Slungandi returned to Hlund with the Falakkazri and the runewives. They unloaded half of the provisions: the part allotted to the Kabadri. Then the Falakkazri came to him and said:
‘These foodstuffs, these fruits and herbs, these are the last load that we will labour with. We shall no longer endure to be treated as your servants to carry goods back and forth between Hlund and Valkamet and Kapgar Kûm. When we return to Kapgar Kûm with your goods we shall wait upon the Lord Dreygan, and the runewives shall assist him to cast the runes for whatever purpose he may wish. Perhaps he will make a mighty weapon that will win the war.’
Thereupon they helped the runewives to get upon their skulldeer, mounted themselves, and rode away to the hidden doorway into Kapgar Kûm. They were not seen above ground again for many years.
Slungandi let them go. He knew that Murnag ta-Valka had caused her runewives to pay court to the Falakkazri. He also guessed that Melyúnas had incited Murnag to do this. Why? To turn the Falakkazri from their present loyalty, for he could see that their homage to Dreygan was only lip service; to make them an extension of his stealthily widening hidden realm; to plant a seed of that realm inside Kapgar Kûm. The Talyoran, which Melyúnas greatly desired, was there. Slungandi had hidden it under running water to prevent Melyúnas from perceiving it by means of his hidden arts. Nevertheless, Melyúnas must have guessed in what place it lay, since he knew that Slungandi was servant to Dreygan. If the Fellgiants prevailed in the wars, and captured the stronghold, they would without doubt welcome Melyúnas as a visitor. Then he could get his servants to search for the Talyoran, and even if it took years, he would find it in the end.
Slungandi did not wish the Talyoran to come into the hands of Melyúnas or of any other. It was a most beautiful, wondrous, and powerful crystal. It could do much good; it should not be used for Melyúnas’s ends, which were domination, darkness, and the Deep. But where was Melyúnas? And what of the two fair youths, about whom Murnag could not forbear boasting when Slungandi met her in Valkamet. Surely they were his sons? And, now, no doubt, they were going about his business.
Slungandi turned the head of his hideous mount towards the fâligna of the Melainë of Zorthin. That people went up and down in the world and saw many things.
‘A third time I ask for your aid, O Kerorkîn Melainen! Have you and your brothers seen aught of the great Melyúnas, benefactor of Hyûvandri and Doitherúna alike?’
‘We have seen no benefactor, O Slungandi the wise. We have seen malevolent Gangri making war, for the first time in Thrâyeldim. We have seen greedy traders bartering food for golden trinkets at Valkamet. We have seen our estranged half-brothers the Falakkazri galloping on gaunt skulldeer, each with a cunning runewife before him. We have seen a great Doitherán in dark robes walking the northern hills with two youths, one disfigured and hairless, the other handsome. We have seen the ugly youth entering the Forest of Nanôr but not returning. And we have seen the dark-robed one pointing out the hills of Hlund to the handsome youth. We have seen that youth clambering in those hills, looking in vain for a hidden rift in the earth where a fast river runs that enters the roots of the Dagnath Nebren. And we know where it is, though not whither the river runs. It us called Hrútwe Klesek, the Hidden Cleft, and by these signs you can find it, as the youth could not, for he returned to the dark-robed one.’
Then Kerorkîn gave Slungandi the earth tokens by which he should recognize the approaches to Hrútwe Klesek.
Then Slungandi had a sudden inkling as to where the course of the underground river led, and why Groiznath sought for it. He thanked Kerorkîn heartily. Now he knew that his task was to find Groiznath and get into his company. But he had also a prior task: an errand to Nanôr. And he sped there on the back of his skulldeer.
No comments:
Post a Comment