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Behind, they bore, locked in a cage
The children on whom an outrage
Had often been done
Since Scald was begun--
And ne’er would that hurt be assuaged.

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Of skin orange, and of hair
Swept badly to shield a pate bare,
And with hands too small
To build up a wall,
They pressed on, unable to care.

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The bodyguard still ranged around,
Ranks spread to cover more ground
And forestall a threat
They could not see yet--
They knew that stern threats would abound.

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Boldly on, Scald’s leader came,
Upon whom had many heaped blame
For ruin and wrack
And an utter lack
Of sympathy, and, too, of shame.

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Steeling herself, she pressed on,
Though she to go had not yet long,
For Scald’s leader came down
And made to strike the town
Directly, not sending the throng.

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Erdewyn yet felt fatigue
From how her the fights had beleagued,
So she had need
Of her judgment’s speed
To end her town’s being besieged.

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Still, she recalled what she knew
And worked to her passion subdue.
Ire in a fight
Can offer great might,
But it can throw all skill askew.

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Heartless, she clearly was not,
Else she’d not by him have been taught;
It was at great price
She’d her task reprise,
And in her, her heart burned hot.

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After a moment, she went
Onward, as she had her sent.
She could well come back
After her attack
If in it she’d not her life spent.

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Yet she could not pause for the rites
That followed after many fights,
Whether with blade
Or ‘gainst age’s fade;
She had other goals in her sight.

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Seeing it, she grew enraged,
Thinking his death had been staged
By those she approached
And who had encroached
On the town where she’d been assuaged.

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Erdewyn’s heart missed its time
As she came upon the last sign
That her old master,
The stern Oðoæster,
Would make, who was great in his prime.

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And what the world does with a corpse
Had already begun its course,
And into the soil
The world’s long small toil
Had begun his body to force.

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No peace in his visage was seen,
No relic of his old glance keen,
No strength of his arm
That had done much harm
Still showed where it had once been.

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Death on his body had told,
Revealing him to have been old
And wounded much,
As well befits such
A person, one who had been bold.

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On swift, silent feet, she pressed on
Where not long before, one had gone.
He had passed ahead,
And she found him, dead,
Under whom she’d studied long.

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She valiantly went on ahead
To face the one who made deep dread
On others descend;
She wanted to end
The threat by leaving Scald’s leader dead.

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Erdewyn made her way out
Towards the Scald, went on without
Comfort or aid
To conduct her raid;
Alone, she’d proceed, lacking doubt.

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Erdewyn had such a plan
Once she knew how the Scald began,
Thought to use the fears
Of fighters to near
Their leader, and so end the band.

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Yet calling a thing false won’t make
That thing, if true, become a fake,
And if it be proved
And the speaker not moved,
Then some stronger measures will take.

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Many are they who will say
That what disagrees, them betrays,
And such will then rake
With the words “lie” and “fake,”
Maligning them many a day.

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When leaders work on people’s fears,
And it happens then that threat nears,
How people then act
May prove a foul fact
For one who nobody else hears.

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But even in lies is there truth,
As in the obscene, there is couth,
And in the new telling
She saw to the felling
Of Scald’s leader--absent of ruth.

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Nor ought it to be well said
That Erdewyn was by their words led
To a truth perceived
From knowledge received
By those who spoke from hate and from dread.

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Unlikely was it to atone
That the prisoners made the things known
They said in that time.
They’d long lived in crime
And likely sought to live alone.

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In such ways did the reports run
From prisoners once they’d begun.
Seeing some die
Had opened an eye
Or two--also mouths more than one.

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Unearthly force did that one wield
Who led the Scald, which forced to yield
They who, in the past,
Had stood firm and fast,
Or else from them skin and flesh peeled.

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For some to approach had once dared,
And it was well known how they fared;
Drained and discarded,
Their lives disregarded,
Their corpses left all the Scald scared.

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The Scald’s leader also remained,
Who had across years many pained.
They had been in fear
And had not drawn near,
And so they their lives had retained.

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Better equipped the bodyguard was
Than Scald’s rank and file because
The guard did them drive
Who would stay alive;
They fought or were chewed by death’s jaws.