Stormcrown

Wrists in iron on a creaking cart Caught at a crossing playing no one's part Rebels to the left of me, thieves to the right Rolling to a village in the morning light The headsman waits by the tower wall A list of the doomed and my name not at all But the captain shrugs and the line moves on Kneel to the stone, boy, and then be gone And the cold wind counts the seconds down Lay your head on the headsman's block Hear the mountain wind wind down the clock But fate writes crooked when the black wings fly I was not born to bleed here, I was born for the sky Steel above me, stone below Then a roar split the morning like a hammer blow The tower burned and the headsman ran And death let go of a marked man A shadow crossed the sun like a moving scar Black as the space between star and star It perched on the tower and it spoke in flame A tongue that the mountains still call by name Roofs came down in a rain of fire Every second saved pulled me out of the pyre Through the smoke and the screaming, through the splintered gate I ran from the ashes of my scheduled fate And the cold wind counts the seconds down Lay your head on the headsman's block Hear the mountain wind wind down the clock But fate writes crooked when the black wings fly I was not born to bleed here, I was born for the sky Steel above me, stone below Then a roar split the morning like a hammer blow The tower burned and the headsman ran And death let go of a marked man Some are saved by mercy, some are saved by chance And some are spared by monsters for a longer dance The axe never fell, but I felt its kiss Whatever I was ended in the fire of this Lay your head on the headsman's block Hear the mountain wind wind down the clock But fate writes crooked when the black wings fly I was not born to bleed here, I was born for the sky Steel above me, stone below Then a roar split the morning like a hammer blow The tower burned and the headsman ran And death let go of a marked man When the black wings rise, the sky remembers When the black wings rise, the sky remembers

Smoke on the plains where the watchtower stands A shadow wheeling over burning lands Arrows like sleet on an iron hide Guardsmen praying as the wings turn wide I took my place on the broken stone Something in the fire felt like coming home It stooped like judgement out of blackened air And I was the one still standing there And when the great wyrm hit the ground The whole world made a waiting sound Blood of the wyrm, fire in my veins Its soul tore free like breaking chains Light like a river running into me A thousand years of memory The guards fell silent, then they spoke the word The oldest name these hills have heard Born with the dragon in mortal skin Let the sky look down, let the age begin Its scales burned off like paper leaves Down to the bone that the wind bereaves And every roar it ever cried Was mine to carry, mine to ride Then thunder rolled from the roof of the world A summons in a voice unfurled Four syllables that shook the plain Calling the blood to the mountain again And when the great wyrm hit the ground The whole world made a waiting sound Blood of the wyrm, fire in my veins Its soul tore free like breaking chains Light like a river running into me A thousand years of memory The guards fell silent, then they spoke the word The oldest name these hills have heard Born with the dragon in mortal skin Let the sky look down, let the age begin What do you do when your shout is a storm When the fire of the fallen keeps your heartbeat warm The mountain is calling and the path is long And the blood in my throat is becoming a song Blood of the wyrm, fire in my veins Its soul tore free like breaking chains Light like a river running into me A thousand years of memory The guards fell silent, then they spoke the word The oldest name these hills have heard Born with the dragon in mortal skin Let the sky look down, let the age begin Fire in the throat, thunder in the chest The mountain calls, no time for rest

Stone by stone up the spine of the world Prayer flags frozen where the winds have swirled Pilgrims' shrines in the drifting white Etched with the story of the voice and the light My legs burned hollow and my breath ran thin Past the tenth shrine where the clouds begin And the peak looked down like a patient king On the smallest bearer of the largest thing Higher, higher, where the air turns to knives Seven thousand steps to the silent hall Seven thousand answers if you count them all The monks in grey with their eyes like slate Who whisper rarely and shatter gates They spoke one word and the courtyard cracked And the word became mine, and there's no way back A voice like thunder needs a will like stone You do not climb this mountain to come down alone They taught in silence, they taught in scars Wrote on the flagstones in tongues of stars Said breath is the river and the word is the sea And the flood serves no one who is not free Power came easy, like it always would Restraint came slow, like the choice to be good For the black-winged terror speaks the same speech as I The difference is the reason, not the fire in the cry Higher, higher, where the air turns to knives Seven thousand steps to the silent hall Seven thousand answers if you count them all The monks in grey with their eyes like slate Who whisper rarely and shatter gates They spoke one word and the courtyard cracked And the word became mine, and there's no way back A voice like thunder needs a will like stone You do not climb this mountain to come down alone The eldest monk drew breath like a rising tide And the mountain leaned closer to hear One word of greeting And it nearly took the roof from the sky Seven thousand steps to the silent hall Seven thousand answers if you count them all The monks in grey with their eyes like slate Who whisper rarely and shatter gates They spoke one word and the courtyard cracked And the word became mine, and there's no way back A voice like thunder needs a will like stone You do not climb this mountain to come down alone And above the hall, past the curtain of snow Something older was waiting that the monks didn't show

