are to quench fires!" Kargan yelled and the group of men already primed for this leapt for the tubs containing a special brew which Elric had told them how to make earlier. This was spread on decks and splashed on canvas and, when the fireballs landed, they were swiftly quenched. "Don't engage unless forced to," Elric called to the seamen, "keep aiming for the flagship. If we take that, our advantage will be good!" "Where are your allies, Elric?" Kargan asked sardonically, shuddering a little as he saw the Chaos stuff in the distance suddenly move and erupt tendrils of black matter into the sky. "They'll come, never fear," Elric answered, but he was unsure. Now they were in the thick of the enemy fleet, the ships of their squadron following behind, their great oars slicing through the ocean's foam. The war-engines of their own fleet sent up a constant barrage of fire and heavy stones. Only a few of Elric's craft broke through the enemy's first rank and reached the open sea, sailing towards Jagreen Lern's flagship. As they were observed, the enemy ships sailed to protect the flagship and the scintillating ships of death, moving with fantastic speed for their size, surrounded the Theocrat's vessel. Shouting over the waters, Kargan ordered their diminished squadron into a new formation. Moonglum shook his head in astonishment. "How can things of that size support themselves on the water?" he said to Elric. "It's unlikely that they actually do." As their ship manoeuvred into its new position, he stared at the huge craft, twenty of them, dwarfing everything else on the sea. They seemed covered with a kind of shining fluid which flashed all the colours of the spectrum so that their outlines were hard to see and the shadowy figures moving about on their gigantic decks could not easily be observed. Wisps of dark stuff began to drift across the scene, close to the water, and Dyvim Slorm, from the lower deck, pointed and shouted: "See! Chaos comes! Where is Straasha and his folk?" Elric shook his head, perturbed. He had expected aid by now. "We cannot wait. We must attack!" Kargan's voice was pitched higher than usual. A mood of bitter recklessness came upon Elric, as he gripped the rigging to steady himself on the swaying deck, then he smiled. "Come then. Let's do so!" Speedily the squadron coursed towards the disturbing ships of death. Moonglum muttered: "We are going to our doom, Elric. No man would willingly get close to those ships. Only the dead are drawn to them, and they do not go with joy!" But Elric ignored his friend. A strange silence descended over the waters and the rhythmic sound of the splashing oars was sharp. The death fleet waited for them, impassively, as if they did not need to prepare for battle. He tightened his grip on Stormbringer. The blade responded to the pounding of his pulse-beat, moving in his hand with each thud of his heart, as if linked to it by veins and arteries. Now they were so close to the Chaos ships that they could make out better the figures crowding the great decks. Horribly, Elric thought he recognized some of the gaunt faces of the dead and, involuntarily, he called to the sea-folk's king. "Straasha! " The waters heaved, foamed and seemed to be attempting to rise but then subsided again. Straasha heard-but he was finding it difficult to fight against the forces of Chaos. "Straasha! " It was no good, the waters hardly moved. In his wild despair Elric screamed to Kargan: "We cannot wait for aid. Swing the ship round the Chaos fleet and we'll attempt to reach Jagreen Lern's flagship from the rear!" Under Kargan's expert direction, the ship swung to avoid the Ships of Hell in a wide semi-circle. Spray cascaded against Elric's face, flooding the decks with white foam. He could hardly see through it as they cleared the Chaos ships which had now engaged other craft and were altering the nature of their timbers so that they fell apart and the unfortunate crews were drowned or warped into alien shapes. To his ears came the miserable cries of the defeated and the triumphantly surging thunder of the Chaos fleet's music as it pushed forward to destroy the Eastern ships. Timber-tearer was rocking badly and was hard to control, but at last they were around the hell fleet and bearing down on Jagreen Lern's vessel from behind. Now they nearly struck the Theocrat's vessel with their ram, but were swept off-course and had to manoeuvre again. Arrows rose from the enemy's decks and thudded and rattled on their own. They retaliated as, riding a huge wave, they slid alongside the flagship and flung out grappling irons. A few held, dragging them towards the Theocrat's vessel as the men of Pan Tang strove to cut the grappling ropes. More ropes followed and then a boarding platform fell from its harness and landed squarely on Jagreen Lern's deck. Another followed it. Elric ran for the nearest platform, Kargan behind him, and they led a body of warriors over it, searching for Jagreen Lern. Stormbringer took a dozen lives and a dozen souls before Elric had gained the main deck. There a resplendent commander stood, surrounded by a group of officers. But he was not Jagreen Lern. Elric clambered up the gangway, slicing through a warrior's waist as the man sought to block his path. He yelled at