Fucked Up - Year Of The Horse - Act One Lyrics

Running alone, trapped in this world
Not your own, not your home
Pushed down in the dust, left by fate to rust
Feel the pull of the stars from behind your bars
Crack the sorcery of Sour's monstrosity
Perceval run free, but come back to me
Look up at the moon child, you will be home soon
Daughter of the sky, mother light divine

The gun explodes, and a horse goes cold
The valley echoes, and a bell tolls
Young Blanche wakes, inside fear quakes
She learns that life can give, but can also take
Haughty tightens the noose, says

Be ready for high noon
The old tree tomorrow, hags head's going to roll
Drunken Kaye with her hot iron, charged by the cruel fire
Fresh flesh for the star-brand, Sour's wish for her command
The horses howl, and Perceval lashes out
Kicks the Red Boy up to his guts, the posse laughs and shouts
Kaye stares down the mare

You're hidin' something rare
Behind those sooty eyes
Calm now, else you're gonna die
You just look down, fix those eyes to the ground
Ain't no divinity up there who's gonna set you free
No help is comin' down, the sky don't care about this town
This waste is just a den of creeps, where bullets and life are cheap

Little Blanche afraid, the sweet white flower of the village
In dreams she danced but in truth she was trod upon like any other weed
The child was never nurtured, she was pulled up by her roots to grow
Her mother knew only pillaging, of empty bottles, promises and barrels
She never knew her father, now long dead, or wild, another buried dream
Beyond the badlands, where the just are cast aside to die
A poison had come to their home and everyone was sick, and no one remembered
Any other way of living, save for lies, for villainy and killing
Every night she stared beyond the dust, up at the stars that flickered a promise
The hopeful light of something great beyond the veil of violence and despair
She would sing until her mother came home drunk, and slapped the song out of her mouth
The flower withered, hoping sleep would bring a day when everything would change

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 to the meadow
Don't let me go alone

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 to the meadow
Don't let me go alone

The sun rose high over gunshots and the awful sound of whipping
Blanche hid under her bed, but could still hear the red blood dripping
Her mother rooted 'round until she found her hidden heir
She laughed and dragged young Blanche out by her hair

At the hanging tree they waited, on the outskirts of the town
A crowd had come for murder, for a spiteful sentence to come handed down
Three figures noosed and hooded, three horses for their final thrones
The rope pulled at their branches, the vultures waited for their bones
A hangman in black leather came to conjure up death's dance
Fixed in an unholy grin, the dark face of Bloody Lance

He comes erupting in smoke, the children start to choke
Under unforgiving skies, there's a madness in his eyes
The Arch-Prince of waste, the Judge in a lawless place
A ruthless hand rules this corrupted land
Said the man in black

While your noose still got her give
Make some peace with your god above, 'cause you ain't comin' back
His whip cracked suddenly, a horse bolted anxiously
The first noose lost it's slack, and the first neck it had snapped
He lashed that whip again, another corpse to hang
Blanche watched in fear and cried, another dream had died
The crowd all laughed and jeered, Kaye told Blanche to dry her tears
Good riddance to a bad gang, some men were born to hang

Only one neck remained, waiting for death to claim
Life from its mortal frame, the last innocent name
The dead hang like wind chimes from the hangman's eternal pine
The boys watched through callous eyes, hateful and serpentine

The last body left to fall sat upon Perceval
Condemned by the same sun, waiting for the whip to run
Hands like defiant fists, ropes cut into the wrists
Sweat beads on the face like sap, under a burlap sack
Something new stirred in the air
A quiver of hope within the fear
A growing fire in Perceval's eyes
Drawn by the powers from the skies
One holy bound, hooves press the ground
Her fetters frayed, she's running free

Lance just lets them go
Don't lead them to death's door
Leave them for the vultures and crows
Tomorrow they'll just be bones
The horse is running blind, dragging a corpse behind
The earth is hollow, Sour sucked the marrow

Be the river to trace life through a barren place
Be the vein that sings blood to flightless wings
Be the wind that blows strong, like the buffalo
Be the chalice to hold the promise evermore
Crack the sorcery of Sour's monstrosity
Perceval run free, but please come back to me
Look up at the moon child, you will be home soon
Daughter of the sky, mother light divine

I am the river, I am the life
Cut through the wasteland, I am the night
I bring the bounty from fields away
I raise the living from where they lay
Pull the magic out from the bone
Make the blood flow up from the stone
Keep pushing power out from the spring
There will be flowers, there will be Kings
I am the movement inside the still
Come like the serpent up from the well
Drink from the mother, rush through the wilds
I am the river, you are my child
I am the r-
I am the r-

Shots inside his tent, a spell is made
The magus conjures something vile
Across the slade, the river bent
A chrysalis of blood and bile
The horse bowed to slake her thirst
But found a writhing forgery
A river cursed, barren and foul
It vanished then by sorcery
Scared and alone, dry as a bone
So far from home, compelled to roam
The way is through, push into fear
Not far behind you, the call of the spear

Bloody Lance and the posse follow the track
Cracked hands bear the burden of murder and fear
Night's advance always turns the day to black
These wicked lands, which clutch to death's door
An echo's dance, the sound always comes back
Find the beast, bring the horse back to me

Mother Kaye pulls little Blanche away
Flashes a wretched smile, and gives a pistol to her child
Take this gun, so you won't have to run, but when the devil comes
Look me in the eye, and don't you never cry