A story - from "Lines in the Sand"

The Singer and the Song

Once in the service of the High King of Elb, there was a musician named Lark. He could play the plekta till its three strings rang like thirty. He could blow the tenor netto till it wailed like a woman in labor. And when he sang, his voice was so pure, it was said that he spoke a hundred truths in a single breath.

Everyone loved Lark, but none more than the young prince of Elb. Whenever he heard Lark sing, the prince would put his small hand in the musician's, look up at him and say, "Oh Lark, you are the fairest and the truest of all the men in my Father's kingdom."

On hearing that, Lark would squat down on his heels so that he could look the boy right in the eye.
"Do not confuse the singer with the song, my prince,"
he would say.

The Prince did not believe him, of course. Princes believe what they will. But many years later, on the day the poor folk of the land rose up against the High King, Lark made a song for their victory. In it he rhymed 'tyrant' in a dozen different ways, which one could in the old tongue.
"I thought you were true," whispered the prince to Lark, when they took the entire royal family out of the dungeon to be hanged.
"I thought you were the fairest in the kingdom," the prince said as the rope was put around his neck.

But Lark did not answer. He only smiled at the prince. For he had never confused the king with the crown, the rope with justice, or the singer with the song.