In the wake of the death of the King of Witchland, his goblin advisor, Gro of the dream, comes to the fore as a sympathetic character on the horns of a dilemma. The Witches and Demons are hosted by The Red Foliot, whose name, associated, possibly with book, strikes me as subtly Dickensian. Though The Red Foliot entertains both sides and seeks to broker peace, it is obvious that both factions plot war.
The wake put on by The Red Foliot has dancing animals of sentient kind, the most fascinating of which is a grey feathered and golden-eyed bird woman, Kagu, with many other avian performers, though the show is stolen by two fat dormice.
As Gro says to the Red Foliot as he tries to draw him into partisanship:
"The harvest of this world is to the resolute, and he that is infirm of purpose is ground betwixt the upper and nether millstone."
Gro, an outcast from Goblinkind is taken to task by The Red Foliot, who reminds him of a rhyme the common goblin folk recite in his dishonor:
"It was a pittie
One so wittie
Malcontent:
Leaving reason
Should to treason
So be bent.
But his gifts
Were but shifts
Void of grace:
And his braverie
Was but naverei
Vile and base."
To this Lord Gro responds:
"But true it is that, regarding not the god of fools and women, nice opinion, I do steer by my own lodestar still."
Making the loner's case, Lord Gro takes on the mantel of the hero and rallies his adopted race on an astral stage:
"The hues of death and silence spread themselves where late the fires of sunset glowed..."
"...naught was heard save the murmur of the sleepless sea."
Diction of Interest
"drinking of the arvale of King Gorice"
"the unvintaged sea"
"the might of his egromancy"
"I will not bewray my guests"
Reverent Chandler: The Saga of Fend
link › jameslafond.blogspot.com
