Lay of the aelf wicce
Lonely road through lonely landscape,
Far from hearth and fires of home,
Maids of Rohan seeking fortune,
Met by windswept stable door,
Treasures lost and gold abandoned,
Coin to pay for steed to bear them,
Steeds to bear them to the Mark,
Sought they in that cheerless land.
Dark the shadow fell across them,
Cast by creature out of legend,
Sweet the voice with which she hailed them,
Slender beauty masking peril,
Honeyed words of ancient magics,
Sought to bind them to her will,
Enchanted silver cast before them,
Shimmering with evil’s light,
Beguiled they took the proffered silver,
Bathed in its inhuman light,
Then they felt the trap ensnare them,
Felt the wicce’s evil power,
Fled they to the lights that flickered,
In the window of an inn,
Inn forgotten, inn forsaken,
Still a shelter ‘gainst the storm.
