Страница 30 из 35
IV
The wrecked schooner was almost awash when the crew clambered overboard with lines and began the task of dragging it up the mud that formed the banks of the island. Before them was a wall of foliage that seemed impenetrable. Smiorgan followed Elric, lowering himself into the shallows. They began to wade ashore.
As they left the water and set foot on the hard, baked earth, Smiorgan stared at the forest. No wind moved the trees and a peculiar silence had descended. No birds called from the trees, no insects buzzed, there were none of the barks and cries of animals they had heard on their journey upriver.
"Those supernatural friends of yours seem to have frightened more than the savages away, " the black-bearded man murmured. "This place seems lifeless."
Elric nodded. "It is strange."
Duke Avan joined them. He had discarded his finery-ruined in the fight anywayand now wore a padded leather jerkin and doeskin breeches. His sword was at his side. "We'll have to leave most of our men behind with the ship, " he said regretfully. "They'll make what repairs they can while we press on to find R'lin K'ren A'a." He tugged his light cloak about him. "Is it my imagination, or is there an odd atmosphere?"
"We have already remarked on it, " Smiorgan said. "Life seems to have fled the island."
Duke Avan gri
"It was for my aid that you asked me to accompany you, " Elric said wearily. "Let's eat and rest and then continue with our expedition."
A shadow passed over Duke Avan's face then. Something in Elric's ma
Entering the jungle was no easy matter. Armed with axes the six members of the crew (all that could be spared) began to hack at the undergrowth. And still the u
By nightfall they were less than half a mile into the forest and completely exhausted. The forest was so thick that there was barely room to pitch their tent. The only light in the camp came from the small, sputtering fire outside the tent. The crewmen slept where they could in the open.
Elric could not sleep, but now it was not the jungle which kept him awake. He was puzzled by the silence, for he was sure that it was not their presence which had driven all life away. There was not a single small rodent, bird, or insect anywhere to be seen. There were no traces of animal life. The island had been deserted of all but vegetation for a long while-perhaps for centuries or tens of centuries. He remembered another part of the old legend of R'lin K'ren A'a. It had been said that when the gods came to meet there not only the citizens fled, but also all the wildlife. Nothing had dared see the High Lords or listen to their conversation. Elric shivered, turning his white head this way and that on the rolled cloak that supported it, his crimson eyes tortured. If there were dangers on this island, they would be subtler dangers than those they had faced on the river.
The noise of their passage through the forest was the only sound to be heard on the island as they forced their way on the next morning.
With lodestone in one hand and map in the other, Duke Avan Astran sought to guide them, directing his men where to cut their path. But the going became even slower and it was obvious that no creatures had come this way for many ages.
By the fourth day they had reached a natural clearing of flat volcanic rock and found a spring there. Gratefully they made camp. Elric began to wash his face in the cool water when he heard a yell behind him. He sprang up. One of the crewmen was reaching for an arrow and fitting it to his bow.
"What is it?" Duke Avan called.
"I saw something, my lord! "
"Nonsense, there are no-"
"Look! " The man drew back the string and let fly into the upper terraces of the forest. Something did seem to stir then and Elric thought he saw a flash of gray among the trees.
"Did you see what kind of creature it was?" Smiorgan asked the man.
"No, master. I feared at first it was those reptiles again."
"They're too frightened to follow us onto this island, " Duke Avan reassured him.
"I hope you're right, " Smiorgan said nervously.
"Then what could it have been?" Elric wondered.
"I-I thought it was a man, master, " the crewman stuttered.
Elric stared thoughtfully into the trees. "A man?"
Smiorgan asked, "You were hoping for this, Elric?"
"I am not sure...."
Duke Avan shrugged. "More likely the shadow of a cloud passing over the trees. According to my calculations we should have reached the city by now."
"You think, after all, that it does not exist?" Elric said.
"I am begi
The crewman who had shot the arrow suddenly shouted again. "There! I saw him! It is a man! "
While the others stared but failed to discern anything Duke Avan continued to lean against the tree. "You saw nothing. There is nothing here to see."
Elric turned toward him. "Give me the map and the lodestone, Duke Avan. I have a feeling I can find the way."
The Vilmirian shrugged, an expression of doubt on his square, handsome face. He handed the things over to Elric.
They rested the night and in the morning they continued, with Elric leading the way.
And at noon they broke out of the forest and saw the ruins of R'lin K'ren A'a.
V
Nothing grew among the ruins of the city. The streets were broken and the walls of the houses had fallen, but there were no weeds flowering in the cracks and it seemed that the city had but recently been brought down by an earthquake. Only one thing still stood intact, towering over the ruins. It was a gigantic statue of white, gray, and green jade-the statue of a naked youth with a face of almost feminine beauty that turned sightless eyes toward the north.
"The eyes! " Duke Avan Astran said. "They're gone! "
The others said nothing as they stared at the statue and the ruins surrounding it. The area was relatively small and the buildings had had little decoration. The inhabitants seemed to have been a simple, well-to-do folk- totally unlike the Melnibonиans of the Bright Empire. Elric could not believe that the people of R'lin K'ren A'a had been his ancestors. They had been too sane.
"The statue's already been looted, " Duke Avan continued. "Our damned journey's been in vain! "
Elric laughed. "Did you really think you would be able to prise the Jade Man's eyes from their sockets, my lord?"
The statue was as tall as any tower of the Dreaming City and the head alone must have been the size of a reasonably large building. Duke Avan pursed his lips and refused to listen to Elric's mocking voice. "We may yet find the journey worth our while, " he said. "There were other treasures in R'lin K'ren A'a. Come...."
He led the way into the city.
Very few of the buildings were even partially standing, but they were nonetheless fascinating if only for the peculiar nature of their building materials, which were of a kind the travelers had never seen before.
The colors were many, but faded by time-soft reds and yellows and blues-and they flowed together to make almost infinite combinations.