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