In a wood older than record, a foster brother of the hills, stood the
village of Allathurion; and there was peace between the people of that
village and all the folk who walked in the dark ways of the wood,
whether they were human or of the tribes of the beasts or of the race
of the fairies and the elves and the little sacred spirits of trees and
streams. Moreover, the village people had peace among themselves and
between them and their lord, Lorendiac. In front of the village was a
wide and grassy space, and beyond this the great wood again, but at the
back the trees came right up to the houses, which, with their great
beams and wooden framework and thatched roofs, green with moss, seemed
almost to be a part of the forest.
Now in the time I tell of, there was trouble in Allathurion, for of an
evening fell dreams were wont to come slipping through the tree trunks
and into the peaceful village; and they assumed dominion of men’s minds
and led them in watches of the night through the cindery plains of
Hell. Then the magician of that village made spells against those fell
dreams; yet still the dreams came flitting through the trees as soon as
the dark had fallen, and led men’s minds by night into terrible places
and caused them to praise Satan openly with their lips.
And men grew afraid of sleep in Allathurion. And they grew worn and
pale, some through the want of rest, and others from fear of the things
they saw on the cindery plains of Hell.
Then the magician of the village went up into the tower of his house,
and all night long those whom fear kept awake could see his window high
up in the night glowing softly alone. The next day, when the twilight
was far gone and night was gathering fast, the magician went away to
the forest’s edge, and uttered there the spell that he had made. And
the spell was a compulsive, terrible thing, having a power over evil
dreams and over spirits of ill; for it was a verse of forty lines in
many languages, both living and dead, and had in it the word wherewith
the people of the plains are wont to curse their camels, and the shout
wherewith the whalers of the north lure the whales shoreward to be
killed, and a word that causes elephants to trumpet; and every one of
the forty lines closed with a rhyme for ‘wasp’.
And still the dreams came flitting through the forest, and led men’s
souls into the plains of Hell. Then the magician knew that the dreams
were from Gaznak. Therefore he gathered the people of the village,
and told them that he had uttered his mightiest spell—a spell having
power over all that were human or of the tribes of the beasts; and that
since it had not availed the dreams must come from Gaznak, the greatest
magician among the spaces of the stars. And he read to the people out
of the Book of Magicians, which tells the comings of the comet and
foretells his coming again. And he told them how Gaznak rides upon the
comet, and how he visits Earth once in every two hundred and thirty
years, and makes for himself a vast, invincible fortress and sends out
dreams to feed on the minds of men, and may never be vanquished but by
the sword Sacnoth.
And a cold fear fell on the hearts of the villagers when they found
that their magician had failed them.
Then spake Leothric, son of the Lord Lorendiac, and twenty years old
was he: ‘Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth?’
And the village magician answered: ‘Fair Lord, no such sword as yet is
wrought, for it lies as yet in the hide of Tharagavverug, protecting
his spine.’
Then said Leothric: ‘Who is Tharagavverug, and where may he be
encountered?’
And the magician of Allathurion answered: ‘He is the dragon-crocodile
who haunts the Northern marshes and ravages the homesteads by their
marge. And the hide of his back is of steel, and his under parts are
of iron; but along the midst of his back, over his spine, there lies a
narrow strip of unearthly steel. This strip of steel is Sacnoth, and it
may be neither cleft nor molten, and there is nothing in the world that
may avail to break it, nor even leave a scratch upon its surface. It
is of the length of a good sword, and of the breadth thereof. Shouldst
thou prevail against Tharagavverug, his hide may be melted away from
Sacnoth in a furnace; but there is only one thing that may sharpen
Sacnoth’s edge, and this is one of Tharagavverug’s own steel eyes; and
the other eye thou must fasten to Sacnoth’s hilt, and it will watch for
thee. But it is a hard task to vanquish Tharagavverug, for no sword can
pierce his hide; his back cannot be broken, and he can neither burn nor
drown. In one way only can Tharagavverug die, and that is by starving.’
Then sorrow fell upon Leothric, but the magician spoke on:
‘If a man drive Tharagavverug away from his food with a stick for three
days, he will starve on the third day at sunset. And though he is not
vulnerable, yet in one spot he may take hurt, for his nose is only of
lead. A sword would merely lay bare the uncleavable bronze beneath, but
if his nose be smitten constantly with a stick he will always recoil
from the pain, and thus may Tharagavverug, to left and right, be driven
away from his food.’
