[Intro]
[The full band enters with the completed descending motif over a relentless rowing-like rhythm.]

[Verse 1]
The ford turned red under first morning light.
Twelve shields locked, every rim fitted tight.
The enemy entered in rows through the pine;
Their boots broke the river's thin silver line.
The first rank went down where alder roots bent.
The second stepped over the bodies they sent.
Our axes bit shieldwood, our spearshafts ran dry.
We counted no future beneath the pale sky.

[Pre-Chorus]
Hold for the ridge path.
Hold for the cove.
Hold while one small boat
Can still be made to move.

[Chorus]
Beneath a Dying Sky, we held the line,
Twelve against the winter, twelve against the time.
No crown for the conqueror, no throne left to claim.
We stood between the children and a flood of steel and flame.
Beneath a Dying Sky, where black waves reply,
We bought one road with every breath beneath a dying sky.

[Verse 2]
The youngest fell first with the bead at his chest,
His shield still bound to the shields of the rest.
The oldest stepped sideways and covered the space;
An axe split his helmet and opened his face.
Still no line broke as the river climbed high.
The wounded stood upright, with no answer why
Except that beyond them, through cedar and stone,
The children climbed west towards a shore still unknown.

[Verse 3]
By noon only four of the twelve remained,
Red strips frozen, shield faces stained.
We yielded the ford by one measured pace,
Not breaking the oath, only narrowing space.
Far west, two small sails drew away.
The living had reached what remained of the strand.
The road had outlasted the men who made the stand.

[Bridge]
I unwrapped the crown from the raven-red cloth.
The captain called, "Yield me your kingdom and oath."
"A crown without people rules stone, ash and sea."
I cast it past his reach where the tide swallowed it.

[Climax]
The crown struck the water.
One ember flashed red.
The black tide closed over
The rule of the dead.

[Guitar Solo]
[Two guitars develop every earlier form of the three-note motif while bowed lyre holds the original low phrase beneath the battle rhythm.]

[Breakdown]
No victory waited.
No kingdom survived.
But west of the headland
The children were alive.

[Final Chorus]
Beneath a Dying Sky, we broke the line,
Not from fear of winter, but because we purchased time.
No crown for the conqueror, no throne left to claim.
The iron sleeps in blackened waves beyond his reach and name.
Beneath a Dying Sky, I heard the last boat cry.
Its sail crossed the horizon beneath a dying sky.

[Instrumental Coda]
[The descending three-note motif resolves upward for the first time, then ends on one sustained low guitar chord rather than a fade.]
