Doo-Wop Rogue

(Soft step, soft step)

The town gate closed at sundown
The lanterns line the wall
Two blades beneath my cloak tonight
And I don't need them at all

(Nobody, nobody)

I passed the guards beside the gate
I passed the torchlight on the wall
I passed so close I felt the heat
And they never saw at all

(Blink and gone, never saw)

Nobody saw me come in
Nobody's gonna see me go
I move like a prayer
Through the midnight air
And the only thing I leave is cold

(Low and cold, low and cold)

The merchant locked his cart up tight
The blacksmith banked his fire
The tavern's full of warriors
Telling tales of what they've slain

(So proud, so loud)

They raise their mugs and show their scars
And toast the fights they've won
I sit three tables deep in shadow
Soloing a carafe of rum

(Nobody, nobody)

Nobody saw me come in
Nobody's gonna see me go
I move like a prayer
Through the midnight air
And the only thing I leave is cold

(The only thing I leave… low and cold)

The healers glow, the mages burn
The paladins shine bright
Everybody's got a light to carry
I'm the thing that lives between the light

(Shadow-side, between the light)

But every lock still has a tumbler
Every guard still has to blink
Every fortress has a shadow
And every shadow's where I think

(Blink and gone, nobody)

Nobody saw me come in
Nobody's gonna see me go
I move like a prayer
Through the midnight air
And the only thing I leave is cold

(Slish-sha, slish-sha, slish-sha)

Stone along the edge
Slow and even, heel to tip
Poison from the vial
Dripping where the blade is split

(drip-slick, drip-slick)

Steady my hands, ready my blades
Poison and steel before the sun goes down
Steady my hands, ready my blades
The only ritual I trust
And you've got to be prepared in this town

(venom-shine, venom-shine)

The green venom slows monsters where they stand
The black one makes them bleed
The clear one numbs before they know
I've finished my deadly deed

(Whisper-slit, whisper-slit)

One poison for the brute who charges in
One poison for the one who runs
Match the venom to the kill
Before the killing's done

Steady my hands, ready my blades
Poison and steel before the sun goes down
Steady my hands, ready my blades
The only ritual I trust
And I've got to be prepared in this town

(venom-shine, venom-shine)

But the talk around the fire tonight
Is all about the coast
A town gone wrong, a brotherhood
That's strangling it like a ghost

(Have you heard, have you heard)

Red bandanas in the fields
Wanted posters on the walls
Good folk paying double tolls
To bandits in the market stalls

(Hiss-slick, hiss-slick)

Steady my hands, ready my blades
Poison and steel and a reason to go
Steady my hands, ready my blades
There's gold on the coast and trouble I know
And I'm prepared to ditch this town and go

(drip-slick, drip-slick)

I hold my blades up to the light
And watch the poison gleam
A town that's rotting by the sea
Sounds like the kind of place for me

(For me, for me)

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

I came over the ridge at sunset
And I heard them on the shore
(Shore-singers, shore-singers)
Little voices in the salt spray
Singing something old and pure

(murr-gull, urr-gull, murr-gull, gurgle)
(murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

Round bellies and scales like river mud
Big eyes catching the last of the light
Webbed hands pulling mussels from the rocks
Almost peaceful in the twilight

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

Then one turned and saw me standing
And the song became a scream
And the whole shore came alive with them
Teeth like needles, eyes gone mean

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

Tide-spawn pouring up the sand
More than any blade can meet
So I spend what I've been saving
Just to get my hands to speed

(Faster, faster)

Slice and dice, slice and dice
Spend it all just to keep alive
Slice and dice, slice and dice
Nothing left but the will to survive

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

Scales like slime against my arms
Claws that hook and drag and tear
I can smell the brine inside their mouths
Hot and rotten in the air
Trying to eat me whole
(Eat me whole, eat me whole)

Three go down and four come screaming
Wet and wild across the stones
I can hear them in the tide pools
Gargling in their ugly tones

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)
(urr-gull, gurgle, gurr)

Slice and dice, slice and dice
Wind the spring and let it go
Slice and dice, slice and dice
Twice as fast but they still won't slow

(Faster, faster, faster)

I'm standing ankle deep in surf
And things I've had to kill
The pretty coast they told me about
Wasn't part of the deal

Slice and dice, slice and dice
Every point I've earned goes in
Slice and dice, slice and dice
Just to see another morning on this beach

The fight left me shaking
So I did what I do best
I let the shadows take me
And I gave my blades a rest

(Hush now, pick-a-pocket)

