Gantzor was the longest and mightiest sword that was ever forged in the Midworld. Only a slight blow from his blade brought instant icesleep. No need was there to wield him like an ordinary sword. But only Dreygan might wield him, and only Dreygan might determine his effect. So great was Gantzor that, in after days when Slungandi bore him about, he was constrained to wear him at his back. Having put much virtue into the making of Gantzor, Dreygan was drained of all energy. He sank exhausted into his frosty sleeping chamber and slept the day away. The Falakkazri and the runewives, too, had lost all their vigour and stole away to their resting places.
Only Slungandi was alert and brimming with fury at the breaking and loss of the Talyoran and the destruction of Brandubur. He determined to serve the Frostgiant no longer. Indeed, his only purpose for doing so, to have his protection while he enjoyed the wrongful possession of the Talyoran, was gone. And it was Dreygan who had put the Talyoran beyond his grasp. He was beside himself with the desire to revenge himself on Dreygan. It might take time, but he would do it. Meanwhile, he had the shard of the Talyoran, and he meant to discover what virtues remained in it.
On the morrow of the forging of Gantzor the Fellgiants mounted their final assault upon the upper gate of Kapgar Kûm. With their overwhelming forces, they stormed the defences, and the few remaining Stonegiants fell before them. Mivgâ alone stood at bay at the top of the slope leading into the heart of the stronghold. He prepared to make a last stand.
Suddenly above the noise of weapon on armour a mighty roar was heard:
Coldsword Gantzor the Great is come
To feed Dagangri with frozen death!
Fôafáma! Fall under Gantzor!
Then Dreygan burst from the passage, his hair and beard bristling, grasping a round white shield in his left hand and brandishing the great Coldsword Gantzor over his head in his right hand. His onslaught was so sudden that the Fellgiants drew back in surprise. But when they saw that he was alone they quickly rallied. Yet Gantzor was not like other swords. He had no need to bite, hew, or stab deeply. A blow of his blade instantly caused frozen sleep to seize the one smitten. Dreygan went hither and thither among his foes, skilfully warding off their blows with his shield, and dealing one stroke after another. At every impact a Fellgiant stiffened, seeming to turn to ice, and fell helplessly to the ground on the field of battle. The sight of their comrades falling like frozen images here and there on the mountaintop filled the Fellgiants with panic. They turned and ran from Dreygan, but in no way did he give over his assault. He pursued them down the narrow mountain path, smiting and hewing, until not one Fellgiant was left upright, and the sides of Hogunoth were strewn with frostbound figures, lying like broken statues.
Dreygan returned exultant from the rout of the Fellgiants scarcely out of breath. He continued to bellow and brandish Gantzor. Mivgâ, the last surviving Stonegiant, who, weary from months of desperate battle, had watched Dreygan’s onslaught leaning on his sword, approached him.
‘You are greatly to be honoured, Lord Dreygan, for forging that wondrous weapon, and for wielding it with such admirable results. Your coming is most welcome, though it is a little late in the day, for I am now the only Stonegiant still alive, as you are the only Frostgiant!’
But Dreygan replied:
‘Bah! Where were the Stonegiants when the Fellgiants mowed down my folk in the far Northlands? On a trumped-up campaign against the Entellári that came to nothing! And how did they come to be shut out of their own stronghold? What kind of generalship is that, eh, Mivgâ the gatekeeper? Almost you should have a taste of Gantzor that would stay in your mouth for a long time!’
Mivgâ, the last of the Stonegiants, drew himself up, glared at Dreygan, then turned his back and marched out of Kapgar Kûm. He did not return there till the last day of his life. Instead, he went straight to his desolated home, Higatigna, and set about restoring it. Then, with the assistance of the Kabadri of Karún Kabdath, he performed the burials of his fallen fellow Stonegiants in the Giants’ garth that lies at the turning of the path from the East Gate into the Giants’ Road.
Dreygan ignored him. He continued to exult in Gantzor, the bloodless conqueror, the fatal striker, essence of the breath of Firungwáfi.
Meantime Slungandi counselled the Falakkazri to harness goatbeasts to great wains and convey the fallen Fellgiants down the great curving main road of Kapgar Kûm into the empty caverns beyond Onskabâ, where they could lie entombed in ice until some mighty ûthéga should set them free, or the world should end.
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