The Queen of the Swords

CHAPTER ONE The Lake of Voices

'Which way?' Jhary looked about him. 'The sea or the mountains? Neither's inviting…'

Corum sighed deeply. The morbid landscape had instantly depressed him. Rhalina touched his arm, her eyes full of sympathy.

Though she looked at Corum, she spoke to Jhary who was now adjusting his ever-present sack on his shoulder. 'Inland would be best, surely, since we have no boat.'

'And no horses,' Jhary reminded her. 'It will be a fearful long walk. And who's to say those mountains are passable when we reach 'em?'

Corum gave Rhalina a quick, sad smile of gratitude. He straightened his shoulders. 'Well, we made up our minds to enter this Realm, now we must make up our minds which way to go.' His hand on the pommel of his sword he stared towards the mountains. 'I have seen something of the Power of Chaos when I journeyed to Arioch's Court, but it seems to me that that Power extends further in this Realm. We'll head towards the mountains. There we may discover some inhabitants who may know where lies this City in the Pyramid Lord Arkyn mentioned.'

And they set off over the unpleasantly mottled rock.

A while later it became evident that the sun had not moved across the sky. The brooding silence continued, broken only by the ghastly screechings of the black birds which nested in the peaks of the mountain. It was a land which seemed to radiate despair. For a short time Jhary had attempted to whistle a bright little tune, but the sound had died, as if swallowed by the desolate land.

'I thought Chaos all howling, random creativity,' said Corum. 'This is worse.'

'It is what becomes of a place when Chaos exhausts its invention,' Jhary told him. 'Ultimately, Chaos brings a more profound stagnation than anything it despises in Law. It must forever seek more and more sensation, more and more empty marvels, until there is nothing left and it has forgotten what true invention is.'

And at length weariness overcame them and they lay down on the barren rock and slept. When they awoke it was to observe that only one thing had changed…

The great black birds were closer. They were wheeling overhead in the sky.

'What can they live on?' Rhalina wondered. 'There is no game here, no vegetation. Where is their food?'

Jhary looked significantly at Corum who shrugged.

'Come,' said the Prince in the Scarlet Robe. 'Let's continue. Time may be relative, but I have a feeling that unless we accomplish our mission soon, Lywm-an-Esh will fall.'

And the birds circled lower so that they could see their leathery wings and bodies, their tiny, greedy eyes, their long vicious beaks.

A small, fierce sound escaped from the throat of Jhary's cat. It arched its back slightly as it glared at the birds.

They trudged on until the ground began to rise more sharply and they had reached the nearer slopes of the mountains.

The mountains squatted over them like sleeping monsters that might at any moment awake and devour them. The rocks were glassy, slippery and they climbed them slowly.

Still the black birds wheeled among the crags and now they were certain that if they allowed themselves to sleep the birds would descend and attack. This knowledge alone kept them climbing.

The frightful screeching grew louder, more insistent, almost gleeful. They heard the flap of obscene wings over their heads, but they refused to look up, as this would have wasted a fraction of the energy they had left.

They were looking now for shelter, for a crack in the rock into which they might crawl and defend themselves against the birds when, finally, they attacked.

They could hear the sound of their own gasping breath, the scrape of their feet on the stone, mingling with the flappings and screechings of the black birds.

Corum spared a glance for Rhalina and saw that there was desperate fear in her eyes and that she was weeping as she climbed. He began to feel that he had been tricked by Arkyn, that they had been sent, cynically, to their doom in this wasteland.

Then the flapping filled his ears and he felt the slap of cold air against his face and a talon grazed his helmet. With a strangled cry he felt for his sword and tried to tug it from the scabbard. He looked up in terror and saw a mass of black, flapping, savage things with glaring eyes and snapping beaks. The sword came free and, wearily, he lunged out at the birds. They cackled sardonically as his sword failed to find flesh. Suddenly his six-fingered jewelled hand reached out instead, moving without his volition, and it clutched one of the birds by its scrawny throat and squeezed that throat as it had squeezed human throats before. The bird gave a single surprised squawk and died. The Hand of Kwll threw the corpse to the glassy rock. The birds flapped a little distance away in consternation and settled in the near-by crags watching Corum warily. It had been so long since the hand had acted in that way that Corum had almost forgotten its powers. For the first time since it had destroyed the heart of Arioch he was grateful to it. He displayed it to the birds and they made disturbed sounds in their throats, eyeing the corpse of their dead companion.

Rhalina, who had not witnessed the power of the Hand of Kwll before, looked with relieved astonishment at Corum. But Jhary merely pursed his lips and took advantage of the pause to draw his sword and lay propped on his elbows against the hard rock, his cat still on his shoulder.

And thus they sat, the birds and the human beings, regarding each other beneath the silent, brooding sky on the slopes of the bleak mountains, until it occurred to Corum that if the Hand of Kwll had saved them from their immediate danger, the Eye of Rhynn might prove even more useful. But he was reluctant to raise the eye-patch and look with the eye's full powers into that strange nether-region from which he could sometimes summon ghostly allies - the dead men earlier slain at his command. And, particularly, he did not want to summon those last who had been slain at the command of the Hand and the Eye - Queen Ooresй's subjects, the Vadhagh riders, his own race, who had been slain by accident. But something must be done to break this impasse, for none of them had the strength to resist a mass attack by the birds and even if the Hand of Kwll should slay one or two more it would not save Rhalina and Jhary-a-Conel. Reluctantly his hand began to rise towards the jewelled eye-patch.

And then the patch was off and the horrid, faceted, alien eye of the dead god Rhynn glared into a world even more dreadful than the one they presently inhabited.

Again Corum saw a cavern in which dim shapes moved hopelessly this way and that. And in the foreground were the beings he had least wished to see. Their dead eyes peered out at him and there was a frightening sadness about the set of their faces. They had wounds in their bodies, but the wounds did not bleed, for these were now the creatures of Limbo, neither dead nor alive. Their mounts were with them, too - creatures with thick, scaly bodies, cloven feet and nests of horns jutting from their snouts. The last of the Vadhagh folk - a lost part of the race which had once inhabited the Flamelands created by Arioch for his amusement. They were dressed from head to foot in red, tight-fitting garments, with red hoods on their heads. In their hands were their long, barbed lances.

Corum could not bear to look upon them and he made to move the eye-patch back into place, but then the Hand of Kwll had reached out, reached into that frightful Limbo, and was gesturing to the dead Vadhagh. Slowly the score of corpses moved forward in answer to the summons. Slowly they mounted their horned beasts. Slowly they rode out of that ghastly cavern in a nameless netherworld and stood, a company of death, upon the slippery slopes of the mountains.

The birds screeched in surprise and anger but for some reason they did not take to the air. They shifted from foot to foot and darted their beaks at the scarlet warriors who now advanced upon them.

The black birds waited until the dead Vadhagh were almost upon them before they began to flap their wings and fly skyward.

Rhalina was staring in horror at the scene. 'By all the Great Old Gods, Corum - what new foulness is this?'

'It is a foulness which aids us,' said Corum grimly. And he called out: 'Strike!'

And the barbed lances were flung by scarlet arms and found the heads of each black bird. There was an agitation in the air and then the creatures had fallen to the slopes.

Rhalina continued to watch wide-eyed as the living dead riders dismounted and went to collect their prizes. Corum had learned what happened in that netherworld whenever he summoned aid from it. By calling upon his earlier victims he could have their aid if he supplied them with victims of their own - then these victims would replace them and presumably the souls of the first victims would be released to find peace. He hoped that this was so.

The leading Vadhagh picked up two of the birds by their throats and slung them over his back. He turned a face that was half shorn away and looked through eyeless sockets at Corum.

'It is, done, master,' droned the dead voice.

'Then you may return,' said Corum, half-choking.

'Before I go, I must impart a message to you, master.'

'A message? From whom?'

'From One Who is Closer to You than You Know,' said the dead Vadhagh mechanically. 'He says that you must seek the Lake of Voices, that if you have the courage to sail across it then you might find help in your quest.

'The Lake of Voices. Where is it? Who is this creature you speak of…'

'The Lake of Voices lies beyond this mountain range. Now I depart, master. We thank you for our prizes.'

Corum could bear no longer to look at the Vadhagh. He turned away, replacing the jewelled patch over his eye. When he looked back the Vadhagh had gone and so had the birds, all save the one which had been slain by the Hand of Kwll.

Rhalina's face was pale. 'These "allies" of yours are no better than creatures of Chaos? It must corrupt us to use them, Corum…'

Jhary got up from the position in which he had been before the arrival of Corum's ghastly warriors. 'It is Chaos which corrupts us,' he said lightly, 'which makes us fight. Chaos brutalizes all - even those who do not serve it. That you must accept, Lady Rhalina. I know it is the truth.'

She lowered her eyes. 'Let us make our way to this lake,' she said. 'What was its name?'

'A strange one.' Corum looked back at the last dead bird. 'The Lake of Voices.'

They trudged on through the mountains, resting frequently now that the danger of the birds had been removed, beginning to feel a new threat - that of hunger and thirst, for they had no provisions with them.

Eventually they began to descend and they saw sparse grass growing on the lower slopes and beyond the grass a lake of blue water - a calm and beautiful lake which they could not believe existed in any Realm of Chaos.

'It is lovely!' Rhalina gasped. 'And we might find food there - and at least we shall be able to quench our thirst.'

'Aye…' said Corum, more suspiciously.

And Jhary said: 'I think your informant said we should need courage to cross it. I wonder what danger it holds.'

They could barely walk by the time they reached the grassy slopes and left the harsh rock behind them. On the grass they rested and they found a stream which sprang from a spring near by so that they did not have to wait until they reached the lake to quench their thirst. Jhary murmured a word to his cat which sprang suddenly into the air on its wings and was soon lost from sight.

