Lord Gho glared at him. "Thief, if you would recover yourself, if you would take the antidote to make you free of the drug I gave you, you will be more polite to me..."

"Ah, yes," said Elric thoughtfully, reaching into his jerkin. He pulled out a leather pouch. "The elixir which was to make me your slave!" He smiled. He opened the pouch.

Onto his extended palm now rolled the jewel for which Gho Fhaazi had offered half his fortune, for which he had sent a hundred men to their deaths, for which he had been prepared to abduct and kill one child and imprison another.

The Quarzhasaati began to tremble. His painted eyes rounded. He gasped and bent forward, almost fainting.

"It is true," he said. "You have found the Pearl at the Heart of the World..."

"Merely a gift from a friend," said Elric. The Pearl still displayed on his hand, he rose to his feet and put a protective arm around the boy. "In obtaining it I found that my body lost its demand for the elixir and therefore has no need for your antidote, Lord Gho."

Lord Gho hardly heard him. His eyes were fixed on the great Pearl. "It is monstrous big... Even larger than I had heard... It is real. I can see it is real. The colour... Ah..." And he stretched towards it.

Elric drew his hand back. Lord Gho frowned and looked up at the albino with eyes that were hot with greed. "Did she die? Was it, as some said, in her body?"

Anigh shivered at Elric's side.

Full of loathing, Elric's voice was still soft. "No one died at my hand who was not already dead. As you are already dead, my lord. It was your funeral I witnessed at the Silver Flower Oasis. I am now the agent of the Bauradim prophecy. I am to avenge all the grief you brought to them and their Holy Girl."

"What? The others all sent their soldiers, too! The entire Council and half the candidates had sects of Sorcerer Adventurers seeking the Pearl. Every one. Most of those warriors failed or were killed. Or were executed for their failure. You killed no one, you said. Well, so there's no blood on your hands, eh. All's for the best. I'll give you what I promised, Sir Thief..."

Trembling with lust, Lord Gho extended his plump hand to take the Pearl.

Elric smiled and to Anigh's astonishment let the nobleman lift the Pearl from his palm.

Breathing heavily, Lord Gho caressed his prize. "Oh, it is lovely. Oh, it is so good..."

Elric spoke again, just as levelly as before. "And our reward, Lord Gho?"

"What?" He looked up absently. "Why yes, of course. Your lives. You no longer need the antidote, you say. Excellent. So you may go."

"I believe you also offered me a large fortune. All manner of wealth. Great stature amongst the lords of Quarzhasaat?"

Lord Gho dismissed this. "Nonsense. The antidote would have sufficed. You are not the type of person to enjoy such things. Breeding is required if they are to be used wisely and with appropriate discretion. No, no. I will let you and the boy go..."

"You will not keep your original bargain, my lord?"

"There was talk-but no bargain. The only bargain involved the boy's freedom and the antidote to the elixir. You were mistaken."

"You remember nothing of your promises...?"

"Promises? Certainly not." The ringletted beard and hair quivered.

"...and mine?"

"No, no. You are irritating me." His eyes were still upon the Pearl. He fondled it as another might fondle a beloved child. "Go, sir. While I am still pleased with you."

"I have many oaths to fulfill," said Elric, "and I do not break my word."

Lord Gho looked up, his expression hardening. "Very well. I am tired of this. By this evening I shall be a member of the Six and One Other. By threatening me, you threaten the Council. You are therefore enemies of Quarzhasaat. You are traitors to the Empire and must be disposed of accordingly! Guards!"

"Oh, you are a foolish fellow," said Elric. Then Anigh cried out, for unlike Lord Gho, he had not forgotten the power of the Black Sword.

"Do as he demands, Lord Gho!" shouted Anigh, fearing as much for himself as for the nobleman. "I beg you, great lord! Do what he says!"

"This is not how a member of the Council is addressed." Lord Gho's tone was that of a baffled, reasonable individual. "Guards-take them from my hall at once. Have them strangled or cut their throats-I care not..."

The guards knew nothing of the runesword. They saw only a slender man who might have been a leper and they saw a young, defenceless boy. They grinned, as if at a joke of their master's, and then drew their blades, advancing almost casually.

Elric pressed Anigh behind him. His hand went to Stormbringer's hilt. "You are unwise to do this," he told the guards. "I have no particular wish to kill you."

Behind the soldiers one of the servants opened the door and slipped out into the corridor. Elric watched her go. "Best copy her," he said. "She has some idea, I think, of what will happen if you threaten us further..."

The guards laughed openly now. "This is a madman," said one. "Lord Gho is well rid of him!"

They came at Elric in a rush and then the runesword was howling in the cool air of that luxurious chamber-howling like a hungry wolf freed from a cage and longing only to kill and to feed.

Elric felt the power surge through him as the blade took the first guard, splitting him from crown to breastbone. The other tried to change direction from attack to flight, stumbled forward and was impaled on the blade's tip, his eyes horrified as he felt his soul being drawn from him into the runesword.

Lord Gho cringed in his great chair, too frightened to move. In one hand he clutched the great Pearl. His other hand was held palm outward as if he hoped to ward off Elric's blow.

But the albino, strengthened by his borrowed energy, sheathed the black blade and took five quick strides across the hall to mount the dais and stare down into Lord Gho's face, which twisted in terror.

'Take the Pearl back. For my life..." whispered the Quarzhasaati. "For my life, thief..."

Elric accepted the offered jewel, but he did not move. He reached into the pouch at his belt and drew forth a flask of the elixir Lord Gho had given him. "Would you care for something to help you wash it down?"

Lord Gho trembled. Beneath the chalky substance on his skin his face had gone still paler. "I do not understand you, thief."

"I want you to eat the Pearl, my lord. If you can swallow it and live, well, it will be clear that the prophecy of your death was premature."

"Swallow it? It is too large. I could hardly get it into my mouth!" Lord Gho sniggered, hoping that the albino joked.

"No, my lord. I think you can. And I think you can swallow it. After all, how else would it have got into the body of a child?"

"It was-they said it was a-a dream..."

"Aye. Perhaps you can swallow a dream. Perhaps you can enter the Dream Realm and so escape your fate. You must try, my lord, or else my runesword drinks your soul. Which would you prefer?"

"Oh, Elric. Spare me. This is not fair. We made a bargain."

"Open your mouth, Lord Gho. Who knows? The Pearl might shrink or your throat expand like a snake's. A snake could easily swallow the Pearl, my lord. And you, surely, are superior to a snake?"

Anigh whispered from the window where he had been staring with studied gaze, unwilling to look upon a vengeance he regarded as just but distasteful. "The servant, Lord Elric. She has alarmed the city."

For a second a desperate hope came into Lord Gho's green eyes and then faded as Elric placed the flask on the arm of the great chair and drew the runesword part-way from its scabbard. "Your soul will help me fight those new soldiers, Lord Oho."

Slowly, weeping and whimpering, the great Lord of Quarzhasaat began to open his mouth.

"Here is the Pearl again, my lord. Put it in. Do your best, my lord. You have some chance of life this way."