Arrow's Fall (43 page)

“Sunlight Singer, Morning’s peer—

How I long for what I fear!

Not by my will are you here

How I wish I could free you!

Gladly in your arms I’d lie

But I dare not come you nigh

For if you touch me I shall die—

If I were wise I would flee you.”

“Shadowdancer, dark and fell,

Lady that I love too well—

Won’t you free me from this spell

That you have cast around me?

Star-eyed maid beyond compare,

Mist of twilight in your hair—

Why must you be so sweet and fair?

How is it that you have bound me?”

“In your eyes your soul lies bare

Hope is mingled with despair;

Sunborn lover do I dare

Trust my heart to your keeping?

Sunrise means that I must flee—

Moonrise steals your soul from me;

Nothing behind but agony,

Nothing before us but weeping.”

“Sun and Shadow, dark and light;

Child of day and child of night,

Who can set our tale aright?

Is there no future but sorrow?

Will some power hear our plea—

Take the curse from you and me—

Great us death, or set us free?

Dare we to hope for tomorrow?”

THE HEALER’S DILEMMA

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: Bill Roper

(Devan: Arrow’s Fall)

My child, the child of my heart, though never of my name,

Who shares my Gift; whose eyes, though young, are mine—the very same

Who shares my every thought, whose skillful hands I taught so well

Now hear the hardest lesson I shall ever have to tell.

Young Healer, I have taught you all I know of wounds and pain—

Of illnesses, and all the herbs of blessing and of bane—

Of all the usage of your Gift; all that I could impart—

And how you learned, young Healer, brought rejoicing to my heart.

But there is yet one lessoning I cannot give to you

For you must find your own way there—judge what is sound and true

This lesson is the crudest ever Healer had to teach—

It is—what you must do when there are those you cannot reach.

However great your Gift there will be times when you will fail

There will be those you cannot help, your skill cannot prevail.

When you fight Death, and lose to Him, or what may yet be worse

You win—to find the wreck He left regards you with a curse.

And worst of all, and harder still, the times when it’s a friend

Who looks to you to bring him peace and make his torment end—

What will you do, young Healer, when there’s nothing you can do?

I can give only counsel, for the rest is up to you.

This only will I counsel you; that if you build a shell

Of armor close about you, then you close yourself in Hell.

And if your heart should harden, then your Gift will fade and die

And all that you have lived and learned will then become a lie.

My child, your Healing hands are guided by your Healing heart

And that is all the wisdom all my learning can impart.

You take this pain upon you as you challenge life unknown—

And there can be no answer here but one—and that’s your own.

HERALD’S LAMENT

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: C. J. Cherryh

(Dirk: Arrow’s Fait)

A hand to aid along the road—

A laugh to lighten any load—

A place to bring a burdened heart

And heal the ache of sorrow’s dart—

Who’d willing share in joy or tears

And help to ease the darkest fears

Or my soul like his own defend—

And all because he was my friend.

No grave could hold so free a soul.

I see him in the frisking foal—

I hear him laughing on the breeze

That stirs the very tops of trees.

He soars with falcons on the wing—

He is the song that nightbirds sing.

Death never dared him captive keep.

He lies not there. He does not sleep.

But—there is silence at my side

That haunts the place he used to ride.

And my Companion can’t allay

The loss I have sustained this day.

How bleak the future now has grown

Since I must face it all alone.

My road is weary, dark and steep—

And it is for myself I weep.

ARROW’S FALL FOR TALIA

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: Larry Warner and Kristoph Klover

(Dirk: Arrow’s Fall}

The lady that I cherish is enamored of a fool —

A fool who lacks the wit to speak his mind,

A fool who often wears a mask indifferent and cool,

A fool who’s often selfish, dense, and blind.

The lady that I cherish is enamored of a fool —

A fool too often wrapped in other cares,

Forgetting that his singlemindedness is wrong and cruel

To lock her out who gladly trouble shares.

The lady that I cherish is enamored of a fool

Who sometimes does not value what he holds

Until his loneliness confirms ‘twere time his heart should rule

And the comfort of her love around him folds.

But though he must have hurt her without ever meaning to

Her temper never breaks and never frays,

And she forgives whatever careless thing that he may do

And loves him still despite his thoughtless ways.

