AC:DM CD Lore/Dericost Texts/The Lay of Leikotha

''From the AC:DM CD Lore 

The Lay of Leikotha
Leikotha, child of Haebrous Stood proud upon the field, And spake unto the crafter Dhere The weapon she would wield Her eye was blue as tropic sea White-flecked with spindrift foam Her hair hung long and golden-hued Her high cheeks flecked with loam A set of silver armor borne To ward away the blows of man To stay the magely power faced Were rings once forged by old Velan Grim-visaged was the noble dame From training under great Illkarm No man's servant was she born A mighty chevaird, strong in arm Stands of saffron veiled her eye In nightspawn wind her hair blew wild The sweat of practice pearled her skin At hand stood Alysse, her child The girl looked to her mother stound Eyes bright and pale as Alb'arel For to her young adoring eye A goddess stalked the tiny dell Smith Dhere with all his subtle might Crafted silver burning bright Ashbane by name to the old wright And hardened then with chorizite So armed, she joined the great crusade The army sailed to west, away And crossed the raging Jhenecaer For four score and a dozen day So proud they sailed from old Planae Their banners snapping in the wind Argent were their alloyed keels With stalwart larchess bound within The damask light of sunrise washed The churning water in their wakes And glinted merri-ly about The polished fittings on their rakes Aureate sails unfurled as one To catch the rising vendavals Bells sounded bright along the shore And laymen filed from the halls With one great voice the people hailed To wish the ships quicksilver pace Leikotha, standing on a prow Sought in the crowd her child's face The tempests tossed the mighty fleet The starless waters bucked and reared Like mountains rising, falling fast As had the weather-sages feared Slow-turning galleons groaned aloud A-tremble in their sturdy bones The valiant chevairds sweated fast And tossed their well-worn knucklebones They sang the old rounds as they flinched At every creak and grumble Their swords and fire useless now To fight the dark seas' tumble Leikotha sat alone these nights And chanted songs of ancient days She practiced on the storm-slick deck To maintain fine-honed warrior ways Yet more she thought of Alysse The gentle center of a heart Long-given to a chevaird's steel She grieved each day they were apart The army fell upon the shores Of ancient Dericost so bleak The decayed cities stilled the heart The mountains rose with silvered peaks Gelid brooded in the mists And sent its armies to the coast But only harried their advance Withdrawing ‘fore the serried host Before that fell and drear plateau Both armies drew in lines abreast And ‘fore the dawn of winter's morn The light advanced to face the test The living troops of the Ice Throne Were scattered in the foredawn mists As somnolent birds began to stir The battle echoed through the mists Leikotha's host slid through their foes As gromnatross through smoke and air She reached old brooding Gelid's feet As fading haze laid her host bare Then, revealed, the undead struck And slew her company in wrath Yet as her fellows turned and fled Leikotha held the one clear path Around her Ashbane drew a ring Declaring ground she would defend She beckoned then to clacking bones The passage back she would forfend The pestilencial foes advanced And Ashbane spun and whirled about The dead came on in blackened waves But Leikotha bold prevented rout Black tide advanced and then fell back Like seas oppressing stony shore Yet like the Rock of Sennaj stood The chevaird who their assaults bore High above the Sand Kings lurked To watch the violent play below And Nerash, mighty general, spake Unlimbering his mighty bow “Beautiful,” he nodded down At Leikotha whirling ‘round her foes He looked at her with eyes of lust And aimed his black and mighty bow The string did sing; the arrow flew And darkness ran the chevaird through A poison sliver pierced her breast Old Nerash smiled in private jest Her veins did burn with crawling fire And staggering, she then retired But Nerash high above worked charms To keep her marked and safe from harm “Alysse!” she called in pain As agony caused knee to bend Leikotha's host did pull her back Yet Ashbane fell from limpened hands Meantime, behind the shambling ranks Two heroes crept in lightless danks Heavy-bearded Jailne and the gold-eyed Alaidain Soldier-king