The Lay of Denthfeld: Canto IV

Audio Recording

CANTO IV: THE BATTLE ON THE PLAIN

Argument: The vision shifts again to show Sencan landing upon the southern shore of the Sea of Ambori. He has come in time, for a wind has sprung up out of the north, sent by the prayers of the Queen. He sends out his scouts and is aware of the ambush planned by Dekis, and marches to battle. On the battlefield, Dega and Vaneral have had no word of Sencan. They purpose to go ahead with the assault. They are at first successful against Anghol's army, which is in the van as Orkon planned. Then Anghol himself comes forth, and terrifies the Ekkis horse. Vaneral withstands and wounds Anghol, but is himself mortally wounded in turn. Anghol and Vaneral exchange words before the former quits the field, and the latter is carried away by his men. Both sides withdraw with the coming of night. Vishnarr, meanwhile, has watched the battle from his fortress walls, and is angry because Orkon did not appear with his host for the ambush as planned. But Orkon has used the distraction of the battle to steal, by magic, the Scepter of the Moon. Vishnarr discovers the theft and is wroth, but blames the rebels. Dawn comes, and with it, a North wind blows the foul mist away. The Equisliad and Oornans attack again and are victorious until Orkon and Vishnarr himself join the battle, the latter seeking to wreak vengeance on Vaneral, whom he believes has stolen the Scepter. Just at that moment, Sencan's army arrives, having defeated Dekis. The Amborians charge as the sun rises in the East.

Now show me, Heaven's Children--you who first

With wonder looked upon the jeweled world

From porches high which hung above the earth

When first the Maker's bounty was declared--

Show me how it now with Sencan fares

Who risks his kingdom at a single throw

And Southward sails, on Denthfeld's plain to dare

By dint of spears the Dark Star's overthrow.

Indeed, the summons did not come too soon,

And many distant leagues before him lay--

Between the Hill where sacred flowers bloomed

To where miasmas waft upon the plain.

Nor knew he then that Dekis Northward came

With strength of arms to greet him on the shore,

Intending to a cunning ambush lay

And seize the Northern throne forevermore. 

Tall Sencan bears a gem upon his brow

Where starlight crowns and dances round his head.

The Sea is still as glass beneath the prow--

Then flames the wine-dark sea to rosy red!

Now Sencan orders them his banner spread

Upon the mast, above the empty sails.

The scarlet sunrise catches silver threads

And splinters on the gleaming opals pale.

The Queen Hasanya prays before the pool

Which long ago a brazen spearhead cleansed:

The sacred waters fouled by serpents cruel

Who fell before the might of Orusen.

Now the Queen bends o'er with silver net

And stirs the waters pure with gentle song,

And prays that Heaven's grace may not forget

The ship of Sencan sailing like a swan.

Then stirs a wind beyond the Northern plains--

It rushes o'er the fields of endless ice,

And over moor and fen, and stirs the fane

Of Sencan hanging 'neath a scarlet sky.

Then fill the sails--the Deep Men give a cry-

And then to spars and ropes the sailors look.

So Sencan southward sailed, and came in time

And on the silver strand he set his foot.

Then scouts were sent into the growing mists,

And Sencan heard the news of Dekis' host.

"Never shall my heirs forget this gift--

The Njeitbori may of my friendship boast

Until the starry throng of Heaven's host

Relinquish all their realm, and then the Sea

Overwhelms Kwaodran's leagured coasts

And washes all the realm of mortals clean.

"Now we go to fight the rushing host

Of enemies who sought to meet us here,

And so our landing would with arms oppose.

And if we triumph now, we set our spears

Beside the steeds of Dega's riders fierce

And win, or die, upon the sodden field.

Then, either lay our dead upon their biers,

Or else their corpses to the vultures yield.

"But if I come again to sit the throne

Which valor set upon the Holy Hill,

Then to the Njeitbori I will make known

How Sencan all his sacred oaths fulfills."

"The Deep Men know that nothing Heaven's will

Prevents, for all is written by the Stars.

A king of men will burn upon the field

Who proudly rode for conquest to the war."

"Then Heaven's will must be as Heaven wills,

But Sencan gainsays not his given word.

To Dega's aid we march, come good or ill,

Though we should leave our corpses on the sward."

