[Intro] [Low strings state the descending Frostheart motif before toms and guitars enter in a 6/8 march.] Crows in the smoke, Crows in the snow, Tell me which road The living must go. [Verse 1] [Female Lead] The gate lies split where the pinewood stood, Red coals breathe through the splintered wood. My shield is nailed by an enemy spear, My brother’s ring lies blackened here. The roof-beams groan in a furnace glow, Hot iron hisses beneath the snow. I taste my blood, I count each breath, While ravens bargain above the death. [Pre-Chorus] [Female Lead] No horn replies from the western wall, No boots return when I name them all. But under the ash, beneath the stone, A northern pulse answers my own. [Chorus] [Female Lead] Crows above the longhouse, wheel and cry, Ash is writing black across the sky. The crown is cold, but my blood still burns, Every fallen timber marks where vengeance turns. Crows above the longhouse, count the slain— I will carve our winter through the Iron King’s reign. [Verse 2] [Female Lead] His banner hangs from my father’s tower, A gear of iron, a fist of power. He took our grain and he chained our bay, Then burned the names he could not sway. My left hand shakes, but it grips the blade, One edge is broken, one oath is made. I crawl through sparks to the eastern door, A queen with no kingdom, alive once more. [Pre-Chorus] [Female Lead] Let iron boast from the stolen wall, Let winter listen and witness all. The throne may crack, the roof may fall, But blood remembers beneath it all. [Chorus] [Female Lead] Crows above the longhouse, wheel and cry, Ash is writing black across the sky. The crown is cold, but my blood still burns, Every fallen timber marks where vengeance turns. Crows above the longhouse, count the slain— I will carve our winter through the Iron King’s reign. [Guitar Solo] [The lead guitar develops the Frostheart motif while nyckelharpa answers in shorter phrases.] [Bridge] [Female Lead] Strip me of velvet, of seal and throne— Give me the truth of blood and bone. A crown that survives only under a dome Was never a crown; this ruin is home. [Breakdown] [Half-time drums leave space between low guitar strikes.] [Female Lead] One beam. One breath. One name through the flame. One queen Not dead— And winter knows my name. [Build-up] [Marching toms accelerate beneath rising strings.] [Female Lead] Let the crows fly north with the news they have learned. Let them carry the scent of the fortress that burned. Let the mountains repeat what the Iron King spurned: The crown may be cold—but my blood has returned. [Final Chorus] [Female Lead] Crows above the longhouse, wheel and cry, Bear my oath beyond the wounded sky. The crown is cold, but my blood still burns, From every buried ember, a reckoning returns. The hall is gone, but the vow remains— I will carve our winter through the Iron King’s reign. [Outro] [Nyckelharpa repeats the three-note motif over fading tom heartbeats.] [Female Lead] Crows in the smoke, Crows in the snow— I have no throne, But I know where to go.