Oathbreaker

Now your Swordmaster' s god-whosoever he be --

When he stands there before you to teach

And don't argue or whine, think to mock foolishly

Or you'll soon be consulting a leech'

Now most booty is taken by generals and kings

And there's little that's left for the low

So it's best that you learn skills, or work at odd things

To keep food in your mouth as you go.

And last, if you should chance to reach equal my years

You must find you a new kind of trade

For the plea that you're still spry will fall on deaf ears --

There's no work for old swords, I'm afraid.

Now if all that I've told you has not changed your mind

Then I'll teach you as best as I can.

For you're stubborn, like me, and like me of the kind

Becomes one ./we swords-woman or -man!

THE PRICE OF COMMAND

(Captain Idra)

This is the price of commanding --

That you always stand alone,

Letting no one near

To see the fear

That's behind the mask you've grown.

This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding --

That you watch your dearest die,

Sending women and men

To Bght again,

And you never tell them why.

This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding,

That mistakes are signed in red --

And that you won't pay

But others may,

And your best may wind up dead.

This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding --

All the deaths that haunt your sleep.

And you hope they forgive

And so you live

With your memories buried deep.

This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding --

That if you won't, others will.

So you take your post,

Mindful of each ghost --

You've a debt to them to fill.

This is the price of commanding.

THE ARCHIVIST

(Jadrek)

I sit amid the dusty books. The dust invades my very soul.

It coats my heart with weariness and chokes it with despair.

My life lies beached and withered on a lonely, bleak, uncharted shoal.

There are no kindred spirits here to understand, or care.

When I was young, how often I would feed my hungry mind with tales

And sought the fellowship in books I did not find in kin.

For one does not seek friends when every overture to others fails

So all the company I craved I built from dreams within.

Those dreams-from all my books of lore I plucked the wonders one by one

And waited for the day that I was certain was to come

When some new hero would appear whose quest had only now begun

With desperate need of lore and wisdom I alone could plumb.

And then, ah then, I'd ride away to join with legend and with song.

The trusted friend of heroes, figured in their words and deeds.

Until that day, among the books I'd dwell -- but I have dwelt too long

And like the books I sit alone, a relic no one needs.

I grow too old, I grow too old, my aching bones have made me lame

And if my futile dream came true, I could not live it now.

The time is past, long past, when I could ride the wings of fleeting fame

The dream is dead beneath the dust, as 'neath the dust I bow.

So, unregarded and alone I tend these fragments of the past

Poor fool who bartered life and soul on dreams and useless lore.

And as I watch despair and bitterness enclose my heart at last

Within my soul's dark night I cry out, 'Is there nothing more?'

LIZARD DREAMS

(Kethry: Oathbound)

Most folk avoid the Pelagir Hills, where ancient

wars and battles

Were fought with magic, not with steel, for land

and gold and chattels.

Most folk avoid the forest dark for magics still

surround it

And change the creatures living there and all

that dwell around it.

Within a tree upon a hill that glowed at night