You'd be amazed what monsters carry
When they don't know you're there
A sleeping tide-spawn on the rocks
Won't notice fingers in its hair

(Pick-a-pocket, pick-a-pocket)

Three copper and a candy
A pearl still wet with brine
A fish hook and a snail shell
Nothing precious, nothing fine
But you learn a lot about a creature
From the things it keeps close by

(Close by, close by)

I worked my way along the shore
Then turned inland through the fields
The bandits camp in broken farmsteads
Sleeping under stolen wheels

(Pick-a-pocket, soft and quiet)

A red bandana's pocket
Holds a different kind of haul
A letter from a daughter
And a drawing on a wall
A bent nail used for picking locks
A button from a coat they lost

(Pick-a-pocket, little things)

Three copper and a candy
A locket with no face inside
A whistle carved from driftwood
Little things they try to hide
But you learn a lot about a person
From the things they keep close by

(Close by, close by)

I didn't come here for their trinkets
I didn't come to understand
But my fingers have a memory
For everything they land

(Pick-a-pocket, everything)

One pocket held a wooden star
Smooth like someone rubbed it every night
I almost put it back
But it felt lucky in my hand

(Pick-a-pocket, soft and quiet)

Three copper and a candy
A wooden star I couldn't leave
You learn a lot about this world
From the things that no one sees
And nobody sees more than me

(Three copper and a candy)
(Pick-a-pocket, nobody sees)

(Paw-step, paw-step)

I felt it before I saw it
Something moving where I move
A shadow with a heartbeat
Matching me groove for groove

(Who's there, who's there)

A cat with eyes like amber
Low and long against the ground
A druid wrapped in fur and silence
The only one who found me out

(Found me, found me)

Prowl with me, prowl with me
Two shadows and a single road
Prowl with me, prowl with me
I've never shared the dark before

(Paw-step, paw-step)

See, a warrior would break my cover
A mage would light the sky
A healer's armor clinks and catches
Every pair of eyes nearby
But you move the way I move
And the dark stays dark for two

(Shh-ahh, shh-ahh)

We slip right past the camps we don't need
Step around the fights that waste our time
Straight to the throat of what we came for
Two ghosts arriving right on time

(Paw-step, paw-step)

Prowl with me, prowl with me
You take the left and I'll take the right
Prowl with me, prowl with me
We do our best work out of sight

(Paw-step, paw-step)

I've been solo since the start
And I wore it like a crown
But a bandit camp goes quiet faster
When there's two of us cutting down

(Faster, faster)

The cat pins what I've opened up
I finish what the cat's begun
We don't need to talk about it
We just know when it's done

(Paw-step, paw-step)

The moon comes up and we're still moving
Two sets of eyes that catch the light
I don't know what to call this feeling
But I don't want to stealth alone tonight

(Prowl with me, prowl with me)

Prowl with me, prowl with me
Two shadows and a single road
Prowl with me, prowl with me
I've never shared the dark before
But I could learn

(Paw-step… paw-step…)

(Red, red, red)

They told me in the tavern
Ten bandanas, ten gold coins
Simple work for simple hands
Where greed and shadow join

(Red, red, red)

I found them in the ghost towns
South of where the good farms end
They see you and they're on you
There's no talking to these men

(No talking, no talking)

Red bandanas on the ground
Red bandanas for the gold
They were people once beneath them
Now the cloth is all they hold

(One, two, three)

They were masons once and builders
Put up towers stone by stone
Then the ones who hired them
Turned around and sent them home

(Nothing, nothing)

So they tied on red bandanas
And they said they'd take what's owed
But owing turned to fury
And the fury's all that showed

(Red, red, red)

Red bandanas on the ground
Red bandanas, every one the same
They gave away their faces
For a brotherhood of blame

(Four, five, six)

I pick a pocket out of habit
On a body growing cold
A letter from a sweetheart
That he'll never write back to

(Nothing, nothing)

Somewhere underneath the bandana
Was the man who got that letter
But he chose to stop being that man
And the brotherhood wouldn't let him get better

(Seven, eight, nine)

They're fanatics now, not workers
Every one a clenched red fist
And whatever they've been building
In the caves below the mist
Is the reason I can't stop

(Ten.)

