Fourth Challenge: "Dante's Prayer" by Loreena McKennitt
Category: Het (Canon)
Characters/Pairings: Annis/Caerleon
Ratings/Warnings: T
Word Count: 300
Queen Annis had known this day would arrive, the day when her husband's corpse would be presented to her. Besides being a king, Caerleon was a fierce warrior, and he never shied away from leading the charge across the battlefield. She was surprised, yet grateful, it had taken so many years for her beloved to fall.
Annis's knights held up the transport frame on which Caerleon's body lay, and she pulled back the sheet. The slice across her husband's neck appeared too clean and precise to be a battle wound. Caerleon had been beheaded; he had not experienced the glorious warrior's death he desired.
Lowering the sheet, she feigned rage when all she wanted to do was weep. She shouted something about making Arthur Pendragon pay, then hastened to her chambers. Annis dismissed her young maidservant, bellowing how she needed to plot her revenge in peace.
Staring at her bed, Annis recalled her first meeting with Caerleon decades earlier, which had occurred only hours before their wedding. He scared her half to death, with his swagger and bombast. Before she knew his favorite meal or if he preferred ale to mead, they were married.
That evening, in the bedchamber, Annis had worked herself into a such a state over losing her maidenhood to a near stranger that she grew lightheaded. However, Caerleon had taken her hand and guided her to a bench before the hearth where they sat and talked for hours. He soothed her nerves and finally, she was ready to lie with him. It turned out their bodies fit together beautifully, and they made love the whole night long.
Their connection strengthened over the years and they ruled as one, a rarity in Albion. Facing life without her love, her partner in all things, seemed unbearable.
"I will remember you," whispered Annis, sinking to the ground, allowing the agony of grief to engulf her.