'Where have you sent the cat, Jhary?' asked Corum.

Jhary winked at him. 'Hunting,' he said.

Sure enough, in a very short time the cat returned with a small rabbit, almost as big as itself, in its claws. It deposited the rabbit and then left to find another. Jhary busied himself with the building of a fire and soon they had feasted and were sleeping while one of their number kept watch until he was relieved by another.

Then they continued on their way until they were less than a quarter of a mile from the shores of the lake.

It was then that Corum paused, cocking his head on one side.

'Do you hear them?' he asked.

'I hear nothing,' Rhalina said.

But Jhary nodded. 'Aye - voices - as of a great throng heard in the distance. Voices…'

'That is what I hear,' Corum agreed.

And as they neared the lake, walking swiftly over the springy turf, the babble of voices increased until it filled their heads and they covered their ears in horror for they realized now why it would take courage to cross the Lake of Voices.

The words - the murmurings, the pleadings, the oaths, the shouts, the crying, the laughter - they were all issuing from the blue waters of the apparently peaceful lake.

It was the water that spoke.

It was as if a million people had been drowned in it and continued to talk although their bodies had rotted and been dispersed by the liquid.

Looking desperately about him, his hand still covering his ears, Corum saw that it would be impossible to try to skirt the Lake of Voices for it was apparent that on both sides of them there stretched marshland which they would be unable to cross.

He forced himself to move closer to the water and the voices of the men and the women and the children were like the voices which must populate hell.

'Please…'

'I wish - I wish - I wish…'

'Nobody will…'

'This agony…'

'There is no peace…'

'Why…?'

'It was a lie. I was deceived…'

'I, too, was deceived. I cannot…'

'Aaaaaaa! Aaaaaaa! Aaaaaaa!'

'Help me, I beg thee…'

'Help me!'

'Me!'

'The fate which cannot be borne except with…'

'Ha!'

'Help…'

'Be merciful…'

'Save her - save her - save her…'

'I suffer so much…'

'Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…'

'It seemed so splendid and there were lights all around…'

'Beasts, beasts, beasts, beasts, beasts…'

'The child… It was the child…'

'All morning it wept until the lurching thing entered me…'

'Soweth! Tebel art…'

'Forlorn in Rendane I composed that strain…'

'Peace…'

And then Corum saw that a boat was waiting for them on the shore of the Lake of Voices.

And he wondered if he would be sane by the time they reached the other side.

CHAPTER TWO The White River

Corum and Jhary hauled on the boat's long oars while Rhalina lay sobbing in the bow. With every pull upon the oars the water was disturbed further and instead of a splashing sound a new babble of voices broke out. They sensed that the voices did not come from beneath the water but from within it - as if every single drop of water contained a human soul which expressed its pain and the terror of its situation. Corum could not help wonder if every lake in existence were not like this and that this was the only one they could actually hear. He strove to shut his mind to such fearful speculation.

'Wish that…'

'Would that…'

'If I…'

'Could I…'

'Love - love - love…'

'Sad soothing songs seeking souls so soft so sensitive seeming smooth silken…'

'Stop! Stop!' begged Rhalina, but the voices went on and Corum and Jhary pulled the harder on their oars, their lips moving in pain.

'I wish - I wish - I wish - I wish…'

'Curl awake in kitten time the condemnation of my…'

'Once - once - once…'

'Help us!'

'Release us!'

'Give us peace! Peace!'

'Please, peace, please, peace…'

'Opening without resort…'

'Cold…'

'Cold…'

'Cold…'

'We cannot help you!' Corum groaned. 'There is nothing we can do!'

Rhalina was screaming now.

Only Jhary-a-Conel kept his lips tight shut, his eyes fixed on the middle distance, his body moving rhythmically back and forth as he continued to row.

'Oh, save us!'

'Save me!'

'The child is - the child…'

'Bad, mad, sad, glad, bad, sad, mad, glad, mad, bad, glad, sad…'

'Be silent! We can do nothing!'

'Corum! Corum! Stop them! Is there no sorcery at your command which will hush their voices?'

'None.'

'Aaaah!,

'Oorum canish, oorum canish, oorum canish, sashan foroom alann alann, oorum canish, oorum canish…'

'Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…'

'Nobody, nothing, nowhere, needless misery, what purpose doth it serve, which man benefits?'

'Whisper softly, whisper low, whisper, whisper…'

'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…'

Now Corum released one hand from his oar and slapped at his head as if trying to drive the voices out. Rhalina had collapsed completely on the bottom of the boat and he could not distinguish her cries, her pleadings and demands, from the others.

'Stop!'

'Stop, stop, stop, stop…'

'Stop…'

'Stop…'

'Stop…'

There were tears flowing down Jhary's face, but he rowed on, not once altering the rhythm of his movements. Only the cat seemed undisturbed. It sat on the seat between him and Corum and it washed its paws. To the cat the water was like any other water and thus to be avoided as much as possible. Once or twice it cast nervous glances over the side of the boat but that was all.

'Save us, save us, save us…'

Then a deeper voice, a warm, humorous, pleasant voice, cut through the others and it said:

'Why do you not join them. It would save you this misery. All you need do is to stop your rowing and leave the boat and enter the water and relax, becoming one with the rest. Why be proud?'

'No! Do not listen! Listen to me!'

'Listen to us!'

'Listen to me!'

'Do not listen to them. They are really happy. It is just that your coming disturbs them. They wish you to join them - join them - to join them - to join them…'

'No, no, no!'

'No!' screamed Corum. He plucked the oar from the row-locks and he began to beat at the waters of the lake. 'Stop! Stop! Stop!'

'Corum!' Jhary spoke for the first time. He clung to the side as the boat rocked badly from side to side. Rhalina looked up in terror.

'Corum! You will make it worse. You will destroy us if we fall into the lake!' Jhary cried.

'Stop! Stop! Stop!'

Keeping one arm on his own oar Jhary reached across and tugged at Corum's scarlet robe. 'Corum! Desist!'

Corum sat down suddenly and looked strangely at Jhary as if he were an enemy. Then his expression softened and he put the oar back in its place and began to row. The shore was not too distant now.

'We must get to the shore,' Jhary said. 'It is the only way in which we'll escape the voices. You must hang on a little longer, that is all.'

'Yes,' said Corum. 'Yes…' And he resumed his rowing and avoided looking at Rhalina's tortured features.

'Molten sleeping snakes and old owls and hungry hawks populate my memories of Charatatu…'

'Join them and all the splendid memories may be shared. Join them Prince Corum, Lady Rhalina, Sir Jhary. Join them. Join them. Join them.'

'Who are you?' Corum said. 'Did you do this to them all?

'I am the Voice of the Lake of Voices, that is all. I am the true spirit of the Lake. I offer peace and union with all your fellow souls. Do not listen to the minority of discontented ones. They would be discontented wherever they were. There are always such spirits…'

'No, no, no, no.'

And Corum and Jhary pulled even harder on their sweeps until suddenly the boat scraped up the shore and there was an angry motion in the water and a huge waterspout suddenly appeared and began to whine and roar and scream and shout.

'NO! I WILL NOT BE THWARTED! YOU ARE MINE! NONE ESCAPES THE LAKE OF VOICES!'

The water-spout assumed a form and they could see a fierce, writhing face there - a face full of rage. Hands, too, formed from the water and began to reach out for them.

'YOU ARE MINE! YOU WILL SING WITH THE REST! YOU WILL BE PART OF MY CHORUS!'

The three scrambled hastily from the boat and dashed up the shore with the water thing growing larger and larger behind them and its voice roaring louder and louder.

'YOU ARE MINE! YOU ARE MINE! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO GO!'

But a thousand tinier voices all babbled:

'Run - run swiftly - never return - run - run - run…'

'TRAITORS! STOP!'

And the voices stopped and there was silence until the roaring creature of water bellowed once more.

'NO! YOU HAVE MADE ME DISPEL THE VOICES - MY VOICES - MY PETS! I MUST BEGIN AFRESH TO COLLECT MY CHOIR! YOU HAVE MADE ME BANISH THEM! COME BACK! COME BACK!'

And the creature grew even taller as they ran all the faster, its watery hands reaching out for them.

Then, suddenly, with a scream, it began to tumble back into the lake, no longer able to sustain its shape. They watched it fall, they watched it writhe and gesticulate in anger and then it was gone and the lake was the peaceful stretch of blue water they had first seen.

But this time there were no voices. The souls were still. By accident the three had made the creature tell its captives to be silent and had evidently broken the spell which it had had over them.

Corum sighed and sat down on the grass. 'It is over,' he said. 'And all those poor spirits are at rest now…'

He smiled at the expression of panic on the cat's face and he realized how much more horrifying their last experience had been to the little animal.

Then, when they had rested, they climbed the hill and looked down upon a desert.

It was a brown desert and through it ran a river. But it seemed that the river was not of water. It was white, like pure milk, and it was wide and it wandered lazily through the brown landscape.

Corum sighed. 'It seems to go on forever.'

'Look,' said Rhalina and she pointed. 'Look, a rider!'

Mounting the brow of a hill and coming towards them was a man on a horse. He was slumped in the saddle and plainly had not seen them, but Corum drew his sword nonetheless, and the others drew theirs. The horse moved slowly, plodding on as if it had been walking for days.

They saw that the rider, dressed in patched and battered leather, was asleep in his saddle, a broadsword hanging by a thong from his right wrist, his left hand gripping the reins of the horse. He had a haggard face which gave no indication of his age, a great hooked nose and untrimmed hair and beard. He seemed a poor man, yet hanging on his saddle pommel was a crown which, though coated with dust, was plainly of gold studded with many precious gems.