Red bandanas for the gold
That's the deal but that's not all
Something's rotting past the ghost town
And I'm following the call

(Red, red, red…)
(Red, red, red…)

(one-step, two-step)

I've been sitting in this market
Since the morning light came through
Watching every face that passes
Looking for the one that's you

(Who are you, who are you)

The farmer sells his grain and leaves
The baker shuts her door
The guardsman makes his lazy rounds
I've seen it all before

(one-step, two-step)

But I'm following you down
I'm following you down
You don't know it yet
But I've got your scent
And I'm following you down

(Step by step, step by step)

See the merchant by the fountain
Talks too much and laughs too loud
Looks at everybody's faces
Just a little long for the crowd

(Is it you, is it you)

And the woman selling candles
With the basket and the shawl
Her hands are soft as any lady's
Never worked these fields at all

(Is it you, is it you)

Oh I'm following you down
I'm following you down
One of you's a liar
And I've got all day
And I'm following you down

(one-step, two-step)

It takes a kind of thief to spot one
Takes a liar to know a lie
I know what it looks like when you're trying
Just a little too hard to get by

(I see you, I see you)

There — the way you checked the alley
Before you let your smile go slack
The way your eyes went cold and empty
When you thought no one was looking back

(Got you now, got you now)

Oh I followed you down
I followed you down
You were good, I'll give you that
But I know that look
'Cause I wear it too
And now I'm right behind your back

(one-step, two-step)

You're heading south toward the ghost towns
And I'm three steps behind your trail
Whatever you're reporting to
I intend to find as well

(Following you down)
(Following you down)

(Click-click, click-click)

The spy slipped through a secret door of iron
Set deep into the cliffside wall
I heard it shut, I heard it latch
And then I heard nothing at all

(Nothing, nothing)

Just me and the rust and the salt wind
And a lock that wants to keep me out
But I've been picking locks since I was nothing
Before I knew what I was about

(Click-click, click-click)

Listen to the lock
Listen to the lock
Feel for the give beneath the tension
Every tumbler wants to talk
Listen to the lock

(Click-click, click-click)

I learned on boxes off of dead things
Cheap brass latches, simple pins
I broke a dozen picks before I felt it
That first sweet click that lets you in

(Sweet click, sweet click)

A chest beside a campfire
A strongbox on a ship
A gate behind a waterfall
You learn it in your fingertips

(Click-click, click-click)

Listen to the lock
Listen to the lock
Don't force it, don't rush it
Let your fingers do the talk
Listen to the lock

(Tumbler, tumbler)

The warrior would beat this door to nothing
The mage would burn it down
But neither of them's standing here
And I don't make a sound

(Click-click, click-click)

One pin sets and then the next
I feel the barrel start to turn
Every lock I've ever touched
Was practice I didn't know I needed to earn

(Almost, almost)

Listen to the lock
Listen to the lock
One more pin and one more breath
And the whole thing starts to walk
Listen to the lock

(Click.)

The door swings in on darkness
And the air comes cold and deep
A long way down beneath the cliffs
Where the brotherhood keeps its secrets

(Down, down, down…)

Listen to the lock
That's all I ever had to do
Listen to the lock
And the whole world opens up for you

(Click-click… click…)

(Down, down, down)

The door swung shut behind me
And I felt her in the dark
The druid in her cat form
Matching me step for step and heart for heart

(tip-toe, tip-toe)

Creeping through the caves
Tip-toeing past the guards
Two shadows and a single breath
Playing the quietest cards

(Down, down, down)

Any other pair would have to fight
Every sentry, every torch
Blade by blade and spell by spell
Cutting a long and bloody course — every inch a war

(Every inch, every inch)

But we're the only two who move like this
The only ones the dark will hide
A rogue, a druid dressed in fur
Slipping side by side

(tip-toe, tip-toe)

Creeping through the caves
Tip-toeing past the guards
A brotherhood that doesn't know
We're moving through its heart

(Down, down, down)

The tunnel turns and turns again
The rock gets wet and cold
I can hear the ocean through the walls
Pushing at the hold

(Drip-drop, drip-drop)

A sentry at the bend ahead
The cat stops when I stop
I count the seconds till he turns
And we slip past like a thought

(Hush now, hush now)

Deeper now I hear them hammering
Voices echoing off stone
Something big is being built down here
Something they don't want known

(Down, down, down)

Creeping through the caves
Tip-toeing past the guards
Whatever's waiting at the bottom
We'll be taking it apart

(tip-toe, tip-toe)

The air changes and the tunnel opens
I can smell the salt and tar
And through the last bend I can see it
Masts and rigging in the dark

(A ship, a ship)

Creeping through the caves
Led me all the way down
A pirate ship beneath the cliffs
Underneath a stolen town

(Down, down, down…)
(tip-toe, tip-toe)

(yo ho, yo ho, yo ho)

