“What has touched me, reaching deep
Piercing my ensorceled sleep?
Darkling lady, do you weep?
Am I the cause of your grieving?
Why do tears of balm and bane
Bathe my heart with bitter rain?
What is this longing? Why this pain?
What is this spell you are weaving?”

“Sunlight Singer, Morning’s peer—
How I long for what I fear!
Not by my will are you here
How I wish I could free you!
Gladly in your arms I’d lie
But I dare not come you nigh
For if you touch me I shall die—
If I were wise I would flee you.”

“Shadowdancer, dark and fell,
Lady that I love too well—
Won’t you free me from this spell
That you have cast around me?
Star-eyed maid beyond compare,
Mist of twilight in your hair—
Why must you be so sweet and fair?
How is it that you have bound me?”

“In your eyes your soul lies bare
Hope is mingled with despair;
Sunborn lover do I dare
Trust my heart to your keeping?
Sunrise means that I must flee—
Moonrise steals your soul from me;
Nothing behind but agony,
Nothing before us but weeping.”

“Sun and Shadow, dark and light;
Child of day and child of night,
Who can set our tale aright?
Is there no future but sorrow?
Will some power hear our plea—
Take the curse from you and me—
Great us death, or set us free?
Dare we to hope for tomorrow?”

THE HEALER’S DILEMMA

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey Music: Bill Roper

(Devan: Arrow’s Fall)

My child, the child of my heart, though never of my name,

Who shares my Gift; whose eyes, though young, are mine—the very same

Who shares my every thought, whose skillful hands I taught so well

Now hear the hardest lesson I shall ever have to tell.

Young Healer, I have taught you all I know of wounds and pain—

Of illnesses, and all the herbs of blessing and of bane—

Of all the usage of your Gift; all that I could impart—And how you learned, young Healer, brought rejoicing to my heart.

But there is yet one lessoning I cannot give to you

For you must find your own way there—judge what is sound and true

This lesson is the cruelest ever Healer had to teach—

It is—what you must do when there are those you cannot reach.

However great your Gift there will be times when you will fail

There will be those you cannot help, your skill cannot prevail.

When you fight Death, and lose to Him, or what may yet be worse

You win—to find the wreck He left regards you with a curse.

And worst of all, and harder still, the times when it’s a friend

Who looks to you to bring him peace and make his torment end—

What will you do, young Healer, when there’s nothing you can do?