The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories

  The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth

  In a wood older than record, a foster brother of the hills, stoodthe village of Allathurion; and there was peace between the peopleof that village and all the folk who walked in the dark ways of thewood, whether they were human or of the tribes of the beasts or ofthe race of the fairies and the elves and the little sacred spiritsof trees and streams. Moreover, the village people had peace amongthemselves and between them and their lord, Lorendiac. In front ofthe village was a wide and grassy space, and beyond this the greatwood again, but at the back the trees came right up to the houses,which, with their great beams and wooden framework and thatchedroofs, 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 ofan evening fell dreams were wont to come slipping through the treetrunks and into the peaceful village; and they assumed dominion ofmen's minds and led them in watches of the night through the cinderyplains of Hell. Then the magician of that village made spellsagainst those fell dreams; yet still the dreams came flittingthrough the trees as soon as the dark had fallen, and led men'sminds by night into terrible places and caused them to praise Satanopenly with their lips.

  And men grew afraid of sleep in Allathurion. And they grew worn andpale, some through the want of rest, and others from fear of thethings they saw on the cindery plains of Hell.

  Then the magician of the village went up into the tower of hishouse, and all night long those whom fear kept awake could see hiswindow high up in the night glowing softly alone. The next day, whenthe twilight was far gone and night was gathering fast, the magicianwent away to the forest's edge, and uttered there the spell that hehad made. And the spell was a compulsive, terrible thing, having apower over evil dreams and over spirits of ill; for it was a verseof forty lines in many languages, both living and dead, and had init the word wherewith the people of the plains are wont to cursetheir camels, and the shout wherewith the whalers of the north lurethe whales shoreward to be killed, and a word that causes elephantsto 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'ssouls into the plains of Hell. Then the magician knew that thedreams were from Gaznak. Therefore he gathered the people of thevillage, and told them that he had uttered his mightiest spell--aspell having power over all that were human or of the tribes of thebeasts; and that since it had not availed the dreams must come fromGaznak, the greatest magician among the spaces of the stars. And heread to the people out of the Book of Magicians, which tells thecomings of the comet and foretells his coming again. And he toldthem how Gaznak rides upon the comet, and how he visits Earth oncein every two hundred and thirty years, and makes for himself a vast,invincible fortress and sends out dreams to feed on the minds ofmen, and may never be vanquished but by the sword Sacnoth.

  And a cold fear fell on the hearts of the villagers when they foundthat their magician had failed them.

  Then spake Leothric, son of the Lord Lorendiac, and twenty years oldwas he: 'Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth?'

  And the village magician answered: 'Fair Lord, no such sword as yetis wrought, for it lies as yet in the hide of Tharagavverug,protecting his spine.'

  Then said Leothric: 'Who is Tharagavverug, and where may he beencountered?'

  And the magician of Allathurion answered: 'He is the dragon-crocodilewho haunts the Northern marshes and ravages the homesteadsby their marge. And the hide of his back is of steel, and his underparts 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 isSacnoth, and it may be neither cleft nor molten, and there isnothing in the world that may avail to break it, nor even leave ascratch upon its surface. It is of the length of a good sword, andof the breadth thereof. Shouldst thou prevail against Tharagavverug,his hide may be melted away from Sacnoth in a furnace; but there isonly one thing that may sharpen Sacnoth's edge, and this is one ofTharagavverug's own steel eyes; and the other eye thou must fastento Sacnoth's hilt, and it will watch for thee. But it is a hard taskto vanquish Tharagavverug, for no sword can pierce his hide; hisback cannot be broken, and he can neither burn nor drown. In one wayonly 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 forthree days, he will starve on the third day at sunset. And though heis not vulnerable, yet in one spot he may take hurt, for his nose isonly of lead. A sword would merely lay bare the uncleavable bronzebeneath, but if his nose be smitten constantly with a stick he willalways recoil from the pain, and thus may Tharagavverug, to left andright, 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 ahazel tree, and slept early that evening. But the next morning,awaking from troubled dreams, he arose before the dawn, and, takingwith him provisions for five days, set out through the forestnorthwards towards the marshes. For some hours he moved through thegloom of the forest, and when he emerged from it the sun was abovethe horizon shining on pools of water in the waste land. Presentlyhe saw the claw-marks of Tharagavverug deep in the soil, and thetrack of his tail between them like a furrow in a field. ThenLeothric followed the tracks till he heard the bronze heart ofTharagavverug before him, booming like a bell.

