Lys: The Bard's Daughter

It was two days since the incident with the brigands. Try as she might, she wasn't able to push it from her mind. But it simmered in the back, and turned and formed itself into something new, so that she could pull back and see it from a different perspective.

So it wasn't too far of a stretch when one of her father's songs came to mind. Technically it wasn't his. It was one he had been taught when he was still rising through the ranks of bardhood.

She could not remember all of it, and how she wished she had a harp! but what she did know would not stay inside her. So under the British sun, in the company of this odd band, the song made itself known.


“Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
I even I, will sing to the LORD;
I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
In the days of Jael,
The highways were deserted,
And the travelers walked along the byways.

Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Arose a mother in Israel.

They chose new gods;
Then there was war in the gates;
Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

My heart is with the rulers of Israel
Who offered themselves willingly with the people.
Bless the LORD!

Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,
Who sit in judges’ attire,
And who walk along the road.

Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places,
There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD,
The righteous acts for His villagers in Israel;
Then the people of the LORD shall go down to the gates.

Most blessed among women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed is she among women in tents.

He asked for water, she gave milk;
She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.

She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.

At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell dead.

Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.”