Then Leothric said: ‘What is Tharagavverug’s food?’
And the magician of Allathurion said: ‘His food is men.’
But Leothric went straightway thence, and cut a great staff from a
hazel tree, and slept early that evening. But the next morning, awaking
from troubled dreams, he arose before the dawn, and, taking with him
provisions for five days, set out through the forest northwards towards
the marshes. For some hours he moved through the gloom of the forest,
and when he emerged from it the sun was above the horizon shining on
pools of water in the waste land. Presently he saw the claw-marks of
Tharagavverug deep in the soil, and the track of his tail between them
like a furrow in a field. Then Leothric followed the tracks till he
heard the bronze heart of Tharagavverug before him, booming like a bell.
And Tharagavverug, it being the hour when he took the first meal of the
day, was moving towards a village with his heart tolling. And all the
people of the village were come out to meet him, as it was their wont
to do; for they abode not the suspense of awaiting Tharagavverug and of
hearing him sniffing brazenly as he went from door to door, pondering
slowly in his metal mind what habitant he should choose. And none dared
to flee, for in the days when the villagers fled from Tharagavverug,
he, having chosen his victim, would track him tirelessly, like a doom.
Nothing availed them against Tharagavverug. Once they climbed the trees
when he came, but Tharagavverug went up to one, arching his back and
leaning over slightly, and rasped against the trunk until it fell.
And when Leothric came near, Tharagavverug saw him out of one of his
small steel eyes and came towards him leisurely, and the echoes of his
heart swirled up through his open mouth. And Leothric stepped sideways
from his onset, and came between him and the village and smote him on
the nose, and the blow of the stick made a dint in the soft lead. And
Tharagavverug swung clumsily away, uttering one fearful cry like the
sound of a great church bell that had become possessed of a soul that
fluttered upward from the tombs at night—an evil soul, giving the bell
a voice. Then he attacked Leothric, snarling, and again Leothric leapt
aside, and smote him on the nose with his stick. Tharagavverug uttered
like a bell howling. And whenever the dragon-crocodile attacked him, or
turned towards the village, Leothric smote him again.
So all day long Leothric drove the monster with a stick, and he drove
him farther and farther from his prey, with his heart tolling angrily
and his voice crying out for pain.
Towards evening Tharagavverug ceased to snap at Leothric, but ran
before him to avoid the stick, for his nose was sore and shining;
and in the gloaming the villagers came out and danced to cymbal and
psaltery. When Tharagavverug heard the cymbal and psaltery, hunger and
anger came upon him, and he felt as some lord might feel who was held
by force from the banquet in his own castle and heard the creaking spit
go round and round and the good meat crackling on it. And all that
night he attacked Leothric fiercely, and oft-times nearly caught him in
the darkness; for his gleaming eyes of steel could see as well by night
as by day. And Leothric gave ground slowly till the dawn, and when the
light came they were near the village again; yet not so near to it as
they had been when they encountered, for Leothric drove Tharagavverug
farther in the day than Tharagavverug had forced him back in the night.
Then Leothric drove him again with his stick till the hour came when it
was the custom of the dragon-crocodile to find his man. One third of
his man he would eat at the time he found him, and the rest at noon and
evening. But when the hour came for finding his man a great fierceness
came on Tharagavverug, and he grabbed rapidly at Leothric, but could
not seize him, and for a long while neither of them would retire. But
at last the pain of the stick on his leaden nose overcame the hunger of
the dragon-crocodile, and he turned from it howling. From that moment
Tharagavverug weakened. All that day Leothric drove him with his stick,
and at night both held their ground; and when the dawn of the third day
was come the heart of Tharagavverug beat slower and fainter. It was
as though a tired man was ringing a bell. Once Tharagavverug nearly
seized a frog, but Leothric snatched it away just in time. Towards
noon the dragon-crocodile lay still for a long while, and Leothric
stood near him and leaned on his trusty stick. He was very tired
and sleepless, but had more leisure now for eating his provisions.
With Tharagavverug the end was coming fast, and in the afternoon his
breath came hoarsely, rasping in his throat. It was as the sound of
many huntsmen blowing blasts on horns, and towards evening his breath
came faster but fainter, like the sound of a hunt going furious to
the distance and dying away, and he made desperate rushes towards the
village; but Leothric still leapt about him, battering his leaden nose.
