Heather Alexander Nightblades
They come creeping our of darkness, and to darkness
they return.
In their wake they leave destruction; where they go, no
one can learn
For they leave no trace in passing, as if all who
watched were blind
Like a dream of evil sending,
Nightblades passing, nightblades rending,
Into darkness once more blending
Leaving only dead behind.
First a threat-and then a death comes in the darkness
of the night
And a dozen would-be allies have begun to show their
fright.
When the nightblades strike unhindered, and can take a
life at will,
There's no safety in alliance
And much peril in defiance
It is best to show compliance
And the Karsite ranks to fill.
The chief envoy summons Vanyel, for one ally still
seems brave
And the treaty may be salvages if Vanyel this life can
save.
Herald Vanyel feigns refusal, senses one would play him
fool;
Thinks of treachery in hiding,
Lets his instincts be his guiding.
His own counsel he is biding
He'll be no unwitting tool.
Garbed in black slips Herald Vanyel to their last lone
ally's keep;
Over wall and into window, past all gates and guards to
creep.
Past all gates and guards-no magic has them wrapped in
deadly spell-
They are drugged, and they are dreaming.
Some foe strikes in friendly seeming-
See-a metal dart there gleaming!
Vanyel knew the symptoms well.
Now he hears another's footstep soft before him in the
dark
And he haste to lay an ambush while the nightblade
seeks his mark.
Now he waits beside the doorway of the ally's very room
And the nightblade, all unknowing,
With a single lamp-beam showing
To a confrontation going
Not to fill another tomb.
Out of shadows Vanyel rises and he bars the nightblad's
way.
He has only that slim warning-Vanyel has him soon at
bay.
When the guards have all awakened, then he bares the
nightblade's face
And all minds but his are reeling
When he tears off but concealing-
And the envoy's face revealing-
Brings the traitor to disgrace.