The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth (Classic Reprint)

Gaznak. Therefore he gathered the people of the village, and told them that he had uttered his mightiest spell - a spell having power over all that were human or of the tribes of the beasts; and that since it had not availed, the dreams must come from Gaznak, the greatest magician among the spaces of the stars. And he read to the people out of the Book of Mag icians, which tells the comings of the comet and foretells his coming again. And he told them how Gaznak rides upon the comet, and how he.visits Earth once in every two hundred and thirty years, and makes for himself a vast, invincible fortress, and sends out dreams to feed on the minds of men, and may never be vanquished but by the sword Sacnoth. J And a cold fear fell on the hearts of the villagers when they found that their magician had failed them. A a at hen spake Leothric, son of the Lord Lorendiac, and twenty years old was he: Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth? At And the village magician answered: F air Lord, no such sword as yet is wrought, for it lies as yet in the hide of Thara protecting his spine. Or hen said Leothric: Who is Thara gavverug, and where may he be en countered? At And the magician of Allathurion answered: He is the dragon-crocodile who haunts the Northgrnmarshes and ravages the homesteads by their marge. And the hide of his back is of steel, and his under parts are of iron; but along the midst of his back, over his spine, there lies a narrow strip of unearthly steel. This strip of steel is Sacnoth, and it may be neither cleft nor molten, and there is nothing in the world that may a vail to break it, nor even leave a scratch upon its surface. It is of the length of a good sword, of the breadth thereof. Shouldst thou pre vail against Tharagavverug, his hide may be melted away from Sacnoth in a furnace; but there is only one thing that may sharpen Sac noth's edge, and this is one of Tharagavverug's own steel eyes; and the other eye thou must fasten to Sacnoth's hilt, and it will…