THE WIZARD QUINTET PART 5 - THE BLACK SOULED WIZARD

In a cavern dark and deep
Where in the stillness foul things creep,
A black souled wizard made his lair
His evil arts to practise there.
Far removed from prying eyes
No one to hear his prisoners' cries,
He took their souls, to Hell they went
His power grew with each life spent.

The cavern seemed unguarded but
He did not need a door to shut,
From single foe to massed attack
Evil spells kept most men back.
Once a man set foot within
Erupting flames would melt the skin,
Boiling smoke would poison breath
Fire and fume brought painful death.

A man who somehow got inside
Could wish he had already died,
Straightway he'd meet a second ward
Well nigh immune to spear and sword.
A fearsome creature lay in wait
Stronger far than any gate,
With armoured hide and dagger claw
And razor teeth in a gaping maw.

Should one survive both spell and beast
A third test came, by no means least;
With spectral voices the air came alive
The ghosts of intruders who did not survive.
They talked of doom, they spoke of death
The pain which claimed their final breath;
With souls bereft they keened and wailed,
Such was the fate of all who failed.

Spells that held most men at bay
A guard and ghosts no man could slay,
Yet no man last braved the cave
It was but a woman ,her child to save.
Spells that ward ne'er held her back,
The guardian did not attack,
The spectral shades she did not hear
The loss of her child a far greater fear.

Spurred by thoughts of dark despair
She slipped into the wizard's lair,
The place where such foul deeds were done
The den of the demon who'd stolen her son.
Upon the wall in rusted chains
Hung one poor victim's sad remains,
A dried out husk, a lifeless shell
His soul ripped out and sent to Hell.

Upon a filthy blood stained bed
Her child lay, already dead,
The warmth of life clung to his skin
His innocent soul was yet within.
The black souled wizard knelt by his side
"You took my boy," the woman cried,
From inside her dress she pulled a knife
Without hesitation she ended his life.

She held her child all that night
Then passed away at dawn's first light,
She could not bear they be apart
She died indeed of a broken heart.
By their dead forms her shade did stand
She felt a touch on her ghostly hand,
Looking down, there her son stood
She'd saved his soul, he'd prayed she would.

In a cavern dark and deep
Where in the stillness foul things creep,
A black souled wizard made his lair
His evil arts to practise there.
Men, he thought, were his one foe
For all his lore he did not know,
Through love of a child he would be undone
The love of a mother for her only son.

COPYRIGHT D M PAMMENT 2009