  And Tharagavverug, it being the hour when he took the first meal ofthe day, was moving towards a village with his heart tolling. Andall the people of the village were come out to meet him, as it wastheir wont to do; for they abode not the suspense of awaitingTharagavverug and of hearing him sniffing brazenly as he went fromdoor to door, pondering slowly in his metal mind what habitant heshould choose. And none dared to flee, for in the days when thevillagers fled from Tharagavverug, he, having chosen his victim,would track him tirelessly, like a doom. Nothing availed themagainst Tharagavverug. Once they climbed the trees when he came, butTharagavverug went up to one, arching his back and leaning overslightly, and rasped against the trunk until it fell. And whenLeothric came near, Tharagavverug saw him out of one of his smallsteel eyes and came towards him leisurely, and the echoes of hisheart swirled up through his open mouth. And Leothric steppedsideways from his onset, and came between him and the village andsmote him on the nose, and the blow of the stick made a dint in thesoft lead. And Tharagavverug swung clumsily away, uttering onefearful cry like the sound of a great church bell that had becomepossessed of a soul that fluttered upward from the tombs at night--anevil soul, giving the bell a voice. Then he attacked Leothric,snarling, and again Leothric leapt aside, and smote him on the nosewith his stick. Tharagavverug uttered like a bell howling. Andwhenever the dragon-crocodile attacked him, or turned towards thevillage, Leothric smote him again.

  So all day long Leothric drove the monster with a stick, and he drovehim farther and farther from his prey, with his heart tollingangrily and his voice crying out for pain.

  Towards evening Tharagavverug ceased to snap at Leothric, but ranbefore him to avoid the stick, for his nose was sore and shining;and in the gloaming the villagers came out and danced to cymbal andpsaltery. When Tharagavverug heard the cymbal and psaltery, hungerand anger came upon him, and he felt as some lord might feel who washeld by force from the banquet in his own castle and heard thecreaking spit go round and round and the good meat crackling on it.And all that night he attacked Leothric fiercely, and oft-timesnearly caught him in the darkness; for his gleaming eyes of steelcould see as well by night as by day. And Leothric gave groundslowly till the dawn, and when the light came they were near thevillage again; yet not so near to it as they had been when theyencountered, for Leothric drove Tharagavverug farther in the daythan Tharagavverug had forced him back in the night. Then Leothricdrove him again
with his stick till the hour came when it was thecustom of the dragon-crocodile to find his man. One third of his manhe would eat at the time he found him, and the rest at noon andevening. But when the hour came for finding his man a greatfierceness came on Tharagavverug, and he grabbed rapidly atLeothric, but could not seize him, and for a long while neither ofthem would retire. But at last the pain of the stick on his leadennose overcame the hunger of the dragon-crocodile, and he turned fromit howling. From that moment Tharagavverug weakened. All that dayLeothric drove him with his stick, and at night both held theirground; and when the dawn of the third day was come the heart ofTharagavverug beat slower and fainter. It was as though a tired manwas ringing a bell. Once Tharagavverug nearly seized a frog, butLeothric snatched it away just in time. Towards noon thedragon-crocodile lay still for a long while, and Leothric stood nearhim and leaned on his trusty stick. He was very tired and sleepless,but had more leisure now for eating his provisions. WithTharagavverug the end was coming fast, and in the afternoon hisbreath came hoarsely, rasping in his throat. It was as the sound ofmany huntsmen blowing blasts on horns, and towards evening his breathcame faster but fainter, like the sound of a hunt going furious tothe distance and dying away, and he made desperate rushes towardsthe village; but Leothric still leapt about him, battering hisleaden 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 someone unknown and far away. Then the sun set and flamed in the villagewindows, and a chill went over the world, and in some small garden awoman sang; and Tharagavverug lifted up his head and starved, andhis life went from his invulnerable body, and Leothric lay downbeside him and slept. And later in the starlight the villagers cameout and carried Leothric, sleeping, to the village, all praising himin whispers as they went. They laid him down upon a couch in ahouse, and danced outside in silence, without psaltery or cymbal.And the next day, rejoicing, to Allathurion they hauled thedragon-crocodile. And Leothric went with them, holding his batteredstaff; and a tall, broad man, who was smith of Allathurion, made agreat furnace, and melted Tharagavverug away till only Sacnoth wasleft, gleaming among the ashes. Then he took one of the small eyesthat had been chiselled out, and filed an edge on Sacnoth, andgradually the steel eye wore away facet by facet, but ere it wasquite gone it had sharpened redoubtably Sacnoth. But the other eyethey set in the butt of the hilt, and it gleamed there bluely.

