High King of Shadows

Codes to

The Cruel Prince / Folk of the Air

by Holly Black

Jangly Rickenbacker electric guitar drives the hate-to-love urgency — the song the album spends three minutes seducing into your bloodstream. The verses code Madoc, the wedding she refused, the river-twin who poisoned her, and the high king's brother as the same archetypal furniture every Folk of the Air reader recognizes. The bridge sotto-voce decodes the famous Cardan line: *the antlered king who loved the mortal liar in his bed*.

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Lyrics

High King of Shadows

[Verse 1]
my parents made me mortal, the man who killed them mine
he raised me on his court of hate-to-love
I learned the face I'd later teach the boy who broke the line
I learned the kiss before the wing, the glove

[Pre-Chorus]
(building, attitude)
the curtain hides the throne and hides the trick that holds it up
the high king's brother wears the same disguise
I trained the moon to meet me where the tide could fill the cup
I trained the lie I'd tell him with my eyes

[Chorus]
high king of shadows
the antlered crown is mine
I made him love me first
I made him hold the line
high king of shadows
the curtain and the throne
the mortal married faerie
the faerie kissed the bone

[Verse 2]
the river-twin who poisoned me, the wedding I refused
the king who learned the kiss was just a knife
the prince who hated me until the throne we both had used
became the only word I had for life

[Pre-Chorus]
(building, thicker)
the curtain hides the throne and hides the trick that holds it up
the high king's brother wears the same disguise
the crown that bites the temple bites the men who fill the cup
the king will not survive his own surprise

[Chorus]
high king of shadows
the antlered crown is mine
I made him love me first
I made him hold the line
high king of shadows
the curtain and the throne
the mortal married faerie
the faerie kissed the bone

[Bridge]
(stripped to clean electric + cello, attitude held)
The shadow court, the shadow boy, the shadow on the page
the antlered king who loved the mortal liar in his bed
the tides came in to drown the men who measured me by age
the high king of the shadows kissed the woman I had bled

[Final Chorus]
(belted, doubled harmonies)
high king of shadows
the antlered crown is mine
I made him love me first
I made him hold the line
high king of shadows
the curtain and the throne
the mortal — and the mortal — and the mortal owns the bone

[Outro]
high king of shadows
(the antlered crown is mine)
high king of shadows
(the curtain and the throne)

Cipher

This track contributes the letter T.

The cipher rule across all fifteen tracks: the first letter of the first line of the bridge.

“The shadow court, the shadow boy, the shadow on the page”

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