeed I do. It is the galleon of Earl Saxif D'Aan. He has found us. Perhaps he was lying in wait along our route, knowing we must come this way."
"How far are we from the gate?"
"I am not sure."
At that moment, there came a terrible noise from below, as if something sought to stave in the timbers of the ship.
"It's in the forward hatches! " cried Smiorgan. "See what it is, friend Elric! But take care, man! "
Cautiously Elric prised back one of the hatch covers and peered into the murky fastness of the hold. The noise of stamping and thumping continued on, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the source.
The white horse was there. It whi
"How did it come aboard?" Elric asked. "I saw nothing. I heard nothing."
The girl was almost as white as Elric. She sank to her knees beside the hatch, burying her face in her arms.
"He has us! He has us! "
"There is still a chance we can reach the Crimson Gate in time, " Elric reassured her. "And once in my own world, why, I can work much stronger sorcery to protect us."
"No, " she sobbed, "it is too late. Why else would the white horse be here? He knows that Saxif D'Aan must soon board us."
"He'll have to fight us before he shall have you, " Elric promised her.
"You have hot seen his men. Cutthroats all. Desperate and wolfish! They'll show you no mercy. You would be best advised to hand me over to Saxif D'Aan at once and save yourselves. You'll gain nothing from trying to protect me. But I'd ask you a favor."
"What's that?"
"Find me a small knife to carry, that I may kill myself as soon as I know you two are safe."
Elric laughed, dragging her to her feet. "I'll have no such melodramatics from you, lass! We stand together. Perhaps we can bargain with Saxif D'Aan."