the group: "Where's your cursed leader? Where's Jagreen Lern!" The commander's face was pale for he had seen in the past what Elric and his hellblade could do. "He's not here, Elric, I swear." "What? Am I to be thwarted again? I know you are lying!" Elric advanced on the group who backed away, their swords ready. "Our Theocrat does not need to protect himself by means of lies, doom-fostered one!" sneered a young officer, braver than the rest. "Perhaps not," Elric's voice was low and menacing as he rushed towards the youth, swinging Stormbringer in a shrieking arc, "but at least I'll have your life before I put the truth of your words to the test." The man put up his blade to block Stormbringer's swing. The runesword cut through the metal with a triumphant cry, swung back again and plunged itself into the officer's side. He gasped, but remained standing with his hands clenched. Elric laughed. "My sword and I need revitalizing-and your soul should make an appetizer before I take Jagreen Lern's!" "No!" the youth groaned. "Oh, no, not my soul!" His eyes widened, tears streamed from them and madness came into them for a second before Stormbringer satiated itself and Elric drew it out, replenished. He had no sympathy for the man. "Your soul would have gone to the depths of hell in any case," he said lightly. "But now I've put it to some use, at least." Two other officers scrambled over the rail, seeking to escape their comrade's fate. Elric hacked at the hand of one. He fell, screaming, to the deck, his hand still grasping the rail. The other he skewered in the bowels and, as Stormbringer sucked out his soul, he hung there, pleading incoherently in an effort to avert the inevitable. So much vitality flowed into Elric that, as he rushed at the remaining group around the commander, he seemed to fly over the deck and rip into them, slicing away limbs as if they were flowers-stalks, until he encountered the commander himself. The commander said weakly: "I surrender. Do not take my soul." "Where is Jagreen Lern?" The commander pointed into the distance, where the Chaos fleet could be seen creating havoc amongst the Eastern ships. "There! He sails with Pyaray of Chaos whose fleet that is. You cannot reach him there for any man not protected-or not already dead-would turn to flowing flesh once he neared the fleet." "That cursed hellspawn still cheats me," Elric grimaced. "Here's payment for your information-" Without mercy for one of the men who had wasted and enslaved two continents, Elric stuck his blade through the ornate armour and, delicately, with all the old malevolence of his sorcerer ancestors, tickled the man's heart before finishing him. He looked around for Kargan, but couldn't see him. Then he noted that the Chaos fleet had turned back. At first he thought it was because Straasha had at last brought aid, but then he saw that the remnants of his fleet were fleeing. Jagreen Lern was victorious. Their plans, their formations, their courage-none of these had been capable of withstanding the horrible warpings of Chaos. And now the dreadful fleet was bearing down on the two flagships, locked together by their grapples. There was no chance of cutting one of them free before the fleet arrived. Elric yelled to Dyvim Slorm and Moonglum whom he saw running towards him from the other side of the deck. "Over the side! Over, for your lives-and swim as far as you can away from here!" They looked at him, startled, then realized the truth of his words. Others, from both sides, were already leaping into the bloody water. Elric sheathed his sword and dived. The sea was cold, for all the warm blood in it, and he gasped as he swam in the direction of Moonglum's red head, which he could see ahead and, close to it, Dyvim Slorm's honey-coloured hair. He turned once and saw the very timbers of the two ships begin to melt, to twist and curl in strange patterns as the Ships of Hell arrived. He felt very relieved he had not been aboard. He reached his companions. "A short-term escape this," said Moonglum, spitting water from his mouth. "What now, Elric? Shall we strike for the Purple Towns?" Moonglum's capacity for facetiousness had not, it seemed, been limited by witnessing the defeat of their fleet and the advance of Chaos. The Isle was too far away. Everywhere, the Chaos ships were disrupting nature. Soon their influence would engulf them, too. Then, to their left they saw the water froth and form itself into what was to Elric a familiar shape. "Straasha!" "I could not aid thee, I could not aid thee. Though I tried, my ancient enemy was too strong for me. Forgive me. In recompense let me take you and your friends back with me to my own land and save you, at least from Chaos. " "But we cannot breathe beneath the sea!" "You will not need to." "Very well." Trusting to the elemental's words, they allowed themselves to be dragged beneath the waters and down into the cool, green depths of the sea, deeper and deeper until no sunlight filtered there and all was wet darkness and they lived, though at normal times the pressure would have crushed them. They seemed to travel for miles through the mysterious underwater grottoes until at last they came to a place of coral-coloured rounded constructions that seemed to drift slowly in a