[Dover, England: September 1594 (the recollections of a war-weary mariner)]
|
|
Hearken boy; for I would tell thee a tale before we set sail for the Bay of
|
Biscay on the morrow. I was not always called by this name, you know... To
|
you, I am Caleb Blackthorne, battle-scarred master of an English galleon,
|
survivor of a score of sea-fights, cheater of the notched blades of many an
|
over ambitious Spanish pirate... the Scourge of Medina Sedonia! But to many
|
others over the countless centuries since my first birth, I have been known by
|
a host of other names... so many that even I begin to forget all but the ones
|
distinguished by the most vivid deeds... for I hide a wondrous secret, boy...
|
a secret some would call a blessing, but which others would deem a grim curse.
|
Aye, it all began a very long time ago...
|
|
Memories of death and life...
|
|
For countless thousands of centuries I have walked the earth...
|
I have seen endless battle,
|
And untold centuries of slaughter.
|
|
I am reborn once more!
|
The same grim spirit once again given flesh...
|
O' to be ravished by the seductress death...
|
|
[The Scion of the Storms:]
|
Dethroned 'ere Atlantis fell, haunted by a dark queen's curse,
|
My son's soul shackled by this spell of endless death and grim rebirth.
|
Fly, o' skyborne steed of Lyonesse, ride the tempest's wings,
|
I am the scion of the vengeful skies, a god to warriors and kings!
|
|
[Reflections on lifetimes of carnage:]
|
|
I have been slain by Roman gladius,
|
And by Norman spear dealt a mortal wound,
|
The threads of my ensorcelled destiny
|
Endlessly woven on some unknown cosmic loom.
|
I have lost my life to longbow shafts
|
Fighting for the English crown,
|
And mayhap I'll end this mariner's life
|
A good three score fathoms down!
|
|
I marched with vast armies 'ere gleaming Atlantis sank beneath the waves...
|
I reddened my blade against Caesar's legions long ago...
|
I stood beside Boudicca at Colchester...
|
I dealt honed steel death from the ranks of Arthur Pendragon...
|
I slew and looted gloriously at Lindisfarne...
|
I slaked my scramasax at Maldon...
|
I crossed blades with Brian Boru at Clontarf...
|
I slaughtered left and right with Harold at Hastings...
|
I dispatched Norman swordsmen with Robin of Loxley...
|
I wielded a Claymore at Stirling Bridge...
|
I was in the thick of the fray beside Henry at Agincourt...
|
I spilled blood for the White Rose at Bosworth Field...
|
I captained a galleon against the great Armada of Philip II...
|
|
I have witnessed the rise of corrupt religions, but my heathen blade was red
|
countless centuries before their flaccid laws were ever carved in stone.
|
|
They call me the Scourge of Medina Sedonia... my ship sails at dawn, and may
|
our English steel ring gloriously against the cutlasses of the outlander
|
pirates!
|
|
Aye boy, it is a strange tale indeed. I know not why I am destined to live and
|
die in this way, my soul moving from life to life, ever dying and being again
|
reborn, with every memory of my past incarnations intact. A whim of the gods?
|
An ancient sorcerous spell? Some cruel machination of fate, mayhap? Or is it
|
all for some mysterious, greater purpose? Sometimes I feel the gaze of inhuman
|
eyes upon me, and fragments of some past existence which I cannot wholly
|
recall flash before my mind's eye. And time and time again I know precisely
|
when I am to die in the fray, for always 'ere the fatal blow is struck, I see
|
him... grim and noble astride his great winged steed, gleaming spear crackling
|
in his grasp, beckoning me onwards to the next life... to ever more slaughter
|
and carnage... Yes, adour and brooding spirit he is, and in his burning eyes I
|
see a great secret which I must discover, a powerful mystery I alone must
|
solve. I cannot speculate as to what strange destiny the fate! s ! have
|
written for me in the stars... but the gods have decreed that this is the path
|
I must follow, and I am sure that my adventures are far from over...
|
|
-----------------
|
When Rides The Scion Of The Storms
|
| Bal-sagoth |
