The War Hound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock Read Free Book Online Page B

and going to the shelves, where He replaced the book.
    He moved with grace and offered the impression of exquisite sadness in His every gesture. It was possible to see how this being had been God’s favourite and that He was surely the Fallen One, destroyed by Pride and now humbled but unable to achieve His place in Heaven.
    I believe that I told Him I was at His service. I could not check the words, although I recovered myself sufficiently to deny, mentally, the implications of what I said. I was desperately attempting to secure my reason.
    He seemed to know this and was sympathetic. His sympathy, of course, was also disarming and had to be ignored.
    He answered my words as if I had offered them voluntarily:
    “I wish to strike a bargain with you, Captain von Bek.”
    Lucifer smiled, as if in self-mockery:
    “You are intelligent and brave and do not deny the truth of what you have become.”
    “The truth—” I began, with some difficulty, “is not—is not …”
    He appeared not to hear. “That is why I told my servant Sabrina to bring you to me. I need the help of an adult human being. One without prejudice. One with considerable experience. One who is used to translating thought into determined action. One who is not given to habits of fearfulness and hesitation. Such people are scarce, always, in the world.”
    Now my tongue was not thickened. I was allowed to speak. I said: “It seems so to me, also, Prince Lucifer. But you do not describe me. I am but a poor specimen of mankind.”
    “Let us say you are the best available to the likes of me.”
    A little of my wit returned. “I believe you think you flatter me, Your Majesty.”
    “Not so. I see virtue everywhere. I see virtue in you, Captain von Bek.”
    I smiled. “You are supposed to recognize evil and wickedness and appeal to those qualities.”
    Lucifer shook His head. “That is what humankind detects in me: the desire to find examples for their own base instincts. Many believe that if they discover an example it somehow exonerates them from responsibility. I am invested with many terrible traits, captain. But I, too, possess many virtues. It is the secret of my power and, to a degree, your own. Did you know that?”
    “I did not, Your Majesty.”
    “But you understand me?”
    “I believe that I do.”
    “I am asking you to serve me.”
    “You must have far more powerful men and women than I at your command.”
    Lucifer reseated Himself behind the desk. He seemed to give His full attention to every word that I uttered now. And this in itself, of course, was flattering to me.
    “Powerful,” He replied, “certainly. Many of them. In the way in which power is measured upon the Earth. Most of the Holy Church is mine now; but that’s a fact well-known to thinking people. A majority of princes belong to me. Scholars serve me. Poets serve me. The commanders of armies and navies serve me. You would think that I am satisfied, eh? There have rarely been so many in my service. But I have few such as you, von Bek.”
    “That I cannot believe, Your Majesty. Bloody-handed soldiers abound in these times.”
    “And always have. But few with your quality. Few who act with the full knowledge of what they are and what they do.”
    “Is it a virtue to know that you are a butcher, a thief? That you are ruthless and without altruism of any kind?”
    “I believe so. But then I am Lucifer.” Again the self-mockery.
    Sabrina curtseyed again. “My Lord, shall I leave?”
    “Aye,” said Lucifer. “I think so, my dear. I will return the captain to you in due course, I promise.”
    The witch withdrew. I wondered if I had been abandoned forever by Sabrina, now that she had served her purpose. I tried to stare back at the creature who called Himself Lucifer, but to look into those melancholy, terrible eyes was too much for me. I directed my attention to the window. Through it I could see the mass of trees that were the great forest. I attempted to focus on this