http:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Candle-Maker-and-her-Knights-Questing-1.0.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n <\/p>\n
The candle-maker wears a silken gown<\/p>\n
Of blackest ink and broidered gibbous moons<\/p>\n
And shiver sta
\nrs. The candles, lowered down<\/p>\n
With supple wrist while humming mirthless tunes,<\/p>\n
Are dipped in iron vat of paraffin,<\/p>\n
Some bacon fat, and amber wax from bees.<\/p>\n
Without a care, she tells the knights within<\/p>\n
Her boundless chambers standing ill at ease<\/p>\n
Their newest quest to find the keys to fit<\/p>\n
The door of nacred castle floating high<\/p>\n
Above in Land of Summer Clouds. Such writ<\/p>\n
Beyond is meet for them to signify.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The clanking paladins on horse approach<\/p>\n
The way and halt. The lacquered Purple grim<\/p>\n
With battered shield and whispered self-reproach<\/p>\n
And grimmer Gray, his dented visor scrim<\/p>\n
To all he sees, dismount and gaze at sheer<\/p>\n
Escarpment.\u00a0 Rusted sword and broken lance<\/p>\n
Are left behind with other shoddy gear.<\/p>\n
The weary coursers hobbled, wait perchance,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In nearby verdant lea with limpid stream.<\/p>\n
The templars errant scale the cliff in frayed<\/p>\n
And filthy quilted coats and did beseem<\/p>\n
Two bloated spiders climbing palisade.<\/p>\n
They crest the rim then gather sticks, begin<\/p>\n
A small and sadly crackling fire to warm<\/p>\n
Their bones. The sky is deeper blue than in<\/p>\n
The Ocean’s deathly calm before the storm.<\/p>\n
A brief repast of cheese and wine and soon<\/p>\n
Recline on ground for snoring sleep and dreams<\/p>\n
Of dragons slayed as half a mimsy moon<\/p>\n
Arises. It sails through whimsy veils and beams<\/p>\n
With pallid luster. Morning comes a pink<\/p>\n
And orange smear with castle floating high.<\/p>\n
Its splendored battlements a blushing brink<\/p>\n
Above the rosy line of land and sky.<\/p>\n
The men awaken, see the keep on clouds.<\/p>\n
They rub the sleep from eyes and travel west<\/p>\n
To reach the citadel on billowed shrouds.<\/p>\n
They walk all day toward their sacred quest<\/p>\n
But pacing forward only pushes back<\/p>\n
The lofty fastness.\u00a0 Gloaming finds it just<\/p>\n
As far away. In granite cul de sac,<\/p>\n
The noble knights espy in whirling dust<\/p>\n
A wizard long in beard\u00a0awaiting\u00a0them.<\/p>\n
Fatigued and mystified, they ask, “Dear sir,<\/p>\n
Consult your sorcerous, refulgent gem<\/p>\n
And tell us please, what magic spell it were,<\/p>\n
Will carry us to yonder castle’s keys?”<\/p>\n
“No magic’s needed,” said the thaumaturge,<\/p>\n
“Because the beams of ashen moon do seize<\/p>\n
The airy edifice and, tethered, merge<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It with the near horizon, simply stalk<\/p>\n
It through the night. Then climb, when close enough,<\/p>\n
A silvered ray to reach the castle walk.”<\/p>\n
With faith renewed, the questers, slip and scuff<\/p>\n
And stagger through the dark to argent thread<\/p>\n
Connecting skying keep to ground. Again,<\/p>\n
Two swollen spiders climbing overhead<\/p>\n
Arrive at heavy, rusted gate and then<\/p>\n
They see the glowing keys are hanging there<\/p>\n
On brazen hook. The Purple grimly lifts<\/p>\n
The golden skeletons and back they fare<\/p>\n
To candle-maker’s cottage where he gifts<\/p>\n
The keys to her. She puts them in the bowl<\/p>\n
With all the others. Infinite, it pends,<\/p>\n
This stick of flaxen wicks. She dips them whole,<\/p>\n
They don’t increase, and questing never ends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\nKelly Peach lives in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He hikes, reads and collects books, and bakes. His author’s website is\u00a0mkellypeach.com<\/a>; Twitter is @MichaelPeach. He has work forthcoming in Suicid(al)iens, 42 Stories, and Calliope.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat can be said of The Bard?\u00a0 This:\u00a0 Long ago, the mists of time parted. An unheard-of figure emerged: a wildman; untamed and howling. His brute savagery was a marvel to all. He fled into the wilderness and passed beyond memory. During the commotion, the Bard also emerged. He also fled into the wilderness but he came back when he got hungry<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE CANDLE-MAKER AND HER KNIGHTS QUESTING, by Kelly Peach, with audio by The Bard The candle-maker wears a silken gown Of blackest ink and broidered gibbous moons And shiver sta rs. The candles, lowered down With supple wrist while humming mirthless tunes, Are dipped in iron vat of paraffin, Some bacon fat, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-57-archive","category-main","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3966"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3975,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions\/3975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}