sluggish current. Elric knew it. The domain of Straasha the Sea-King. The elemental bore them to the largest construction and one section of it seemed to fade away to admit them. They moved now through twisting corridors of a delicate pink texture, slightly shadowed, no longer in water. They were now on the plane of the elemental folk. In a huge circular cave, they came to rest. With a peculiar rushing sound, the sea-king walked to a large throne of milky jade and sat upon it, his green head on his green fist. "Elric, once again I regret I was unable, after all, to aid you. All I can do now is have some of my folk carry you back to your own land when you have rested here for a while. We are all, it seems, helpless against this new strength which Chaos has of late." Elric nodded. "Nothing can stand against its warping influence - unless it is the Chaos Shield." Straasha straightened his back. "The Chaos Shield. Ah, yes. It belongs to an exiled god, does it not? But his castle is virtually impregnable." "Why is that?" "It lies upon the topmost crag of a tall and lonely mountain, reached by a hundred and sixty-nine steps. Lining these steps are forty-nine elder trees, and of these you would have to be especially wary. Also Mordaga has a guard of a hundred and forty-four warriors. I'm explicit in giving numbers, for they have a mystic value." "Of the warriors I would certainly be wary. But why the elders?" "Each elder contains the soul of one of Mordaga's followers who was punished thus. They are vengeful trees-ever ready to take the life of anyone that comes into their domain." "A hard task, to get that shield for myself," Elric mused. "But get it I must, for without it Fate's purpose would be forever thwarted - and with it I might have vengeance on the one who commands the Chaos fleet-and Jagreen Lern who sails with him." "Slay Pyaray, Lord of the Fleet of Hell, and, lacking his direction, the fleet itself would perish. His life-force is contained in a blue crystal set in the top of his head and striking at that with a special weapon is the only means of killing him." "Thanks for that information," Elric said gratefully. "For when the time comes, I shall need it." "What do you plan to do, Elric?" Dyvim Slorm asked. "Put all else aside for the moment and seek the sad giant's shield. I must-for if I do not have it, every battle fought will be a repetition of the one we have just lost." "I will come with you, Elric," Moonglum promised. "I also," said Dyvim Slorm. "We shall require a fourth if we are to carry out the prophecy," Elric said. "I wonder what became of Kargan." Moonglum looked at the ground. "Did you not notice?" "Notice what?" "On board Jagreen Lern's flagship when you were hewing about you in an effort to reach the main deck. Did you not know, then, what you had done-or rather what your cursed sword did?" Elric felt suddenly exhausted. "No. Did I-did it- kill him?" "Aye." "Gods!" He wheeled and paced the chamber, slapping his fist in his palm. "Still this hell-made blade exacts its tribute for the service it gives me. Still it drinks the souls of friends. 'Tis a wonder you two are still with me!" "I agree it's extraordinary," Moonglum said feelingly. "I grieve for Kargan. He was a good friend." "Elric," Moonglum said urgently. "You know that Kargan's death was not your responsibility. It was fated." "Aye, but why must I always be the executioner of fate? I hesitate to list the names of the good friends and useful allies whose souls my sword has stolen. I hate it enough that it must suck souls out to give me my vitality-but that it should be most partial to my friends, that is what I cannot bear. I've half a mind to venture into the heart of Chaos and there sacrifice us both! The guilt is indirectly mine, for if I was not so weak I must bear such a blade, many of those who have befriended me might be alive now." "Yet the blade's major purpose seems a noble one," Moonglum said in a baffled voice. "Oh, I fail to understand all this-paradox, paradox upon paradox. Are the gods mad or are they so subtle we cannot fathom the workings of their minds?" "It's hard enough at times like these to remember any greater purpose," Dyvim Slorm agreed. "We are pressed so sorely, that we haven't a moment for thought, but must fight the next battle and the next, forgetting often why it is we fight." "Is the purpose, indeed, greater and not lesser," Elric smiled bitterly. "If we are the toys of the gods-are not perhaps the gods themselves mere children?" "These questions are of no present importance," said Straasha from his throne. "And at least," Moonglum told Elric, "future generations will thank Stormbringer if she fulfills her destiny." "If Sepiriz is right," Elric said, "future generations will know nothing of any of us-blades or men!" "Perhaps not consciously-but in the depths of their souls they will remember us. Our deeds will be spoken of as belonging to heroes with other names, that is all." "That the world forgets me is all I ask," Elric sighed. As if growing impatient with this fruitless discussion, the sea-king rose from his throne and said: "Come, I will make certain that you are transported to land, if you have no objection to traveling back in the same manner as you came here? " "None," said Elric.