'Is he a thief?' Rhalina wondered. 'Has he stolen that crown and is trying to escape those who own it?'

When it was a few feet from them the horse stopped suddenly and looked at them with large, weary eyes. Then it bent and began to crop the grass.

At this the rider stirred. He opened his eyes. He rubbed them. He, too, peered at them and then seemed to ignore them. He mumbled to himself.

'Greetings, sir,' said Corum.

The gaunt man screwed up his eyes and looked at Corum again. He reached down behind him for a water bottle, unstoppered it and flung back his head to drink deeply. Then, deliberately, he put the stopper back into the bottle and replaced the thing behind him.

'Greetings,' said Corum again.

The mounted man nodded at him. 'Aye,' he said.

'From where do you travel, sir?' Jhary asked. 'We ourselves are lost and would appreciate some indication of what, for instance, lies beyond that brown waste there…'

The man sighed and looked at the waste, at the white, winding river.

'That is the Blood Plain,' he said. 'The river is called the White River - or by some the Milk River, though it is not milk…'

'Why the Blood Plain?' Rhalina asked.

The man stretched and frowned. 'Because, madam, it is a plain and it is covered in blood. That brown dust is dried blood - blood spilled an age since in some forgotten battle between Law and Chaos, I understand.'

'And what lies beyond it?' Corum said.

'Many things - none that are pleasant. There is nothing that is pleasant in this world since Chaos conquered it.'

'You are not on the side of Chaos?'

'Why should I be? Chaos dispossessed me. Chaos exiled me. Chaos would have me dead, but I move all the while and have not been found yet. One day, perhaps…'

Jhary introduced his friends and then himself. 'We seek a place called the City in the Pyramid,' he told the haggard rider.

The rider laughed. 'As do I. But I cannot believe it exists! I think Chaos pretends such a place resists it to offer hope to its enemies so that it may give them still more pain. I am called, sir, the King Without a Country. Noreg-Dan was once my name and I ruled a fair land and, I think, I ruled it wisely. But Chaos came and Chaos minions destroyed my nation and my subjects and left me alive to wander the world seeking a mythical city…'

'So you have no faith in the City in the Pyramid?'

'I have not found it thus far.'

'Could it lie beyond the Blood Plain?' Corum asked.

'It could, but I'm not fool enough to cross it for it could be endless and you, on foot, would have a smaller chance than would I. I am not without courage,' said King Noreg-Dan, 'but I still retain a little common sense. If there was wood in these parts, perhaps it would be possible to build a boat and hope to cross the desert by means of the White River, but there is no wood…'

'But there is a boat,' said Jhary-a-Conel.

'Would it be wise to go back to the Lake of Voices?' Rhalina cautioned.

'The Lake of Voices!' King Noreg-Dan shook his tangled head. 'Do not go there - the voices will draw you in…'

Corum explained what had happened and the King Without a Country listened intently. Then he smiled and it was a smile of admiration. He dismounted from his horse and came close to Corum, inspecting him. 'You're a strange-looking creature, sir, with your hand and your eye-patch and your odd armour, but you are a hero and I congratulate you - all of you.' He addressed the others. 'I'd say it would be worth a foray down to the beach and recover old Freenshak's boat - we could use my horse to haul it up here!'

'Freenshak?' Jhary said.

'One of the names of the creature you encountered. A particularly powerful water sprite which came when Xiombarg began her reign. Shall we try to get the boat?'

'Aye,' grinned Corum. 'We'll try.'

Somewhat nervously they returned to the lake shore, but it seemed that Freenshak was beaten for the moment and they had no difficulty in harnessing the tired horse to the boat and pulling it up the hill and halfway down the other side. In a locker Corum found a sail and saw that a short mast was stowed in lugs along one side of the boat.

As they prepared the boat he said to King Noreg-Dan,

'But what of your horse? There'll not be room…'

Noreg-Dan drew a deep breath. 'It will be a shame, but I will have to abandon him. I think he will be safer alone than with me and, besides, he deserves a rest, for he has served me faithfully since I was forced to flee my land.'

Noreg-Dan stripped the horse of its harness and put it in the boat. Then they began the hard task of dragging the vessel down the hill and across the brown, choking dust (all the more unpleasant now that they knew what the dust was) until they reached the nearest shore of the White River. The horse stood watching them from the hillside and then it turned away. Noreg-Dan lowered his head and folded his arms.

And still the sun had not moved across the sky and they had no means of knowing how much time had passed.

The liquid of the river was thicker than water and Noreg-Dan advised them not to touch it.

'It can have a corrosive effect on the skin,' he said.

'But what is the stuff?' Rhalina asked as they pushed off and raised the sail. 'Will it not rot the boat if it will rot our skin?'

'Aye,' said the King Without a Country. 'Eventually. We must hope we cross the desert before that happens.' He looked back once more to where he had left his horse, but the horse had disappeared. 'Some say that while the dust is the dried blood of mortals, the White River is the blood of the Great Old Gods which was spilled in the battle and which will not dry'.

Rhalina pointed to the hillside from which the river appeared. 'But that cannot be - it comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere…'

'Apparently,' said Noreg-Dan.

'Apparently?'

'This land is ruled by Chaos,' he reminded her.

A light breeze was blowing now and Corum raised the

sail. The boat began to move more quickly and soon the hills were out of sight and there was nothing to be seen but the Blood Plain stretching to every horizon.

Rhalina slept for a long while and, in turns, the others slept also, there being little else to do. But when Rhalina awoke for the third time and still saw the Blood Plain, she murmured to herself: 'So much blood spilled. So much…'

And still the boat sailed on down the milk-white river while Noreg-Dan told them something of what Xiombarg's reign had brought to this Domain.

'All creatures not loyal to Chaos were destroyed or else, like me, had jokes played upon them - the Sword Rulers are notorious for their jokes. Every degenerate and vicious impulse in mortals was let loose and horror fell upon this world. My wife, my children were…' He broke off. 'All of us suffered. But whether this took place a year ago or a hundred, I know not, for it was part of Xiombarg's joke to stop the sun so that we should not know how much time passed…'

'If Xiombarg's rule began at the same time as Arioch's,' Corum said, 'then it was much more than one century, King Noreg-Dan…'

'Xiombarg appears to have abolished Time on this plane,' Jhary put it. 'Relatively speaking, of course. What happened here happened at whatever time people agreed upon.

'As you say,' Corum nodded. 'But tell us what you have heard of the City in the Pyramid, King Noreg-Dan.'

'It was not originally of this plane at all, I gather - though it existed on one of the Five Planes now ruled by Xiombarg. In its seeking to escape Chaos, it moved from one plane to another, but eventually it was forced to stop and merely be content with protecting itself against Queen Xiombarg's attacks. She has spent, I hear, much of her energy on those attacks. Perhaps that is why I and the few like me are still allowed to exist. I do not know.'

'There are others?'

'Aye, other wanderers such as myself. Or, at least, there were. Perhaps Xiombarg has found them now…'

'Or perhaps they found the City in the Pyramid.'

'Possibly.'

'Xiombarg concentrates on watching events in the next Realm,' Jhary said knowledgeably. 'She wants to see the outcome of the battle between the Chaos minions and those who serve Law.'

'Just as well for you, Prince Corum,' said Noreg-Dan. 'For if she knew the destroyer of her brother was actually where she could destroy him herself…'

'We'll not speak of that,' said Corum.

On and on went the White River and they began to think that perhaps it and the Blood Plain were, indeed, without end, as this world was without Time.

'Is there a name for the City in the Pyramid?' Jhary asked.

'You think it might be your Tanelorn?' Rhalina said.

He grinned and shook his head. 'No. I know Tanelorn and that description would not, I think, fit it.'

'Some say it is built within a huge, featureless pyramid,' Noreg-Dan told him. 'Others say it is merely a pyramid shape, like a great zigarut. There are many myths, I fear, concerning the city.'

'I do not think I have encountered such a city on my travels,' Jhary said.

'It sounds to me,' said Corum, 'as if it resembles one of the great Sky Cities, such as the one which crashed over the Plain of Broggfythus during the last great battle between the Vadhagh and the Nhadragh. They exist in our legends and I know that one, at least, was real, for the wreckage used to be near Castle Erorn where I was born. Both Vadhagh and Nhadragh had these cities, which were capable of moving through the planes. But when that phase of our history was over, they disappeared and we began to live more contentedly in our castles…' He stopped himself from continuing that theme, for it only brought back the bitterness. 'It might be such a city,' he said rather lamely.

'I think we had better land this craft,' said Jhary cheerfully.

'Why?' Corum's back was to the prow.

'Because the White River and the Blood Plain seem to have ended.'

Corum looked and was instantly alert. They were heading for a cliff. The plain ended as if sliced off by a gigantic knife and the liquid of the White River was hurtling into the abyss.

CHAPTER THREE Beasts of the Abyss

Now the White River foamed wildly and roared as it rushed over the brink. Corum and Jhary dragged the oars free and used them to steer the rocking boat towards the bank.

'Be ready to jump, Rhalina!' Corum yelled.

She stood upright, holding on to the mast. King Noreg-Dan steadied her.

The boat danced out into midstream again and then, as suddenly, swerved back towards the bank as another current caught it. Corum. staggered and almost fell overboard as he manipulated the oar. The sound of the torrent almost drowned their voices. The abyss was much closer and it would not be much longer before they were all hurled over it. Dimly, through the spray, Corum saw the distant wall of the far cliff. It must have been a mile away at least.

Then the boat scraped the bank and Corum yelled:

'Jump, Rhalina!'

And she jumped with Noreg-Dan leaping after her, his arms waving. She landed in the blood-dust and fell, sprawling.

