Redcoats in the Ashes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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