Then Sencan marches 'neath a cloud of birds

(Which gathered for the banquet that would come

When high-bred steeds were to the combat spurred)

And on the wind he heard the beat of drums.

But on the plain of Denthfeld, poisoned mist

Rose, and caught the sunrise in its folds.

And red as blood it moved in reeking wisps

And froze the hearts of men with fingers cold.

Then Dega roused and took his shield of gold,

And girt his sword, and donned his shining mail.

"Up Vaneral, before the day is old,

And let us try our luck with bitter steel.

"No word has come from those I northward sent

Of whether Sencan marches to our aid,

Or whether by the Hill of Orusen

He sports in comfort 'neath the silvan glades.

No, we must look for succor to our blades,

And steel ourselves for combat on the field.

The riders of the wold are not afraid

To face this *drake with iron swords and shields."

* B MS "to face this host"

"Vishnarr, Lord of Dread, has set his seat

Amid the Threefold Kingdom's ancient lands.

I am by long descent from ancient kings

The last of living heirs to Cumric's clan,

And while I hold a sword in Cumric's lands

I fear not man, nor beast of darkness grim.

So courage, men, and Heaven guide our hands

And harden hearts against the battle's din."

O tell me, Stars, tell how the shining ranks

Moved as storm-clouds surge across the sky

When summer storms go roiling o'er the plains;

So mighty men went rushing on to die.

The banners of the horse are flying high

And screaming like the fiends beneath the earth

Who haunt the twilight realm where dead men lie

And wait the doom that dogs us from our birth.

The shining of the spears of Dega's charge--

The lightning of a thousand Oornan swords--*

The blazing fire of Vaneral's gold targe--

The oiled bodies of the gleaming hordes

Of Anghol's slaves who wait with bitter swords

To meet the onset of the rebels bold--

These dim my sight, and beggar me for words

To tell the valor of the kings of old.

*B MS "The lightning at the draw of Oornan swords"

Now the shining ranks of Anghol's slaves

Fall reeling back before the shock of horse,

While mad, the Ekkis riders sing and slay,

And redly flash their seven-thousand swords.

The Oornan outlaws rage against the hordes,

Each wielding sword or spear which once his sire

Had hidden, waiting for the happy hour

When Heaven's word would wake ancestral fires.

Then before those kings no man may stand--

Nor all the hosts of Anghol's willing slaves

(The sons of Kothor who from Eastern lands

Came driven by the might of Anghol's gaze)

Could stand before the flashing of their blades.

The horsemen drove a wedge with point of spear--

The hooves of stallions thundered on the plain--

The horde of slaves was driven back in fear.

* B MS "The slaves were routed 'cross the plain in fear" or "The horde of slaves was driven back in fear."

Then Anghol came, with scales like hand-linked mail,

And jaws which poisoned fumes and belching smoke

Reeked, enshrouding all the Serpent's Hill

With choking airs that ringed it like a moat.

The huge and bloated serpent boldly groped

And twisted towards the surging line of horse.

Then Anghol glanced--a dumb black terror smote

The Ekkis mounts--they scattered on the moor.

Then Vaneral stood forth with flashing blade,

And in his hand he raised a steel-tipped lance.

He hurled it towards the crawling drake

And pierced its tongue and jaw with steel and ash.

The bitter missile sunk up to the shaft

And bile like blood ran out upon the earth.

The serpent lashed and bellowed in his wrath

And struck the hero dumb upon the turf.

The dragon thrashed the ground and raged in pain,

And all around the earth was split and rent

As when, as poets write, the mountains quake

When serpents of the Starlit World have dreamt

And threaten cities with their discontent.

So Anghol's thrashing broke the Northern heath,

And long before his anger was full-spent

The Ekkis ranks were scattered on the lea.

The dragon's ichor spread across the sward

And burned the hero's arm as he lay dumb.

He raised himself, and lifted up his sword

And drove it through the belly of the worm.

The dragon twisted round and flicked his tongue

And fixed his glance upon the injured man.

"What name, O man, was given to the son

Of she who bore you to your father's kin?"

"My mother named me Vaneral the Strong,

And well have I this day my father's kin

Honored in the bloody battle-throng,

Though fills my cup of sorrow to the brim."

The serpent stilled, and gazed full-long at him

And fixed him with the terror of his eye.

