On Hygemund & Wargast and the raising of the Sindorel

When word came to Hygde that Sigilind had fallen, she saw that their doom was nigh, for Swanhild and Sigifrith were in hiding, and Wæls still held defending his Fastness, and Ingmar far way in the north alone, and no other help was there to be sought for. Said she to her kinsfolk, "Unless perchance some great fortune should check the Shadow, I perceive that before the first snow falls, all the lands shall be covered in darkness." It was at that time nigh unto October.

Now Hygde's elder son was named Hygemund, and like unto her he was, in his knowledge of mystery and the headwaters of the Asalath. Now Hygemund was beloved by the chief of a tribe that had dwelt in the corner between the lands of Hygde and Sigilind. A proud and warlike folk they were, having withstood the advances of the Shadow for many years. But when the Girdle was broken, Hygemund went to Wargast (for that was his beloved's name) and plead with him to fly. "For now thou shalt be beset on three sides by foes, and shall in part stand between us and our foes, and I deem it soon that the full force of the Enemy shall fall upon thee, whereas before thy direst battles were but the wind of his passing elsewhere."

"Far be it from me to flee and leave my people to thralldom in the Shadow," said Wargast.

"Nay, then bringest thou thy people, and that when war breaks upon us, we may stand or fall together."

And so it was done.

But one day, when the river banks were all aflame with the color of the leaves, Hygemund and Wargast were walking together, and thinking on Hygde's prophecy, how there was but little time left to them, and no hope as yet had come. And, becoming thirsty, as they had walked a long way, they stopped by a spring to drink, but the spring was dry. So Hygemund called to the water, and it came forth.

"Here thou hast called forth a little water," said Wargast. "Canst thou call forth water in greater portion?"

"Like unto the waters that are there, so may I call forth," said Hygemund, "for I am beloved by the Asalath, as is my mother before me."

"Were't thou at the headwaters of that mighty river, might thou call it forth, even unto a spring flood?"

"I know not," said Hygemund. "I have never tried such a thing. Yet I deem that, were my need great, and my cause good, Asalath the Mighty might give me a flood like all of spring happening in one hour, though what might such a need and cause be I know not, as such a flood would sweep my mother's city to the sea."

"Might thou call forth such a flood at the headwaters of the Sindorel?" asked Wargast.

Then did Hygemund perceive Wargast's mind, to wit: that he should raise the Sindorel in a great flood, and sweep the Castle Luz out to sea. Said he, "Were such a thing to be done, it would indeed destroy Glauroth's might, for much of his power is bound in the blood of the mortar of Luz. But yet I am not known to the Sindorel, and it may well not do my bidding. Moreover, the gaining of that place is fraught with exceeding peril, for Glauroth has built a castle in the Water Gap, that none might enter the Dry Country but by his leave, and all the Front Range is arrayed for the coming war against my mother. Even were we to pass through that peril, and cross the Dry Country, where an army might be seen for many leagues off, yet would the bidding of the Sindorel needs be done under the very gates of Manrog's Tower. Not with a host of thousands could we do such a thing, and my mother cannot spare even a hundred."

Said Wargast, "There is a saying among my people. 'One or two may go, where armies dare not tread.' Though there be little hope in it, there be lesser hope in waiting. Therefore I say to thee, let thee and me dare this deed, and I shall be thy right hand, and keep thee from what perils I may, until we perish in the trying or the deed is done."

So then they were decided, and they left the very next morning, saying no word to any about whither they went. And Wargast, by his wit of the wild, kept them in vittles and shelter against the waxing autumn, and if all the perils they passed through were told it would make a tale of many days telling, but the sword of Wargast and the wit of Hygemund bore them through. They traveled lightly and swiftly, until they came to the Front Range, and the Pass known as the Water Gap. There Hygemund took a fallen log of birch, and peeled the bark thereof. Said bark he rolled back into his former shape, and closed the seem with stout thread, and sealed it with pitch. Then cut he from the log two plugs, to the size and shape of the tube of bark, so that, when assembled, it should look to all as if it were the very log from which it had been made. Then did Hygemund lay the log on the very bank of the Asalath, and he and Wargast climbed inside, and sealed the plugs from the inside, and bade the Asalath take them.

The river that loved Hygemund took him from the bank, and bore him against the current, right under the watching eyes of the Gap Tower.

Now, there were many on the tower that saw the log rising against the current. They went to the Sergeant Goblin, and said to him, "Master, something is happening. A log is passing up the river, as if it were driven by hard paddling, yet there is no one astride it, and we fear deception from the east."

