The Fall of Isbanir

by Rudi Dornemann

Children’s counting chant, recovered from shards of crystal memory cores found in the ruins of the prophets’ quarter, Sarandib city, on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

1 for the citadel, proud and unbreachable

2 for the ion ghosts, crackling at dawn

3 for the sky-rings, lined like the plains

4 for the cinder-general

5 for her ash-gray armies

6 for the Kuiper-kings, in their halls of ice

7 for the emissary, with his gold-foil scroll

8 for the assassin, waiting on the road

9 for the identity mask, stolen and recoded

10 for the masquerade and its merry confusion

9 for the misled Duke, lonely in his garden

8 for the ice stiletto, evaporating after

7 for the ducal court, split between his children

6 for the late alliance, desperate and dangerous

5 for the ash-gray armies, massing on the plains

4 for the armistice, hasty, fragile, brief

3 for the yearlong siege and the songs of hunger

2 for alliance with ghosts, more desperate, more dangerous

1 for the citadel, echoing and empty