Up From The Roots

Caught in a web of living night
I and my brothers nine, shackled by the trees
A sentence served for spitting in the face of death
We await our primal judge's wrath.

Out from the tangled black, the She-wolf comes
Grim eyes aglow with sorcery
Wrought of earth, wind and rain and dark desire
Drawn by vengeance and warm blood in the cold night's air.

Each night, the Wretch returns
Each night, a Volsung falls
Tonight, when she returns for I, the last
Tonight I will answer death's call.

Far off in the house of my captor, Signy comes to my aid
A trick of the senses, the price of a chance
A trap of honey upon my face
I must not die like a rat in this night, fruit of the Barnstock be fed
I will drink of the bastard-kings blood
and see all his children dead.

Now the Bitch approaches
Bloodlust in her eyes
As I stare into oblivion
All doubt within me dies.

A pause before the kill
she stops to taste the trap
As the tongue of death slips past my lips
I clench it in my jaws and rip it
Up from the roots.