[Intro]
[Three frame drums enter separately until their pulses interlock beneath bowed nyckelharpa.]

[All Voices]
Count the breath.
Count the bone.
No one crosses north alone.

[Verse 1]
[Female Lead]
Siv laid the crown-cloth flat on the lake,
The smith brought a chain he had failed to break.
A mother set down one small woollen shoe,
A rower brought rope from the shipyard crew.
I carried Frostheart, my axe, to the ring,
Its edge still notched by the guard at the spring.
The wolves formed a circle beyond torchlight,
White backs cutting arcs through the blue polar night.

[Refrain]
[All Voices]
Drums under aurora, speak through the snow,
Beat for the living and those far below.
Drums under aurora, steady and slow—
Open the mirror where blood-voices flow.

[Verse 2]
[Female Lead]
Green fire unfolded, then crimson was drawn,
Like crowns that had broken but would not be gone.
The lake gave a crack like a door in the deep,
The children drew closer; the elders did not speak.
We painted our palms with ash and with brine,
Then pressed them in pairs on the ancestral signs.
No priest stood above us, no ruler came first;
The lowest and highest both named what they feared.

[Refrain]
[All Voices]
Drums under aurora, speak through the snow,
Beat for the secret we tremble to know.
Drums under aurora, steady and slow—
Open the mirror where blood-voices flow.

[Drum Break]
[Interlocking frame drums reproduce the pulse heard when the wolves carried the queen.]

[Verse 3]
[Female Lead]
The smith feared his hands would be used by the king,
The mother feared silence where children should sing.
Siv feared a crown would grow back on our flag,
The rower feared hunger would make courage sag.
I feared that the pack would reveal in the glass
A right to command through the blood of the past.
The scar-eyed wolf stepped through the ring without sound,
Then lowered her scar to the mark on the ground.

[Bridge]
[Female Lead]
The ritual asked for no innocent blood,
Only the fear beneath duty and pride.
I placed down my axe and named what I feared:
Becoming the lord I had sworn to defy.

[Build-up]
[Low strings and guitars join the percussion one layer at a time.]

[All Voices]
Count the queens.
Count the scars.
Count the broken crown-shaped stars.
Count the names.

[Refrain]
[All Voices]
Drums under aurora, break through the snow,
Beat for the mothers who wait far below.
Drums under aurora, fierce in your flow—
Open the mirror. We choose now to know.

[Climax]
[The drums stop together as the full orchestra sustains the Frostheart motif.]

[Female Lead]
The ice turned black.
The wolves raised their heads.
Nine women stood
Where we had seen dead.

[Outro]
[One frame drum continues alone beneath cracking ice.]

[All Voices]
Count the breath.
Count the bone.
Nine queens are coming home.
