“They said I was a sorcerer,
An affront to chosen gods,
They gathered in their temple courts
And spoke their righteous frauds.
They said I walked with shadow-things,
That darkness knew my name,
They lit the pyres, raised the ropes,
And prayed I’d die in flame.
They drove me from my father’s land
With arrows at my back,
The cowards cheered from castle walls
As I vanished into black.
They said the wilderness would claim
What judgment had begun,
That wolves and cold and hunger’s teeth
Would finish what they’d done.
But years have passed beyond their sight,
And years have taught me well,
The things they feared in whispered dreams
Were waiting there as well.
Now raven watches overhead,
strange fires stain the sky,
And every lord who cast his stone
Will learn the reason why.
Now I return through storm and ash,
Through moonlit mist and flame,
With all the powers they accused
Already in my name.”