Jhary jumped next. But the boat was turning out into the centre of the river again. He landed in the shallows and struggled towards the bank, shouting at Corum.

Corum remembered Noreg-Dan's warning about the properties of the white liquid, but there was nothing for it but to leap in, his mouth tight shut, and flounder for the bank, his armour dragging him down.

But the weight of the armour fought the current and his feet touched the bottom. Shuddering he climbed to the land, white droplets of liquid oozing down his body.

He lay panting on the bank and watched as the boat reared on the edge of the abyss and then fell from sight.

They staggered away from the White River, following the edge of the gorge, ankle-deep in the brown dust, and when the roar of the torrent had grown fainter they paused and tried to assess their situation.

The abyss seemed endless. It stretched to both horizons, its edges straight and its sides sheer, so that it was plain that it had not been created naturally. It was as if some gigantic canal had been planned to flow between the cliffs - a mile-wide canal, a mile deep.

They stood on the brink and looked down into the abyss. Corum felt vertigo seize him and he took a step backwards. The sides of the cliff were of the same dark obsidian as the mountains they had left earlier, but these sides were utterly smooth. Far, far below a yellowish vapour writhed, obscuring the bottom - if any bottom there were. The four people felt completely dwarfed by the vastness of the scene. They looked backwards across the Blood Plain. It was featureless, endless. They tried to make out details of the opposite cliff, but it was too distant.

A faint mist obscured the sun which still stood at noon above them.

The little figures began to tramp along the edge, through the blood-dust, away from the White River.

Eventually Corum spoke to Noreg-Dan. 'Have you heard of this place before, King Noreg-Dan?'

He shook his head. 'I never knew what really lay beyond the Blood Plain, but I did not expect this. Perhaps it is new…'

'New?' Rhalina looked curiously at him. 'What do you mean?'

'Chaos is forever altering the landscape, playing new tricks with it - playing new jokes. Perhaps Queen Xiombarg knows that we are here. Perhaps she is playing a game with us…'

Jhary stroked his cat between its ears. 'It would be like a Queen of Chaos to do such a thing, yet I suspect she would have planned worse than this for the destroyer of her brother.'

'This could be just the beginning,' Rhalina pointed out. 'She could be building up to her true vengeance…'

'But I think not,' Jhary insisted. 'I have fought against Chaos in many worlds and in many guises and one thing that they are is impetuous. I think she would have acknowledged what she was doing by now if she knew who Prince Corum was. No, she still concentrates on the events taking place in the Realm we have left. That is not to say we are not in danger,' he added with a faint smile.

'In danger of starving again,' Corum said. 'If nothing else. This place is the most barren of all - and there is no way down, no way across, no way back…'

'We must keep moving until we do find a way down or a way across,' Rhalina told him. 'Surely the abyss must end somewhere?'

'Possibly,' said Noreg-Dan, rubbing at his gaunt face, 'but I remind you again that this is a Realm completely ruled by Chaos. From what you have told me of Arioch's Realm, he never wielded the power which Xiombarg wields - he was the least of the Sword Rulers. It is said that Mabelode, the King of the Swords, is even more powerful than she - that he has created of his Realm a constantly shifting substance which changes shape more swiftly than thought…'

'Then I pray we are never forced to visit Mabelode,' Jhary murmured. 'This situation is sufficiently terrifying for me. I have witnessed Total Chaos and I like it not at all.'

They tramped on beside the unchanging edge of the abyss.

Lost in a daze of weariness and monotony Corum only gradually began to realize that the sky was darkening. He looked up. Was the sun moving?

But the sun seemed to be in the same position. Instead, an eddy of black cloud had risen from somewhere and was streaming across the sky, heading towards the far side of the abyss. He had no means of knowing whether this were some sorcerous manifestation or if it were natural. He stopped. It had grown colder. Now the others noticed the clouds.

Noreg-Dan's eyes held trepidation. He drew his cracked leather coat about him and licked his bearded lips.

Suddenly, from Jhary's shoulder the little black and white cat leapt into the air and sped away on its black, white-tipped wings. It began to circle over the gorge, almost out of their range of vision. Jhary, too, looked perturbed, for the cat was behaving uncharacteristically.

Rhalina drew closer to Corum and put one hand on his arm. He hugged her shoulders and stared skyward at the black streamers of cloud as they dashed from nowhere to nowhere.

'Have you seen such a sight before, King Noreg-Dan?' Corum called through the gloom. 'Has it significance for you?'

Noreg-Dan shook his head. 'No, I have not seen this before, but it has significance - it is an omen, I fear, of some danger from Chaos. I have seen similar sights.'

'We had best be ready for what comes.' Corum drew his long, Vadhagh sword and threw back his scarlet robe to expose his silver byrnie. The others drew their own blades and stood there on the edge of that vast pit, waiting for whatever might come to threaten them.

Whiskers the cat was flying back. It was miaowing shrilly, urgently. It had seen something in the abyss. They stepped to the brink and peered over.

A reddish shadow moved in the yellow mist. Gradually it began to emerge; gradually its shape was defined.

It flew upon billowing crimson wings and its grinning face was that of a shark. It looked like something which should have inhabited the sea rather than the air and this was confirmed by the way in which it flew - with slow, undulating wings as if through liquid. Row upon row of sharp fangs filled its red mouth and its body was the size of a large bull, its wing-span nearly thirty feet.

Out of the frightful pit it came, its jaws opening and closing as if it already anticipated its feast. Its golden eyes burned with hunger and with rage.

'It is the Ghanh,' said Noreg-Dan hopelessly. 'The Ghanh which led the Chaos Pack upon my country. It is

one of Queen Xiombarg's favourite creations. It will take us before ever our swords strike a single blow.'

'So you call it a Ghanh on this plane?' Jhary said with interest. 'I have seen it before and, as I remember, I have seen it destroyed.'

'How was it destroyed?' Corum asked him as the Ghanh flew higher and closer.

'That part I forget.'

'If we spread out, we shall have a better chance,' Corum said, backing away from the gorge's edge. 'Quickly.'

'If you'll forgive the suggestion, friend Corum,' Jhary said as he, too, stepped backwards. 'I think your netherworld allies would be of use to us here.'

'Those allies are now the black birds we fought on the mountain. Could they defeat the Ghanh…?'

'I suggest you discover that now.'

Corum flung up the eye-patch and peered again into the netherworld. There they were - a score of black, brooding birds, each with the mark of the barbed Vadhagh lance in its breast. But they saw Corum and they recognized him. One of them opened its beak and screeched in a tone so hopeless that Corum felt almost sympathetic to it.

'Can you understand me?' he said.

He heard Rhalina's voice. 'It is almost upon us, Corum!'

'We - understand - master. Have you - a prize - for us?' said one of the birds.

Corum shuddered. 'Aye, if you can take it.'

The Hand of Kwll reached into that murky cavern and it beckoned to the birds. With a dreadful rustling sound they took to the air.

And they flew into the world in which Corum and his companions stood awaiting the Ghanh.

'There,' said Corum. 'There is your prize.'

The black birds flung their wounded, dead-alive bodies higher into the sky and began to wheel as the Ghanh swam over the edge of the gorge and opened its jaws, giving a piercing scream as it saw the four mortals.

'Run!' Corum shouted.

They took to their heels, scattering, running through the deep drifts of blood-dust as the Ghanh screamed again and hesitated, deciding which human to deal with first.

Corum choked on the stink of the creature as the wind of its breath touched him. He darted a look backward. He remembered how cowardly the birds had been, how they had taken long to make up their minds to attack him before. Would they have the courage - even though it meant their release from limbo - to attack the Ghanh?

But now the birds were spearing downwards again at an incredible speed. The Ghanh had not known they were there and it screamed in surprise as their beaks drove into its soft head. It snapped at them and seized two bodies in its jaws. Yet, though half-eaten by the creature, the beaks continued to peck, for the living-dead could not be slain again.

The Ghanh's wings beat close to the ground and a huge cloud of blood-dust rose all around it. Through this dust Corum and the others could see the fray. The Ghanh leapt and twisted and snapped and screamed, but the black birds' beaks pecked relentlessly at its skull. The Ghanh reared and fell on its back. It twisted its wings so that it was rolled in them, trying to protect its head, and in this peculiar manner tumbled hither and thither across the dust. The black birds flapped into the air then descended again, trying to perch on the cocoon as it writhed about, still pecking. Streams of green blood poured from the Ghanh now and the blood-dust stuck to it so that it was all begrimed and tattered.

Then, quite suddenly, it had rolled over the edge of the abyss. The companions ran forward to see what had

happened, the disturbed dust stinging their eyes and clogging their lungs. They saw the Ghanh falling. They saw its wings open and slow its descent, but it did not have the power to do more than drift back towards the floor of the pit as the black birds pecked and pecked at its exposed skull. The yellow mist swallowed them all.

Corum waited, but nothing emerged from the mist again.

'Does that mean that you have no more allies in the netherworld, Corum?' Jhary asked. 'For the birds did not take their prey with them…'

Corum nodded. 'I wonder the same.' He lifted the eyepatch again and saw that the strange, cold cave was bare. 'Aye - no allies there.'

'So an impasse has been created. The birds have not killed the Ghanh and they have not themselves been destroyed,' Jhary-a-Conel said. 'Still, at least that danger has been averted. Let's press on.'

The black clouds had ceased to stream across the sky but had instead stopped in their tracks and cut out the sunlight. Beneath this dark shroud they stumbled onward.

Corum noticed that Jhary had been brooding deeply since the birds had driven off the Ghanh and at last he said: 'What is it that bothers you, Jhary-a-Conel?'

