Year of the Horse - Act Three

Lyrics

.-SCENE ONE- (The posse has retreated to their tents to sleep, while Blanche is awoken by a strange visitor Meanwhile, Perceval is the honoured guest at a moon ceremony.) BLANCHE: Mother, there's a darkness coming in through the window Please hold my hand, keep me safe from the shadow! Don't leave me cold, bring me back from the meadow Don't let me go alone! Under the night, dreams filled the tents like starlight Blanche looked on—by the fire was the Great Swan While Kaye and the boys lay as dead, Cygnus flew into their heads; She held them all night long, and sang her wicked songs Under the Queen, Perceval's night grew green The witches danced up to their moon in a trance The horse was crowned, they spread their flowers around Painted her skin to let the goddess back in BLANCHE: Mother, there's a darkness coming in through the window Please hold my hand, keep me safe from the shadow! Don't leave me cold, bring me back from the meadow Don't let me go alone! The swan screamed at the boys in their dream! Inside her dome, she told them to ride back home Lance held his awful spike to his heart all night Next to his gun, he dreamed of scorpions A DESERT ROSE: Look at the sky, you are her mislaid child! The heavens weep while you are not in their keep Flowers rose from the sand to the cosmos Kingdoms on earth, by a holy birth BLANCHE: Mother, there's a darkness coming in through the window Please hold my hand, keep me safe from the shadow! Don't leave me cold, bring me back from the meadow Don't let me go alone! -SCENE TWO- (Everyone wakes up the next morning in the ashes from a night of flames.) Lance awoke to an uncanny shape in the smoke From the dream, to the morning's rise Was the Swan, arched by the fire! Perceval, last night 's celestial Woke up to an empty day The witches had drifted away Hanged Rose, in the dust with her leg broke Saw smoke in the distance She will have her vengeance! King Sour, the worm in his tented tower Put a spike into his flame New fumes for an old game Drunken Kaye, wished last nights drink away A swan looked into her eye A haunting, under a blue sky Little Blanche, watched from inside her tent A kind bloom in a bad land Blood fell on the white sand The swan hit the earth! Shot by Lance in the heart Blanched touched the still-warm corpse. Inside she grew a thorn A cactus came to life, on Perceval's trail, and swiped Sour moaned in delight. Perceval's neck filled with spines PEGASUS: They try to pull you down. They want to watch you drown And live behind their bands. Remember what you are! Don't live your life in pain, get up and try again Bring your heart to the blade, child, don't be afraid Crack the sorcery of Sour's monstrosity! Perceval run free, come back to me Look up at the moon, child, you will be home soon! Daughter of the sky, mother light divine -SCENE THREE- (After the killing of Cygnus, Lance leads the posse back into the Wasteland in pursuit of Perceval, where they make a pivotal discovery.) DRUNKEN KAYE: There are roses in the trees. Why are they looking at me? I can still hear those dogs. All of our water is gone Black smoke from his cigar, poison drips down from the stars We left poor King to rot. Just like we did that swan This ain't no place for a young girl. I never told you about the world What some men will do, to leave the rest of us to ruin The gods don't abide. I fear I won't come home alive Who'll be there to comfort you? When you learn what people do Don't see no rivers in the sand, just blood all over my hands I must be going mad. Inside my soil went bad They sent your father away, left you with Drunken Kaye I brought you into this mess, I'll get you out again The spike glows like the moon, because he knows He can smell fear. That fucking horse is near Blood drips down her neck, like a kiss The pain burns like a love you never earned Against the cliff, they see the horse, astride a rift With no place to go but to run like only the wild know Out comes the rope, to choke that horse's hope When the leash pulls, men come to hunt like wolves When the sun sets, evil comes to collect on debts To find the light , the good must spread like a vine Shots are fired. She looks back into the gyre The hounds of vengeance will stalk her down to hell before they stop Then to hell they'll ride, right off the cliffside The pure can't be destroyed. She jumps into the void! -SCENE FOUR- (Perceval has disappeared over the edge. On the cliffside Lance and the posse make a deadly bargain.) Little Blanche afraid. She's pressed her rose tight to her heart And watched as Lance's rifle led the posse over the cliff after that horse 'Take the spike and press it to her skin,' he said, 'go after her' The posse cried 'we'll die,' they said, but Kaye told Lance 'just keep my girl alive' Her mother's bargain left her on the ledge with Lance alone The madman made them jump after the horse they all watched take her leap Her skin like steel, the cactus spines erupted from her neck Like bullets, while her body rose into the air, as ravens fly Then landed like soft rain upon the desert floor below While just behind, the men upon their horses fell as corpses would and died Lance's skin was crawling like a snake under the sand He laughed, while Blanche thought of her Kaye who had died to save her life Lance grabbed Blanche then while she cried, and put her on his horse They rode to find a safe way down, his black blood missed its spike A cry came up from Sour's tent, as he sensed what had transpired Those men had leapt into their death, while Perceval escaped He took a scale out of the sand, and put it in his fire And something foul emerged out of the pile made from their death! PEGASUS: The posse rose from the dead with Sour's plague in their heads From a scale in the sand—lizards at his command! Kaye and the boys' new skin—Zazamanc's saurians One put the spike to the horse, to bleed her heavenly force Crack the sorcery of Sour's monstrosity! Perceval run free, come back to me Look up at the moon, child, you will be home soon! Daughter of the sky, mother light divine -SCENE FIVE- (Bloody Lance grabs Blanche and the unlikely pair tear off along the cliffside Lance is desperate to retrieve Perceval, and more importantly, his scorpion tail While Blanche detects a weakness in him.) Bloody Lance and the child ride into the night The strung man—she knows that he needs his spike Lizard Kaye pulls the hobbled horse towards Sour The dark mage sits and waits for the final hour Hanged Rose stands up on a broken leg She'll find him and make him beg A young witch in a cactus with gleaming eyes Makes Lance twitch, and gives Blanche a splinter from the sky Lance bleeds from his ear without his venom Blanche takes the leads. She'll ride them into the end