Scarce audible now at all was the sound of his heart: it was like a
church bell tolling beyond hills for the death of some one unknown and
far away. Then the sun set and flamed in the village windows, and a
chill went over the world, and in some small garden a woman sang; and
Tharagavverug lifted up his head and starved, and his life went from
his invulnerable body, and Leothric lay down beside him and slept. And
later in the starlight the villagers came out and carried Leothric,
sleeping, to the village, all praising him in whispers as they went.
They laid him down upon a couch in a house, and danced outside in
silence, without psaltery or cymbal. And the next day, rejoicing, to
Allathurion they hauled the dragon-crocodile. And Leothric went with
them, holding his battered staff; and a tall, broad man, who was smith
of Allathurion, made a great furnace, and melted Tharagavverug away
till only Sacnoth was left, gleaming among the ashes. Then he took one
of the small eyes that had been chiselled out, and filed an edge on
Sacnoth, and gradually the steel eye wore away facet by facet, but ere
it was quite gone it had sharpened redoubtably Sacnoth. But the other
eye they set in the butt of the hilt, and it gleamed there bluely.
And that night Leothric arose in the dark and took the sword, and went
westwards to find Gaznak; and he went through the dark forest till the
dawn, and all the morning and till the afternoon. But in the afternoon
he came into the open and saw in the midst of The Land Where No Man
Goeth the fortress of Gaznak, mountainous before him, little more than
a mile away.
And Leothric saw that the land was marsh and desolate. And the fortress
went up all white out of it, with many buttresses, and was broad below
but narrowed higher up, and was full of gleaming windows with the light
upon them. And near the top of it a few white clouds were floating, but
above them some of its pinnacles reappeared. Then Leothric advanced
into the marshes, and the eye of Tharagavverug looked out warily from
the hilt of Sacnoth; for Tharagavverug had known the marshes well, and
the sword nudged Leothric to the right or pulled him to the left away
from the dangerous places, and so brought him safely to the fortress
walls.
And in the wall stood doors like precipices of steel, all studded with
boulders of iron, and above every window were terrible gargoyles of
stone; and the name of the fortress shone on the wall, writ large in
letters of brass: ‘The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth.’
Then Leothric drew and revealed Sacnoth, and all the gargoyles grinned,
and the grin went flickering from face to face right up into the
cloud-abiding gables.
And when Sacnoth was revealed and all the gargoyles grinned, it was
like the moonlight emerging from a cloud to look for the first time
upon a field of blood, and passing swiftly over the wet faces of the
slain that lie together in the horrible night. Then Leothric advanced
towards a door, and it was mightier than the marble quarry, Sacremona,
from which of old men cut enormous slabs to build the Abbey of the
Holy Tears. Day after day they wrenched out the very ribs of the hill
until the Abbey was builded, and it was more beautiful than anything in
stone. Then the priests blessed Sacremona, and it had rest, and no more
stone was ever taken from it to build the houses of men. And the hill
stood looking southwards lonely in the sunlight, defaced by that mighty
scar. So vast was the door of steel. And the name of the door was The
Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress for War.
Then Leothric smote upon the Porte Resonant with Sacnoth, and the echo
of Sacnoth went ringing through the halls, and all the dragons in the
fortress barked. And when the baying of the remotest dragon had faintly
joined in the tumult, a window opened far up among the clouds below the
twilit gables, and a woman screamed, and far away in Hell her father
heard her and knew that her doom was come.
And Leothric went on smiting terribly with Sacnoth, and the grey steel
of the Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress for War, that was tempered to
resist the swords of the world, came away in ringing slices.
Then Leothric, holding Sacnoth in his hand, went in through the hole
that he had hewn in the door, and came into the unlit, cavernous hall.
An elephant fled trumpeting. And Leothric stood still, holding Sacnoth.
When the sound of the feet of the elephant had died away in the remoter
corridors, nothing more stirred, and the cavernous hall was still.
Presently the darkness of the distant halls became musical with the
sound of bells, all coming nearer and nearer.
Still Leothric waited in the dark, and the bells rang louder and
louder, echoing through the halls, and there appeared a procession of
men on camels riding two by two from the interior of the fortress, and
they were armed with scimitars of Assyrian make and were all clad with
mail, and chain-mail hung from their helmets about their faces, and
flapped as the camels moved. And they all halted before Leothric in the
cavernous hall, and the camel bells clanged and stopped. And the leader
said to Leothric:
‘The Lord Gaznak has desired to see you die before him. Be pleased to
come with us, and we can discourse by the way of the manner in which
the Lord Gaznak has desired to see you die.’