  And that night Leothric arose in the dark and took the sword, andwent westwards to find Gaznak; and he went through the dark foresttill the dawn, and all the morning and till the afternoon. But inthe afternoon he came into the open and saw in the midst of TheLand Where No Man Goeth the fortress of Gaznak, mountainous beforehim, little more than a mile away.

  And Leothric saw that the land was marsh and desolate. And thefortress went up all white out of it, with many buttresses, and wasbroad below but narrowed higher up, and was full of gleamingwindows with the light upon them. And near the top of it a few whiteclouds were floating, but above them some of its pinnaclesreappeared. Then Leothric advanced into the marshes, and the eye ofTharagavverug looked out warily from the hilt of Sacnoth; forTharagavverug had known the marshes well, and the sword nudgedLeothric to the right or pulled him to the left away from thedangerous places, and so brought him safely to the fortress walls.

  And in the wall stood doors like precipices of steel, all studdedwith boulders of iron, and above every window were terriblegargoyles of stone; and the name of the fortress shone on the wall,writ large in letters of brass: 'The Fortress Unvanquishable, SaveFor Sacnoth.'

  Then Leothric drew and revealed Sacnoth, and all the gargoylesgrinned, and the grin went flickering from face to face right upinto the cloud-abiding gables.

  And when Sacnoth was revealed and all the gargoyles grinned, it waslike the moonlight emerging from a cloud to look for the first timeupon a field of blood, and passing swiftly over the wet faces of theslain that lie together in the horrible night. Then Leothricadvanced towards a door, and it was mightier than the marble quarry,Sacremona, from which of old men cut enormous slabs to build theAbbey of the Holy Tears. Day after day they wrenched out the veryribs of the hill until the Abbey was builded, and it was morebeautiful than anything in stone. Then the priests blessedSacremona, and it had rest, and no more stone was ever taken from itto build the houses of men. And the hill stood looking southwardslonely in the sunlight, defaced by that mighty scar. So vast wasthe 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 theecho of Sacnoth went ringing through the halls, and all the dragonsin the fortress barked. And when the baying of the remotest dragonhad faintly joined in the tumult, a window opened far up among theclouds below the twilit gables, and a woman screamed, and far awayin Hell her father heard her and knew that her doom was come.

  And Leothric went on smiting terribly with Sacnoth, and the greysteel of the Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress for War, that wastempered to resist the swords of the world, came away in ringingslices.

  Then Leothric, holding Sacnoth in his hand, went in through the holethat he had hewn in the door, and came into the unlit, cavernoushall.

  An elephant fled trumpeting. And Leothric stood still, holdingSacnoth. When the sound of the feet of the elephant had died away inthe remoter corridors, nothing more stirred, and the cavernous hallwas still.

  Presently the darkness of the distant halls became musical with thesound of bells, all coming nearer and nearer.

  Still Leothric waited in the dark, and the bells rang louder andlouder, echoing through the halls, and there appeared a processionof men on camels riding two by two from the interior of thefortress, and they were armed with scimitars of Assyrian make andwere all clad with mail, and chain-mail hung from their helmetsabout their faces, and flapped as the camels moved. And they allhalted before Leothric in the cavernous hall, and the camel bellsclanged and stopped. And the leader said to Leothric:

  'The Lord Gaznak has desired to see you die before him. Be pleasedto come with us, and we can discourse by the way of the manner inwhich the Lord Gaznak has desired to see you die.'

  And as he said this he unwound a chain of iron that was coiled uponhis 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 thevampires that were asleep in the measureless vault of the roof. Andthe leader said:

