PEACEMAKER

In Ethucan streets a small one stands:
Ruby Falcon, fair and beloved
jewel of Valorn, valiant child.

She was not lost, nor left in passage,
but willingly chose to watch and wait
by the closed gate, cold and alone.

Armed not with steel, nor rogue's swiftness,
enchanter's power, nor cleric's prayer,
a wooden sword she wears and wields.

Dear was that gift of Darren the mighty.
The God declared it the Blade of Doom,
but seeing its destiny, Doom she denied:

Knowing its power, Peacemaker she named it,
in friendship's hand, open and fearless,
two-edged blade, best hope of healing.

No eagle in the morning blue,
no golden sun at noontide high,
no falling star through midnight sky,
can equal or compare with you.

Breathless joy and burning flame,
wonder, pleasure, joy and fear --
this I feel when you are near,
when I see you, speak your name.

The gods having declared a competition for descriptions of Fall Festival costumes, I wrote the following for mine. At the end of Fall Festival (November 7), the goddess Xia looked on it with favor and presented to me, along with four others -- Corwin, Islander, Korrith, and Legion -- a Fall Festival Tunic inscribed "I (heart) Fall Festival."


FIRE IMP

Below I was born, earthbound, burning,
fire's fallen child, of fiercest flame.
My skin like brass blisters the touch;
my heart glows hot, but heavy as coal,
denied the flight of a free flame,
a swift fire serpent or spirit eternal,
but mired in darkness, like magma demons
whose molten pulse pours out in the dark.

To find my lair you too must fall,
through steam and sulfur, eye-stinging stench,
down to the fearful halls of fire,
where I burn with my brothers in darkness below.