The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Moorcock Michael

Author:Moorcock, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Published: 2022-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN Revelations in a Rose Garden

THE CAVE STRETCHED for miles under the mountains. The deeper they penetrated, the colder it became. Their way was lit only by the torches they carried and by the few others they found still fixed to brackets in the cold limestone. Every few hundred metres were well-appointed posts, deserted as the guards went to the empress’s aid. As the hours progressed, the lizards felt it worst of all and grew steadily more sluggish. Their riders were forced to bring the torches in closer and to beat their mount’s extremities, to warm their heavy reptilian bodies.

At a signal from Empress Melaré, the party came to a stop in a high-roofed cathedral-like intersection from which six other tunnels branched. She murmured a few words to Shirizha, who agreed, and they started down one of the tunnels without further debate. Some of the cattle were already ahead, lumbering down this tunnel.

Melaré laughed. “They are more anxious to get home than we are!”

When Moonglum asked Shirizha where the other tunnels led, he was told simply, “To a maze,” with skimpy elaboration. “They’ll not manage the maze without help from one of us or powerful magic that will probably not work. That is the nature of affirmation. Magic is very weak here. I believe they’ll hold off beginning any other attack until spring. Thanks to this maze those predatory dogs cannot follow us, even if they wished to.”

“This is the only safe road through the mountains,” Melaré told him. “The unsafe ones which are above are mere trails and are very treacherous. They can only be crossed on foot. This is known as the Honey Road. Traders use it every year. Usually they are met by our people and are blindfolded before continuing. Our city is rich, thanks to our Great Well.” She told him how they and their Phoorn allies had fled from the Cold Hunters, the Fhoimoor Elder Gods who proudly called themselves Snake-slayers. “They sought to kill all our reptiles. They hated them, called them demons, including the Phoorn, who were not true reptiles at all, but a species of their own. They were driven by the Cold Hunters into this realm, discovering a way through the rock to the next plane. We, too, were lucky, building our city during a lull in the interminable battling, and able to resist and ultimately defeat the Fhoimoor when they came again into this plane. We found a spring in a fissure in the rock. Around this and another spring we built our impregnable city, fed by the twin springs, one of which became a well and the other remained the spring which feeds our mighty moat! The hill contained a deep crater at its centre, and around this we built up our city and the Temple at her heart. Before Kirinmoir and its Temple were complete, the Cold Hunters came after us again. The Phoorn fled into the Temple and down deep under the city’s foundations and were trapped there.

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