The man adjusted his wide hat on his head and pursed his lips. 'It occurred to me that if the Ghanh was not slain but instead returned to its lair - and if the Ghanh is, as King Noreg-Dan says, a favourite pet of Queen Xiombarg's - then fairly soon now (if not already) Queen Xiombarg will become aware of our presence here. Doubtless if she becomes aware of us then she will decide to act to punish us for what we did to her pet…'

Corum removed his helmet and ran his gauntleted hand over his hair. He looked at the others who had stopped to listen to Jhary.

'It is true,' said the King Without a Country with a sigh. 'We must expect to have Queen Xiombarg upon us very soon - or, at the very least, some more of her minions if she is still not aware that her brother's destroyer is in her Realm and thinks only that we are upstart mortals…'

Rhalina had been ahead of the rest. She hardly listened to the conversation but instead pointed just in front of her. 'Look! Look!' she cried.

They ran towards her and saw that she pointed at a place on the edge of the abyss - a square-cut notch carved from the rock and larger than a man's body. They clustered around it and saw that a stairway led down and down into the distant mist. But the stairway was scarcely more than a foot across and it went straight beside the massive wall of the cliff until it disappeared into the mist a mile below. If one missed one's footing for an instant, then one would be plunged into the abyss.

Corum stood staring at the stairway. Had it just appeared? Was it a trick of Queen Xiombarg's? Would the steps suddenly vanish when they were half-way down - if they ever managed to get half-way down?

But the alternative was to continue to trudge along the edge and perhaps, ultimately, find themselves back at the White River (for Corum was beginning to suspect that the Blood Plain was circular, containing the Lake of Voices and the mountains, and that the abyss extended all around it).

With a sigh Corum gradually lowered himself to the first step and, on weakened legs, his back against the smooth rock, began to descend.

The four little figures inched their way down the slippery steps until the top of the abyss itself was lost in gloom, while the bottom was still shrouded by the yellow mist. There was a frightening silence as they moved. They dare not speak - dare not do anything which would break their concentration as they lowered themselves from step to step with the abyss seeming sometimes to draw them into its depths as their vertigo increased. All were shivering, for the rock chilled them, all were sure that after a few more steps they would lose their footing and plunge down into the yellow mist.

And then they began to hear it. It echoed from the mist. A grunting and wheezing and a snorting and a cackling which increased as they descended.

Corum stopped and looked back at the others who lay against the rock and listened with him. Rhalina was closest to him, then Jhary and finally the King Without a Country.

It was Noreg-Dan who spoke first. 'I know the sound,' he said. 'I have heard it before.'

'What is it?' Rhalina whispered.

'It is the noise which Xiombarg's beasts make. I spoke of the Ghanh which led the Chaos Pack. Well, those noises are the noises made by the Chaos Pack. We should have guessed what lay beyond the yellow mist…'

Corum felt a great coldness grip him. He peered downwards to where the unseen Beasts of the Abyss awaited their coming.

CHAPTER FOUR The Chariots of Chaos

'What shall we do?' Rhalina whispered. 'What can we do against them?'

Corum said nothing. Carefully keeping his balance he drew his sword, steadying himself with his six-fingered, jewelled hand.

While the Ghanh lived and fought the black birds, there could be no help from the netherworld.

'Do you hear that now?' Jhary said. 'That odd creaking…?'

Corum nodded. With the creaking was a rumbling sound and is was vaguely familiar. It mingled with the snorts and the grunts and the bellows issuing from the yellow mist.

'There is nought for it,' he said at length. 'We must go on and hope that we reach the floor of the abyss soon. At least there we shall be less exposed and able to stand and fight whatever - whatever it is that makes the noise.'

They continued their cautious descent, eyes wary for the first signs of the Beasts.

Corum's foot had touched the floor of the abyss before he quite realized it. He had been climbing downwards for so long that he had become used to lying flat against the rock and feeling with his foot for each new step. Now there were no more steps and he could see the ground, uneven, covered in boulders, stretching away into the yellow mist, but he could see nothing that lived.

The others joined him as he peered forward. The grunts and the cackles continued and an appalling stink greeted their nostrils, but the source of the sounds and the stink was not yet visible. The creaking and the rumbling also continued.

Corum saw them at last.

'By Elric's Sword!' Jhary groaned. 'Those are the Chariots of Chaos. I should have guessed!'

Monstrous lumbering chariots drawn by reptilian beasts were beginning to emerge from the mist. They were filled by a variety of creatures, some even mounted on others' backs. Each beast was a travesty of a human being - each was clad in armour and bore a weapon of some kind. Here were piglike, doglike, cowlike, froglike, horselike things, some more deformed than others - animals warped into parodies of humanity.

'Did Chaos turn these beasts into what they now are?' Corum gasped.

Jhary said: 'You are mistaken, Corum.'

'What mean you?'

The King Without a Country spoke up. 'These beasts,' he said, 'were once men. Many of them were my subjects who sided with Chaos because they saw that it was more powerful than Law…'

'And that transformation was their reward?' Rhalina said in disgust.

'They are probably not aware of the transformation,' Jhary told her quietly. 'They have degenerated too much to retain much memory of their former existences.'

The black chariots creaked closer, bearing their grunting, shrieking, bellowing crews.

There was nothing for it but to turn and run from the chariots, dashing over the uneven ground, swords in hand, coughing on the stink of the Chaos Pack and the clinging, yellow mist.

The Chaos Pack howled in delight and whipped up their reptilian beasts and the chariots began to move faster. The ghastly, deformed army was enjoying the hunt.

Weakened by their earlier adventures and their lack of food or drink, the four companions could not run swiftly and at last, behind a large boulder, they were forced to rest. The chariots rumbled on towards them, bringing the cacophony, the hellish once-human things, the nauseating smells.

Corum hoped that the chariots would pass them by but the Chaos Pack could see more easily through the mist and the first chariot turned towards them. Corum began to climb the boulder to get above the chariot. He struck out with his fist as a pig-thing clambered after him. The fist sank into the creature's face and was held there while the thing drew its own brass-studded club and raised its arm to finish Corum. Corum stabbed with his sword and the pig-thing shuddered, fell back. Now the others were under attack. Rhalina defended herself well with her own sword. They stood around the base of the boulder on the opposite side to Corum while he defended their rear. A dog-thing leapt at him. It wore a helmet and a breastplate but its muzzle was full of long teeth which snapped at his arm. He swung the sword and broke that muzzle in a single, smashing blow. Hands which had turned into claws and paws grabbed at him, tore at his cloak, his boots. Swords stabbed and clubs struck the stone at his feet as a whole mass of the creatures began to climb towards him. He stamped on fingers, hacked off limbs, drove his sword through mouths and eyes and hearts and all the time was filled with a sickening panic which only made him fight harder.

The babble of the Chaos Pack seemed to grow louder and louder in his ears. Their chariots kept appearing out of the mist until several hundred of the things surrounded the boulder.

Then it came clear to Corum that the Pack did not intend, at this stage, to kill them. If they had wished to they could have slain him and his companions by now. Doubtless they planned to torture them in some way - or perhaps turn them into the same kind of creatures that they had become.

Corum remembered the Mabden tortures with horror and he fought all the harder, hoping to drive some member of the Chaos Pack to kill him.

But slowly the fearsome tide rolled in until so many corpses pressed about the base of the boulder that Corum's three friends were unable to move their arms and were trapped. Only Corum fought on, hacking at all who sought to take him and then something clambered over the rocks behind him and seized his legs, dragging him down to where Rhalina, Jhary and the King Without a Country stood, disarmed and bound.

A creature with the lopsided face of a horse swaggered through the ranks of the Chaos Pack and curled its lips to reveal huge brown teeth. It gave a whinnying laugh and set its helmet jauntily on its head, its hairy thumbs hooked in the belt around its belly.

'Should we save you for ourselves,' he said, 'or take you to our mistress? Queen Xiombarg might be interested in you…'

'Why should she be interested in four mortal travellers?' Corum asked.

The horse-thing grinned at him. 'Perhaps you are more than that? Perhaps you are agents of Law?'

'You know that Law no longer rules here!'

'But Law may wish to rule again - you may have been sent here from another Realm.'

'Do you not recognize me!' cried King Noreg-Dan.

The horse-thing scratched at its forelock and peered stupidly at the King Without a Country. 'Why should I recognize you?'

'Because I recognize you. I see the traces of your original features…'

'Be silent! I do not know what you mean!' The horse-thing half drew its dagger from its belt. 'Be silent!'

'Because you cannot bear to remember!' shouted the King Without a Country. 'You were Polib-Bav, Count of Tern! You threw in your lot with Chaos even before my country fell…

A look of fear came into the horse-thing's eyes. It shook its head and snorted. 'No!'

'You are Polib-Bav and you were betrothed to my daughter - the girl whom your Chaos Pack - aaagh! I cannot bear to remember that horror!'

'You remember nothing,' said Polib-Bav thickly. 'I say I am just what I am.'

'What is your name?' Noreg-Dan said. 'What is your name, if it is not Polib-Bav, Count of Tern?'

The horse-thing struck out at the king's face with its clumsy hand. 'What if I am? My loyalty is to Queen Xiombarg, not to you.'

'I would not have you serve me,' sneered the king as blood welled on his upper lip. 'Oh, look what has become of you, Polib-Bav.'

The horse-thing turned away. 'I live,' it said. 'I command this legion.'

'A legion of pathetic monsters!' Jhary laughed.

A cow-thing kicked at Jhary's groin with its hoof and the companion to champions groaned. But he lifted his head and laughed again. 'This degeneration is only the beginning. I have seen what mortals who serve Chaos become - foulness, nothingness - shapeless horrors!'

