The Wanton
'Yet I must be Queen someday'
Eloise had sobbed in parting
The Boy had begged for a reprieve
'One more hour before departing'
He looked into her eyes tormented
Until Eloise relented
'One last time we'll meet at midnight
Take our final leave by moonlight'
Concealed from the grieving pair
Her cruel half-brother took the air
And heard their sorrow o'er the wall
And comprehended all
His companion Libertine
Did not hear and had not seen
But discerned within the Prince
An eagerness not seen since
Last they hunted 'longside hounds
A'slaughtering without the grounds
'Soon we hunt again my friend
But before this good day end
My Trophy Room you must see'
The Libertine grinned brutishly
The Wanton ushered him within
A gallery of heads and skin
'Whichever fur whichever skull
Ask me - I remember well
How each ran and how it died'
Proclaimed the Wanton puffed with pride
Upon the desk a little thing
Fascinates the Libertine
'Tell me then if you dare
The story of the little bear'
'I was only nine years old
And had not been blooded
My father took me to the woods
Where the tracks are muddied
I pointed out the little rat
My father shook his head
But with my crossbow I took aim
And shot the vermin dead
That was not the end of sport
The mother in full cry
Burst upon us unawares
I saw my servants die
She roared and swung a bloody paw
Suddenly they were no more
Soon she too was dead and gone
Unless we count the skin upon
Her back which now, complete with head
Adorns the place where you tread'
The Libertine indeed was stood
Upon a bearskin black as blood
'We'll blooded was I on that day
Yet ever something brings dismay
That little rat's hidden twin
Never could I find again'
The Wanton paused in grim reflection
Then a smile lit his complexion
'Despite this glory all around
The hunt is passe - I have found
I tire of killing flesh and bone
Now I must kill for hearth and home
Let me tell you of my scheme'
The Wanton said to the Libertine
Cherry Liqueur
The sky turned black and
filled with stars
Venus rose and outshone Mars
The moon arrived upon the
hill
And the Boy waited still
At eleven he could wait no
more
And, passing through the
garden door
Made his way to her window
Bathed in deepest shadow
There he fell upon his knees
And softly called out
'Eloise'
He heard commotion from
within
A stumbling – a fumbling
At the window she appeared
Trembling – mumbling
'You are so early, yet so late
Thank heaven that you did
not wait'
She gasped through lips
turning blue
He leaped within – 'What
can I do?'
'My brother heard me weeping
And came to comfort me
I wanted to be left alone
And begged that he should
let me be
He said he'd go but not until
I acquiesed to his will
And took a draught from the
bottle there
To ease my grief and my
despair
I drank and saw unnatural
lights
Now the poison 'gainst me
fights
Liqueur of the sweetest
cherries
Laced with Belladonna
berries'
She caught her breath – her light was fading
And looked into the Boy's
eyes pleading
'Oleander for the heart
Five pink blooms is where
you start
Adonis – Pheasant's Eye - yellow standing by the by
Four yellow blooms – crush
them all
Perhaps I may awake from
thrall
In spirits steep – yet
hurry please' pleaded desperate Eloise
In an agony of haste
Lest a precious moment waste
Running picking gathering
Crushing steeping babling
The recipe through gritted
teeth
On stroke of midnight hand
beneath
Her head he tips the silver
flask
Between her lips and hears
her gasp
And sees the colour
blanching
Across her face grey
advancing
He listens close upon her
chest
Hears no pulse from a heart
at rest
Finally a mighty beat
That once each minute does
repeat
Then a beating at the door
The Prince and Libertine
Force the lock and before
The Boy can flee survey the
scene
'See my sister's murderer
See Princess Eloise
Done to death by a gardener'
The Boy outnumbered flees
Out the window 'cross the
lawn
The Castle sleeps but not
for long
The Prince pursues with a
dozen hounds
Their baying heard
throughout the grounds
The Boy is paused at the Iron Gate
He knows the lock and picks
it straight
Then slams it shut in the
teeth of the hounds
And Prince and Libertine
confounds
The Boy runs toward the Forest Grim
Pursued by fear that
gnaws at him ...
