Part Ten-Out With the Old, In With the New (2)
"Gods, you can't do this! Tell that son of a bitch that he can't do this! He won't last a week if he kills me!"
Alianne slumped back down in the cell, tears falling down her face. Her hands were trembling as she twisted the diamond wedding ring around her finger again and again.
"I'm too young to die," she whispered. "Goddess, save me please. Spare me just this once." But her pleas were going unanswered. She was to die on Traitor's Hill in only two hours. Soon, she found that she could not cry anymore, though her body still wracked with supressed sobs. But by the time the women came for her, she had calmed herself down enough to keep sane.
They led her to a chamber where she took what priestess among them called a purifying bath. Alianne shivered violently as they pored the icy water over her head, at the same time savoring the cold. She would find herself begging for it very soon. When the bath was done, she brushed her hair until it was dry, and pulled it up. Her gown was white, simple, but beautiful. When she was ready, the priestess bit her lip to keep from crying.
"May the Goddess have mercy on you, my lady."
Alianne met her eyes boldly. "I cannot ask forgiveness for acts I do not regret. And I die a queen...the greatest queen the Eastern Lands have ever seen. I can think of nothing more honorable."
The other maids and the priestess bowed as she swept regally out of the room where the guards were waiting to take her to her death.
Goddess, when will they stop this and just kill me? Alianne wondered as she stood, tied to the stake, standing on the pile of wood, and looking out over the massive crowd gathered to watch her burn. The nobles sat in the normal seats set out for them on a raised platform. Her scaffold had been raised so that all of the commoners could see her die.
Finally, the faceless nobleman finished reading off the interminable scroll, and looked to Jonathan for a signal. The king nodded, and several hooded men carrying torches came forward and lit the wood on fire. For some odd reason, she felt relieved that it was at last beginning, and the nerve wracking wait was finally over.
The smoke began to fill her nostrils and mouth, and the area around her feet was becoming uncomfortably warm. Alianne smiled wryly, remembering that the guilty verdict had been a unanimous decision among the peerage, meaning that her own father and grandfather had both condemned her to death. Her husband had left her, and she had been forsaken by her subjects. Both of her brothers hated her, as did her mother. There's nothing left to live for, she thought. But then, she saw her daughter's face as clear as day in her mind.
Oh, gods, Elena...I didn't even get to say goodbye. The flames licked higher and higher, and she felt the lashing pain on her legs, all while biting her lip to keep from crying out. That satisfaction she would not give them. I would give every throne on this planet to see her again, just once. To be able to tell her just how much I love her.
Alianne winced. The fire had reached her waist. She couldn't resist anymore...she let out a bloodcurtling scream. She felt the blackness clouding the edges of her vision. "Jonathan of Conté," she screamed so that he would hear her. "I swear by all the stars in heaven that you are cursed from this day forward! Your children and your grandchildren will never succeed you, and they will leave this world as painfully as you do! You will regret this!"
And then she knew no more.
Casimiro led the army into the city with a determination his men had never seen. The Copper Islanders overwhelmed Corus and its inhabitants, making their way to Traitor's Hill swiftly. He could smell the smoke on the air and knew that he might be too late. Next to him, Antonio looked at the scaffold and swore. The queen was halfway engulfed in flames, and she was unconscious. Casimiro nodded and gestured to several of his men, who fought off the Tortallan guards and doused the flames using magic. They cut the badly burned girl from the stake.
Chaos reigned. The nobles shrieked and attempted to run to the palace. Within five minutes, all of the Tortallan soldiers were dead, and Jonathan was in the hands of the Copper Islanders. Casimiro fought as ferociously and bravely as any of his men, cutting his way through the crowds to get to the scaffold...and his wife.
Alan slipped through the ranks of the Copper Isles soldiers unnoticed, trying to reach his brother-in-law. Casimiro, however, was quite engrossed in his quest to see if Alianne was still alive. Alan seriously doubted it, but he kept his fingers crossed just in case. He looked all around him at the chaos ensuing and tried not to cry out in frustration. All of this mess for a throne, a bloody throne. It seemed to him a terrible waste.
He brushed away several commoners, still trying to reach the king. He had his sword drawn, cutting down anyone who came too close. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he reached the scaffold, ironically at the same time as Casimiro. The older man rushed up the steps, and over to his unconscious wife, Alan right behind him. Right when he saw his twin, he knew things were bad. She was practically bathed in blood, and she wasn't breathing.
Antonio was right behind them. "Mon Dieu," he whispered reverently. "She's dead."
A/N: Well, that has to be the shortest chapter this fic has ever seen. In case you couldn't tell, this one, Part 9, and Part 11 are all one chapter, only split into three parts. I just keep coming up with good cliffhangers for y'all. Anyway, the next chapter or the one after that is most likely the last, with an epilogue of course. And I might do a spin-off about Alianne and Casimiro's daughter, Elena.
Now, because the chapter is so short, y'all probably think I'm getting lazy. Au contraire, I'm actually working quite hard on this one! It's just, I've also got Tragic Kingdom (read it, dammit...it gets better!), The Woman Who Rides Like a Man: Reader's Digest Edition, AND Real World: Corus (yes, I AM coming back to that one eventually) to work on. Plus all my schoolwork and crap like that...it's all très horrible. Plus, I'm thinking of transferring schools at the semester break, so I've got all that crap to worry about. Not to mention I have a major ballet performance coming up, AND my band concert. Mon Dieu, I don't want to even START thinking about midterms! Ahhhh! I'm going crazy! (Crazy insane, or insane crazy?)
Hehe, this author's note is longer than the chapter! So, just review and all that jazz. Bien sûr, constructive criticism is always welcome! Au revoir, mes amis! Je vous aime! J'adore parler français! J'aime Prince William! J'aime Christian Coulson! Ooooh, another thing…my cousin was named by The Washington Post one of the players to watch this season in high school girls basketball. And my school's male varsity team was ranked #9 in the nation by USA Today!