Polib-Bav scratched its head and said more softly: 'What of that? The decision was made. It cannot be revoked. Queen Xiombarg promises us eternal life.'

'It will be eternal,' Jhary said. 'But it will not be life. I have travelled to many planes during many ages and I have seen what Chaos comes to - barrenness. That alone is eternal, unless Law can save it.'

'Faugh!' said the horse-thing. 'Put them in the chariot - in my chariot - and we shall carry them to Queen Xiombarg.'

King Noreg-Dan tried to appeal again to Polib-Bav. 'You were once handsome, Count of Tern. My daughter loved you and you loved her. You were loyal to me in those days.'

Polib-Bav turned away. 'And now I am loyal to Queen Xiombarg. This is her Realm now. Lord Shalod of Law has fled and shall never rule here again. His armies and his allies were destroyed, as you well know, on the Plain of Blood…' Polib-Bav pointed upwards. He accepted the four swords which a frog-thing handed him and tucked them under his arm. 'Into the chariot with them. We ride for Queen Xiombarg's palace.'

As he was forced to enter Polib-Bav's chariot with the others Corum was in despair. His hands were tied behind his back with strong cords, he could see no way of escape. Once he was taken before Queen Xiombarg she would recognize him. She would destroy him as she would destroy the rest and all hope of saving Lywm-an-Esh would be gone. With King Lyr victorious, the forces of Chaos would begin to gather strength. Another Sword Ruler would be summoned and the Fifteen Planes would be wholly in the control of the Lords of Entropy.

He lay at Polib-Bav's feet now, side by side with his friends, as the Chariots of Hell began to move along the floor of the abyss, wheels creaking and groaning, bumping over the loose rocks. And soon Corum had lost consciousness.

He awoke blinking in stronger light. The mist was gone. He lifted his head and saw that a great cliff towered behind them. He guessed that they had left the abyss. They seemed to be moving through a sparse forest of sickly, leprous trees which had caught some blight. He moved his bruised head and stared into the face of Rhalina. She had been weeping but now she attempted to smile at him.

'We left the abyss through a tunnel some hours back,' she told him. 'It must be a long way to Queen Xiombarg's palace. I wonder why they do not use swifter, more sorcerous means to go there?'

'Chaos is whimsical,' said a voice behind her. It was Jhary-a-Conel's. 'And in a timeless world there is no need for swiftness in such matters.'

'What has become of your little cat?' Corum murmured.

'It was wiser than I, it flew off. I did not see --'

'Silence!' bellowed the voice of the horse-thing driving the chariot. 'Your babbling annoys me.'

'Perhaps it disturbs you,' Jhary ventured. 'Perhaps it reminds you that you could once think coherently, speak well…'

Polib-Bav kicked him in the face and he spluttered as the blood gushed from his nose.

Corum growled and vainly tried to free himself. Polib-Bav's horse face looked down at him and laughed. 'You're grotesque enough, yourself, friend - with that eye and that hand grafted on to you. If I had not known better, I'd have said you served Chaos.'

'Perhaps I do,' Corum said. 'You did not ask. You merely assumed that I served Law.'

Polib-Bav frowned, but then his stupid face cleared. 'You are trying to trick me. I will do nothing until Queen Xiombarg has seen you…' He shook the reins and the reptilian beasts began to move faster. '… after all, it is almost certain that it was you and your friends who killed the strongest member of our legion. We saw it attacked and we saw it vanish.'

'You speak of the Ghanh!' Corum asked, his spirits beginning to lift. 'Of the Ghanh!'

And, at that moment, the Hand of Kwll moved once more of its own volition and snapped the cords binding Corum's wrists.

'You see! said Polib-Bav in triumph. 'It was I who tricked you. You knew the Ghanh was slain. Therefore it could only have been -- What! You are free!' He hauled on the reins. 'Stop!' He drew his sword, but Corum had rolled over the floor of the chariot and leapt to the ground. He pushed back his eye-patch and at once saw the netherworld cave from which his allies had issued in the past. There, with its head a ruin of congealed blood, lay the Ghanh.

The Hand of Kwll moved into the netherword as Polib-Bav's creatures advanced on Corum. It beckoned to the Ghanh which moved its dead head very reluctantly.

'You must do my bidding,' Corum said. 'And then you will be free. You must take many prizes to pay for your release.'

The Ghanh did not speak, but it gave a scream from its fanged jaws as if to acknowledge that it had heard.

'Come!' Corum cried. 'Come - take your prizes.'

And the Ghanh's crimson wings began to beat as it flapped slowly from the cave, leaving the netherworld behind it and coming back, once again, into the world from which the birds had but lately banished it.

'The Ghanh has come back!' Polib-Bav shouted in triumph. 'Oh, lovely Ghanh thou hast returned to us!'

The Chaos Pack had seized Corum again, but now he was smiling as, with a tortured screech, the Ghanh's great body engulfed a near-by chariot and its strange wings wrapped themselves around the whole thing and began to crush the occupants to death.

So astonished were the Chaos Beasts holding Corum that he was able to tug himself free. They came after him but he turned and the Hand of Kwll smashed into the face of one, cracked another's collar-bone. He raced for Polib-Bav's chariot. The leader of the Beasts had left his chariot and stood beside it, his huge, horse's eyes fixed on what was happening to his companions. Before he had really noticed Corum, the Prince in the Scarlet Robe had grabbed his sword from the pile on the floor of the chariot and aimed a blow at Polib-Bav. The horse-thing jumped back, drawing his own sword. But his movements were dazed and clumsy. He parried, tried to stab, missed as Corum dodged aside, and received the Vadhagh metal in his throat. Choking, he died.

Quickly Corum cut the bonds of his friends and they, too, retrieved their swords, ready to fight the Chaos creatures. But the Pack, recovering from its initial horror, was fleeing. Its chariots raced hither and yon through the pale, sickly trees as the Ghanh left its first victims and pursued some more. Corum bent and stripped the corpse of Polib-Bav, taking his water bottle and the pouch of coarse bread at his belt. Soon the Chaos Pack had disappeared and they were left alone on the road through the forest.

Corum inspected the chariot. The reptiles seemed passive enough.

'Could we drive this, do you think, King Noreg-Dan?' he asked.

The King Without a Country shook his head dubiously. 'I am not sure. Perhaps…'

'I think I could drive it,' Jhary told them. 'I've had a little experience of such chariots and the creatures which pull them.' His sack bouncing at his belt, the wide brim of his hat waving, he jumped into the chariot, taking up the reins. He turned and grinned at them. 'Where would you go? Still to Xiombarg's palace?'

Corum laughed. 'Not yet, I think. She'll send for us when she learns what became of her Pack. We'll take that direction, I think.' He pointed away through the trees. He helped Rhalina into the chariot, then waited while King Noreg-Dan climbed aboard. Finally, he got in himself. Jhary shook the reins, turned the chariot and soon it had bounced through the leprous forest and was rolling down a hill towards a valley full of what seemed to be upright, slender stones.

CHAPTER FIVE The Frozen Army

They were not stones.

They were men.

Each man a warrior - each warrior frozen like a statue, his weapons in his hands.

'This,' said Noreg-Dan in quiet awe, 'is the Frozen Army. The last army to take arms against Chaos.

'Was this its punishment?' Corum asked.

'Aye.'

Jhary, gripping the reins, said: 'They live? Is that so? They know that we pass through their ranks?'

'Aye. I heard that Queen Xiombarg said that since they supported Law so wholeheartedly they should have a taste of what Law aimed for - they should know the ultimate in tranquillity,' Noreg-Dan said.

Rhalina shivered. 'Is this really what Law comes to?'

'So Chaos would have us believe,' Jhary said. 'But it matters not, for the Cosmic Balance requires equilibrium - something of Chaos, something of Law - so that each stabilizes the other. The difference is that Law acknowledges the authority of the Balance, while Chaos would deny it. But Chaos cannot deny that authority completely for its adherents know that to disobey some things is to be destroyed. Thus Queen Xiombarg dare not enter the Realm of another Great Old God and, as in the case of your Realm, must work through others. She, like the rest, must also watch her dealings with mortals, for they cannot be destroyed by her willy-nilly - there are rules…'

'But no rules to protect these poor creatures,' Rhalina said.

'Some. They have not died. She has not killed them.'

Corum remembered the tower where he had found Arioch's heart. There, too, had been frozen men.

'Unless directly attacked,' Jhary explained, 'Xiombarg cannot kill mortals. But she can use those loyal to her to kill other mortals, do you see, and she can suspend the lives of warriors like these.'

'So we are safe from Queen Xiombarg,' Corum said.

'If you choose to think so.' Jhary smiled. 'You are by no means safe from her minions and, as you have seen, she has many of those.'

'Aye,' said the King Without a Country feelingly. 'Aye. Many.'

Holding his reins in one hand Jhary dusted at his clothes. They were tattered and bloodstained from the various flesh-wounds he had sustained in the battle with the Chaos Pack. 'I would give much for a new suit,' he murmured. 'I'd make a bargain with Xiombarg herself…'

'We mention that name too often,' King Noreg-Dan said nervously as he clung to the side of the jolting chariot. 'We shall bring her down on us if we are not more discreet.'

Then the sky laughed.

Golden light began to dapple the clouds. A brilliant orange aura sprang up in the distance ahead and cast giant shadows for the frozen warriors.

Jhary jerked the chariot to a halt, his face suddenly pale.

Purple brilliance came from the sky in fragments the size of raindrops.

And the laughter went on and on.

'What is it?' Rhalina's hand went to her sword.

The King Without a Country put his haggard face in his hands and his shoulders slumped. 'It is she. I warned you. It is she.'

'Xiombarg?' Corum drew his own sword. 'Is it Xiombarg, Noreg-Dan?'

