The Second Ballad
Enter the Queen, who broods in her tower
Wary of those who envy her power
The palace her prison, though she presides
For the disease of dread eats her insides
The moon a-rising is dead day's daughter
Now she with scales orange as favored flame, stands
Surveying through thick glass her listless lands
What a beautiful view, bequeathed by blood -
Interrupting her thinking comes a thud!
Painting framed falls to the floor: her daughter
Where the vestige of voice groans on and on
The windows whisper of the bygone dawn
There the quivering Queen recalls those words
That flutter and mutter like broken birds
Spoken, once only, mother to daughter
Do you miss it, mistress of this mountain?
Do your own wishes well up from back then?
The summers spent serving as a second
No troubles were yours, no owed recompense
You were once a carefree SkyWing daughter
She shivers, shadows take shapes in her mind
Eyes closed, she remembers days less divine
And ponders the vows that run in her veins
Her mistake, her mate, how his passing pains
She must secure the throne for her daughter...
There in courtyard the contestants fell
Grappling on the ground to the clanging bell
As the nobles and courtiers looked on
Red and orange dueling under lilac dawn
On the day a queen lost to her daughter
Twas a short battle, won by the next hour
O but the stakes: the SkyWing crown's power!
The presiding, wine red scaled queen had known
By no fair means would her heir win the throne
Yet somehow the victor was the daughter
The usurper's claws raked her throat, she died -
Yes, the good red queen who used to preside
Slain by her own offspring, she would soon expire -
Not before breathing one last deadly fire
A curse of the dying, on her daughter
'You could not have bested me by yourself
What poison did you take from my own shelf?'
Indeed, a venom most vicious was used
By that heir whose greed could not be refused
That clever killer, the queen's prized daughter
'I loved you once,' the queen said with chagrin
Then she whispered words that chilled the cheat's skin.
The words, the WORDS, that our Queen dares not face
Staring out at her nation, her thoughts race
She turns away and shouts for her daughter