The Rainbird's Daughter

I speak for my brother, grievously wounded by the beast. Rest assured, he is strong, he will recover to enjoy the new dawn he has won for us by his courage.

Even now the plague is slowing, the walls crack less and less. Our hands are now free, not to patch, but to build, find new ways, undertake new endeavours, go in new directions.

There are no borders we can not cross, no boundaries unassailable. We go where ever our mind and our will will take us!

Ashra!

Ashra!

One.

Two.

Three.

One.

One.

One.

Oh. Yes. Yes.

Never do that here. Never kneel to me.

Never.

Never mind what they said. In this room... This is my room.

You asked to see me. Why?

(beat)

Jason, th'are not like you!

No, th'are very like you.

No.

NO!

(beat)

Quiet. Dark. I still hear it speaking. It goes on, and on. A stone and a stone and a stone make three. Do they?

One and one and one.

One, two, three!

Come! Feel them!

Come, here, take them in your hands.

Close your eyes. Feel them.

See?

They're different, each one, unique, stone one unique and two unique 'til 'two' is just a name for it, this is 'two'.

I... don't. I ...

Is Nata here?

(beat)

You are betrothed to the Princess Melina.

(beat)

Creon, before you go...

(beat)

Be careful, Jason.

(sighs) Here. What is that here? T'have a baby here?

There, just done. Denos. That's what they call it.

Did y'know we lived in Denos, Nata?

(smiles)

Mom would say, "You d'you." So easy! Just birth 'n' life 'n' death. Dancing. But not like here.

"You are en-titled" the scribe said when he read the words calling us. 'Cause I'm an 'am-bass-a-dor'. I d'not ask t'be en-titled.

One two three, one two three, like their machines, going round 'n' round, contest t'see who can spin the most, (sings monotonous waltz tune) La la la, la la la, la la... They watched each other like they knew something, watched me too, but I d'not know what they know. All those men looking at me like I was something good t'eat.

"Would you care to dance?"

No, not like that, not with them touching me, I d'not care to.

The girl with the shiny stones in her hair watching me too, but with angry eyes. What did I do t'her t'make her look that way?

(shrugs)

(beat)

There were no children. There are no children. Where do they put them, Nata?

Choose!

I know. I do I.

What would 'I' do?

Fidelia w'not have this baby.

Zee would.

It's better beyond the walls, when we walk by water, talk t'people. They know the sky, there's dirt under their fingernails.

I choose this life. Maybe I have no choice.

I c'not write this in a letter, though scribe tries t'teach me. I must talk. But they just say "Affairs of state", Prince Jason c'not see me now, write a letter, scribe'd be happy to help, like it's a game.

Jay... sun... See... me...

What was the word he said t'use for important things?

Affairs of state.
...........of state, no, why?

No.

We never were.

I used you to get what I wanted. That is all.

I KNOW!

No. I don't know, I don't know, I d'not know except t'know that you must go from here, that if you stay your end is near, so go, so go, so gone be you from me.

Work!?

What is?

One and Two!

Here (referring to the two rocks), this is One, this is Two!

No! It's a stone. Three.

What does Three look like?

"No, she's just an amateur botanist fond of long nature walks. No, her silent companion is just a kind of nun. No, no, no, she frequents the farms because she likes her eggs and butter fresh, that's all, she's just odd, she's not a witch, not at all."

I can only protect you so far. Be careful, Zee.

Stop saying that! Or I might say it. Then how would we know which we were?

Please go. I need to think.

(beat)

Three.

ASHRA

This is a dance piece the exact form of which will be determined by those involved in the production.

The piece is to cover the six or seven months until the birth of the child ASHRA, the birth, and her growth for five years.

The principal sound elements are two heart beats done on drums. These might be introduced under the previous scene while JASON is counting stones. I imagine them beating in sync until the birth and for the growth they hold dialogue with each other, but specifics of the actual piece could dictate otherwise. Other sound elements may be incorporated as necessary for the specific piece. A 3/4 waltz melody beating against drums in 4/4 could create an interesting tension.

During the pregnancy and after the birth ZEE has been practicing her art of healing. How is ASHRA involved?

NATA is very involved in the piece. She is the midwife. What is her relationship to ASHRA?

If JASON is present in the dance, then he is distant (making and flying paper airplanes?). If not, then the actor playing him is available to perform some other function in the dance. Likewise with CREON.

The actor who played the mother ASHRA in Act I plays the child ASHRA in Act II. ASHRA has some psychic ability.

The following text is to be incorporated. The first verse may occur throughout, repeated, used a source for recurring words, themes, motifs, actions, whatever is useful to the specific piece.

Not without without within,
And not within without without.
Spirals turn, circles spin,
Around around, about about.

Five turnings of the seasons,
Five circles spiral round,
Now she stands
Between the sky and ground.

Now walk
Now talk
Now smell
Now hear
Now see
Now feel

And know
About about,
Around around.