'Aye, it is she.'

The ground shook with the laughter. Several of the frozen warriors toppled and fell, still in the same positions. Corum looked about for the source of the laughter. Was it in the aura? Or in the golden light? Or the purple rain?

'Where are you Queen Xiombarg!' He brandished his sword. His mortal eye flashed his defiance. 'Where are you, creature of Evil?'

'I AM EVERYWHERE!' answered a huge, sweet voice. 'I AM THIS REALM AND THIS REALM IS XIOMBARG OF CHAOS!'

'We are surely doomed,' stuttered the King Without a Country.

'You said she could not attack us,' Corum said to Jhary-a-Conel.

'I said she could not directly attack us. But see…'

Corum looked. Over the valley now came hopping things. They hopped on several legs and from their bodies sprouted a dozen or more tentacles. Their huge eyes rolled, their massive fangs clashed.

'The Karmanal of Zert', Jhary said in mild surprise as he dropped the reins and armed himself with sword and poignard. 'I have encountered these before.'

'How did you escape them?' Rhalina asked.

'I was at that time companion to a champion who had the power to destroy them.'

'I too, have a power,' Corum said grimly, raising his hand to his eye. But Jhary shook his head and grimaced.

'I fear not. The Karmanal of Zert are indestructible. Both Law and Chaos have, in their time, taken steps to do away With them - they are fickle creatures who fight for one side or another without apparent reason. They have no souls, no true existence.'

'Therefore they should not be able to harm us!'

The laughter rang on.

'I agree that, logically, they should not be able to harm us,' Jhary answered equably. 'But I am afraid that they can.'

About ten of the hopping creatures were nearing their chariot, weaving between the statue-like warriors.

And they were singing.

'The Karmanal of Zert always sing before they feast,' Jhary told them. 'Always.'

Corum wondered if Jhary had gone mad. The tentacled monsters were almost upon them and the companion to champions continued to chat without apparent awareness of their danger.

The singing was harmonious and somehow made the creatures even more terrifying while, as a counterpoint, Xiombarg's laughter continued to fill the sky.

When the hopping things were almost upon them Jhary raised his hands, dagger in one, sword in the other, and cried: 'Queen Xiombarg! Queen Xiombarg! Who do you think you would destroy?'

The Karmanal of Zert stopped suddenly, as frozen as the army which surrounded them.

'I destroy a few mortals who have set themselves against me, who have caused the deaths of those I loved,' said a voice from behind them.

Corum turned to see the most beautiful woman who had ever existed. Her hair was dark gold with streaks of red and black, her face was perfection and her eyes and lips offered a thousand times more than any woman had offered a man in the whole of history. Her body was tall and of exquisite shape, clothed in drapes of gold and orange and purple. She smiled tenderly at him.

'Is that what I destroy?' she murmured. 'Then what do I destroy, Master Timeras?'

'I am called Jhary-a-Conel now,' he said pleasantly. 'May I introduce…?'

Corum stepped forward. 'Have you betrayed us, Jhary? Are you in league with Chaos?'

'He is not, sadly, in league with Chaos,' said Queen Xiombarg. 'But I know he rides often with those who serve Law.' She looked at him affectionately. 'You do not change, Timeras, basically. And I like you best as a man, I think.'

'And I like you best as a woman, Xiombarg.'

'As a woman I must rule this Realm. I know you for a sometime hero's lickspittle, Jhary-Timeras, and assume this handsome Vadhagh with his strange eye and hand is a hero of sorts…'

She glared suddenly at Corum.

'Now I know!'

Corum drew himself up.

'NOW I KNOW!'

Her shape began to alter. It began to flow outwards and upwards. Her face was that of a skull, then that of a bird, then that of a man, until at last it had reverted to that of a beautiful woman. But now Xiombarg stood a hundred feet high and her expression was no longer tender.

'NOW I KNOW!'

Jhary laughed. 'May I, as I said, introduce Prince Corum Jhaelen Irsei - he of the Scarlet Robe?'

'HOW DO YOU DARE ENTER MY REALM - YOU WHO DESTROYED MY BROTHER? EVEN NOW THOSE STILL LOYAL TO ME IN MY BROTHER'S REALM ARE SEEKING FOR YOU. YOU ARE FOOLISH, MORTAL. AH, THE IGNOMINY. I THOUGHT A BRAVE HERO BANISHED MY BROTHER - BUT NOW I KNOW IT WAS A MORON! KARMANAL CREATURES - BEGONE!' The hopping things vanished. 'I WILL HAVE A SWEETER VENGEANCE ON YOU, CORUM JHAELEN IRSEI -AND ON ALL WHO TRAVEL WITH YOU!'

The golden light faded, the orange aura disappeared and the purple rain ceased to fall, but Xiombarg's huge shape still flickered there in the sky. 'I SWEAR THIS BY THE COSMIC BALANCE -I WILL RETURN WHEN I HAVE CONSIDERED THE FORM OF MY VENGEANCE. I WILL FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU TRY TO ESCAPE. AND I WILL GIVE YOU CAUSE TO WISH THAT YOU HAD NEVER ENCOUNTERED LORD ARIOCH OF CHAOS AND THUS WON THE ANGER OF HIS SISTER XIOMBARG!'

Xiombarg faded and silence returned.

Corum, much shaken, turned to Jhary. 'Why did you tell her? Now there is no escape for us! She has promised to pursue us wherever we go - you heard her. Why did you do it?'

'I thought she was about to find out,' Jhary said mildly. 'Also it was the only way to save us.'

'To save us!'

'Aye. Now the Karmanal of Zert no longer threaten us. I assure you that we should have been in their bellies by now if I had not spoken to Queen Xiombarg. I guessed that she could not know very well what you looked like - most of us seem very alike to the Gods - but that she might learn when we fought. Corum - it was the only way to stop the Karmanal.'

'But it had done us no good. Now she goes to summon whatever horrors she plans to set upon us. Soon she will return and we shall suffer a worse fate.'

'I must admit,' said Jhary, 'that there was another

consideration. Now we have time to see what this is coming yonder.'

They looked.

It was something that flew and flashed and droned.

'What is it?' Corum asked.

'It is, I believe, a ship of the air,' said Jhary. 'I hope it has come to save us.'

'Perhaps it has come to harm us?' Corum said reasonably enough. 'I still feel you should not have revealed who I was, Jhary…'

'It is always best to bring these things out into the open,' Jhary said cheerfully.

CHAPTER SIX The City in the Pyramid

The ship of the air had a hull of blue metal in which were set enamels and ceramics of various rich colours, making a number of complicated designs. It brought a slight smell of almonds with it as it began to descend, and its moan was almost like that of a human voice.

Now Corum could see its brass rails, its steel, silver and platinum fixtures, its ornate wheel-house, and he felt that he was reminded of something by it - an image, perhaps, of childhood. He stared curiously at it as it began to land and a small object rose up from it and flew towards them.

It was Jhary's cat.

Suddenly Corum stared at Jhary and laughed. The cat came and settled on the shoulder of the companion to heroes and it nuzzled his ear.

'You sent the cat to find help when the Chaos Pack set upon us!' Rhalina said before Corum could speak. 'That is why you told Xiombarg who Corum was - for you knew that help was coming and thought your plan thwarted at the last moment.'

Jhary shrugged. 'I did not know the cat would find help, but I guessed.'

'From where has that strange flying craft come?' asked the King Without a Country.

'Why, where else but from the City in the Pyramid? It was my instruction to the cat to look for it. I would gather that it found it.'

'And how did it communicate with the folk of that city?' Corum asked as they drew nearer to the blue ship of the air.

'In emergencies, as you know, the cat can communicate quite clearly with me. In a very serious emergency it will use more energy and communicate with whom it pleases.'

Whiskers purred and licked Jhary's face with its little rough tongue. He murmured something to it and smiled. Then he said to Corum: 'We'd best hurry, though, for Xiombarg may begin to wonder why I did reveal your name. It is one of the characteristics of many of the Chaos Lords that they are impetuous and not given overmuch to thinking.'

The ship of the air was a good forty feet long and had seats running the whole of its length on both sides. It appeared to be empty, but then a tall, comely man stepped from the wheel-house and came forward towards them. He was smiling at Corum's complete astonishment.

For the steersman of the ship of the air was quite plainly of no other race but Corum's. He was a Vadhagh. His skull was long, his slanting eyes purple and gold, his ears pointed and his body slender and delicate but containing a great deal of energy.

'Welcome Corum in the Scarlet Robe,' he said. 'I have come to take you to Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys, the one bastion this Realm has against that Chaos creature you have just met.'

Dazed, Corum Jhaelen Irsei entered the ship of the air while the steersman continued to smile at his astonishment.

They took their places near the wheel-house in the stern and the tall Vadhagh made the ship rise slowly and begin to head in the direction it had come. Rhalina looked backward at the forest of frozen warriors they left behind. 'Is there nothing we could do to help those poor souls?' she asked Jhary.

'Only help make Law strong in our own Realm so that it can one day send aid to this Realm, just as Chaos now sends aid to ours,' Jhary told her.

They were soon crossing a land of oozing stuff which flung up tendrils at them and sought to drag them down into itself. Sometimes faces appeared in the stuff, sometimes hands raised as if in supplication. 'A Chaos Sea,' King Noreg-Dan told them. 'There are several such places in the Realm now. Some say that that is what those mortals who serve Chaos finally degenerate to.'

'I have seen its like,' nodded Jhary.

Strange forests passed below them and valleys filled with perpetually burning fire. They saw rivers of molten metal and beautiful castles made all of jewels. Horrid flying creatures sometimes rushed into the air towards them but turned aside when they recognized the craft, though it was apparently without protection.

