"Fear the geteit chemosit"
This is from M. John Harrison's The Pastel City (1971), part of the Virconium series. The Wikipedia article summarizes the plot nicely:
The Pastel City concerns the defence of the eponymous city against northern "barbarians" by a melancholy swordsman and poet, 'sometime soldier and sophisticate' Lord tegeus-Cromis. tegeus-Cromis is the hero of the Methven but believes he has finished soldiering forever - until the mercenary Birkin Griff brings dire news of the war between the two queens and the hazard facing the Pastel City. They must travel to the Great Brown Waste to find Tomb the Dwarf, and join forces to fight for Queen Jane and Viriconium - for Canna Moidart and the Wolves of the North have awoken the geteit chemosit, alien automata from an ancient science, which will destroy everything in their path.
The message delivered to tegeus-Cromis by the bird:
"Tegeus-Cromis of Viriconium should go at once to the tower of Cellur which he will find on the Girvan Bay in the South, a little east of Lendelfoot. Further, he is advised to let nothing hinder that journey,
however pressing it may seem: for things hang in a fine balance, and
more is at stake than the fate of a minor empire. This comes from
Cellur of Girvan."
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