of Haebrous; enchantress-empress of Yalain Alaidain alone returned To join her soldiers on the field The pools of night were gathering then The wounded had begun to heal The lesser undead fell like wheat The greater slunk away And vowed upon eternal life They'd have revenge one day The dead and twice-dead lay in heaps Across the smoking, frosted grounds The once were gathered in straight rows The twice in flaming charnel mounds “My lady,” spake Leikotha weakly To the grieving Alaidain “Did the dread lord speak to thee Before sent into dark again?” “Nay,” replied the Empress then “No words from that fell beast” Yet turned a worried weather eye To the deep and darkening east The army gathered then to leave; Return across the frozen plains Among them groaned the wounded souls And Gelidites in sobbing train But in the silvered mountain peaks Above the cities so decayed A fearsome squall brought heavy snow Besieged, the army was delayed One moonless night As ill winds gusted Nerash approached A tent snow-dusted Inside Leikotha tossed and rolled In the grips of foul dream; Her child held by rotted arms Alysse facing undead screamed The chevaird awoke with a brief howl To face the face of which she'd dreamed Nerash's rotted teeth did grin In hollow sockets pale fire gleamed “I love thee, pretty one,” he said And laid his hands upon her “I would have thee by my side Until all ends in fire.” Leikotha scrabbled for a sword Yet none lay close at hand And weakened by the poison bow She fell before the damned The camp awoke to find her gone And not a trace was found The snow withdrew, and so did they Back to Planae bound The proud chevaird was bound in chain None know the torments that occured To Leikotha at Nerash's hand In darkness of the underworld Three years hence a tattered ship Reached port at Haebrean Aribel From this wretched craft debarked A figure wrapped in grey, and fell Of all the greeters on the shore None stood forth to meet her; Though none saw face or skin beside Her voice was woman or of girl To blooming Dernehale she walked And spoke to few along the road Her way was paid with sparkling gems And walked as if with heavy load In blooming Dernehale she asked For the Lady Orsinu, and begged those In the fields if any of them knew Of the child-ward kept in her safe repose “Alysse?” the herdsmen shrugged For they knew of her mother's fame “Still in the lady's safe repose For her Leikotha never came” And the figure hurried on With pain'ed gait and shuffling To the Lady's verdant hold Where grain stood softly rustling Night had gathered up her skirts When the figure did arrive And ventured cautiously upon The well-worn stonework drive She sought not the iron gate Nor any other entry there But crept along the outer wall Until she reached a casement fair She entered into the great house Moved silently along the hall She ventured for the tower room Her thin hand clutching at the wall There within the tower room Lay Alysse in sweet repose A girl of thirteen seasons now And blooming like the summer rose The figure wept then, silently A thin hand to her shadowed face And looked upon Alysse sweet Curled up in her sleeping lace With a shaking, whispered voice The figure sang to Alysse An ancient Haebraen sleepsong crooned To drive the fears of night away But then the household guard did pass Along his nightly rounds And from Alysse's room he heard The whispered, sobbing sounds The door flung wide, he entered in And saw the figure stading there He drew his sword to slash and kill But only sliced the empty air The figure had evaded yet In motion lost her long grey shroud There disclosed by torchlight stood A rotting woman, proud head bowed The guard decried the vile thing Not-dead reviled by his race Alysse wakened in a fear And shuddered at the rotting face The woman glided for the sill And turned for one last stare “I love you,” she said to the girl And leapt into the starless air The house was in a row till dawn Alysse clutching close beside Her warder Lady Orsinu Only the cloak was found outside At the guard's description Orsinu shook her head, dismayed Yet would not let her men alert The chevairds in Alaidain's pay “There is a monster on the loose!” The guard exclaimed in rage Yet Orsinu bade him to stay And spake words greatly sage; “I will not have her so decried So let it thus be known; Despite an evil done to her Leikotha Arenir came home”