They come creeping our of darkness, and to darkness 
they return. 
In their wake they leave destruction; where they go, no 
one can learn 
For they leave no trace in passing, as if all who 
watched were blind 
Like a dream of evil sending, 
Nightblades passing, nightblades rending, 
Into darkness once more blending 
Leaving only dead behind. 

First a threat-and then a death comes in the darkness 
of the night 
And a dozen would-be allies have begun to show their 
fright. 
When the nightblades strike unhindered, and can take a 
life at will, 
There's no safety in alliance 
And much peril in defiance 
It is best to show compliance 
And the Karsite ranks to fill. 

The chief envoy summons Vanyel, for one ally still 
seems brave 
And the treaty may be salvages if Vanyel this life can 
save. 
Herald Vanyel feigns refusal, senses one would play him 
fool; 
Thinks of treachery in hiding, 
Lets his instincts be his guiding. 
His own counsel he is biding 
He'll be no unwitting tool. 

Garbed in black slips Herald Vanyel to their last lone 
ally's keep; 
Over wall and into window, past all gates and guards to 
creep. 
Past all gates and guards-no magic has them wrapped in 
deadly spell- 
They are drugged, and they are dreaming. 
Some foe strikes in friendly seeming- 
See-a metal dart there gleaming! 
Vanyel knew the symptoms well. 

Now he hears another's footstep soft before him in the 
dark 
And he haste to lay an ambush while the nightblade 
seeks his mark. 
Now he waits beside the doorway of the ally's very room 
And the nightblade, all unknowing, 
With a single lamp-beam showing 
To a confrontation going 
Not to fill another tomb. 

Out of shadows Vanyel rises and he bars the nightblad's 
way. 
He has only that slim warning-Vanyel has him soon at 
bay. 
When the guards have all awakened, then he bares the 
nightblade's face 
And all minds but his are reeling 
When he tears off but concealing- 
And the envoy's face revealing- 
Brings the traitor to disgrace.