XIV. Falling salamanders on the wing

[lorwolm]

In the third gyre of the Age of Eichenblon's Crater

The bald standard-bearer marked by the severity
Of her injury:
She hides herself in manacles and loses the use of
Her hands
For the duration of the Winter of Stone Grass and
Brown Ice.
When the links of frost come unhinged, her grasp
Is re-built
By the clock-makers of a far city in the West.

While following a strange course through black mist
On the path to catastrophe on the mountain of shadows,
She is trusted by falling salamanders on the wing
With no gentle sentiment in their ponderous eyes.

An unseen hand digging between mortar and stone
Yields a ghost with a dragon's claw scribed upon
His funereal bands.
The countersign is the facsimile of a scarlet ornament.