Of the Spirit Dagger

(This is an excerpt from the full tale, “Of Anathros and Valermos”)

Aluen, after receiving her vision from Vaelen, returned to the Elves in the East of Ulaine with the remnants of her Mithrodin company; and she convinced them that it was now the time to attack the Uldurin, who had been weakened by their loss of the Umethar, and remove the sword Anathros from the throne. She told of the vision and how Anathros must be used in the coming war against the Shadow Army. Utilizing the Umethar’s power to create doors, Aluen opened a passage between Elven villages and the Temple of the Anath in the Eldriun Mountains. When all of the forces of the Elves were assembled there they made an assault upon the Uldurin ice city from the rocky mountains to the North where it was least protected and broke through the confines of its frozen outer walls. Aluen sent her sailing vessel, the Rocinante, and all of Elven ships they could muster to feint an assault on the Southern coast of the kingdom, and thus all of the Uldurin forces were on the wrong side of the city when it was attacked. The Uldurin king, who dared not use the destructive power of Anathros within the city walls, was soon overwhelmed and cast down from the throne by Aluen, and his encircled troops surrendered to the Elves. Aluen took possession of Anathros and used its power to bring down the icy walls of the city. The sword was elegant in design, with engraved runes in the blade telling of its powers, and a wire wrapped and polished hilt whose cross guard folded to point towards the blade tip when its power was focused. Thence the city was secured and the Elves praised the Mithrodin and gave Aluen a company of twenty Elven foot soldiers and archers; and Aluen hastily departed with her forces in the Rocinante for Dagorlund.

Luthol’s forces marched for weeks through the Kilgoriun mountain pass to Annundos, where Vardor held his armies in great fortresses and in the center was his command post, Morgadurin, the black tower. The army was assailed many times in the pass, but prevailed in each battle due to the might of the Orwenoch, until they came at last to the mouth of Annundos; and there they were overwhelmed by the Shadow Army, ten thousand strong, which issued forth from the bowels of the earth, and among them were many Baelin. The Orwenoch crushed their front line and drove through the confines of the iron gates into Annundos where Luthol’s forces came to the fortresses surrounding the black tower, but they were protected by a magic wall, unseen to the eye. Luthol called for his Master of Blades, the keeper of his enchanted talismans, and the master brought forth Luthol’s Spirit Dagger, and with it Luthol stabbed the wall and the spirits within the blade shattered the barrier, thus allowing Luthol’s army to attack the battlements. The hosts of both armies suffered great losses, but Luthol’s forces had all but won the battle when a cavalry, clad in black armor and flanked by a score of Baelin, rode forth from the great arched passages in the foot of the black tower to the front lines. Leading the cavalry were Vardor and his six generals, and the wizard Navros, who kept the besiegers at bay by casting a spell around his companions.

The Tale of the Swords of the Ancients and Other Blades of Power and its previous versions, The Swords of the Ancients and its abridged excerpts, and other forms, are ©1997 and ©2005 by Kit Rae. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any other form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, computer networking, or otherwise without prior permission in writing by the copyright holder(s).