There's a wall in the dark where the prophecy's carved Kings and ages by the stonework starved Five scenes of ruin in a line of stone And the last one shows a wing and a throne Firstborn of the storm, the eldest flame The one the old tongues fear to name Not a conqueror come for crown or land He eats the world like a fist eats sand And the mounds are opening one by one World-Eater turning on the wheel of years Come back to harvest what the darkness rears He shouts at the graves and the graves reply Dead wings rising to a blackened sky This is no war that steel can win No wall to hold, no keep to hold him in The end of all things wears a crown of night And only a voice can answer, only thunder can fight I stood on a hillside as a barrow broke Bones drew breath and the old fire woke He hovered above like a verdict read Speaking life into the honoured dead He looked at me with a furnace stare The thief of souls that were his to bear And the word he spoke as he wheeled away Was brother, and hunger, and judgement day And the mounds are opening one by one World-Eater turning on the wheel of years Come back to harvest what the darkness rears He shouts at the graves and the graves reply Dead wings rising to a blackened sky This is no war that steel can win No wall to hold, no keep to hold him in The end of all things wears a crown of night And only a voice can answer, only thunder can fight When the black wings rise, the sky remembers When the black wings rise, the sky remembers When the black wings rise, the sky remembers And the sky sent blood to answer World-Eater turning on the wheel of years Come back to harvest what the darkness rears He shouts at the graves and the graves reply Dead wings rising to a blackened sky This is no war that steel can win No wall to hold, no keep to hold him in The end of all things wears a crown of night And only a voice can answer, only thunder can fight So I climbed past the hall where the grey monks pray To the peak where an older serpent lay

Past the last prayer flag, past the highest shrine Where the snow forgets the treeline An old grey serpent coiled in the white Wings like worn leather, eyes like dawnlight He did not strike and he did not flee He spoke the courtesy of the sky to me Said long I have waited on this bitter stone For the one who could speak to me in my own And the wind held still to hear The old serpent sang of the elder war Of the tyrant brother he stood before I was his terror, I was his blade I burned the fields that the faithful made But the proudest wing can learn to kneel And a heart of fire can be forged to heal Is it braver to be born without the flame Or to carry the furnace and be tame He taught me words on the frozen wall Meditations on the rise and fall Said your blood is his blood, your gift his gift The same dark current, a different drift Do not hate the storm you hold inside It is the oar, and you are the tide The scroll of the elders, forbidden and old Can tear you a window through time's blindfold And the wind held still to hear The old serpent sang of the elder war Of the tyrant brother he stood before I was his terror, I was his blade I burned the fields that the faithful made But the proudest wing can learn to kneel And a heart of fire can be forged to heal Is it braver to be born without the flame Or to carry the furnace and be tame Others will tell you to take his head for old crimes Perhaps they are right But I have watched two eras of penance from this peak And I say: what a thing may become matters more than what it was The old serpent sang of the elder war Of the tyrant brother he stood before I was his terror, I was his blade I burned the fields that the faithful made But the proudest wing can learn to kneel And a heart of fire can be forged to heal Is it braver to be born without the flame Or to carry the furnace and be tame He turned his gaze to the wound in the sky Said bring the scroll, and learn how gods die

On the summit's scar where the light bends wrong Where the snow falls upward and the echoes long I broke the seal on the elder scroll Sky-written verses with a starless soul The letters moved like a school of flame The mountain vanished, the past became And I stood unseen in an age of war On the very stone I'd stood before Through the wound in time, the old blood calls Three heroes stood where the world was young With the dragon-taming word on the tip of the tongue They shouted the sky down onto the plain Made the endless feel the mortal chain But the tyrant would not fall that day So they tore a hole and they cast him away Not slain, not beaten, only sent Down the river of years to my present I watched them speak it, syllable by stone Three words that strike the sky from its throne Force made humble, wings made lead The deathless dragged where the grass grows dead The vision burned as the scroll rolled shut The rift resealed like a healing cut And I came back gasping to the frozen height With mortality's hammer and the words to smite Through the wound in time, the old blood calls Three heroes stood where the world was young With the dragon-taming word on the tip of the tongue They shouted the sky down onto the plain Made the endless feel the mortal chain But the tyrant would not fall that day So they tore a hole and they cast him away Not slain, not beaten, only sent Down the river of years to my present Every age has passed him forward A debt no era wished to pay The elders bought the world a sunrise And the bill has come due today Three heroes stood where the world was young With the dragon-taming word on the tip of the tongue They shouted the sky down onto the plain Made the endless feel the mortal chain But the tyrant would not fall that day So they tore a hole and they cast him away Not slain, not beaten, only sent Down the river of years to my present And high on the wind came a furnace cry The World-Eater turning to claim the sky