And as he said this he unwound a chain of iron that was coiled upon his
saddle, and Leothric answered:
‘I would fain go with you, for I am come to slay Gaznak.’
Then all the camel-guard of Gaznak laughed hideously, disturbing the
vampires that were asleep in the measureless vault of the roof. And the
leader said:
‘The Lord Gaznak is immortal, save for Sacnoth, and weareth armour that
is proof even against Sacnoth himself, and hath a sword the second most
terrible in the world.’
Then Leothric said: ‘I am the Lord of the sword Sacnoth.’
And he advanced towards the camel-guard of Gaznak, and Sacnoth lifted
up and down in his hand as though stirred by an exultant pulse.
Then the camel-guard of Gaznak fled, and the riders leaned forward
and smote their camels with whips, and they went away with a great
clamour of bells through colonnades and corridors and vaulted halls,
and scattered into the inner darknesses of the fortress. When the
last sound of them had died away, Leothric was in doubt which way to
go, for the camel-guard was dispersed in many directions, so he went
straight on till he came to a great stairway in the midst of the hall.
Then Leothric set his foot in the middle of a wide step, and climbed
steadily up the stairway for five minutes. Little light was there in
the great hall through which Leothric ascended, for it only entered
through arrow slits here and there, and in the world outside evening
was waning fast. The stairway led up to two folding doors, and they
stood a little ajar, and through the crack Leothric entered and tried
to continue straight on, but could get no farther, for the whole room
seemed to be full of festoons of ropes which swung from wall to wall
and were looped and draped from the ceiling. The whole chamber was
thick and black with them. They were soft and light to the touch, like
fine silk, but Leothric was unable to break any one of them, and though
they swung away from him as he pressed forward, yet by the time he
had gone three yards they were all about him like a heavy cloak. Then
Leothric stepped back and drew Sacnoth, and Sacnoth divided the ropes
without a sound, and without a sound the severed pieces fell to the
floor. Leothric went forward slowly, moving Sacnoth in front of him up
and down as he went. When he was come into the middle of the chamber,
suddenly, as he parted with Sacnoth a great hammock of strands, he saw
a spider before him that was larger than a ram, and the spider looked
at him with eyes that were little, but in which there was much sin, and
said:
‘Who are you that spoil the labour of years all done to the honour of
Satan?’
And Leothric answered: ‘I am Leothric, son of Lorendiac.’
And the spider said: ‘I will make a rope at once to hang you with.’
Then Leothric parted another bunch of strands, and came nearer to the
spider as he sat making his rope, and the spider, looking up from his
work, said: ‘What is that sword which is able to sever my ropes?’
And Leothric said: ‘It is Sacnoth.’
Thereat the black hair that hung over the face of the spider parted to
left and right, and the spider frowned; then the hair fell back into
its place, and hid everything except the sin of the little eyes which
went on gleaming lustfully in the dark. But before Leothric could reach
him, he climbed away with his hands, going up by one of his ropes to
a lofty rafter, and there sat, growling. But clearing his way with
Sacnoth, Leothric passed through the chamber, and came to the farther
door; and the door being shut, and the handle far up out of his reach,
he hewed his way through it with Sacnoth in the same way as he had
through the Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress for War. And so Leothric
came into a well-lit chamber, where Queens and Princes were banqueting
together, all at a great table; and thousands of candles were glowing
all about, and their light shone in the wine that the Princes drank
and on the huge gold candelabra, and the royal faces were irradiant
with the glow, and the white table-cloth and the silver plates and the
jewels in the hair of the Queens, each jewel having a historian all to
itself, who wrote no other chronicles all his days. Between the table
and the door there stood two hundred footmen in two rows of one hundred
facing one another. Nobody looked at Leothric as he entered through the
hole in the door, but one of the Princes asked a question of a footman,
and the question was passed from mouth to mouth by all the hundred
footmen till it came to the last one nearest Leothric; and he said to
Leothric, without looking at him:
‘What do you seek here?’
And Leothric answered: ‘I seek to slay Gaznak.’
And footman to footman repeated all the way to the table: ‘He seeks to
slay Gaznak.’
And another question came down the line of footmen: ‘What is your name?’
And the line that stood opposite took his answer back.
Then one of the Princes said: ‘Take him away where we shall not hear
his screams.’
