Revenge of the Rose Read Free

had the bones of
the tale from a reliable source. A lady. And discretion demands I not reveal
her name. Oh, sir! Oh, sir! What a magnificent moment this is for us, when
metaphor becomes commonplace reality and the daily round runs into a thing of
Fantasy and Myth …”
                 Scarcely
hearing the little man’s nonsense, Elric continued towards the town.
                 “Why,
sir, what an extraordinary depression in yonder field,” said Wheldrake
suddenly, interrupting his own verse. “Do you see it, sir? That shape, as if
some huge beast presses the corn? Is such a phenomenon common in these parts,
sir?”
                 Elric
glanced casually across the corn and was bound to agree that it had, indeed,
been forced down across quite a broad area, and not by any obvious human
agency. He reined in again, frowning. “I’m a stranger here, also. Perhaps some
ceremony takes place, which causes the corn to bend so …”
                 At
which there came a sudden snort, which shook the ground under their feet and
half-deafened them. It was as if the field itself had discovered a voice.
                 “Is
this odd, to you, sir?” Wheldrake asked, his fingers upon his chin. “It’s
damned odd to me.”
                 Elric
found his hand straying towards the hilt of his runesword. There was a stink in
the air which he recognized yet could not at that moment place.
                 Then
there came a kind of crack, a roll like distant thunder, a sigh that filled the
air and must have been heard by the whole town below, and then Elric knew
suddenly how Wheldrake had entered this realm when he had no real business in
it, for here was the creature who had actually created the lightning, bringing
Wheldrake in its wake. Here was something supernatural broken through the
dimensions to confront him.
                 The
horses began to dance and scream. The mare carrying Wheldrake reared and tried
to break from her harness, tangling with the reins of her partner and sending
Wheldrake once more tumbling to the ground, while out of the unripe corn, like
some sentient manifestation of the Earth herself, all tumbling stones and rich
soil and clots of poppies and half the contents of the field, growing taller
and taller and shaking itself free of what had buried it, rose an enormous
reptile, with slender snout, gleaming greens and reds; razor teeth; saliva
hissing as it struck the ground; faint smoky breath streaming from its flaring
nostrils, while a long, thick scaly tail lashed behind it, uprooting shrubs and
further ruining the crop upon which that metropolitan wealth was based. There
came another clap like thunder and a leathery wing stretched upwards then
descended with a noise only a little more bearable than the accompanying stink;
then the other wing rose; then fell. It was as if the dragon were being forced
from some great, earthen womb—forced through the dimensions, through walls
which were physical as well as supernatural; it struggled and raged to be free.
It lifted its strangely beautiful head and it shrieked again and heaved again;
and its slender claws, sharper and longer than any sword, clashed and flickered
in the fading light.
                 Wheldrake,
scrambling to his feet, began to run unceremoniously towards the town and Elric
could do nothing else but let his pack animals run with him. The albino was
left confronting a monster in no doubt on whom it wished to exercise its anger.
Already its sinuous body moved with a kind of monumental grace as it turned to
glare down at Elric. It snapped suddenly and Elric was crashing to the ground,
blood pumping hugely from his horse’s torso as the beast’s remains collapsed
onto the track. The albino rolled and came up quickly, Stormbringer growling
and whispering in his hand, the black runes glowing the length of the blade and
the black radiance flickering up and down its