  'The Lord Gaznak is immortal, save for Sacnoth, and weareth armourthat is proof even against Sacnoth himself, and hath a sword thesecond 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 Sacnothlifted up and down in his hand as though stirred by an exultantpulse. Then the camel-guard of Gaznak fled, and the riders leanedforward and smote their camels with whips, and they went away with agreat clamour of bells through colonnades and corridors and vaultedhalls, and scattered into the inner darknesses of the fortress. Whenthe last sound of them had died away, Leothric was in doubt whichway to go, for the camel-guard was dispersed in many directions, sohe went straight on till he came to a great stairway in the midst ofthe hall. Then Leothric set his foot in the middle of a wide step,and climbed steadily up the stairway for five minutes. Little lightwas there in the great hall through which Leothric ascended, for itonly entered through arrow slits here and there, and in the worldoutside evening was waning fast. The stairway led up to two foldingdoors, and they stood a little ajar, and through the crack Leothricentered and tried to continue straight on, but could get no farther,for the whole room seemed to be full of festoons of ropes whichswung from wall to wall and were looped and draped from the ceiling.The whole chamber was thick and black with them. They were soft andlight to the touch, like fine silk, but Leothric was unable to breakany one of them, and though they
swung away from him as he pressedforward, yet by the time he had gone three yards they were all abouthim like a heavy cloak. Then Leothric stepped back and drew Sacnoth,and Sacnoth divided the ropes without a sound, and without a soundthe severed pieces fell to the floor. Leothric went forward slowly,moving Sacnoth in front of him up and down as he went. When he wascome into the middle of the chamber, suddenly, as he parted withSacnoth a great hammock of strands, he saw a spider before him thatwas larger than a ram, and the spider looked at him with eyes thatwere little, but in which there was much sin, and said:

  'Who are you that spoil the labour of years all done to the honourof 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 tothe spider as he sat making his rope, and the spider, looking upfrom his work, said: 'What is that sword which is able to sever myropes?'

  And Leothric said: 'It is Sacnoth.'

  Thereat the black hair that hung over the face of the spider partedto left and right, and the spider frowned; then the hair fell backinto its place, and hid everything except the sin of the little eyeswhich went on gleaming lustfully in the dark. But before Leothriccould reach him, he climbed away with his hands, going up by one ofhis ropes to a lofty rafter, and there sat, growling. But clearinghis way with Sacnoth, Leothric passed through the chamber, and cameto the farther door; and the door being shut, and the handle far upout of his reach, he hewed his way through it with Sacnoth in thesame way as he had through the Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress forWar. And so Leothric came into a well-lit chamber, where Queens andPrinces were banqueting together, all at a great table; andthousands of candles were glowing all about, and their light shonein the wine that the Princes drank and on the huge gold candelabra,and the royal faces were irradiant with the glow, and the whitetable-cloth and the silver plates and the jewels in the hair of theQueens, each jewel having a historian all to itself, who wrote noother chronicles all his days. Between the table and the door therestood two hundred footmen in two rows of one hundred facing oneanother. Nobody looked at Leothric as he entered through the hole inthe door, but one of the Princes asked a question of a footman, andthe question was passed from mouth to mouth by all the hundredfootmen till it came to the last one nearest Leothric; and he saidto 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 seeksto slay Gaznak.'

  And another question came down the line of footmen: 'What is yourname?'

  And the line that stood opposite took his answer back.

  Then one of the Princes said: 'Take him away where we shall not hearhis screams.'

  And footman repeated it to footman till it came to the last two, andthey 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;' thenscreamed 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 themessage to the table, and all the rest had gone. Hurriedly thenarose the Queens and Princes, and fled out of the chamber. And thegoodly table, when they were all gone, looked small and disorderlyand awry. And to Leothric, pondering in the desolate chamber by whatdoor he should pass onwards, there came from far away the sounds ofmusic, and he knew that it was the magical musicians playing toGaznak while he slept.

  Then Leothric, walking towards the distant music, passed out by thedoor opposite to the one through which he had cloven his entrance,and so passed into a chamber vast as the other, in which were manywomen, weirdly beautiful. And they all asked him of his quest, andwhen they heard that it was to slay Gaznak, they all besought him totarry among them, saying that Gaznak was immortal, save for Sacnoth,and also that they had need of a knight to protect them from thewolves that rushed round and round the wainscot all the night andsometimes broke in upon them through the mouldering oak. PerhapsLeothric had been tempted to tarry had they been human women, fortheirs was a strange beauty, but he perceived that instead of eyesthey had little flames that flickered in their sockets, and knewthem to be the fevered dreams of Gaznak. Therefore he said:

  'I have a business with Gaznak and with Sacnoth,' and passed onthrough the chamber.

  And at the name of Sacnoth those women screamed, and the flames oftheir eyes sank low and dwindled to sparks.

  And Leothric left them, and, hewing with Sacnoth, passed through thefarther door.

