(eng) Michael Moorcock - Von Bek 03 by The City in the Autumn Stars

Author:The City in the Autumn Stars [Stars, The City in the Autumn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Reverses, Advances & Revelations. In which the Mittelmarch is discussed and described. The City in the Autumn Stars.

GREY EVENING CAME and we flew amongst the great silent mountains. The Duchess of Crete, holding her pistol steady, reached up with her left hand to push back the hood and pull loose her domino. I watched eagerly for any sign in her handsome, heavy features that she held me in some kind of affection. ‘Libussa.’ We were never lovers, yet because of her I was everywhere in unmapped country, both corporeal and spiritual. ‘Libussa.’

No longer laughing, she acknowledged me with a flicker of her concentrated eye.

‘Madam,’ said St Odhran in an angry murmur. ‘There’s no need for this melodrama!’

Carefully, Libussa uncocked the pistol and placed it at her feet. ‘The need’s past, I agree. For now you’ve kept your bargain with me.’ And she stretched, all of a sudden, and yawned as if only just awake. ‘You dealt with me through Hoehenheim the lawyer and I supplied your aspirant gas!’

St Odhran was piqued. With disapproval and dismay he regarded the huge surrounding peaks, then his lips parted. There was astonishment on his face. He peered towards the west. Following his gaze I saw a line of pink behind the far crags. The line broadened. Klosterheim and my Duchess showed no surprise at all. It was less than half an hour since the sun set – now it rose again! I looked wildly at the compass and remembered it was reversed, which was a small comfort. We now stared east. The pink spread into gold and pale yellow and I required no further evidence that we had truly entered a Magic Kingdom whose reality I had so recently dismissed. I looked out upon those terrific crags with renewed curiosity. Far below were thin silver threads of rivers: ribbons of dark green that were valleys. Did ordinary folk live there or were these the haunts of trolls and hobgoblins? From believing nothing I was now disposed to accept anything!

The sun, when he emerged, brazen and blinding above the peaks, was our same, familiar sun. We observed no dragons or hippogriffs, only a few swallows diving in the air currents below. The morning was considerably warmer; so much so that we were soon removing our outer clothing. St Odhran was lost in himself, far from reconciled to Libussa’s thwarting counterplay with the dragoon pistol, yet evidently excited by the adventure itself. Klosterheim merely leaned upon the edge and noted familiar landmarks to his companion, who paid him scant attention.

Crosswinds pushed us this way and that between the mountains, as if we were steered by Talus’s gentle fingers, until we were drifting over high valleys whose meadows were entirely free of snow and which were filled with late Summer flowers. The seasons, too, were mirror-reflections of our own. Otherwise we might be in Switzerland or returned to the Carpathians. The heating air was sweet and lazy; a balm to the troublesome humours which had beset me for so many weeks.

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