He came down screaming on the summit stone Firstborn fury on a peak of bone But I spoke the words that the elders gave And the endless learned the pull of the grave He hit the snow like a falling war Bled his fire on the mountain floor Then crawled to the wind on a broken wing And fled to the land where the dead souls sing So I called a name into the thunderheads On borrowed wings through the roof of the world Crimson pinions and a storm unfurled I shouted his name and he came to the call Caught in a palace, but pride don't crawl So I offered a bargain instead of a chain Carry me, brother, through the wind and the rain To the shrine in the clouds where the dead gate sings And I'll ride to my ending on borrowed wings He laughed like a rockslide, said mortal, well played No hook ever held me, but a debt can be made The old tyrant's shadow shames the sky we share Loose these bindings and I'll take you there Over glaciers marching and rivers of cloud Past peaks like the backs of the giant and proud To a ruin on the rooftop of everything known Where the dead keep a doorway of whispering stone So I called a name into the thunderheads On borrowed wings through the roof of the world Crimson pinions and a storm unfurled I shouted his name and he came to the call Caught in a palace, but pride don't crawl So I offered a bargain instead of a chain Carry me, brother, through the wind and the rain To the shrine in the clouds where the dead gate sings And I'll ride to my ending on borrowed wings Trust is a strange steed, stranger to ride A furnace beneath me, the world down the side He set me on the stair where the draugr wait Said the rest is your road, and I owe no more freight On borrowed wings through the roof of the world Crimson pinions and a storm unfurled I shouted his name and he came to the call Caught in a palace, but pride don't crawl So I offered a bargain instead of a chain Carry me, brother, through the wind and the rain To the shrine in the clouds where the dead gate sings And I'll ride to my ending on borrowed wings A portal of light in a well of old stone The land of the dead, and I walk it alone

Twilight country where the aurora bleeds Rivers of silver through the whispering reeds And a mist rolled thick as a liar's vow Full of the voices of the lost ones now Soldiers wandering who died confused Calling for comrades, hollowed and used For the World-Eater hunts in the fog he weaves Eating the honoured like autumn leaves But beyond the mist a hearthlight burns Cross the bone bridge to the hall of the dead Where the roof is gold and the feast is spread Ten thousand heroes at the endless board Every cup a battle, every song a sword They have watched the mist take child and king Forbidden to fight, but aching to swing Then the doors blew wide and the hall drew breath For the dragon-blood walked through the country of death The hall's great warden barred the bone Said name your deeds or wander alone I spoke of the wyrm at the watchtower flame Of the steps and the scroll, and he knew my name And there by the fire stood the vision's three The elders of the shout, waiting for me A thousand eras at the mead-bench spent Sharpening the ending they were never sent But beyond the mist a hearthlight burns Cross the bone bridge to the hall of the dead Where the roof is gold and the feast is spread Ten thousand heroes at the endless board Every cup a battle, every song a sword They have watched the mist take child and king Forbidden to fight, but aching to swing Then the doors blew wide and the hall drew breath For the dragon-blood walked through the country of death The eldest of the three raised his cup Long have we owed the ages a debt, he said Tonight the mist burns Tonight we finish the shout we started Cross the bone bridge to the hall of the dead Where the roof is gold and the feast is spread Ten thousand heroes at the endless board Every cup a battle, every song a sword They have watched the mist take child and king Forbidden to fight, but aching to swing Then the doors blew wide and the hall drew breath For the dragon-blood walked through the country of death Four walked out where the mist ran deep Three from the ages, and one from sleep

Four abreast where the grey mist crawled Three from the ages and the dragon-blood called We spoke as one and the fog caught flame Clear skies roaring where the darkness came He answered with midnight, he answered with wrath Black wings ploughing a funeral path Come then, tyrant, firstborn, thief The vale of the dead demands relief Every age was watching, every grave leaned in The last shout rose like the birth of a star Three words of ending heard near and far We dragged him down from his stolen sky And taught the deathless how to die Steel from the heroes, thunder from me Scale by scale we set the ages free He burst into embers with a world-old cry And the light flew home to the morning sky No soul to swallow, no bones to keep The sky reclaimed its firstborn's sleep The mist rolled back from the silver streams And the lost walked free of his hungry dreams The hall behind us began to sing A wall of voices like a breaking spring They sang of the watchtower, the steps, the scroll They hammered my name into honour's roll Every age was watching, every grave leaned in The last shout rose like the birth of a star Three words of ending heard near and far We dragged him down from his stolen sky And taught the deathless how to die Steel from the heroes, thunder from me Scale by scale we set the ages free He burst into embers with a world-old cry And the light flew home to the morning sky The black wings fell, and the sky remembers The black wings fell, and the sky remembers The storm has a crown and it sits on a mortal And the sky remembers The last shout rose like the birth of a star Three words of ending heard near and far We dragged him down from his stolen sky And taught the deathless how to die Steel from the heroes, thunder from me Scale by scale we set the ages free He burst into embers with a world-old cry And the light flew home to the morning sky I woke on the summit where the old serpent stayed The sky full of dragons in mourning arrayed They called out the deed in the tongue of the flame And the mountain bowed low, and the wind knew my name