The Worm of the Ages and Other Tails: Six Short Fantasies by Tom Simon Page A

us that before,’ said Kataki. Mazuj threw a shoe at her.
    The Loring looked askance at them both, but did not deign to make any other answer. ‘—Until the earth and the heavens,’ he went on, ‘trembled at the brink of dissolution. But the powers of the world were forewarned; and the Keepers of the Light took counsel in their fastness at the heart of the world, in the Isles of Light in the midst of the Sundering Sea. And Lysana the Queen knew that the hour was approaching when the Maker would send his children (even such as yourselves) to walk upon the earth; but the Destroyer would forestall him. Then said the Queen, “Evil is the hour, and desperate the peril. Who will hazard his life against the waking of the Worm? For one of the Keepers must stand forth as our champion, lest the world be broken untimely.”
    ‘Then some would not stand forth for fear of the Worm, and others for want of power, knowing themselves unequal to the task. And some who stood forth the Queen refused because their strength was less than their courage, and some because their skill was less than their strength, until all were tried and found wanting. Then the Queen cried, “Is there no wight among us who can match the might of the Worm?” And the Keepers answered, “There is none.”
    ‘And the Queen said: “Then we must try a new thing. Send for Telkon the Smith: for the making of new things is in his care.” And Telkon was taken from his smithy and brought before the Queen; and she told him where the Worm lay, and what were its size and strength, and the armament of its claws and teeth, and the armour of its scales, and every other thing that was known to her concerning the Worm. Then Telkon cast his hammer at his feet, and stood a night and a day in thought.
    ‘Then Telkon spoke at last, saying: “No strength is like unto the Worm’s strength, and no armament like unto its armament. In all the earth there is but one power that approaches it, and that is Ynd Urenn, the Tree of the World. Yet even Ynd Urenn cannot overcome the Worm.”
    ‘ “Then we are lost,” said the Queen.’
    ‘It does seem a poor lookout,’ said Kataki. ‘Are you sure this is a true story?’
    The two boys glared at her, but the Loring seemed to take no notice. ‘ “I said not so,” said Telkon. “Of its unaided nature the Tree cannot quell the Worm; but haply of its wood I may fashion such a tooth that even the Worm will feel its bite.” And this the Queen bade him do.
    ‘Then Telkon took up his hammer and went unto Alenna, the midmost of the Isles, where Ynd Urenn grew among the pools and fountains of the stored and garnered Light, with its roots in the deep places of the earth and its branches upholding the sky. And he cut a branch from the Tree, and bore it away to his smithy in the island of Ión Tela, in his own country. Long he wrought upon it, forging it in the secret fires of Ión Tela, only less than the Ancient Fire that was in the belly of the Worm; and the wood was changed beneath his hammer, until at last he wrought a blade of purest adamant, harder than the bones of the earth, imperishable as the Light itself.’
    ‘What’s adamant?’ Kataki asked.
    ‘A kind of jewel,’ said Mazuj, glad of the chance to show off. ‘Clear as water, but harder than bronze or carbuncle. I bet it would even crack open your silly head. I’ve seen little ones before.’
    The Loring bore this interruption with tranquil patience. As soon as Mazuj was done speaking, he went on: ‘That was the blade Tan-an-Nydh, which Telkon bore ever after. But in the hour of its making he brought it unto the Queen and put it in her hand. And the Queen said: “Who now will stand forth, and bear this blade as our champion against the waking of the Worm?” But again none stood forth; and some among the Keepers answered the Queen, saying, “What hand should bear it but the one that was its maker?”
    ‘Then Telkon was wroth, and cried, “Have I not done enough? Is