And footman repeated it to footman till it came to the last two, and
they advanced to seize Leothric.
Then Leothric showed to them his sword, saying, ‘This is Sacnoth,’ and
both of them said to the man nearest: ‘It is Sacnoth;’ then screamed
and fled away.
And two by two, all up the double line, footman to footman repeated,
‘It is Sacnoth,’ then screamed and fled, till the last two gave the
message to the table, and all the rest had gone. Hurriedly then arose
the Queens and Princes, and fled out of the chamber. And the goodly
table, when they were all gone, looked small and disorderly and awry.
And to Leothric, pondering in the desolate chamber by what door he
should pass onwards, there came from far away the sounds of music, and
he knew that it was the magical musicians playing to Gaznak while he
slept.
Then Leothric, walking towards the distant music, passed out by the
door opposite to the one through which he had cloven his entrance, and
so passed into a chamber vast as the other, in which were many women,
weirdly beautiful. And they all asked him of his quest, and when they
heard that it was to slay Gaznak, they all besought him to tarry among
them, saying that Gaznak was immortal, save for Sacnoth, and also that
they had need of a knight to protect them from the wolves that rushed
round and round the wainscot all the night and sometimes broke in upon
them through the mouldering oak. Perhaps Leothric had been tempted to
tarry had they been human women, for theirs was a strange beauty, but
he perceived that instead of eyes they had little flames that flickered
in their sockets, and knew them to be the fevered dreams of Gaznak.
Therefore he said:
‘I have a business with Gaznak and with Sacnoth,’ and passed on through
the chamber.
And at the name of Sacnoth those women screamed, and the flames of
their eyes sank low and dwindled to sparks.
And Leothric left them, and, hewing with Sacnoth, passed through the
farther door.
Outside he felt the night air on his face, and found that he stood upon
a narrow way between two abysses. To left and right of him, as far as
he could see, the walls of the fortress ended in a profound precipice,
though the roof still stretched above him; and before him lay the two
abysses full of stars, for they cut their way through the whole Earth
and revealed the under sky; and threading its course between them went
the way, and it sloped upward and its sides were sheer. And beyond the
abysses, where the way led up to the farther chambers of the fortress,
Leothric heard the musicians playing their magical tune. So he stepped
on to the way, which was scarcely a stride in width, and moved along
it holding Sacnoth naked. And to and fro beneath him in each abyss
whirred the wings of vampires passing up and down, all giving praise to
Satan as they flew. Presently he perceived the dragon Thok lying upon
the way, pretending to sleep, and his tail hung down into one of the
abysses.
And Leothric went towards him, and when he was quite close Thok rushed
at Leothric.
And he smote deep with Sacnoth, and Thok tumbled into the abyss,
screaming, and his limbs made a whirring in the darkness as he fell,
and he fell till his scream sounded no louder than a whistle and then
could be heard no more. Once or twice Leothric saw a star blink for an
instant and reappear again, and this momentary eclipse of a few stars
was all that remained in the world of the body of Thok. And Lunk, the
brother of Thok, who had lain a little behind him, saw that this must
be Sacnoth and fled lumbering away. And all the while that he walked
between the abysses, the mighty vault of the roof of the fortress still
stretched over Leothric’s head, all filled with gloom. Now, when the
further side of the abyss came into view, Leothric saw a chamber that
opened with innumerable arches upon the twin abysses, and the pillars
of the arches went away into the distance and vanished in the gloom to
left and right.
Far down the dim precipice on which the pillars stood he could see
windows small and closely barred, and between the bars there showed at
moments, and disappeared again, things that I shall not speak of.
There was no light here except for the great Southern stars that shone
below the abysses, and here and there in the chamber through the arches
lights that moved furtively without the sound of footfall.
Then Leothric stepped from the way, and entered the great chamber.
Even to himself he seemed but a tiny dwarf as he walked under one of
those colossal arches.
The last faint light of evening flickered through a window painted in
sombre colours commemorating the achievements of Satan upon Earth. High
up in the wall the window stood, and the streaming lights of candles
lower down moved stealthily away.
Other light there was none, save for a faint blue glow from the steel
eye of Tharagavverug that peered restlessly about it from the hilt of
Sacnoth. Heavily in the chamber hung the clammy odour of a large and
deadly beast.
Leothric moved forward slowly with the blade of Sacnoth in front of him
feeling for a foe, and the eye in the hilt of it looking out behind.
