Intro: AF#m
Sixteen years,
AEF#m
Sixteen banners united over the fields
DE
While the good shepherd grieves
F#mAE
Desperate men, desperate women divided,
F#mDEA
Spreading their wings ʼneath the falling leaves.
F#m
Fortune calls.
AEF#m
I stepped forth from the shadows, to the marketplace,
DEF#m
Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down.
AEF#m
Sheʼs smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born,
DEA
On midsummerʼs eve, near the tower.
F#m
The cold-blooded moon.
AE
The captain waits above the celebration
F#mDE
Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid
F#mAE
Whose ebony face is beyond communication.
F#mDEA
The captain is down but still believing that his love
will be repaid.
F#m
They shaved her head.
AE
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo.
F#mDE
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale.
F#mAE
I seen her on the stairs and I couldnʼt help but follow,
F#mDEA
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil.
F#m
I stumbled to my feet.
AE
I rode past destruction in the ditches
F#mDE
With the stitches still mending ʼneath a heart-shaped tattoo.
F#mAE
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
F#mDEA
Were handing out the flowers that Iʼd given to you.
F#m
The palace of mirrors
AE
Where dog soldiers are reflected,
F#mDE
The endless road and the wailing of chimes,
F#mAE
The empty rooms where her memory is protected,
F#mDEA
Where the angelsʼ voices whisper to the souls of previous times.
F#m
She wakes him up
AE
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking
F#mDE
Near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks.
F#mAE
Sheʼs begging to know what measures he now will be taking
F#mDEA
Heʼs pulling her down and sheʼs clutching on to his
long golden locks.
F#m
Gentlemen, he said,
AEF#m
I donʼt need your organization, Iʼve shined your shoes,
DE
Iʼve moved your mountains and marked your cards
F#mAE
But Eden is burning, either get brave for elimination
F#mDEA
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing
of the guards.
F#m
Peace will come
AEF#m
With tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire
DEF#m
But will offer no reward when her false idols fall
AEF#m
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
DEA
Between the King and the Queen of Swords.
F#mAEF#m