The Knight of the Swords

British Fantasy Award 1972, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 1972.

The Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn in exchange for the Heart of Arioch

There were Gods abroad in those days. It was their whim to wipe clean the slate of history, to destroy the old races, the Vadhagh, the Nhadragh, the remnants of still more ancient peoples. Mankind, the contemptible Mabden, was their instrument, washcloth of the Gods. But the Gods themselves fell out, and Chaos gained the advantage over Law. The stage was set for heroes.

One such was the Vadhagh Prince Corum. Driven mad for revenge by the callous slaughter of his family and race, and by his own grotesque mutilation at the hands of the Mabden, he agreed to accept from the treacherous sorceror Shool the Eye of Rhynn and the Hand of Kwll in exchange for a lien on his soul.

Thus armed he set out upon a personal crusade against the Sword Rulers, Lords of Chaos, puppetmasters to Man. And the first of these was the loathsome Arioch, Knight of the Swords, master of five of the fifteen planes of reality. From Arioch, Prince Corum required his heart.