Read Online The Sleeping Sorceress by Michael Moorcock - Free Book Online

remember the events which had brought him here and placed him in the sorcerer’s power. He remembered much blood, much laughter, much dying, but it was all fading, like the memory of a dream.
    “Well, renegade, your foolishness was unbelievable. I thought you must have an army behind you. But doubtless it was your fear which unbalanced your poor brain. Still, I’ll not speculate upon the cause of my own good fortune. There’s many a bargain I can strike with the denizens of other planes, were I to offer them your soul. And your body I will keep for myself—to show Queen Yishana what I did to her lover before he died . . .”
    Elric laughed shortly and looked about him, ignoring Theleb K’aarna.
    The Kelmain were awaiting orders. They had still not marched on Kaneloon. The sun was low in the sky. He saw the pile of corpses behind him. He saw the hatred and fear on the faces of the golden-skinned host and he smiled again.
    “I do not love Yishana,” he said distantly, as if scarcely aware of Theleb K’aarna’s presence. “It is your jealous heart that makes you think so. I left Yishana’s side to find you. It is never love that moves Elric of Melniboné, sorcerer, but always hatred.”
    “I do not believe you,” Theleb K’aarna tittered. “When the whole South falls to me and my comrades, then will I court Yishana and offer to make her Queen of all the West as well as all the South. Our forces united, we shall dominate the Earth!”
    “You Pan Tangians were ever an insecure breed, forever planning conquest for its own sake, forever seeking to destroy the equilibrium of the Young Kingdoms.”
    “One day,” sneered Theleb K’aarna, “Pan Tang will have an empire that will make the Bright Empire seem a mere flickering ember in the fire of history. But it is not for the glory of Pan Tang that I do this . . .”
    “It is for Yishana? By the gods, sorcerer, then I am glad I’m motivated by hatred and not by love, for I do not half the damage, it seems, done by those in love . . .”
    “I will lay the South at Yishana’s feet and she may use it as she pleases!”
    “I am bored by this. What do you intend to do with me?”
    “First I will hurt your body. I will hurt it delicately to begin with, building up the pain, until I have you in the proper frame of mind. Then I will consort with the Lords of the Higher Planes to find which will give me most for your soul.”
    “And what of Kaneloon?”
    “The Kelmain will deal with Kaneloon. One knife is all that’s needed now to slit Myshella’s throat as she sleeps.”
    “She is protected.”
    Theleb K’aarna’s brow darkened. Then it cleared and he laughed again.
    “Aye, but the gate will fall soon enough and your little red-haired friend will perish as Myshella perishes.”
    He ran his fingers through his oiled ringlets.
    “I am allowing, at Prince Umbda’s request, the Kelmain to rest a while before storming the castle. But Kaneloon will be burning by nightfall.”
    Elric looked towards the castle across the trampled snow. Plainly his runes had failed to counter Theleb K’aarna’s spell.
    “I would . . .” He began to speak when he paused.
    He had seen a flash of gold and silver among the battlements and a thought without shape had entered his head and made him hesitate.
    “What?” Theleb K’aarna asked him harshly.
    “Nothing. I merely wondered where my sword was.”
    The sorcerer shrugged. “Nowhere you can reach it, reaver. We left it where you dropped it. The stinking hellblade is no use to us. And none to you, now . . .”
    Elric wondered what would happen if he made a direct appeal to the sword. He could not get to it himself, for Theleb K’aarna had bound him tightly with ropes of silk, but he might
call
for it . . .
    He lifted himself to his feet.
    “Would you seek to run away, White Wolf?” Theleb K’aarna watched him nervously.
    Elric smiled again. “I wished for a better view of the coming conquest of Kaneloon. Just that.”
    The