The Auris Tar
Well he swum back to ship, and he pounded on the side.
"Take me up captain, I'm a-driftin' with the tide,"/
But the captain would not take him up and bring him on board; he had no interest
in the keepin' of his word... - The Golden Vanity, traditional; adaptation
by Spider John Koerner
This is my first-round performance from Bardfest '01. I've had some requests to put it up on the site, so here you are.
Juspera says, "I ask for silence tonight for I sing you a sad song."
Juspera says, "You all know of the Faendryl-Ashrim war, in which the former race slaughtered the Sea Elf house over the suspected murder of a princess sent in peace."
Juspera says, "There are more tragedies held in that one cradle of the past than could be told in a thousand songs."
Juspera says, "I tell you just one."
(Juspera pulls a plain stool of old worn wood to the center of the bare stage.)
Juspera sits down.
Juspera removes a dark fel lute from her cloak.
(Juspera grasps two strings of the lute between her fingers and plucks sharply, bringing forth a burst of sound that leaves a strong reverberating hum of two notes, sweet and rumblingly low in the air.)
Koar, hold my soul within your hands.
One truth cements all life's refrains
And scars all hearts: O'er all the lands
And on the seas, injustice reigns.
Juspera smiles softly and gazes out at the audience, settling into a simply plucked preamble on the lute, quiet enough to flow transparent below the sound of her voice.
There was an island in the East
And there, where hope had drawn its mark,
A host of Sea Elves sat in feast
While sloops sailed forth to greet the dark.
Not silver, gold, but plainest red
The blood of heir to onyx queen
Runs, yet that death begat bloodshed
No common death had ever seen.
(Juspera strikes up a building strum of strings.)
To arms, to ships...! the Dark Elves' grief,
Was real, if clues were all they knew.
But Ashrim's death is writ in stone:
No less the tragic is the true.
(Juspera lifts her hand from the lute and lets the rush of sound she'd woven wear itself out, fading in uneven throes as one note sounds more prominently, then another, jostling each other over the imperfectly vibrating strings.)
(Juspera pulls one string out of the chaos, holds it for a moment, then lets go, springing one note immediately clear of the rest.)
One Ashrim ship, the Auris Tar,
A fishing sloop, touched too with hate --
For no more perfect victims are
Than those who weave the skeins of fate --
A score of sailors, captain and
The daughter he could never leave
Entered that bloodshed, with their hand,
A Half-Elf cabin boy, a slave.
Juspera smiles fondly, lending the strings of her lute a light touch as she continues.
Far out, a Faendryl cutter sailed.
Away from home, to east it bore.
The Auris captain saw and paled
And barked to turn his sloop toward shore.
"Hold, Captain," cried the cabin boy,
As up from mending net he leapt.
In tossing surf, with ship ahoy,
The sloop held and the boy drew breath.
(Juspera rocks slightly on her stool, from side to side on waves heard if unseen, as she looks up and squints to the far end of the hall, or beyond.)
"If I could sink those Faendryl there,"
He took his cap in hands and plied,
"What would you give?" While chaste and fair,
The captain's daughter took his side.
(Juspera plays a momentary sweet succession of notes, her hand slipping down to the base of the lute's neck.)
That fish-quick, jumping glance aside --
The captain saw the Half-Elf's eyes.
"Why, you'll have gold," the man replied,
"And this, my girl, to wed besides."
Her smile spoke soft. It was enough.
The cabin boy descended then
To strike out in the frothing rough,
To be submerged, and swim again.
(Juspera intersperses her rhythym with unpredictable pauses, taking a breath before resuming each time. Finally the rhythym smoothes out.)
Aboard the Faendryl ship, some slept,
Some squinted toward the fishing boat.
Some tossed dice. Some ate. Some watch kept --
None spied the boy cross ocean's moat.
In shadows, treading water, thrown
Against that barnacle-sharp side,
He drew an auger, and alone
He bored nine slow holes deep inside.
Some sailors tore shirts, some grabbed caps,
Some pressed their own thumbs to the holes,
But water surged in through the gaps.
That ship, she sank, and all her souls.
(Juspera lets the notes run together as the backbone of the rhythym crumples and the sounds descend softly, settling together in a murmuring hum running beneath the words of the song.)
Then bruised and tired the boy swam back.
The sea lapped redly 'round his wounds.
The Auris Tar had turned in tack
And pushed now east through heaving dunes.
He reached it starboard just before
The wind embraced the waiting sails.
He pounded on its side, and swore,
"Lads, pull me up! My body fails!"
(Juspera draws out a low persistent note from the murmur of strings.)
"Lads, pull me up! I freeze with cold!"
He clawed against the briney teak.
The slippery wood refused his hold.
"Lads, pull me up, for I grow weak!"
(Juspera draws the low note out further until it hangs above all in the air, monopolizing the sound in the room.)
He knew then, when none spoke or stirred,
He was a martyr, plus a fool.
The captain would not keep his word
And see a Half-Elf wed his jewel.
(Juspera lets the dark note subside somewhat, fading into a deep thrum punctuated by a few halting pauses.)
Above, he saw the captain's face
And wept, and let his auger slip.
"But if not for your daughter's grace
I'd sink you like I did that ship!"
The sea shook feverish all around
But cold, like old green ice enraged.
He shivered too without a sound
And faced the knifing wind-honed waves.
The Ashrim sloop turned then toward shore,
And rode that tomb-cold water down,
And sailed to see their nation's war,
And left their cabin boy to drown.
(Juspera pulls a serious of soft plinks from the lute, each a bit higher in tone and quieter than the last, staggered at slowly increasing intervals. Pause. Plink. The hush draws out between each until finally there is one last hesitant mote of sound hanging in the air... then it's gone.)
(Juspera places a hand over the strings to halt any lingering reverberations, submersing the room in a heavy silence.)
Juspera stands up.
On all the seas, injustice reigns,
And drowns pure hearts o'er all the lands
This truth consumes all life's refrains.
Juspera closes her eyes for a moment.
Koar, hold his soul within your hands.
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