A cavern tall as any cathedral
Water pouring through the stone
Torchlight bouncing off the ceiling
Like a sky of fire and bone

(yo ho, yo ho, yo ho)

And there she sits on black water
Full mast and rigging in a cave
Cannons gleaming in the torchlight
Parrots screaming from the stays

(yo ho, yo ho, yo ho)

A pirate ship where no ship should be
Built by men that no one saved
The hull creaks like it's breathing
And the deck is full of knaves

(Let's go, let's go)
(Let's go, let's go)

We hit the gangplank and the parrots scatter
Green and red against the dark
The cat druid fights the pirates at the railing
And I carve their lieutenant like a mark

(Yo ho, yo ho, the pirates are going down)

A pirate's death for them
A pirate's death for them
They built their ship beneath the world
And that's where it will end

(Yo ho, yo ho, let's go)

Cannon smoke and torchlight swinging
Shadows leaping up the walls
The cavern makes every clash an echo
Every body a doubled fall

(Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's death for them)

Ropes swinging and the rigging shaking
Parrots circling through the smoke
The cat and I move deck to deck
Like the punchline to a joke

(Yo ho, yo ho, let's go)

They thought they were untouchable
Down here beneath the stone
But two shadows found them anyway
And these shadows cut to the bone

(Yo ho, yo ho, the pirates are going down)

A pirate's death for them
A pirate's death for them
They built their ship beneath the world
And that's where it will end

A blade in each hand
That's how I'm made
The left one's light and quick as a whisper
The right one's heavy as a grave

(Blade, blade, whisper and grave)

I named them both in my own head
But I'll never say it out loud
The left one I found on a dead man's belt
The right one cost me everything I had

(left and right, fight, fight, fight)

Two blades, I fight with two blades
The left one opens and the right one ends
Two blades, a blade in each hand
They're the closest things I have to friends

(Blade, blade, whisper and grave)

The cat druid fights with claws she was born with
They grow from her like breath and bone
My blades aren't part of me like that
But I've held them so long they feel like my own

(Steel and skin, again, again)

I know the weight of each one different
The left one balanced near the hilt
The right one forward-heavy, eager
Both of them worn to fit my grip

(Balanced and eager, sharp as a fever)

Two blades, I fight with two blades
One to distract and one to be true
Two blades, a blade in each hand
It's the only way I knew

(Blade, blade, whisper and grave)

A warrior swings once and means it
A paladin strikes with the sun
I could never hit that hard or holy
So I learned to never be done

(Again, again, again)

The left says stay and the right says go
The left says wait and the right says now
I don't think anymore when I'm fighting
My hands just know somehow

(Stay and go, wait and now)

Two blades, I fight with two blades
Twice as fast and half as strong
Two blades, a blade in each hand
And together we've never gone wrong

(Steel and skin, again, again)

When it's over and I'm standing
I wipe them clean one at a time
The left one first because she's patient
The right one next because he's mine

(Left and right, win the fight)

The deck goes quiet for a moment
Parrot feathers in the blood
And somewhere deep below the waterline
I hear a banging and a thud

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

I creep below deck through the galley door
And I can't believe my eyes
A tide-spawn in a grease-stained apron
Twice my width and half my size

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

A rolling pin in webbed green fingers
Pots and pans hung on the walls
Onions hanging from the rafters
Fish heads boiling down the hall

(What is this, what is this)

There's a shore-singer cooking for the pirates
There's a shore-singer with a chef's hat on
Big round eyes above a ladle
Scales still wet from where it spawn

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

And it sees me and it screams
That old familiar shriek

(Murr-gull, urr-gull, murr)
(Gurr-gull, urr-gull, gurr)

A shore-singer in a kitchen
Is the strangest fight I've had
It swings the rolling pin like it means business
And honestly it's not half bad

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

Pots go flying, ladles clanging
Something on the stove boils over
I'm dodging copper kettles
And it won't give up the galley floor

(Crash, bang, crash)

A shore-singer cooking for the brotherhood
I almost want to let it win
But it keeps swinging that rolling pin
And it fights with a cook's discipline

(Murr-gull, murr-gull, murr)

When it's over and the galley's wrecked
I'm standing in a pile of flour
And something brushes past my ankle
Soft and warm in this terrible hour

(What's that, what's that)

Two blue eyes in a flour-dusted face
A Siamese cat beneath the stove
The chef is done, the kitchen's ruined
But the cat just wants to go

(Mew, mew, mew)

She walks right past the broken dishes
Steps around the rolling pin
Looks up at me like she's been waiting
For whoever finally did him in