But pain lent strength unto the hero's wit,

And Vaneral was not ashamed to die.

Now falls dark night upon the sodden field,

And then away each host to camp withdraws

To search their wounds, enshrouded by the veil

Of mist that gathers blackly like a fog.

But Vishnarr watched the battle from the wall

And ground his teeth as Anghol's shattered line

Slunk beneath their earthen ramparts tall,

And Anghol, wounded, then the field resigned.

"Where was Orkon?" This was all his care

Who stood and watched the failure of his plan.

For Dega's host had fled in black despair

And by all rights should now be in his hands.

But Dega's horse had rallied at the last,

Since Orkon's host was absent on the plain,

And Vaneral's retreat with shining lance

Had covered while the Ram had westward waned. 

"No more will I to lesser captains leave

The issue of the battle on the plain.

When comes the morn I will the field achieve,

And wade among the corpses of the slain.

Then all the earth shall fear Great Vishnarr's name,

And rebel knees shall bow before my rod

And kiss the Scepter of uncaring Fate

And worship mighty Vishnarr as a god."

And truly, so have scholars said to me,

If Vishnarr then had all his will pursued, 

No host of men or mail-clad company

Could stand before, or even dare to view

His anger, who the Rod of Fate imbued

With strength beyond the knowledge of the Stars.

But Vishnarr's day of doom was overdue,

For he had bred the hate in Orkon's heart.

But Heaven's lofty muses will not show

The arts of darkness Orkon used that night--

How he by craft, and cunning glamours, stole,

And veiled his form horror's sleepless sight--

Or how he paid back Vishnarr for the slight

When, serpent-shaped, he crept into the vault

And took the Rod which long ago by right

Adorned the blessed Silver Hunter's hall.

Such secrets men of worth do not require.

It is enough for me to know the end:

That evil dies by evil's own desires,

Nor can forever Heaven's will forfend.

And think you how, when Orkon, bat-like, wends

His way through misty airs, then up the sun

So like a cup of golden amber blends

The wine of darkness and the day begun--

Then lo! what hope to mortal men

Who looked not to the morn to bring them light,

But only twilight dim and sad lament,

And after, barrow's flame and bitter night.

But Vishnarr's mists were melted in the light

And driven on the wind which from the North

Had carried Sencan's host to come in time

To form his ranks of ash-wood on the shore. 

A cry comes down from off the tower high

Where Vishnarr curses blindly in his rage

And hurls three monsters who were standing nigh

To smoke in ruin before his iron gates.

The thief had from his deepest vaults escaped

And took the Rod by which that fallen star

A thousand years of conquest, ruin, and rape

Inflicted through the Days of Endless Dark.

But now a horn upon the field below

Announces Dega's lancers riding fast

And arrows fill the air like angry crows,

And crow-like, downward dive on pinions black.

Another horn! The Threefold Kingdom cast

Aside their cloaks and wade into the fray.

Now Rian leads the charge of Cumric's clan

Though Vaneral yet lived to see that day.

The clash of arms! The host of slaves gives way!

The Eastern troops are caught before their walls!

But stay, O stars, and make the vision plain:

What monstrous forms have come at Orkon's call?

The bat-nosed things are streaming o'er the walls

Unchecked by blade or corpses of their friends.

And viler still, the Nalshbori--so tall,

So like the forms of those who once were men.

Dread Orkon's host at last to war has come,

And though the Eastern slaves have fled the field,

The awful beating of the Nalshbo drums

Advise the rebel host to turn or yield.

But Dega fights alone with cloven shield,

While from the tow'r a darkness like a cloud

Spreads a nameless terror o'er the field,

And Vishnarr there descends in thunder's shroud.

For he, supposing Vaneral had means--

Though how it were he could not dare to guess--

To steal the Rod of Nature's rightful king

Had come himself to meet him in the press.

Now all the rebel host is in distress,

And fly before the onslaught of those Stars

Who, failing heaven's mighty host to best,

Now triumphed over all their earthly wars.

All wars but one--for lo! upon the wind!

A shining star is born upon a spear!

The fane of Sencan, lordliest of men

Waves aloft, and Orkon quakes in fear.

For mighty Sencan bested Dekis' spears,

Who did not think to meet him on the way.

Now Sencan's host, with solemn prayers and cheers,

Come charging at the dawning of the day.