Hunters
Through knotted brush the headlong rush
Of the fleeing fugitive
But the Forest Grim is friend to him
And will sanctuary give
The baying of the giant hounds
In the moonlit night resounds
Every which way seeking prey
Their rabid bloodlust without bounds
Every which way seeking prey
Their rabid bloodlust without bounds
The Prince and Libertine await
The sound of hounds upon their bait
Yet now the sound of prey at bay
Is not as they anticipate
A yelping and a crashing
A roaring and a smashing
The hunters pressing through the brush
Too late emerging in the hush
That follows mortal toil and strife
And there before them without life
Like so many scattered logs
The bloodied bodies of the dogs
Disbelieving staring running
The Prince and Libertine becoming
Instead of hunters, fleeing prey
That runs by night and hides by day
Through the Forest Grim they race
Searching for a hiding place
Along a narrow track they ran
That let onto a road
The Stonebuilt Forge was drawing nigh
Suddenly they slowed
'Look there the Boy, the Gardener
The fugitive from law'
The Prince let loose a crossbow bolt
That shattered on the door
The Smithy burst out from within
Hammers in his hands
Another bolt flies at him
And strikes him where he stands
At this the Bruin crashes through
The tangled undergrowth
He stands between the Boy and Prince
He remembers well enough
The killer of his brother
The slaughter of his mother
And with a mighty lethal paw
He evens up the score
Thus fell the Prince on evil bent
Thus was justice done
The Libertine that moment went
And was forever gone
The Smithy struggled to his feet
'Come Boy we too must go
There is one that you must meet
What's to be done she will know'
The Smithy leant upon the boy
Together they made haste to go
The Bruin followed at the rear
Ever watchful for the foe
Ever watchful for the foe
Eryn
They neared a gypsy caravan
In a moonlit glade
She saw their need and out
she ran
And soon the Smith was laid
In a little cot within
For the pain, herbal gin
As Eryn, gentle as a maid
Eased the bolt from his
shoulder blade
Soon the invalid was
sleeping
Soothed by pungent herbs
The Bruin faithful watch was
keeping
Eryn now the Boy observes
'Upon your brow a shadow
lies
Within your heart a dread
resides
Yet I would give you remedy
So tell me all your tragedy'
The Boy recounted all the
tale
And when all was said
Wept for Eloise his love
Lying good as dead
In the cruel castle
Many leagues away
Then Eryn motioned with her
hand
For she had much to say
She shared a desperate plan
with him
And before the light of day
They returned to The Forge
And in the Prince's place he
lay
She dressed him in the
bloodied clothes
Stripped from the Bruin's
kill
When all was in its proper
place
She bid the Boy lie still
The Boy was wiry, there was
space
Within the Prince's clothes
to place
Broken fragments of the dogs
– and upon his face
Gristle grim and bloody skin
So that all who looked on
him
May believe they saw the
Prince
Dead these several hours
since
Eryn drugged the living corpse
Until the Boy was barely
breathing
Then hid herself as the
Royal Guard
Arrived, their swords
unsheathing
Finding the body of the
'Prince'
They raised their
lamentation
And wrapped it in a burial
shroud
Making preparation
For the double funeral
Of the two heirs to the
throne
And soon through all the
kingdom
The death of the Prince was
known
Phantasmagoria
A coldness descending
The heartbeat slowing
A heavy weight pressing
Light faintly glowing
Into the Shadowlands the Boy softly sinking
But still he is hearing, still he is thinking
Still is he listening, yet is he knowing
What is occuring and where he is going
The sudden cries of the Royal Guard
The lifting of the bier
The journey to the Castle Keep
All this the Boy can hear
The presence of the King and Queen
The Royal Physician's prayer
'The Prince is gone, why look upon
The horror of the bear'
The sorrow for the fallen Prince
Yet for Eloise no tears
Are shed within the Castle Keep
The Chief of the Guard appears
'Lay him next to Eloise
On the marble cold
In the Royal Mausoleum'
The Chief of the Guard is told
(The Mausoleum had been built
Surrounded by green lawn and wall
That extended all about
Without - the guard stood tall)
'Lock the gate for they must wait
While we attend to things of State
Their funeral to prepare
Go at once and lay him there'
The clanging of the iron gate
The rattle of the lock
The silence of the hungry grave
The coldness of the rock
The Boy bit slowly down upon
The waxy capsule in his cheek
His heart took note and thereupon
Stronger now commenced to beat
He freed himself from the Burial Shroud
He felt his way along the wall
He picked the lock within the gate
He was a Blacksmith after all
He slipped outside a'searching
In the darkest gloom
And found the packages he sought
And returned to the tomb
Earlier that afternoon
In hurried preparation
The packs across the wall were thrown
And now provide salvation
To Eloise within the tomb
The Boy now tends her there
With Eryn's arcane medicine
And his own loving care
Rapture
Across her tongue a trickling
In her throat a spreading warming
Her senses waking, quickening
A memory of horror warning
Vision blurred but slowly clearing
Eloise no longer fearing
Eloise no longer fearing
Extremities to life transforming
The Boy attentive, teardrops falling
She gasps and reaches for the Boy
Her face and his suffused with joy
She pulls him close and kisses lips
She never thought again to kiss
They dress themselves in Forest Green
Him her king and her his queen
Then from the Ossuary's bones
Two heaps arrange upon the stones
Thus they fill their burial shrouds
Upon the marble slab
Then crematoria create
With oil from the lamp
The guards came running to the flame
That Boy and Eloise concealed
Despite a quest to lay the blame
Their subterfuge was not revealed
In the Royal Mausoleum
'Prince' and 'Princess' were cremated
By the flames and no one marked
The gardener and his girl elated
Swallowed by the Forrest Grim
And no one sees her turn to him
And kiss the Boy who loves her so
Who kisses her and then they go
Away from crown and court and duty
To a life of love and beauty
To the life he promised her
When he was but a gardener
Rings & Vows
Eloise with Eryn lodged
Waiting for the chosen day
The Boy was busy at the forge
But loath to stay away
The Smithy gave him Lovers' Gold
And rings of fire he wrought
In celebration of their love
That was not lost when sought
And so one morning through the dew
Approaching through the trees
Awaited by the Smith and Boy
Eryn and Eloise
Hung o'er the doorway of the Forge
Are rings within a bow
The Boy and Smithy greet them both
And in the ladies go
They spoke the ancient sacred vows
First the Boy then Eloise
But now the Smith to Eryn bows
And begs her on his knees
Eryn blushes, hand o'er mouth
Then tells the Smithy 'Yes'
And now the vows are said again
In front of different witnesses
Thus came a new Smith to the Wood
The old retired to the caravan
As Eloise was joyful wed
And Eryn lay down with her man
Thus came joy to the Forest Grim
Thus was darkness overcome
Thus a Princess found her Prince
And a mother found her son
end of act 3 ...