  Outside he felt the night air on his face, and found that he stoodupon a narrow way between two abysses. To left and right of him, asfar as he could see, the walls of the fortress ended in a profoundprecipice, though the roof still stretched above him; and before himlay the two abysses full of stars, for they cut their way throughthe whole Earth and revealed the under sky; and threading its coursebetween them went the way, and it sloped upward and its sides weresheer. And beyond the abysses, where the way led up to the fartherchambers of the fortress, Leothric heard the musicians playing theirmagical tune. So he stepped on to the way, which was scarcely astride in width, and moved along it holding Sacnoth naked. And toand fro beneath him in each abyss whirred the wings of vampirespassing 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 Thokrushed 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 andthen could be heard no more. Once or twice Leothric saw a star blinkfor an instant and reappear again, and this momentary eclipse of afew 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, sawthat this must be Sacnoth and fled lumbering away. And all the whilethat he walked between the abysses, the mighty vault of the roof ofthe fortress still stretched over Leothric's head, all filled withgloom. Now, when the further side of the abyss came into view,Leothric saw a chamber that opened with innumerable arches upon thetwin abysses, and the pillars of the arches went away into thedistance and vanished in the gloom to left and right.

  Far down the dim precipice on which the pillars stood he could seewindows small and closely barred, and between the bars there showedat moments, and disappeared again, things that I shall not speak of.

  There was no light here except for the great Southern stars thatshone below the abysses, and here and there in the chamber throughthe arches lights that moved furtively without the sound offootfall.

  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 ofthose colossal arches.

  The last faint light of evening flickered through a window paintedin sombre colours commemorating the achievements of Satan uponEarth. High up in the wall the window stood, and the streaminglights of candles lower down moved stealthily away.

  Other light there was none, save for a faint blue glow from thesteel eye of Tharagavverug that peered restlessly about it from thehilt of Sacnoth. Heavily in the chamber hung the clammy odour of alarge and deadly beast.

  Leothric moved forward slowly with the blade of Sacnoth infront of him feeling for a foe, and the eye in the hilt of it lookingout behind.

  Nothing stirred.

  If anything lurked behind the pillars of the colonnade that heldaloft 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 toleft and right. For some moments Leothric saw nothing mo
ve, andwaited clutching Sacnoth. Then Wong Bongerok came towards him,breathing.

  This was the last and faithfullest guard of Gaznak, and came fromslobbering just now his master's hand.

  More as a child than a dragon was Gaznak wont to treat him, givinghim often in his fingers tender pieces of man all smoking from histable.

  Long and low was Wong Bongerok, and subtle about the eyes, and hecame breathing malice against Leothric out of his faithful breast,and behind him roared the armoury of his tail, as when sailors dragthe cable of the anchor all rattling down the deck.

  And well Wong Bongerok knew that he now faced Sacnoth, for it hadbeen his wont to prophesy quietly to himself for many years as helay curled at the feet of Gaznak.

  And Leothric stepped forward into the blast of his breath, andlifted Sacnoth to strike.

  But when Sacnoth was lifted up, the eye of Tharagavverug in the buttof the hilt beheld the dragon and perceived his subtlety.

  For he opened his mouth wide, and revealed to Leothric the ranks ofhis sabre teeth, and his leather gums flapped upwards. But whileLeothric made to smite at his head, he shot forward scorpion-wiseover his head the length of his armoured tail. All this the eyeperceived in the hilt of Sacnoth, who smote suddenly sideways. Notwith the edge smote Sacnoth, for, had he done so, the severed end ofthe tail had still come hurtling on, as some pine tree that theavalanche has hurled point foremost from the cliff right through thebroad breast of some mountaineer. So had Leothric been transfixed;but Sacnoth smote sideways with the flat of his blade, and sent thetail whizzing over Leothric's left shoulder; and it rasped upon hisarmour as it went, and left a groove upon it. Sideways then atLeothric 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 thesword smote as only Sacnoth can, and the evil faithful life of WongBongerok the dragon went out through the wide wound.

  Then Leothric walked on past that dead monster, and the armouredbody still quivered a little. And for a while it was like all theploughshares in a county working together in one field behind tiredand struggling horses; then the quivering ceased, and Wong Bongeroklay still to rust.

  And Leothric went on to the open gates, and Sacnoth dripped quietlyalong the floor.

  By the open gates through which Wong Bongerok had entered, Leothriccame into a corridor echoing with music. This was the first placefrom which Leothric could see anything above his head, for hithertothe roof had ascended to mountainous heights and had stretchedindistinct in the gloom. But along the narrow corridor hung hugebells low and near to his head, and the width of each brazen bellwas from wall to wall, and they were one behind the other. And as hepassed under each the bell uttered, and its voice was mournful anddeep, like to the voice of a bell speaking to a man for the lasttime when he is newly dead. Each bell uttered once as Leothric cameunder it, and their voices sounded solemnly and wide apart atceremonious intervals. For if he walked slow, these bells camecloser together, and when he walked swiftly they moved fartherapart. And the echoes of each bell tolling above his head went onbefore him whispering to the others. Once when he stopped they alljangled angrily till he went on again.

