Slungandi and the shard of the Talyoran: chapter 28 of The Talyoran

 

After leaving Onskabâ, Slungandi retreated in indignation to his chamber, which was situated beside the long curving passage leading down from the Upper Halls to Onskabâ. Seating himself upon a stone chair beneath a flaring lamp of blue coldfire, he undid the rags of the ruined drum Brandubur and drew forth the long keen sliver of crystal that broke from the Talyoran, all that remained to him of it — Ilgutalyoran, the child of the Talyoran. He laid aside the broken drum and placed the child of the Talyoran upon his knees. He breathed on it, laid both hands on it, drew it up to his forehead and bent his thought upon it. Laying it down on the ground, he made a rune of wielding:

Sporni I name you, starcrystal’s child,

And for key craft you, closed doors to pass,

And as gad beget, to goad the doomed,

To thrust down throngs, and to thwart tyrants!

Slungandi took Sporni, the shard of the Talyoran, in his gloved hands and gloated over it. 

Slungandi knew that the mother Talyoran was hidden in some deep cranny of the mountain. He reckoned that if he followed the pointing of the child Talyoran Sporni, he would eventually find her. But she was safely hidden from Melyúnas under running water. He guessed that Melyúnas would soon detect Sporni on the move and, thinking he was the whole Talyoran, would try to seize him. When that happened, he, Slungandi the cunning Drumster of the Deep, would be ready for him.

Slungandi made his way out of Kapgar Kûm along the Eastern Incline. No one had passed that way since Groiznath had locked the Stonegiants out. Slungandi removed the bolts from their supporting staples and set them down on the floor against the walls. Then he pushed open the gates. It was a fine night. The stars would show the way. He spoke the closing rune:

Mathúr natyulemef!

And the gates swung to. It was many years before they were opened. No one walked the Eastern Incline again. In the long years that followed, it became a place of dread where an unknown horror lurked.

Slungandi took the track that led down to the Giants’ Road. Here the fighting had been intense, and the trees were hacked and burnt and the bushes trampled. Near the ancient yew where the track joined the Road, the Kabadri had been at work, burying the fallen Giants. Mounds of raw earth stretched away into the distance. That was a mournful place.

Slungandi turned down the Giants’ Road. His journey took him several nights and days. After many miles he left the high road and travelled south towards the Forest of Nanôr, which lay in the midst of the Greenmarch, the Berufarána separating the northlands from the lands of the Hyûvandri in the south.