Changing of the Guards

Sixteen years
Sixteen years
Sixteen banners united over the field
Where the good shepherd grieves
Desperate men  desperate women divided
Spreading their wings neath the falling leaves
Fortune calls
I stepped forth from the shadows  to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves  hungry for power  my last deal gone down
She's smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
On midsummer's eve  near the tower
The cold-blooded moon
The captain waits above the celebration
Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid
Whose ebony face is beyond communication
The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaid
They shaved her head
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale
I seen her on the stairs and I couldn't help but follow
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil
I stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending neath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I'd given to you
The palace of mirrors
Where dog soldiers are reflected
The endless road and the wailing of chimes
The empty rooms where her memory is protected
Where the angels' voices whisper to the souls of previous times
She wakes him up
Forty-eight hours later  the sun is breaking
Near broken chains  mountain laurel and rolling rocks
She's begging to know what measures he now will be taking
He's pulling her down and she's clutching on to his long golden locks
Gentlemen  he said  "I don't need your organization
I've shined your shoes  I've moved your mountains
And marked your cards but Eden is burning
Either brace yourself for elimination or else
Your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards"
Peace will come
With tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords