The Wandering Fiddler

When the carillon bells rang low
At the fading close of day
A stranger crossed the village bounds
As the sunlight drained away

Violin beside his coat
Eyes as black as winter coal
Every turn upon the pegs
Seemed to bend the people's soul

The saddler dropped his sharpened awl
The tanner cast his straps aside
The watchman left his nightly round
The bailiff broke his stride

No one knew from where he came
Nor the bloodline of his name
Only heard that haunted tune
Winding through the dusk like flame

Play, fiddler, play your song
Beneath the nether veil
Every turn upon the pegs
Marks another soul for sale
Play, fiddler, play your song
With your cold and knowing smile
Every note you gather in
Draws them downward mile by mile

The tenant left his rusted hoe
The steward dropped his parchment scrolls
The provost ceased his questioning
As the music claimed their souls

Maidens, elders, novices
Bound beneath a strange command
Followed every sweep of bow
Like subjects of a shadowed land

Neither sermon, prayer nor bell
Nor the Latin chants divine
Could dispel the hidden venom
Flowing from those strings of pine

Still the melody kept winding
Through each corridor and hall
Like a proscribed grimoire rising
From a long-forgotten vault

Play, fiddler, play your song
Beneath the nether veil
Every turn upon the pegs
Marks another soul for sale
Play, fiddler, play your song
With your cold and knowing smile
Every note you gather in
Draws them downward mile by mile

Past the wastelands choked with cinders
Past the cliffs of basalt stone
They beheld forbidden cities
Unlike any they had known

There were gleaming obelisks
There were towers dark with grime
There were cyclopean gateways
Guarding secrets older than time

Then at last they came to know
Why the march would never slow
For the master of that line
Was the fiddler long ago

Beneath the weathered traveller's coat
Hidden from the mortal eye
Lurked the Prince of Every Ruin
Ancient as the starless sky

Soul by soul he gathered tribute
Soul by soul he marked the line
Building up his shadow kingdom
Far beyond the bounds of time

Play, fiddler, play your song
Beneath the nether veil
Every turn upon the pegs
Marks another soul for sale
Play, fiddler, play your song
With your cold and knowing smile
Every note you gather in
Draws them downward mile by mile