When he departed from Fúdrofûr, Slungandi had not gone far. He had alighted on a nearby mountaintop to await the outcome of the encounter between the frostgiant and the fellgiant. Now that it was over he invoked the virtue of the dragonhide wings for the last time, for the power of the drop of starfire that was on them was waning. He took to the air and glided back to the top of Zôyeglummi. He considered thoughtfully that Gantzor the Coldsword might be his possession, to command and control whomever he wished.
Slungandi, master of wiles, alighted on the top of Zôyeglummi. He surveyed the ruin of Fûbrinnig and the still forms of Fúdrofûr the Fellgiant and Dreygan the Frostgiant lying near by. His satisfaction turned at once to dismay when he saw that Gantzor the Coldsword was not lying on the field of combat as he had expected it to be. He began to search the mountaintop, scrambling among the fallen stones of the dwelling Fûbrinnig, lifting rocks to look beneath, but found nothing. All too soon, he saw the hawk-head visors of the two Netári as they reached the head of the stone stair, and knew that he now had no weapon mighty enough to withstand them and no power of wings to escape them. His wits must be his weapon. For he guessed at the one thing that they could not know: that the fellgiant’s daughters had made off with Gantzor, and if he could evade the Netári, he could yet find a means to wrest it from those Gyúgri.
For their part, the hawk-headed ones shed no tears over the downfall of Dreygan, their former master. They too desired to get Gantzor: for their true master, the Lord of Ombros. They stood and perceived all that had happened and searched the barren top of the Glass Mountain with their keen eyes. They saw Slungandi advancing but no sign of Gantzor. Straight away the thought came to them that Slungandi had taken Gantzor for himself and hidden it. They gripped their staves harder.
Slungandi thought to draw out Sporni, but did not do so. It had power only in proximity. The Netári pointed at him with their staves crossed. Slungandi made a gesture of obeisance with his head, and put on a tone of respect.
Doleful is downfall of Dreygan the great!
Slungandi hastes to help Hawk-helms
To bury Frostgiant’s bones fittingly.
The Netári stepped closer. They did not conceal their scorn. Angash, the chieftain, spoke:
Trick Netári no traitor can.
The truth reached us: you enticed the worm
Loosed and led him through long pathways
To feast on fruit till his final breath.
Slungandi’s cheat has achieved our end.
But now Deep’s Drumster shall drink his fill
Of Netáka bale, if blade Gantzor
He yield not now: shall know torment.
Then Slungandi said:
By the nine staves Slungandi swears
This hour he mounted the mountain-summit,
Found Fúdrofûr and fated Dreygan
And fellgiant’s spear: no sword Gantzor.
Unseen robber or eagle spying
Or fellgiant’s slave might steal that sword.
Why seek the blade? Smith has perished,
Coldsword’s wielder from world departed.
Angash said:
Slungandi prates of past guardians
But knows naught of the new dominion.
The end has come for age of giants.
A prince rises to rule the peoples:
Gantzor the great you shall get for him.
That sovereign sword shall Slungandi seek
For Night’s Master, or be made naught.
Slungandi said (but thought otherwise):
Slungandi swears his sole allegiance
To the mighty lord. His lone labour
Shall be to bring the coldsword to Kapgar Kûm.
Angash said:
A weak witness is word of trickster:
Negobith’s brand is a better bond
To bind Drumster to the Deep Lord.
And with that, the Falakkazri brought down their staves upon Slungandi’s shoulders, crying:
Kagdar-kî kathû-mikhan-dâ ikhtafis-kûr bridzatungubith! Receive the yoke of Negobith till the Night release you!
Momentarily the neck and shoulders of Slungandi burned with a crippling pain, so that he could scarcely stand; but he willed not to bow before them. When the pain ceased he knew that he had been branded with the yoke of a new master, though he could see no more than the very edges of the purple mark on his shoulders.
Then the Falakkazri commanded him. There was no sound of a voice. In his head Slungandi heard their words and knew that he must comply.
First he buried the body of Fúdrofûr. He piled over him the fallen stones of the fellgiant’s house Fûbrinnig. With great labour above that he built a cairn there on the top of Zôyeglummi. He fixed upright above it Tonxor the spear of Fúdrofûr. The great stone lintel of the doorway he set upon the base of the cairn. He breathed upon the stone, and taking Sporni, at the instruction of Angash he traced in writing this inscription:
Kai nusste gundus im raunedheta gandath: ‘Here ended the power and dominion of the race of giants’
This was written in the common tongue Ligmanútsi, for the Deep Speech is never written. Then he took the cart ladders from Dreygan’s wain and made of them a kind of sledge. With the collaboration of the two Netári he placed the immense body of Dreygan on the sledge and conveyed it down the stairway to the head of the giants’ highway, where Dreygans’ goatbeasts still waited. With great labour the three nyandri loaded the body of Dreygan into his wain. Then Slungandi, exhausted by his toil, and now in very truth the Drumster of the Deeps, began to drive the wain back down the giants’ road to Kapgar Kûm. The two Netári followed on their skulldeer.
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