"And you wish to test the truth of that story. Your interest is that of a scholar?"
Duke Avan laughed. "Partly. But my main interest in R'lin K'ren A'a is more materialistic. For your ancestors left a great treasure behind them when they fled their city. Particularly they abandoned an image of Arioch, the Lord of Chaos-a monstrous image, carved in jade, whose eyes were two huge, identical gems of a kind unknown anywhere else in all the lands of the Earth. Jewels from another plane of existence. Jewels which could reveal all the secrets of the Higher Worlds, of the past and the future, of the myriad planes of the cosmos...."
"All cultures have similar legends. Wishful thinking, Duke Avan, that is all...."
"But the Melnibonиans had a culture unlike any others. The Melnibonиans are not true men, as you well know. Their powers are superior, their knowledge far greater...."
"It was once thus, " Elric said. "But that great power and knowledge is not mine. I have only a fragment of it. . . ."
"I did not seek you in Bakshaan and later in Jadmar because I believed you could verify what I have heard. I did not cross the sea to Filkhar, then to Argimiliar and at last to Pikarayd because I thought you would instantly confirm all that I have spoken of-I sought you because I think you the only man who would wish to accompany me on a voyage which would give us the truth or falsehood to these legends once and for all."
Elric tilted his head and drained his wine-cup.
"Cannot you do that for yourself? Why should you desire my company on the expedition? From what I have heard of you, Duke Avan, you are not one who needs support in his venturings...."
Duke Avan laughed. "I went alone to Elwher when my men deserted me in the Weeping Waste. It is not in my nature to know physical fear. But I have survived my travels this long because I have shown proper foresight and caution before setting off. Now it seems I must face dangers I cannot anticipate-sorcery, perhaps. It struck me, therefore, that I needed an ally who had some experience of fighting sorcery. And since I would have no truck with the ordinary kind of wizard such as Pan Tang spawns, you were my only choice. You seek knowledge, Prince Elric, just as I do. Indeed, it could be said that if it had not been for your yearning for knowledge, your cousin would never have attempted to usurp the Ruby Throne of Melnibonи...."
"Enough of that, " Elric said bitterly. "Let's talk of this expedition. Where is the map?"
"You will accompany me?"
"Show me the map."
Duke Avan drew a scroll from his pouch. "Here it is."
"Where did you find it?"
"On Melnibonи."
"You have been there recently?" Elric felt anger rise in him.
Duke Avan raised a hand. "I went there with a group of traders and I gave much for a particular casket which had been sealed, it seemed, for an eternity. Within that casket was this map." He spread out the scroll on the table. Elric recognized the style and the script-the old High Speech of Melnibonи. It was a map of part of the western continent-more than he had ever seen on any other map. It showed a great river winding into the interior for a hundred miles or more. The river appeared to flow through a jungle and then divide into two rivers which later rejoined. The "island" of land thus formed had a black circle marked on it. Against this circle, in the involved writing of ancient Melnibonи, was the name R'lin K'ren A'a. Elric inspected the scroll carefully. It did not seem to be a forgery.
"Is this all you found?" he asked.
"The scroll was sealed and this was embedded in the seal, " Duke Avan said, handing something to Elric.
Elric held the object in his palm. It was a tiny ruby of a red so deep as to seem black at first, but when he turned it into the light he saw an image at the center of the ruby and he recognized that image. He frowned, then he said, "I will agree to your proposal, Duke Avan. Will you let me keep this?"
"Do you know what it is?"
"No. But I should like to find out. There is a memory somewhere in my head...."
"Very well, take it. I will keep the map."
"When did you have it in mind to set off?"
Duke Avan's smile was sardonic. "We are already sailing around the southern coast to the Boiling Sea."
"There are few who have returned from that ocean, " Elric murmured bitterly. He glanced across the table and saw that Smiorgan was imploring with his eyes for Elric not to have any part of Duke Avan's scheme. Elric smiled at his friend. "The adventure is to my taste."
Miserably, Smiorgan shrugged. "It seems it will be a little longer before I return to the Purple Towns."
II
The coast of Lormyr had disappeared in warm mist and Duke Avan Astran's schooner dipped its graceful prow toward the west and the Boiling Sea.
The Vilmirian crew of the schooner were used to a less demanding climate and more casual work than this and they went about their tasks, it seemed to Elric, with something of an aggrieved air.
Standing beside Elric in the ship's poop, Count Smiorgan Baldhead wiped sweat from his pate and growled: "Vilmirians are a lazy lot, Prince Elric. Duke Avan needs real sailors for a voyage of this kind. I could have picked him a crew, given the chance...."
Elric smiled. "Neither of us was given the chance, Count Smiorgan. It was a fait accompli. He's a clever man, Duke Astran."
"It is not a cleverness I entirely respect, for he offered us no real choice. A free man is a better companion than a slave, says the old aphorism."
"Why did you not disembark when you had the chance, then, Count Smiorgan?"
"Because of the promise of treasure, " said the black-bearded man frankly. "I would return with honor to the Purple Towns. Forget you not that I commanded the fleet that was lost...."
Elric understood.
"My motives are straightforward, " said Smiorgan. "Yours are much more complicated. You seem to desire danger as other men desire lovemaking or drinking-as if in danger you find forgetfulness."
"Is that not true of many professional soldiers?"
"You are not a mere professional soldier, Elric. That you know as well as I."
"Yet few of the dangers I have faced have helped me forget, " Elric pointed out. "Rather they have strengthened the reminder of what I am-of the dilemma I face. My own instincts war against the traditions of my race." Elric drew a deep, melancholy breath. "I go where danger is because I think that an answer might lie there- some reason for all this tragedy and paradox. Yet I know I shall never find it."
"But it is why you sail to R'lin K'ren A'a, eh? You hope that your remote ancestors had the answer you need?"
"R'lin K'ren A'a is a myth. Even should the map prove genuine what shall we find but a few ruins? Imrryr has stood for ten thousand years and she was built at least two centuries after my people settled on Melnibonи. Time will have taken R'lin K'ren A'a away."
"And this statue, this Jade Man, Avan spoke of?"
"If the statue ever existed, it could have been looted at any time in the past hundred centuries."
"And the Creature Doomed to Live?"
"A myth."
"But you hope, do you not, that it is all as Duke Avan says . . . ?" Count Smiorgan put a hand on Elric's arm. "Do you not?"
Elric stared ahead, into the writhing steam which rose from the sea. He shook his head.
"No, Count Smiorgan. I fear that it is all as Duke Avan says."
The wind blew whimsically and the schooner's passage was slow as the heat grew greater and the crew sweated still more and murmured fearfully. And upon each face, now, was a stricken look.
Only Duke Avan seemed to retain his confidence. He called to them all to take heart; he told them that they should all be rich soon; and he gave orders for the oars to be unshipped, for the wind could no longer be trusted. They grumbled at this, stripping off their shirts to reveal skins as red as cooked lobsters. Duke Avan made a joke of that. But the Vilmirians no longer laughed at his jokes as they had done in the milder seas of their home waters.