He was Elric, sometimes called Kinslayer, former emperor of unhuman Melniboné, until lately the dominant power in the world. The tall man was well known in the North and West hemispheres but not well liked. The disc of the sun was halfway below the horizon now, its light cutting a red road across the unbroken surface of the sea. The men took the place of the women at the rail. The dignified women acknowledged the pair and passed gracefully down the companionway, returning to their cabin belowdecks. Lowering their hands, the priestesses turned, surprised to see the men, who bowed politely.

They had been in time to glimpse the last of the apparition. His long head with its slightly tapering ears and slanting brows was as remarkable as his sharp, glittering ruby-coloured eyes. Any casual observer would know that he was not quite human. His tall companion was clad in black silk and black leather, hair the colour of milk, skin pale as the thinnest bleached linen. He wore a quilted maroon jacket and deerskin breeks tucked into soft boots.

One was short, with a shock of startling red hair, a ruddy complexion, large blue eyes and a wide, smiling mouth. As they completed their ritual, two men came up from the passenger quarters below. They began to chant their final evening ritual and now saw a great shadow in the form of a sword-bearing woman, the shape preferred by their deity in Ko, appear in the sky overhead. The captain understood them to be pledged to some sort of mission on behalf of their patroness, the Queen of the Swords. The priestesses were Lady Andra and Lady Indra of the Temple of Xiombarg in far Ko. There, in the soft depths of the sky, they detected a movement and, bowed in contemplation, listened to the distant hungry roar greeting the coming of darkness with godlike glee. On deck, two dignified priestesses of Xiombarg, wearing elaborate ceremonial quilted habits with glinting bronze crowns, stood expectantly at the ship’s rail as, softly, they called a prayer to their patron and then peered suddenly upwards. It cast long complicated shadows across a strangely wrought ship whose reflective brass flashed like eyes everywhere in the rigging. THE SUN, RIMMED in copper now and bloated as if with blood, settled upon the horizon. Chapter One: Over the Edge ONE Over the Edge

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