Alice Day

[catsittingstill]

So regular readers may recall that I claimed for my fairyland name a phrase of music, which won an ARC of The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland And Led The Revels There, which is Cat Valente's new book, coming out October 2nd, a sequel to "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making."

And in the process the phrase of music became a song called "Her Name" and I wrote a song about my favorite character in the first book, called "The Wyverary."

And now I have written a song called "The Girl Who Led The Revels."

I tried hard not to be spoilery (any more spoilery than the blurb on the back of the ARC and the advance publicity, anyway.) But just in case I have hidden it behind an LJ-cut.

The Girl Who Led The Revels
lyrics and melody by Cat Faber 2012
mp3 here

    Dm        C              F             C
The alleyman comes with his bone truck so sad. Oh!
    Dm          C            Am
See all of our names on his list.
     Dm           C           F            C
The Hollow Queen Halloween's stealing our shadows;
     Dm          C      Bb
Without them we cannot exist.
 Dm                       C
Nothing we've managed in force or discretion
     Gm                  Dm           Am
Wins any concession the shadows will meet;
    Dm             Am       F           C
We can't, for our power in workshop or tower
     Gm         Dm           Am            Dm
Hold on to the shadows that danced at our feet.

        Dm          Gm                    Dm
   The girl on the lowest of Fairyland's levels
       Gm           Dm        F            Am
   Is ruling their revels as Queen; we contend
         Dm          C           Gm        Dm
   That you are the one who can hope to resist her
       Gm          Dm         Am          Bb (Dm at end)
   As more than a sister and less than a friend.

The theft of the shadows our magic will smother;
The land summons you in its need.
You traded your shadow to rescue another,
And thus was the Hollow Queen freed.
Remarkably rich in her wants and desires,
The land she requires to bend to her will,
And as the dance goes to the tune she has chosen,
To us has the piper presented the bill.

Fairyland's rules have been reigning forever
Though hidden and passably strange;
To physick its health is a ceaseless endeavor;
The one fairy constant is change.
Our acts, by our nature, remain in compliance
With laws of our science of real and pretend;
The one hope we have is the rule of the ravished--
Who age upon age must to darkness descend.

(after first chorus) Dm Am Gm Dm | Gm Dm Am Bb 

(second chorus, ending
       Gm          Dm         Am          Gm   Dm  Am  Dm
   As more than a sister and less than a friend.