'These gentlemen have come by a hard and circuitous route to be with us, ' Fromental explained. 'They have walked the moonbeam roads between the worlds.'
'Walked?' I thought I had misheard him.
'It's a skill denied to many.' Lord Renyard's voice was a sharp, yapping bark. He spoke perfect classical French but he had to twist his mouth and vocal cords to get some of his pronunciations. 'Those of us who learn it, however, would travel no other way. These are my good friends. When we understood the danger, we all left Tanelorn together. Our Tanelorn, of course. We were separated some while ago, during an alarming adventure. But they came here at last and brought fresh news of Tanelorn's plight.'
'The city is under siege, ' said Fromental. 'Gaynor, in another guise, attacks it. He has the Higher Worlds on his side. We fear it will soon fall.'
'If Tanelorn falls, then all falls.' Oona was pacing. She had not expected such dramatic news. 'The doom of the multiverse.'
'Without help Tanelorn will most certainly perish, ' said Lord Bragg. His flat, cold voice held little hope. 'The rest of our world is already conquered. Gaynor rules there now in the name of Law. His patron is Lady Miggea the Mad. And he draws on the power of more than one avatar.'
'We came here, ' said Duke Bray, 'searching for those avatars in the hope that we could stop them combining. In our world it has happened already. Here, Gaynor has barely begun to test his power.'
I didn't understand. Oona explained. 'Sometimes it is possible, with immortal help, for two or more avatars of one person to be combined. This gives them considerably greater power, but they lose sanity. Indeed, such an unnatural blending threatens the stability of the entire multiverse! The one who draws on the souls of his avatars in this way takes terrible risks and can pay a very great price for the action.'
Something in the way she glanced at me caused me to shudder. The chill went deep into my bones and would not leave me.
'We can't let Mu Ooria be attacked because of us, ' I said. 'Why don't we lead an expedition into the Dark Land and strike at them first? It will take Gaynor months to marshal a force.'
Oona smiled grimly. 'We cannot anticipate the rate at which time passes for him.'
'But we know we can defeat him.'
'That depends, ' said Lord Renyard, apologetic for interrupting.
'On what?'
'On the quality of help we can summon. I would remind you, dear Count von Bek, that in our world all that remains uncon-quered is Tanelorn herself. Gaynor has mighty help. The help of at least one goddess.'
'How has Tanelorn resisted up to now?' I asked.
'She is Tanelorn. She is the city of eternal sanctuary. Usually neither Chaos nor Law dare attack here. She is the embodiment of the Grey Fees.'
Oona came to my rescue. 'The Grey Fees are the lifestuff of the multiverse-you could call them the sinews, muscles, bones and sap of the multiverse-the original matter from which all else derives. The original home of the Holy Grail. Although creatures can meet in the Grey Fees, even dwell there if they choose, any attack on them, any fight that takes place within the Fees, is an affront to the very basis of existence. Some would call it an affront to God. Some believe the Grey Fees to be God, if the multiverse itself is not God. I prefer to take a more prosaic view. If the multiverse is a great tree, forever growing, shedding limbs, extending roots and branches in all directions, each root and branch a new reality, a new story being told, then the Fees are something like the soul of the entity. However crucial the struggle, we never attack the Grey Fees.'
'Is attacking Tanelorn the same as attacking the Grey Fees?' I asked.
'Simply call it an alarming precedent, ' said Lord Bray, showing more irony than I first suspected in him.
'So Gaynor threatens the fundamental fabric of existence. And if he succeeds?'
'Oblivion. The end of sentience.'
'How might he succeed?' My habits of logic and strategy were returning. Old von Asch had taught me how to reason.
'By recruiting the help of a powerful Duke of Law or Chaos. There are elements in either camp who believe that if they control everything, the multiverse will accord better with their own vision and temperament. The lives of the gods have cycles when senility and bigotry replace sense and responsibility. Such is the case with Gaynor's ally in our realm.'
'A god, you said?'
'A goddess, as it happens.' Lord Blare uttered an unruly laugh. 'The famous Duchess Miggea of Dolwic. One of the most ancient of Law's aristocrats.' 'Law? Surely Law resists such injustice?'
'Aggressive senility isn't only a characteristic of Chaos in its decline. Both forces obey the laws of the multiverse. They grow strong and virile, then decline and die. And, in their dying, they are often desperate for life. At any price. All past loyalties and understanding disappear, and they become little more than appetites, preying upon the living in order to sustain their own corrupted souls. Even the noblest Lords and Ladies of Law can suffer this corruption, often when Chaos is at her most vigorous and dynamic.'
'Don't make my mistake, ' murmured Fromental to me, 'and confuse Law and Chaos with Good and Evil. Both have their virtues and vices, their heroes and villains. They represent the warring temperaments of mankind as well as the best we might become, when the virtues of both camps are combined in a single individual.'
'Are there such individuals?'
'A few, ' said Lord Bray. 'They tend to arise as the occasion demands.' 'Gaynor's not one of those?'
'He's the opposite! ' Lord Renyard yapped indignantly. 'He combines the vices of both sides. He damns himself to eternal despair and hatred. But it's in his nature to believe he acts from practical necessity.'
'And he has supernatural help?'
'In our world, yes.' Lord Bragg's long face became briefly animated. 'At his side rides Lady Miggea. The Duchess of Law has all the powers of her great constituency at her command. She could destroy whole planets if she wished. The hand of Law is deadly when it serves unthinking destruction rather than justice and creativity. We had hoped Lord Elric ...'
Lord Blare had begun to pace about the room. He was all urgent blue eyes, rattling spurs and jingling harness. 'Much as I enjoy a good chin-wag, gents, I'd remind ye that we're all in immediate danger and our journey here was to seek the help of the Grey Lords, whom we understood these Off-Moo fellers to be.'
'But they can't offer much in the way of practical help, I gather. Gaynor threatens your world, too.' Lord Bragg fingered his mut-tonchops. 'So we must look elsewhere for salvation.'
'Where would you go?' asked Fromental.
'Wherever the moonbeam roads lead us. They are the only way we know to travel between the realms.' Lord Bray seemed almost apologetic. 'With Elric duped and charmed ...'
'Would you teach me to walk those roads if I came with you?' Fromental asked quietly.
'Of course, my friend! ' Lord Renyard responded with a generous yap. A clap of his paw upon Fromental's vast arm. 'I for one would be proud to have the company of a fellow citizen of France! '
'Then I'm your man, monsieur! ' The legionnaire straightened his cap and saluted. He turned to me. 'I hope, my friend, that you don't feel I desert you. My quest was always for Tanelorn. Perhaps in my search I will learn something that will help us all fight Gaynor. Be assured, my friend, if you are ever in danger, I will help you if I can.'
I told him much the same. We shook hands. 'I'd go with you, ' I said, 'only I have sworn to return home as soon as possible. So much is threatened at this moment.'
'We have our separate destinies, ' said Lord Renyard, as if to console us. 'All are threads in the same tapestry. I suspect we shall all meet again. Perhaps in happier circumstances.'
'The Off-Moo are populous and resourceful, even when supernatural forces are brought against them.' Oona stepped amongst the huge, beastlike military dandies to make her own farewells. 'We each serve the Balance best by serving our own realms.' She, too, shook Fromental's hand.
'Do you think Gaynor will attack the city?' asked the big legionnaire.
'This is his story, ' she said a little mysteriously, 'his dream. I would not be entirely surprised if his great campaign has already begun. This is the adventure which will earn him his best-known sobriquet.'
'And what is that?' asked Fromental, trying to smile.
'The Damned, ' she said.