  Between these slow and boding notes came the sound of the magicalmusicians. 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 himwas full of the echoes of the tolling, and they all muttered to oneanother about the ceremony; and the dirge of the musicians camefloating slowly through them like a procession of foreign elaborateguests, and all of them boded ill to Leothric.

  The black door opened at once to the hand of Leothric, and he foundhimself in the open air in a wide court paved with marble. High overit shone the moon, summoned there by the hand of Gaznak.

  There Gaznak slept, and around him sat his magical musicians, allplaying 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 beyondthe wide court slept a dark abyss, and into the abyss there poured awhite cascade of marble stairways, and widened out below intoterraces and balconies with fair white statues on them, anddescended again in a wide stairway, and came to lower terraces inthe dark, where swart uncertain shapes went to and fro. All thesewere the dreams of Gaznak, and issued from his mind, and, becominggleaming marble, passed over the edge of the abyss as the musiciansplayed. And all the while out of the mind of Gaznak, lulled by thatstrange music, went spires and pinnacles beautiful and slender, everascending skywards. And the marble dreams moved slow in time to themusic. 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, andthere 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 facingLeothric.

  Then the magicians played a deathspell on their strings, and therearose a humming along the blade of Sacnoth as he turned the spellaside. When Leothric dropped not down, and they heard the humming ofSacnoth, the magicians arose and fled, all wailing, as they went,upon their strings.

  Then Gaznak drew out screaming from its sheath the sword that wasthe mightiest in the world except for Sacnoth, and slowly walkedtowards Leothric; and he smiled as he walked, although his owndreams had foretold his doom. And when Leothric and Gaznak cametogether, each looked at each, and neither spoke a word; but theysmote both at once, and their swords met, and each sword knew theother and from whence he came. And whenever the sword of Gaznaksmote on the blade of Sacnoth it rebounded gleaming, as hail fromoff slated roofs; but whenever it fell upon the armour of Leothric,it stripped it off in sheets. And upon Gaznak's armour Sacnoth felloft and furiously, but ever he came back snarling, leaving no markbehind, and as Gaznak fought he held his left hand hovering closeover his head. Presently Leothric smote fair and fiercely at hisenemy's neck, but Gaznak, clutching his own head by the hair, liftedit high aloft, and Sacnoth went cleaving through an empty space.Then Gaznak replaced his head upon his neck, and all the whilefought nimbly with his sword; and again and again Leothric sweptwith Sacnoth at Gaznak's bearded neck, and ever the left hand ofGaznak was quicker than the stroke, and the head went up and thesword rushed vainly under it.

  And the ringing fight went on till Leothric's armour lay all roundhim on the floor and the marble was splashed with his blood, and thesword of Gaznak was notched like a saw from meeting the blade ofSacnoth. Still Gaznak stood unwounded and smiling still.

  At last Leothric looked at the throat of Gaznak and aimed withSacnoth, and again Gaznak lifted his head by the hair; but not athis throat flew Sacnoth, for Leothric struck instead at the liftedhand, and through the wrist of it went Sacnoth whirring, as a scythegoes through the stem of a single flower.

  And bleeding, the severed hand fell to the floor; and at once bloodspurted from the shoulders of Gaznak and dripped from the fallenhead, and the tall pinnacles went down into the earth, and the widefair terraces all rolled away, and the court was gone like the dew,and a wind came and the colonnades drifted thence, and all thecolossal halls of Gaznak fell. And the abysses closed up suddenly asthe mouth of a man who, having told a tale, will for ever speak nomore.

  Then Leothric looked around him in the marshes where the night mistwas passing away, and there was no fortress nor sound of dragon ormortal, 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 evergrowing in beauty as it came, like to the peal of an organ played bya master's hand, growing louder and lovelier as the soul of themaster warms, and at last giving praise with all its mighty voice.

  Then the birds sang, and Leothric
went homeward, and left themarshes and came to the dark wood, and the light of the dawnascending lit him upon his way. And into Allathurion he came erenoon, and with him brought the evil wizened head, and the peoplerejoiced, 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 andbelieved by those who love the mystic days of old.

  Others have said, and vainly claim to prove, that a fever came toAllathurion, and went away; and that this same fever drove Leothricinto the marshes by night, and made him dream there and actviolently 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 whathath befallen in the days of long ago?