Nothing stirred.
If anything lurked behind the pillars of the colonnade that held aloft
the roof, it neither breathed nor moved.
The music of the magical musicians sounded from very near.
Suddenly the great doors on the far side of the chamber opened to left
and right. For some moments Leothric saw nothing move, and waited
clutching Sacnoth. Then Wong Bongerok came towards him, breathing.
This was the last and faithfullest guard of Gaznak, and came from
slobbering just now his master’s hand.
More as a child than a dragon was Gaznak wont to treat him, giving him
often in his fingers tender pieces of man all smoking from his table.
Long and low was Wong Bongerok, and subtle about the eyes, and he came
breathing malice against Leothric out of his faithful breast, and
behind him roared the armoury of his tail, as when sailors drag the
cable of the anchor all rattling down the deck.
And well Wong Bongerok knew that he now faced Sacnoth, for it had been
his wont to prophesy quietly to himself for many years as he lay curled
at the feet of Gaznak.
And Leothric stepped forward into the blast of his breath, and lifted
Sacnoth to strike.
But when Sacnoth was lifted up, the eye of Tharagavverug in the butt of
the hilt beheld the dragon and perceived his subtlety.
For he opened his mouth wide, and revealed to Leothric the ranks of
his sabre teeth, and his leather gums flapped upwards. But while
Leothric made to smite at his head, he shot forward scorpion-wise over
his head the length of his armoured tail. All this the eye perceived
in the hilt of Sacnoth, who smote suddenly sideways. Not with the
edge smote Sacnoth, for, had he done so, the severed end of the tail
had still come hurtling on, as some pine tree that the avalanche has
hurled point foremost from the cliff right through the broad breast of
some mountaineer. So had Leothric been transfixed; but Sacnoth smote
sideways with the flat of his blade, and sent the tail whizzing over
Leothric’s left shoulder; and it rasped upon his armour as it went, and
left a groove upon it. Sideways then at Leothric smote the foiled tail
of Wong Bongerok, and Sacnoth parried, and the tail went shrieking up
the blade and over Leothric’s head. Then Leothric and Wong Bongerok
fought sword to tooth, and the sword smote as only Sacnoth can, and the
evil faithful life of Wong Bongerok the dragon went out through the
wide wound.
Then Leothric walked on past that dead monster, and the armoured
body still quivered a little. And for a while it was like all the
ploughshares in a county working together in one field behind tired and
struggling horses; then the quivering ceased, and Wong Bongerok lay
still to rust.
And Leothric went on to the open gates, and Sacnoth dripped quietly
along the floor.
By the open gates through which Wong Bongerok had entered, Leothric
came into a corridor echoing with music. This was the first place from
which Leothric could see anything above his head, for hitherto the roof
had ascended to mountainous heights and had stretched indistinct in the
gloom. But along the narrow corridor hung huge bells low and near to
his head, and the width of each brazen bell was from wall to wall, and
they were one behind the other. And as he passed under each the bell
uttered, and its voice was mournful and deep, like to the voice of a
bell speaking to a man for the last time when he is newly dead. Each
bell uttered once as Leothric came under it, and their voices sounded
solemnly and wide apart at ceremonious intervals. For if he walked
slow, these bells came closer together, and when he walked swiftly they
moved farther apart. And the echoes of each bell tolling above his head
went on before him whispering to the others. Once when he stopped they
all jangled angrily till he went on again.
Between these slow and boding notes came the sound of the magical
musicians. They were playing a dirge now very mournfully.
And at last Leothric came to the end of the Corridor of the Bells, and
beheld there a small black door. And all the corridor behind him was
full of the echoes of the tolling, and they all muttered to one another
about the ceremony; and the dirge of the musicians came floating slowly
through them like a procession of foreign elaborate guests, and all of
them boded ill to Leothric.
The black door opened at once to the hand of Leothric, and he found
himself in the open air in a wide court paved with marble. High over it
shone the moon, summoned there by the hand of Gaznak.
There Gaznak slept, and around him sat his magical musicians, all
playing upon strings. And, even sleeping, Gaznak was clad in armour,
and only his wrists and face and neck were bare.