(Mew, mew, mew…)

(Dun-dun, dun-dun)

Up from the galley to the captain's quarters
The door kicked wide and there he stands
A mason's chain around his neck
A cutlass built for a builder's hands

(Dun-dun, dun-dun)

Arms like a man who's hauled the stone
For every tower in the land
A red bandana but his isn't tattered
His is silk and his is grand

(Steel, steel, steel)

He doesn't rush like the ones before
He moves like a man who's earned this ship
The cat druid lunges and he throws her sideways
Without even changing his grip

(Dun-dun, dun-dun)

He was the first to tie the bandana on
The first to say we take what's ours
And now he's captain of a buried ship
A king in a kingdom under the ground

(Steel, steel, steel)

The cat druid circles back and rakes his flank
He roars and swings at her again
I get a slash in but he catches me
And I feel it like a brand of pain

(Dun-dun, dun-dun)

He's stronger and he knows this ship
He knows every beam and board
The cat is limping, I'm bleeding
And he's laughing at my swords

(Dun-dun, dun-dun)

Throw the powder, gone
Throw the powder, gone
A handful of dust and a flash of white
Throw the powder, I'm gone

(Gone, gone, gone)

The captain spins and I'm not there
His eyes go wide across the room
The cat druid holds his gaze a moment
And I circle through the gloom

(Where'd you go, where'd you go)

Throw the powder, gone
That's the trick they never learn
You fight what you can see
And what you can't see waits its turn

(Shh-ahh, shh-ahh)

Nothing but the creak of timber
Nothing but the torch's hiss
He's looking everywhere I'm not
And I'm right behind him close as a kiss

(Backstab, backstab)

One clean strike between the shoulders
The right blade, the heavy one
The forward-heavy, eager one
And the captain's done

(Done, done, done)

Throw the powder, gone
Throw the powder, gone
But I came back with a blade for you
Now the brotherhood is done

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

The cat druid drops her fighting crouch
The torchlight settles in the room
A ship inside a cave inside a cliff
And the quiet of a tomb

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

His hat rolled off across the deck
Red leather with a silver braid
I picked it up and reached for the bandana
To wipe off the blood on my blade

(Ooh-ahh…)

The silk came off his face
And something cold ran through my chest
I know that jaw, I know that brow
I've known them since the day I left

(No, no, no)

The mason's chain fell open
And a locket caught the light
A tiny painted portrait
And the portrait looked like me

(No, no, no…)

They were masons once and builders
Put up towers stone by stone
I never knew this mason
Would be the father I disowned

(No… no…)

I put the captain's hat on slow
It fit like it was always mine
I sheathe my blades, the left then right
And walk back toward the light
But the light feels different now

(Throw the powder… gone…)

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

The ship is quiet and the fight is done
The torches burning low
We sit among the captain's hoard
And divide up what we know

(Need or greed, need or greed)

Chests of gold and stolen silver
Blades that other hands have held
Rings and gems from towns above us
Taken from the ones who fell

(Need or greed, need or greed)

Need or greed, that's the question
When the dungeon's finally through
Need or greed, roll the dice now
What's it gonna mean to you

(Roll, roll, roll)

The cat druid takes a silver claw
Curved like moonlight, fits her right
I take a belt with sheaths for two
That'll hold my blades just tight

(Need, need, need)

Every piece of gold down here
Was somebody's before
Masons earned it, lords denied it
Brotherhood took it to the floor

(Need or greed, need or greed)

And now we're taking from the takers
And I wonder where it ends
Does the gold remember who it came from
Does it care whose pocket it lands in

(Roll, roll, roll)

Need or greed, that's the question
When you've spent yourself this far
Need or greed, roll the dice now
Are you taking what you are

(Need or greed, need or greed)

The cat druid rolls for a sapphire pendant
And I let her have it clean
Some things matter more than winning
When you've fought as a team

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

I look around at what I'm keeping
A captain's hat that fits my head
A Siamese cat curled in my pack
And everything I thought I'd never need

(Need, need, need)

The gold will spend and the gems will trade
The blades will break and rust
But I'm walking out with a hat and a cat
And a druid who I trust

(Need or greed, need or greed)

Need or greed, that was the question
When the dungeon started out
I thought I only dealt in greed
But I'm leaving here with what I can't live without

(Ooh-ahh, ooh-ahh)

We climb back up through the winding cave
A shadow and two cats
The rogue who needed no one
Isn't quite that rogue now

And that's that

(Need or greed… need or greed…)
(This is all I need)
(Paw-step… paw-step…)