Redcoats in the Ashes

[Verse 1]
We sailed out past the white chalk cliffs
Where the cold gray waters roll
Ironclads and troopships
With a single western goal
They said we rode for Strongcastle
Where the dragon’s shadow fell
And the house that fought the darkness
Sent its own to break the spell

[Verse 2]
Richard stood beside his twin
Mark steady at the rail
Men who’d seen a hundred storms
And never thought to fail
David came from Twosun’s throne
Across the restless foam
A king who’d crossed an ocean
Just to help them win back home

[Verse 3]
Donna faced the Parliament
Till the chamber shook with will
Speaking plain of dragon fire
And the towns the Gnar would kill
Some had doubted what she told them
Some had called it fear or flame
Till the fleet set west at sunset
With her family and her name

[Chorus]
Redcoats in the ashes
Saw the truth in smoke and flame
Blackened towns and empty roads
Where no living farmer came
And the Strongcastle heirs
Stood silent in the gale
Watching home rise from the fog
Like a battered, haunted tale

[Verse 4]
The western shore lay broken
Like a kingdom torn in two
Charred barns and shattered windmills
Where the summer wheat once grew
A church without its steeple
And a road that led nowhere
Just wagon ruts and scattered bones
Left bleaching in the air

[Verse 5]
The boats ran hard aground at last
On a black and broken strand
And the soldiers formed in silence
As they stepped upon the sand
Then a shape lay in the tide line
Where the smoking waters curled
Claws like iron plowshares
And wings half torn and furled

[Verse 6]
No bear nor beast of nature
Ever walked the earth like that
A nightmare from the mountains
With a serpent’s jaw to snap
The redcoats stared a moment
Then the captains gave command
And every man among us knew
What waited in that land

[Chorus]
Redcoats in the ashes
Boots upon the broken ground
Steel and powder ready
Where the Gnar beasts gathered round
And the Strongcastle heirs
Walked the ruins of their lands
While the British drums were beating
War across the sands

[Verse 7]
The twins saw fields they’d ridden once
In brighter, kinder years
Now the orchards lay in cinders
And the wells ran thick with tears
Claw marks scarred the stonework
Tracks too wide for bear
And every soldier marching west
Could read the story there

[Verse 8]
They spoke of Cave Creek’s last stand
And the walls still holding fast
Of Strongcastle the dragon slayer
And the battles that had passed
But somewhere in the mountains
A one-handed wizard waits
Gathering the Gnar beasts
At the broken kingdom’s gates

[Bridge]
One son rides the southern roads
Where older powers lie
With Andrew seeking ancient steel
Beneath a darker sky
But here the war was waiting
In the smoke of western lands

[Final Chorus]
Redcoats in the ashes
Raised their banners in the wind
For the world had finally come
To face the war within
And the Strongcastle heirs
Watched the long red columns stand
Knowing dragons still were breathing Somewhere in that broken land

Powerful female folk voice, cinematic western ballad, steady marching rhythm, acoustic guitar, fiddle, war drums, somber