It's not like you remember anymore. They've made lines. The lines make squares. Some squares are for your people, some for their people, and beyond is for anyone who can keep it.

It's like that game Farmer Hart taught us. Some squares for some pieces, others for others, some pieces can go only in certain squares, others in others, the Queen goes where she likes, the pawns one square at a time so they can never run away, and they can never go back.

In time my people will find the rules. In the crimes they are taught.

As common as silver! Creon stabbed the land with his flagstaff. The people screamed.

You were only a year old. You cried.

(beat)

(more insistently) Right?

I'd like to see him.

I still need a bit of wood for the drawbridge.

There.

It seems longer than that.

I wish you could hear the Sirens singing.

(beat)

(beat)

You're going to the castle after.

Birthday cake!

(recovers, gets up) I don't mock you, Fidelia, I am in earnest. I only laugh because... I need you.

You are shocked. I was too when I realized that Cortha's queen would be a witch from across the sea. But we must seize opportunity where it is to be found, is that not so, Fidelia?

It is in God's hands. Jason now rests in the courtyard where he has had placed three large boulders. The gardeners have set up exotic trees imported a great expense from Denos. Father often has himself wheeled out there and the two of them lounge about listening to the court musicians play music in what has come to be called the Denosian mode, very popular in society right now, one can hardly escape it.

With Jason talking to his boulders and father drooling and grinning like an idiot, on whom do you think the burden of running the state has fallen?

You have the love of the people. You even have friends at court. And enemies. All without even trying. Astonishing. There are many men who view you as either a goddess, or as a wild animal which they think they would enjoy taming. Some claim to have done so, even to the extent of fathering your child. Jason, of course, is the father, (flipping through book) there is little to suggest otherwise. There is one rumour, though, which is difficult to determine the truth of.

Is Nata your 'special friend'?

Mm.

CREON

Perhaps it would be better for the Denosians if it were you who determined our policy there. Yes, you have the experience, the background. I believe you are very well qualified to be... no, not governor, something more...

Lord Protector of Denos, yes, with a completely free hand to determine policy. Of course, a common witch could never be a Lord, not even a witch of ambassadorial rank, but the Queen, what could she not do?

ZEE

When Jason dies I could burn you at the stake with my notes. But what a waste! They love you Fidelia. Together we could be a formidable force. Why should we be in opposition? Or do you have some selfish reason for turning down this opportunity to do so much for all parties?

Let me help you in your efforts, and I will have the most productive reign in the history of our house. It is good for both of us.

Beyond the walls, yes, I've been there too. They say there was a farmer who was healed of the plague. They say he was standing in a field looking up at the sky. When it began to rain he laughed until he cried, and the tears and the rain washed his sores away.

I've been watching the sky too, waiting for the rain, wondering at the turning of seasons, the planting, the reaping, and the moon dancing through old, new, quarter, half, full moon, full and round again. Like home - the breath, the heart, the turning. It's all here, just look up.

You did once. The Lovers' Sky, remember? You laughed. You said it wasn't very scientific, but you liked it. No one looks up when circles become gears, every tooth the same, always whirring, turning, but not breathing, no resting, just a waltz that goes on, on, and on, on, and on, on, on, on.

Why are you here so late?

Prerequisite to kingship! My father is dead, long live King Jason!

Long live the king!

Long live the king!

Long live...

I feel you like a part of me.

Too late...

(beat)

I'm sorry, Zee. But I'm out of time, you see.

It should have been... simpler somehow.

No, it was simple, it was there all along.

A joke, it's a joke, you said, remember? But now you don't laugh. The space at the end is empty.

So as not to be recognized. Creon's assassin has hurried father along, and I'm next. Then you and Ashra. Creon fears you both.

You must go. You have no choice.

Only death.

You can't be considering that!

(beat)

JASON

Yes.

Do you know what he promises?

JASON

How? By edict? They would mutiny. It is their home now.

You don't know what he's promised you!

It will wear the triple-crown vestment of the king. Two dead kings of the kind best dead, and one king with a new...

Have you considered my proposal?

I make thee Lord Protector of Denos with all the attendant powers the office entails, sole determiner of Crown policy in relation to our province of Denos.

Rise, Fidelia of Denos.

You will live in the palace. Ashra will go to the St. Farsworth School where she will be well looked after. Gather your things and come.

It will be done in a night. People will not know whether to express their condolences or offer their congratulations! I will frown slightly, I will smile a small smile. The mood will be neither black nor white, but something in between.

The fortunes of my house... our house, will turn in a blaze of lightless fire, and when it is all done, we will sleep as I have not slept in years. For that gift alone I will love you better than Jason ever did.

Gather your things! Hurry! The hours are full and run fast.

JASON

Above it all, a bird did call,
So beautiful she heard him moan,
She flew and perched by his side
So he need not watch alone.

But she was fire and she was smoke
And soon she started to fade,
As did the world just become,
Only to blow away.
Only to...