### Part I: The Things That Wait Hush now, hush now, fire is low, Snow is falling, winds do blow. Hear the knocking, hear the call, Something waits beyond the wall. A child is standing in the snow, Calling names that no child should know. “Open, Father, let me in.” But the dead don't walk again. ### Shared Chorus **Round the stone and round the flame, Keep the old and secret name. Hill and hollow, shore and tree, What is hidden, let it be. Do not call and do not stray, Do not answer what calls your name. By moon and mist, by root and bone, Keep the old roads unknown.** Six long limbs upon the wall, Glowing eyes above the hall. Up the ceiling, down they crawl, Never walking, never fall. Black things moving under stone, Counting every step you've known. Keep your rhythm, do not break, They are waiting for your mistake. A shape too tall beneath the trees, Thin as branches in the breeze. Wolf ears high and legs too long, Hopping where the world goes wrong. Two prints here, then footprints small, Then no footprints there at all. From the shadow comes a friend, Calling softly from the bend. ### Shared Chorus **Round the stone and round the flame, Keep the old and secret name. Hill and hollow, shore and tree, What is hidden, let it be. Do not call and do not stray, Do not answer what calls your name. By moon and mist, by root and bone, Keep the old roads unknown.** Westward souls that cannot rest, Flying east above the crest. Turned from Heaven, turned from Hell, Turned from every burial mound as well. No blessed ground and no grave deep, No ancient hill where they may sleep. Only screaming through the sky, Only wind where the dead ones fly. Down at Hollow, hear her sing, Sweet beneath the gulls' black wing. Pretty voice upon the tide, Sharp rocks waiting just beside. She takes her skin and leaves the shore, Laughing as the waves close o'er. And above the water, dark and wide, Something watches from the sky. ### Shared Chorus **Round the stone and round the flame, Keep the old and secret name. Hill and hollow, shore and tree, What is hidden, let it be. Do not call and do not stray, Do not answer what calls your name. By moon and mist, by root and bone, Keep the old roads unknown.** Darkness falls, darkness falls, Hear the scratching through the walls. Stack the stones and hide your head, Hide your cap and leave unsaid. Under black and frozen seas, Dead machines move with the breeze. Chrome beneath the ancient foam, Something hunts where stars have drowned. A crimson shell beside the sea, Someone stole what should be free. Hidden underneath the floor, It waits beside the old locked door. Up the hill the piper plays, Calling travelers through the haze. Step by step they follow still, Smiling as they enter the hill. They walk inside on willing feet, Dancing where the centuries meet. What they chose they cannot know, For years can pass while dancers go. ### Shared Chorus **Round the stone and round the flame, Keep the old and secret name. Hill and hollow, shore and tree, What is hidden, let it be. Do not call and do not stray, Do not answer what calls your name. By moon and mist, by root and bone, Keep the old roads unknown.** Behind the fisherman's little boat, Something follows, something floats. Every time he turns away, It moves closer through the gray. When at last he sees its face, There he stands in the same old place. Only backward does it walk, Backward toward the sea. On the shore a watcher stands, Forgotten even while it watches. Every beast that knows its name Guards the silence all the same. And beware the friend who never says no, Who learns your heart and lets it show. Twenty years it wears your ways, Smiling through the household days. A friend will warn you when you're wrong. A counterfeit just plays along. It learns your fear, it learns your door, Then eats the house from floor to floor. Beyond the seven worlds of light, A serpent swims through endless night. Its seas are stars, its hunger grows, Five worlds gone where nobody knows. Sixth world trembling in its jaws, Nine go rushing past its claws. Into darkness, into flame, And the old song ends without their names. ### Final Chorus **Round the stone and round the flame, Keep the old and secret name. Hill and hollow, shore and tree, What is hidden, let it be. Do not call and do not stray, Do not answer what calls your name. By moon and mist, by root and bone, Keep the old roads unknown.** **Hush now, hush now, fire is low. There are things the old ones know. If you hear them at the door, Do not open anymore.**