'These people must have a powerful sorcery to make boats fly,' Rhalina whispered to Corum. And Corum made no reply at first, for he was deep in thought, racking his memory.

At last he spoke. 'This is not sorcery, as such,' he told her. 'It requires no spells and few incantations but is instead mechanical in its nature. Certain forces are harnessed to give power to machines - some of them much more delicate than anything the Mabden could imagine - which propel such vessels through the air and do many other things. Some of the machines could once sunder the fabric of the Walls Between the Realms and pass easily from plane to plane. My ancestors are said to have created such machines but most chose not to use them, preferring a different logic to their living. I dimly remember a legend which says that one Sky City - that was the name they gave to their cities - left our Realm altogether, to explore the other worlds of the multiverse. Perhaps there was more than one such city, for I know that one did destroy itself when it went out of control during the Battle of Broggfythus and crashed close to Castle Erorn, as I told you. Perhaps another city was called Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys and is now known as the City in the Pyramid.'

Prince Corum was smiling joyfully and speaking excitedly. With his mortal hand he pressed Rhalina's arm. 'Oh, Rhalina, can you understand what I feel at finding that some of my race still live, that Glandyth did not destroy them all?'

She smiled back at him. 'I think so, Corum.'

The air about them began to vibrate and the boat shuddered. The steersman called from the wheel-house: 'Do not be afraid. We are passing into another plane.'

'Does that mean we are escaping Xiombarg?' asked the King Without a Country eagerly.

Jhary answered him. 'No. Xiombarg's Realm extends for five planes and we are merely going from one of those into a different one. Or so I would think.'

The quality of the light changed and they looked over the side of the ship. A multicoloured gas swirled below them.

'The raw stuff of Chaos,' said Jhary. 'Queen Xiombarg has, as yet, made nothing with it.'

They crossed the great gas and flew over a range of mountains, each more than a thousand feet high, but each one a perfect cube. Beyond the mountains was a dark jungle and beyond that a crystalline desert. The crystals of the desert moved constantly, their motion creating a tinkling music which was not pleasant. Among these crystals moved ochre beasts of enormous proportions but of primitive development. They were feeding off the crystals.

Then the crystal desert gave way to a flat, black plain and they saw ahead of them the City of the Pyramid.

The city was, in fact, a many-sided ziggurat. On each terrace were a large number of houses. Flowers, shrubs and trees grew along the terraces and the streets teemed with people. Over the whole city a greenish light flickered and the light took the form of a pyramid, enclosing the ziggurat. As the ship of the air flew towards it, a darker oval of green appeared in the flickering light and through this the ship passed. It circled the topmost building - a many-towered castle built all of metal - and then began to descend until it landed on a raised platform on the castle's battlements. Corum shouted with pleasure as he saw the gathering which welcomed him.

'They are my people!' he exclaimed to his companions. 'They are all my people!'

The steersman left the wheel-house and put his hand on Corum's shoulder. He signed to the men and women below and suddenly they were no longer on the ship of the air but were standing with the group, beneath the platform, looking up at the faces of Rhalina, Jhary and the King Without a Country as they peered over the rail of the ship in astonishment.

Corum was equally astonished to see the three suddenly vanish and appear beside him. One of the group then stepped forward. He was a thin, ancient man with a straight bearing, dressed in a thick robe and holding a staff.

'Welcome,' he said, 'to Law's last bastion.'

Later they sat around a table of beautifully fashioned ruby-metal and listened to the old man who had introduced himself as Prince Yurette Hasdum Nury, Commander of Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys, the City in the Pyramid. He had explained how Corum's speculations were substantially correct.

As they had eaten he had explained how Corum's people had chosen to remain in their castles after the Battle of Broggfythus and devote themselves to learning while his people had decided to take their Sky City and try to fly it beyond the Five Planes, through the Wall Between the Realms. They had succeeded, but had failed to return due to some power loss which they could not then restore. Since then they had managed only to explore these Five Planes and then, when the struggle between Law and Chaos had begun to build, they had remained neutral.

'We were fools to do so. We thought we were above such disputes. And slowly we saw Law conquered and Chaos emerge in all its grisly triumph to create its travesties of beauty. But by that time, though we did take our city against Xiombarg's creatures, we were too late. Chaos had gained all power and we could not fight it. Xiombarg sent - and still sends - armies against us. These we resisted, not without danger. And now it is stalemate. Every so often Xiombarg will send another army - some frightful, monstrous army - and we are forced to fight it. But we can do no more than that. I fear we are all that is left of Law, save you.'

'Law has regained its power in our Five Planes,' Corum told him. He described his adventures, his battle with Arioch and the final result which was to restore Lord Arkyn to his Realm. 'But that, too, is threatened for Law has still only a slender hold on the Realm and all the forces of Chaos are being brought to bear on it.'

'But Law still has some power!' Prince Yurette said. 'We did not know that. We learned that the Sword Rulers controlled all the Realms. If only we could return - take our city back through the Wall Between the Realms - and give you our aid. But we cannot. We have tried so often. The materials are not available on these planes for building up the massive power it needs.'

'And if you had those materials?' Corum asked. 'How long would it be before you could return to our Realm?'

'Not long. But we are weakening already. A few more of Xiombarg's attacks - perhaps just one massive one - and we shall be destroyed.'

Corum stared bitterly at the table. Was he to find Vadhagh folk still living only to see them die - crushed, as his family was crushed by the forces of Chaos?

'We had hoped to take you back with us, to relieve Lywm-an-Esh,' he said. 'But now we learn that is impossible and, it seems, we, too, are stranded in this Realm, unable to go to the aid of our friends.'

'If we had those rare minerals…' Prince Yurette paused. 'But you could get them for us.'

'We cannot return,' Jhary-a-Conel pointed out. 'We cannot get back to our Realm. If it were possible, of course we could find the materials you need - or at least try to do so - but even then we could not be sure of being able to return here…'

Prince Yurette frowned. 'It would be possible for us to send just one Sky Ship through the Wall Between the Realms. We have the power to do that, though it would dangerously weaken our defences here. Yet it is worth the risk, I think.'

Corum's spirits lifted. 'Aye, Prince Yurette - anything is worth the risk if the Cause of Law is to be saved.'

While Prince Yurette conferred with his scientists, the four companions wandered through the marvellous city of Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys. It was all made of metal - but metals so magnificent, so strange in texture and so rich in colour that even Corum could not guess at how they had been manufactured. Towers, domes, trellises, arches and pathways were of these metals, as were the ramps and stairways between the terraces. Everything in the city functioned independently of the outside world. Even the air was created within the confines of the shimmering pyramid of green light which cast its glow on all the outer flanks of Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys.

And everywhere did the folk of the City in the Pyramid go about their day-to-day business. Some tended gardens and others saw to the distribution of food. There were many artists at work, performing musical compositions or displaying the pictures they had made - pictures on velvet and marble and glass very similar in technique to those produced by Corum's own Vadhagh folk, but often with different styles and subjects, some of which Corum could not find it in him to like, perhaps because they were so strange.

They were shown the huge, beautiful machines which kept the city alive. They were shown its armaments, which protected it from the attacks of Chaos, the bays where its ships of the air were kept. They saw its schools and its restaurants and its theatres, its museums and its art galleries. And here was everything which Corum thought destroyed forever by Glandyth-a-Krae and his barbarians. But now all this, too, was threatened with destruction and destruction from the same source, ultimately.

They slept, they ate and their tattered, battered clothes were copied by the tailors and arms-smiths of Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys so that when they awoke they found themselves with fresh raiment identical to that which they had worn upon starting out on their quest for the city.

Jhary-a-Conel was particularly pleased by this example of the city's hospitality and when, at last, they were invited to attend upon Prince Yurette, he expressed that gratitude roundly.

'The Sky Ship is ready,' said Prince Yurette gravely. 'You must go quickly now, for Queen Xiombarg, I learn, mounts a great attack upon us.'

'Will you be able to withstand it with your power weakened?' Jhary asked.

'I hope so.'

The King Without a Country stepped forward. 'Forgive me, Prince Yurette, but I would stay here with you. If Law is to battle Chaos in my own Realm, then I would battle with it.'

Yurette inclined his head. 'It shall be as you wish. But now hurry, Prince Corum. The Sky Ship awaits you on the roof. Stand on that mosaic circle there and you will be transported to the ship. Farewell!'

They stood within the mosaic circle on the prince's floor and, a heartbeat later, were once again upon the deck of the ornate flying craft.

The steersman was the same who had first greeted them.

'I am Bwydyth-a-Horn,' he said. 'Please sit where you sat before and cling tightly to the rail.'

'Look!' Corum pointed beyond the green pyramid, out across the black plain. The huge shape of Queen Xiombarg could be seen again, her face alive with fury. And beneath her there marched a vast army, a foul army of fiends.

Then the Sky Ship had entered the air and sailed through the dark green oval into a world which rang with the voices of the fiends.

And over all these voices sounded the hideous, vengeful laughter of Queen Xiombarg of Chaos.

'BEFORE I MERELY TOYED WITH THEM BECAUSE I ENJOYED THE GAME! BUT NOW THAT THEY HARBOUR THE DESTROYER OF MY BROTHER, THEY WILL PERISH IN BLACK AGONY!'

The air began to vibrate, a green globe of light now encircled the ship. The City in the Pyramid, the army of Hell, Queen Xiombarg, all faded. The ship rocked crazily up and down, the moaning increased in pitch until it became a painful whine.

And then they had left the Realm of Queen Xiombarg and come again to the Realm of Arkyn of Law.

They sailed over the land of Lywm-an-Esh and it was not very different from the world they had just left. Chaos, here too, was on the march.