She only smiles and says that there is nothing to forgive —

And I thank God she does so, for you see

I fear without her love and care

this poor fool could not live —

The fool she loves and cherishes is me.

KEROWYN’S RIDE

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: Leslie Fish

(This is a fairly common song in Valdemar, although it originated several lands to the south.)

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where are you going,

Dressed in men’s clothing, a sword by your side,

Your face pale as death, and your eyes full of fury,

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where do you ride?

Last night in the darkness foul raiders attacked us—

Our home
lies in ruins below—

They’ve stolen our treasure, and the bride of my brother

And to her side now I must go

To her aid now I must go.

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where is your father?

Where is your brother? This fight should be theirs.

It is not seemly that maids should be warriors—

Your pride is your folly; go tend women’s cares.

This is far more than a matter of honor

And more than a matter of pride—

She’s only a child, all alone, all unaided

Though foolish and reckless beside,

Still now to her aid I must ride.

Grandmother, sorceress, I need a weapon—

I’m one against many—and I am afraid—

For the bastards have bought them a fell wizard’s powers—

I can’t hope to help her without magic aid.

Kerowyn, granddaughter, into your keeping

I now give the sword I once wore

“Need” is her name, yes, and great are her powers—

She’ll serve you as many before—

Though her name be not found in men’s lore.

Grandmother, grandmother, now you confuse me—

Was this a testing I got at your hand?

Whence comes this weapon of steel and of magic

And why do you put her now at my command?

Kerowyn, not for the weak or the coward

Is the path of the warrior maid.

Yes my child, you’ve been tested—now ride with my

blessing

And trust in yourself and your blade.

Ride now, and go unafraid!

THREES

Music: Leslie Fish

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

(Again: a similar song from the same region as “Kerowyn’s Ride” that migrated northward.)

Deep into the stony hills, miles from town or hold

A troupe of guards conies riding, with a lady and her gold

She rides bemused among them, shrouded in her cloak of fur

Companioned by a maiden and a toothless, aged cur.

Three things see no end, a flower blighted ere it bloomed,

A message that miscarries and a journey that is doomed.

One among the guardsmen has a shifting, restless eye

And as they ride, he scans the hills that rise against the sky

He wears a sword and bracelet worth more than he can afford

And hidden in his baggage is a heavy, secret hoard.

Of three things be wary, of a feather on a cat

The shepherd eating mutton, and the guardsman that is fat.

Little does the lady care what all the guardsmen know—

That bandits ambush caravans that on these traderoads go.

In spite of tricks and clever traps and alt that men can do

The brigands seem to always sense which trains are false or true.

Three things are most perilous—the shape that walks behind,

The ice that will not hold you and the spy you cannot find.

From ambush bandits screaming charge the packtrain and its prize

And all but four within the train are taken by surprise

And all but four are cut down as a woodsman fells a log;

The guardsman and the lady and the maiden and the dog.

Three things hold a secret—lady riding in a dream,

The dog that sounds no warning, and the maid who does not scream.

Then off the lady pulls her cloak, in armor she is clad—

Her sword is out and ready, and her eyes are fierce and glad.

The maiden makes a gesture, and the dog’s a cur no more—

A wolf, sword-maid and sorceress now face the bandit corps.

Three things never anger, or you will not live for long,

A wolf with cubs, a man with power, and a woman’s sense of wrong.

The lady and her sister by a single trader lone

Were hired out to try to lay a trap all of their own

And no one knew their plan except the two who rode that day

For what you do not know you cannot ever give away!

Three things is it better, far, that only two should know—

Where treasure hides, who shares your bed, and how to catch your foe!

The bandits growl a challenge, and the lady only grins

The sorceress bows mockingly, and then the fight begins!

When it ends there are but four left standing from that horde—

The witch, the wolf, the traitor and the woman with the sword!

Three things never trust in; the maiden sworn as pure,

The vows a king has given, and the ambush that is “sure.”

They strip the traitor naked and then whip him on his Way.

Into the barren hillsides, like the folk he used to slay—

And what of all the maidens that this filth despoiled, then slew?

Why, as revenge, the sorceress makes him a woman too!

Three things trust above all else—the horse on which you ride,

The beast that guards your sleeping, and your sister at your side.