When he reached the circular chamber, he saw that it was a bedroom -- a woman's bedroom full of the perfume he had smelled in the passage. He controlled the direction his mind took, thought of loyalty and Klant, and went to another door which led off from the room. He lugged it open and discovered a stone staircase winding upward. This he mounted, passing windows that seemed glazed with emerald or ruby, beyond which shadow-shapes flickered so that he knew he was on the side of the castle overlooking Chaos.
The staircase seemed to lead up into a tower, and when he finally reached the small door at its top he was feeling out of breath and paused before entering. Then he pushed the door open and went in.
A huge window was set in one wall, a window of clear glass through which he could see the ominous stuff of Chaos leaping. A woman stood by this window as if awaiting him.
'You are indeed a champion, Earl Aubec, ' said she with a smile that might have been ironic.
'How do you know my name?'
'No sorcery gave it me, Earl of Malador -- you shouted it loudly enough when you first saw the hall in its true shape.'
'Was not that, then, sorcery, ' he said ungraciously,
'the labyrinth, the demons--even the valley? Was not the golem made by sorcery? Is not this whole cursed castle of a sorcerous nature?'
She shrugged. 'Gall it so if you'd rather not have the truth. Sorcery, in your mind at least, is a crude thing which only hints at the true powers existing in the universe.'
He did not reply, being somewhat impatient of
such statements. He had learned, by observing the philosophers of Klant, that mysterious words often disguised commonplace things and ideas. Instead, he looked at her sulkily and over-frankly.
She was fair, with green-blue eyes and a light complexion. Her long robe was of a similar colour to her eyes. She was, in a secret sort of way, very beautiful as the heroes who had earlier won over the dangers of Kaneloon. And then, she thought, she knew what to say.
'Think, Earl Aubec, ' she whispered. 'Think--new lands for your queen's Empire! '
He frowned.
'Why not extend the Empire's boundaries farther?' "she continued. 'Why not make new territories?' She watched him anxiously as he took off his helm and scratched his heavy, bald head. 'You have made a point at last, ' he said dubiously.
'Think of the honours you would receive in Klant if you succeeded in winning not merely Kaneloon-but that which lies beyond! '
Now he rubbed is chin. 'Aye, ' he said, 'Aye . .:
His great brows frowned deeply.
'New plains, new mountains, new seas-new populations, even--whole cities full of people fresh-sprung and yet with the memory of generations of ancestors behind them! All this can be done by you, Earl of Malador--for Queen Eloarde and Lormyr! '
He smiled faintly, his imagination fired at last.
'Aye! If I can defeat such dangers here--then I can do the same out there! It will be the greatest adventure in history! My name will become a legend-Malador, Master of Chaos! '
She gave him a tender look, though she had halfcheated him. He swung his sword up on to his shoulder, . 'I'll try this, lady.'
She and he stood together at the window, watching the Chaos-stuff whispering and rolling for eternity before them. To her it had never been wholly famillar, for it changed all the time. Now its tossing colours were predominantly red and black. Tendrils of mauve and orange spiralled out of this and writhed away.
Weird shapes flitted about in it, their outlines never clear, never quite recognisable.
He said to her: 'The Lords of Chaos rule this territory. What will they have to say?' 'They can say nothing, do little. Even they have to obey the Law of the Cosmic Balance which ordains that if man can stand against Chaos, then it shall be his to order and make Lawful. Thus the Earth grows, slowly.'
'How do I enter it?"
She took the opportunity to grasp his heavily muscled arm and point through the window. 'See-there--a causeway leads down from this tower to the cliff.' She glanced at him sharply. 'Do you see it?'
'Ah-yes--I had not, but now I do. Yes, a causeway.' Standing behind him, she smiled a little to herself. 'I will remove the barrier, ' she said.
He straightened his helm on his head. 'For Klant and Eloarde and only those do I embark upon this adventure.'
She moved towards the wall and raised the window. He did not look at her as he strode down the causeway into the multicoloured mist.
As she watched him disappear, she smiled to herself. How easy it was to beguile the strongest man by pretending to go his way! He might add lands to his Empire, but he might find their populations unwilling to accept Eloarde as their Empress. In fact, if Aubec did his work well, then he would be creating more of a threat to Klant than ever Kaneloon had been.
Yet she admired him, she was attracted to him, perhaps, because he was not so accessible, a little more than she had been to that earlier hero who had claimed Aubec's own land from Chaos barely two hundred years before. Oh, he had been a man! But he, like most before him, had needed no other persuasion than the promise of her body. Earl Aubec's weakness had lain in his strength, she thought. By now he had vanished into the heaving mists.
She felt a trifle sad that this time the execution of the task given her by the Lords of Law had not brought her the usual pleasure. Yes perhaps, she thought, she felt a more subtle pleasure in his steadfastness and the means she had used to convince him.
For centuries had the Lords of Law entrusted her with Kaneloon and its secrets. But the progress was slow, for there were few heroes who could survive Kaneloon's dangers--few who could defeat selfcreated perils.
Yet, she decided with a slight smile on her lips, the task had its various rewards. She moved into another chamber to prepare for the transition of the castle to the new edge of the world. Thus were the seeds sewn of the Age of the Young Kingdoms, the Age of Men, which was to produce the downfall of Melnibone.