But the marvel of that place was the dreams of Gaznak; for beyond the
wide court slept a dark abyss, and into the abyss there poured a white
cascade of marble stairways, and widened out below into terraces and
balconies with fair white statues on them, and descended again in a
wide stairway, and came to lower terraces in the dark, where swart
uncertain shapes went to and fro. All these were the dreams of Gaznak,
and issued from his mind, and, becoming gleaming marble, passed over
the edge of the abyss as the musicians played. And all the while out
of the mind of Gaznak, lulled by that strange music, went spires and
pinnacles beautiful and slender, ever ascending skywards. And the
marble dreams moved slow in time to the music. When the bells tolled
and the musicians played their dirge, ugly gargoyles came out suddenly
all over the spires and pinnacles, and great shadows passed swiftly
down the steps and terraces, and there was hurried whispering in the
abyss.
When Leothric stepped from the black door, Gaznak opened his eyes. He
looked neither to left nor right, but stood up at once facing Leothric.
Then the magicians played a deathspell on their strings, and there
arose a humming along the blade of Sacnoth as he turned the spell
aside. When Leothric dropped not down, and they heard the humming of
Sacnoth, the magicians arose and fled, all wailing, as they went, upon
their strings.
Then Gaznak drew out screaming from its sheath the sword that was the
mightiest in the world except for Sacnoth, and slowly walked towards
Leothric; and he smiled as he walked, although his own dreams had
foretold his doom. And when Leothric and Gaznak came together, each
looked at each, and neither spoke a word; but they smote both at once,
and their swords met, and each sword knew the other and from whence he
came. And whenever the sword of Gaznak smote on the blade of Sacnoth
it rebounded gleaming, as hail from off slated roofs; but whenever it
fell upon the armour of Leothric, it stripped it off in sheets. And
upon Gaznak’s armour Sacnoth fell oft and furiously, but ever he came
back snarling, leaving no mark behind, and as Gaznak fought he held his
left hand hovering close over his head. Presently Leothric smote fair
and fiercely at his enemy’s neck, but Gaznak, clutching his own head by
the hair, lifted it high aloft, and Sacnoth went cleaving through an
empty space. Then Gaznak replaced his head upon his neck, and all the
while fought nimbly with his sword; and again and again Leothric swept
with Sacnoth at Gaznak’s bearded neck, and ever the left hand of Gaznak
was quicker than the stroke, and the head went up and the sword rushed
vainly under it.
And the ringing fight went on till Leothric’s armour lay all round him
on the floor and the marble was splashed with his blood, and the sword
of Gaznak was notched like a saw from meeting the blade of Sacnoth.
Still Gaznak stood unwounded and smiling still.
At last Leothric looked at the throat of Gaznak and aimed with Sacnoth,
and again Gaznak lifted his head by the hair; but not at his throat
flew Sacnoth, for Leothric struck instead at the lifted hand, and
through the wrist of it went Sacnoth whirring, as a scythe goes through
the stem of a single flower.
And bleeding, the severed hand fell to the floor; and at once blood
spurted from the shoulders of Gaznak and dripped from the fallen head,
and the tall pinnacles went down into the earth, and the wide fair
terraces all rolled away, and the court was gone like the dew, and a
wind came and the colonnades drifted thence, and all the colossal halls
of Gaznak fell. And the abysses closed up suddenly as the mouth of a
man who, having told a tale, will for ever speak no more.
Then Leothric looked around him in the marshes where the night mist was
passing away, and there was no fortress nor sound of dragon or mortal,
only beside him lay an old man, wizened and evil and dead, whose head
and hand were severed from his body.
And gradually over the wide lands the dawn was coming up, and ever
growing in beauty as it came, like to the peal of an organ played by a
master’s hand, growing louder and lovelier as the soul of the master
warms, and at last giving praise with all its mighty voice.
Then the birds sang, and Leothric went homeward, and left the marshes
and came to the dark wood, and the light of the dawn ascending lit
him upon his way. And into Allathurion he came ere noon, and with him
brought the evil wizened head, and the people rejoiced, and their
nights of trouble ceased.
* * * * * * *
This is the tale of the vanquishing of The Fortress Unvanquishable,
Save For Sacnoth, and of its passing away, as it is told and believed
by those who love the mystic days of old.
Others have said, and vainly claim to prove, that a fever came to
Allathurion, and went away; and that this same fever drove Leothric
into the marshes by night, and made him dream there and act violently
with a sword.
And others again say that there hath been no town of Allathurion, and
that Leothric never lived.
Peace to them. The gardener hath gathered up this autumn’s leaves. Who
shall see them again, or who wot of them? And who shall say what hath
befallen in the days of long ago?