One of them was tall and naked but for a light robe. His white skin was smooth and without hair and his body was perfectly proportioned. Long, fair hair flowed to his shoulders, but he had no face. Completely featureless skin covered the head where the eyes and the nose and the mouth would have been.
Corum knew this must be Mabelrode, who was called the Faceless.
The other figure was Rhalina.
"I hoped you would come," said the King of the Swords, though he had no lips to form the words. "That is why I built my castle-to act as a lure to you when you returned to seek your lady. Mortals are so loyal!"
"Aye, we are that," agreed Corum. "Are you safe, Rhalina?"
"I am safe-and my fury keeps me sane," she said. "I thought you dead, Corum, when the sky ship was wrecked. But this creature told me it was unlikely. Have you found help? It seems not. You have lost your hand and your eye again, I see." She spoke flatly.
Tears came into Corum's eye. "Mabelrode will pay for having discomforted you," he told her.
The faceless god laughed and his dukes laughed with him. It was as if beasts had learned the power of laughter. Mabelrode reached behind Rhalina and drew out a great golden sword, which dazzled them with its light. "I swore that I would avenge both Arioch and Xiombarg," said Mabelrode the Faceless. "I swore I would not risk my life or my position until you, Corum, were in my power. And when Duke Teer was tricked by you" (Duke Teer lowered his porcine head at this) "into fighting our servant Glandyth, whom I also allowed to play a part in preparing my trap, then you almost fled into my snare. But something happened. Only the girl was caught and you and the other thing vanished. So I used the girl, this tune, as bait. And I waited. And you came. And now I may administer your punishment. My first intention is to mold your flesh a little, mixing it with that of your companions until you become more foul to look upon than anything of mine you affect to loathe. As this I will let you linger a year or two-or however long your little brain can endure it-and then I will restore you to your original forms and make you hate each other and lust for each other at the same time-you are already experienced, I think, of something I can do in that direction Then…"
"What mundane imaginations these Lords of Chaos have," said Kwll in his many-toned voice. "What modest ambitions they entertain! What petty dreams they dream." He laughed. "They are hardly men, let alone gods."
The Dukes of Hell fell silent and turned their heads to watch their king.
Mabelrode held his golden sword in his two hands and from it burst a thousand shadows, all twisting and dancing in the air, all suggesting shapes to Corum, but shapes which he could not name.
"My power is not mundane, creature! What are you that you can mock the most powerful of the Sword Rulers, Mabelrode the Faceless?"
"I do not mock," said Kwll. "I am Kwll." He reached into the air and took a several-bladed sword from it. "I state that which is evident."
"Kwll is dead," said Mabelrode, "as Rhynn is dead. Dead. You are a charlatan. Your conjuring is not entertaining."
"I am Kwll."
"Kwll is dead."
"I am Kwll."
Three of the Dukes of Hell rushed at the being then, their swords raised.
"Slay him," said Mabelrode, "so that I may begin to have the pleasure of my vengeance."
Kwll plucked two more many-bladed swords from the air. He let the swords of the Dukes of Hell fall upon his jeweled body before casually skewering each one of them and tossing them away so that they vanished.
"Kwll," he said. "The power of the multiverse is mine."
"No single being can have such power!" Mabelrode shouted. "The Cosmic Balance denies it."
"I do not obey the Cosmic Balance, however," said Kwll reasonably. He turned to Corum and Jhary and he handed Corum the Eye of Rhynn. "I will dispense with these. Take my brother's eye to your own plane and cast it into the sea. There'll be no need for you to do else."
"And Glandyth?"
"Surely you can deal with a fellow mortal without my aid. You grow lazy, mortal."
"But-Rhalina…"
"Ah."
Kwll's hand seemed to extend through the gathered ranks of the Dukes of Hell, past King Mabelrode the Faceless, and pluck Rhalina from the Sword Ruler's side.
"There."
Rhalina sobbed in Corum's arms.
Corum heard Mabelrode cry, "Summon all my strength! Summon all the creatures of all the planes who are pledged to me. Ready yourselves, my Dukes of Hell! Chaos must be defended!"
Jhary shouted back at him, "Do you fear one being, King of the Swords? Just one?"
Mabelrode's golden sword flickered in his hand. His back seemed bowed, his voice was low. "I fear Kwll," he said.
"You are wise to do so," said Kwll. He waved one of his hands. "Now, let us dismiss all these silly trappings and concern ourselves with the fight."
The castle shaped like Rhalina began to melt around them. The Dukes of Hell cried out in terror, their shapes changing as they sought to find the one which would serve them best. Mabelrode the Faceless began to increase in size until his huge, faceless head loomed over them.
Fierce colors slashed the skies. Pools of darkness appeared. Screams were heard and grunts and sucking sounds. From all points came things which hopped and things which slithered and things which galloped and things which flew and things which walked-all things of Chaos come to aid King Mabelrode.
Kwll tapped Jhary on the shoulder and the dandy disappeared.
Corum gasped. "Even you cannot go against the entire strength of Chaos! I regret my bargain. I release you from it!"
"I made no bargain." Two hands came out and tapped Corum and Rhalina. Corum felt himself being drawn away from the realm of Chaos.
"They will destroy you, Kwll!"
"I admit I have not fought for some time, but doubtless I will remember my old skills."
Corum glimpsed the roaring terror that was Chaos hurling itself upon the Lost God. "No…"
He struggled to draw his own sword, but he was falling now. Falling as he had fallen once before when the sky ship had been wrecked. But this time he held tightly to Rhalina.
Even as his senses clouded he kept his grip upon her arm until he heard her calling his name.
"Corum! Corum! You pain me!"
His eyes were closed. He opened them. She and he were standing on blackened stone and the sea was all around them. He did not recognize the place at first, for the castle was no longer there. And then he remembered that Glandyth had burned it.
They stood on Moidel's Mount.
The tide was beginning to go out and they glimpsed the causeway as it was slowly uncovered.
"Look," said Rhalina, pointing toward the forest.
He looked and he saw several corpses.
"So the strife continues," he said. He was about to help her to climb down when he looked at the thing he had clutched even as he had clutched Rhalina with his single hand. It was the Eye of Rhynn.
He drew back his arm and flung it far out into the sea. It flashed in the air and then disappeared beneath the waves.
"I am not sorry to see that dismissed at last," he said.
The Fifth Chapter
THE LAST OF GLANDYTH
When they had crossed the causeway and reached the mainland, they could better distinguish the corpses sprawled near the edge of the forest. They were of their old enemies, the Pony Tribesmen. They had fought each other savagely and for some time, by all the signs. They lay in their furs and their necklets and bracelets of copper and bronze with their crude swords and axes in their hands, each man bearing at least a dozen wounds. They had plainly been gripped by the Cloud of Contention, which the Nhadragh's sorcery had brought to the land. Corum bent down and inspected the nearest corpse.