The King of the Swords

British Fantasy Award 1973, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 1972.

Gotterdammerung!

For countless eons the Lords of Chaos and of Law had contended together. Constrained by the Cosmic Balance, neither side held any permanent advantage. Then Chaos happened upon the contemptible Mabden, humankind, puppets, but none the less potent, and Chaos had prevailed over all the fifteen planes of reality. The old races, the Vadhagh and the Nhadragh, had decayed. Only the Vadhagh Prince Corum had been able to strike a blow for the forces of Light. And he, only because of his fateful legacies, the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn.

But constraint had been placed upon this Hero. To him, and to his companions, the Margravine Rhalina and enigmatic companion-to-heroes Jhary, had fallen the well-nigh impossible task of entering the legendary city of Tanelorn. There they would confront their fates, and there the age-old struggle would be resolved.

But in Tanelorn was the Lost God Kwll Himself, and He recognized not Chaos nor Law, nor even the existence of the Cosmic Balance...