So the Sergeant Goblin went to the Captain, and said, "O Terrible One. My watchers have seen a log that rises against the current, and they are afraid."

But the Lord of the Castle was dreadful and pitiless, like unto Manrog in kind, though lesser in power, and even his Captain feared him. Said the Captain, "Thou wouldst have me speak to the Lord, because thy watchers are afraid of a log?" and he beat the Sergeant brutally, saying, "An thou art afraid of a log, drag it from the river and burn it, but trouble me no longer."

So the Sergeant returned to his watchers, and beat them in turn, saying to them even as the Captain had said unto him. Finally, when the log had nearly passed them, the goblins ran to the river's edge, and the one that was sharpest of eye took a bow, shot an arrow, that plunged through the log, and passed right between the head of Wargast and the feet of Hygemund. Now this arrow was tied to a long line, and four goblins seized the line, and strove to pull the log ashore. But instead, the log pulled back with such force that all four fell into the river, and the water swallowed them up, and they were never seen again.

Then the goblins feared to venture the waylaying of the log a second time, and they feared moreover to report their failure to their Sergeant, so they made a fire of a log they found on the river bank, and returned, telling the truth and the lie that the log had killed four of them, but that they had vanquished it in the end.

Now the log wherein Wargast and Hygemund rode began to leak, from the hole that the goblins arrow had put into it. So Hygemund bade the river carry them to the bank, and they cut their way through the bark, and proceeded across the Dry Country afoot. Many were their adventures, though but a league lay between the mouth of the Water Gap, and the mouth of Icehell Pass, so thick were the goblins in that country. But Wargast shot two with arrows, and under their helms and cloaks they passed concealed past many who would question them.

So at long last they mounted Icehell pass, though it was already choking in snow from the coming winter. They could contrive no way to pass unseen through that fell pass, and they were frostbitten and nigh unto death from their long climb, so they but dusted their cloaks with snow, and ran beneath the very eyes of the tower. There all might have gone ill, but Manrog was content in his safety, deeming that no enemy might pass so far within the lands of his master, and that the hour of final victory was nigh. So no alarm was raised, though they ran within is very sight.

There at the headwaters of the Sindorel did Hygemund plead with the spring, and for a long while nothing happened, for the spring was sleepy with the coming winter, and did not know his voice. Then Hygemund did sing about rivers, about their welling in spring, their torrents and cataracts, their ice-rimed winter banks, their summer-showing stones, their fish, their wendings, their frogs and crawdads in oxbows, their deep and quiet songs, and the spring awoke, and listened. Then Hygemund sand about his own beloved Asalath, and the coming of the Shadow that would dim its bright waters for all time. Now the Sindorel did not know the voice of Hygemund, nor had it any care for any place but the valley within which it flowed, for such is the nature of rivers. But it had no love for Glauroth, who fouled its waters and sought only to turn its power to his own ends, and it foresaw that, in despite of using its power, the Shadow would break its banks, and make it flow straight from spring to sea, for simply joy of destroying. It took pity on this stranger and this river it did not know, and called forth the waters from its deepest holdings, and poured them forth in such a torrent that verily the mountain itself began to crumble for the force of it.

Then did Manrog perceive his folly. Deeming that he was beset by a great army, and the mountain itself had turned on him, he ordered his goblins to the attack, and went down to the heart of the mountain, and strove to bend it to his will, and the mountain fell on him.

Then Hygemund and Wargast saw that their end was come, for the rushing torrent had soaked them to the skin, and the water was freezing their clothes as stiff as iron, and the mountain looked to fall upon them, and a host of goblins was ringing them about. So they clung to each other, and consoled themselves that at last their deed was done, and, though they might not live to see it, yet had they granted their people the respite whereof they sought. Yet it chanced that in that year the winged wanderers had tarried late in the northern lands, and were only then flying south to the distant country where winter was summer yet again. Passing overhead, they saw the mountain falling, and the river rushing in a torrent such as had never been seen, and the chief was curious as to the cause. So he stooped down from on high, and saw the lovers, near frozen and nigh unto death, and ringed about with goblins, and plucked them forth even as the mountain fell out from under them, so that he might hear the tale.

Thus were Hygemund and Wargast saved, and the Sindorel raised into such a flood that the silt beneath Luz was washed away, and that dreadful castle was overturned and sank beneath the ground. But Glauroth was not taken, for he himself was gone to the tower above the Hidden Pass, that he might be close at hand in the final assault on the valley of the Asalath.