The Stand at Hover’s Pass

The wind howled cold through Hover’s Pass,

Where the mountain shadows lie,

Andrew Stomcastle watched the dark

And the serpent banners rise.

Below him crawled a thousand scales,

Cold eyes in torchlight glow,

An army winding through the rocks

Like a living river slow.

His brothers took the Baywhar Babe,

His sister at their side,

Through screaming clouds of wyverns

They rode the storming sky.

“Hold the pass,” they told him,

“Till the morning brings us back.”

So Andrew took his crossbow

And stood upon the track.

Hold the pass, hold the line,

Through the mountain, through the night,

Let them think an army waits

In the shadow of the height.

Stone and steel and stubborn will,

Let the serpent banners break—

For the helpless in the valley

And the dawn that’s yet to wake.

He rolled the stones from cliffside,

Let them thunder down below,

Serpent ranks in shattered lines

Fell beneath the falling blow.

Then bolts sang from the darkness,

Crossbow string and iron cry,

Each shot from a different shadow

Like ten men standing by.

They climbed the rocks in fury,

Curved blades flashing pale,

Andrew met them in the narrow

With a sword against their scales.

Steel rang loud in moonlight,

Blood dark on the snow,

But the pass was thin and crooked—

Only one could face him slow.

Hold the pass, hold the line,

Through the mountain, through the night,

Let them think an army waits

In the shadow of the height.

Stone and steel and stubborn will,

Let the serpent banners break—

For the helpless in the valley

And the dawn that’s yet to wake.

All night long the mountains rang

With the thunder of his war,

Rocks and bolts and flashing steel

Till his arms could lift no more.

Still he stood against the dark

Where the frozen winds would blow—

One lone man on Hover’s Pass

Against the crawling foe.

But the morning split the heavens

With a distant golden cry,

Horns rolled through the valleys

Like thunder in the sky.

Serpent ranks began to waver,

Fear within their hiss—

For help had come at sunrise

Through the gates of Hover’s Pass.

Hold the pass, hold the line,

Through the mountain, through the night,

One man stood like iron

Till the dawn brought back the light.

Stone and steel and stubborn will,

And the horns of victory—

For the thousands in the valley

And the mountain standing free.

And still the winds of Hover’s Pass

Tell the tale in lonely air—

Of Andrew Stomcastle who held

When no one else was there.