A quick note: Come on guys, you think that was the death scene? 26 didn't have near enough angst and heartbreak to be the death scene! That's what 27 is for:) I now realize that perhaps the last bit was a little confusing, but it all becomes clear in this chapter. Think back to the banquet, the goblet, the wine...

So....Oh my goodness. Here it is. The chapter you've all been waiting for. I've rewritten it about a million and a half times, so appreciate it, damn it! :):):) And we have another Shakespeare title, from a beautiful speech by Friar Laurence. I LOVE doing that! Hey, that reminds me of my new fic which will be going up shortly.... Anyway, for the moment let's concentrate on this fic. Let me know what you thought of it, please. Really, PLEASE:):):)

Chapter 27

As Desperate an Execution

"What happened, Nefertiri?" Achsu-rai asked, laying her gently on the cot. The physician entered the tent at that moment and shooed the Medjai to the side.

"I drank it," she mumbled, not quite conscious. "At dinner. Anck-su-namun put something in father's cup, I drank it."

"Why would you do such a thing?"

"Why would she wish that on my father?" Nefertiri continued. "On anyone? How could she hate him so much?"

"Save your breath, dear," the physician said.

"I just wanted to protect him. I didn't hate her, I, I didn't--"

"Hush, Nefertiri," Achsu-rai commanded, and she fell silent, letting the physician examine her without another word. She looked so tiny, huddled into a ball on the rickety cot, almost defeated. Achsu-rai had never seen her like that, like she'd given up. After a few minutes, the doctor stood and gestured Achsu-rai toward the tent entrance.

"What's happening to her?" Achsu-rai demanded, as soon as they were out of earshot.

"A slow-acting venom, I think," the physician suggested. "It must have been festering for days, even weeks. With this sort of poison..." he trailed off.

"What are you saying, Dasid?"

The intensity of the Medjai's words scared the doctor a little, though he knew that not answering wouldn't get him any farther away from this tent. "It is literally eating her up on the inside...There's nothing I can do."

Dasid shrunk back a bit, anticipating Achsu-rai's surely dangerous reaction to the news, but the Medjai simply swallowed and said, "How long..."

"I've seen it go as long as a month. Probably a few weeks. Even if she were to survive, the child--" Here he paused, giving Achsu-rai a look that the Medjai did not notice. "The child is miscarrying. There's nothing I can do for him...or...for the princess."

Achsu-rai took a deep breath, attempting to clear his head. "You can go now."

"We'll just, uh, notify Ramses then? We should get her to--"

"No. No one will be notified, least of all Ramses."

"But, I, uh--"

"Khalil!" Achsu-rai called through the tent flap, and his brother came running. "Make sure our dear physician Dasid does not leave the camp." Khalil, throwing a fleeting look back to where Nefertiri lay, pulled the man away.

Achsu-rai made his way back into the darkened recess of the tent and sunk to Nefertiri's bedside. He took her hand and immediately her eyes fluttered open. "Achsu-rai," she managed to breathe. She snuggled into his arms as if his touch were her very lifeblood. "Please don't leave me," she whispered.

"Never, I promise. Never."

"I was afraid I wouldn't get to say goodbye."

"It's going to be fine, we're going to get through this. You're strong, we can--"

"No," she said firmly, with a finality that sent chills down his spine. "There's nothing for it."

His sheer helplessness weighed down on his limbs, crushed his chest as though he were drowning. A tear rolled down and off his cheek, landing with a splash on Nefertiri's face. He kissed it away, the salt bitter against his tongue. "There has to be."

"Don't argue with a dying woman, Achsu-rai. Cry for me if you must, but don't argue with me."

"Argue with you? An impossible task to begin with, my love."

"Love?" In contrast to her earlier composure, her voice cracked as she spoke, and in his arms she seemed as small as a child. "You still love me?"

"How could you doubt such a thing?" The great warrior felt the tears threatening again, stronger this time, and he pulled the princess ever closer.

"You would do anything for me, then?"

"Just ask."

Nefertiri reached a hand down and around his waist, grasping the throwing knife that hung at Achsu-rai's side. Its cold metallic edge sliced the air as she slowly slid the blade out of the sheath. She wasn't suggesting... "No," Achsu-rai whispered. "No, no, no..."

"Anck-su-namun cannot win," she insisted.

"I don't care! She's dead, it doesn't matter anymore."

"I am dead, too, Achsu-rai."

"No. I won't let you leave me, not like this."

"I can think of no better place to spend my last moments than in your arms. Will you send me away only to learn of my death days later, and know that I was alone?"

"You will never be alone. I will always be with you, no matter where you are."

"But I am leaving, my love. We can't change the truth, no matter how desperate the wish. I want to do it on my own terms."

As if it were one last burst of will, she was once again the princess he knew, strong-minded to a fault, and he knew it would not be easy to dissuade her. But he had to. He would petition the gods themselves for her right to live, if that was what it took. He'd do whatever she wanted, he'd leave this place in a heartbeat. He'd do anything. "You can't leave me, Nefertiri. I need you. I need you. We'll run, you and me, you'll get better and then we'll--"

"Achsu-rai, not even the gods can separate us. This is not goodbye. Have you lost your faith in fate?"

"Nearly," he confessed.

"Don't." Nefertiri raised a weary hand up to caress his cheek. She could barely see him anymore through the cool indigo fog that crept in and around her senses. "Have faith that we will meet again, and fate cannot help but comply. Fate has more in store for us, but we will find our way through it. He will help us."

"Who?"

"Our child."

Achsu-rai could no longer resist the tears as he clutched at her cold hand, searching for the tiniest bit of hope. "What if all we have is now?"

"Then we must make the best of it." Achsu-rai once again became aware of the blade Nefertiri still clutched between them. It gleamed in the light of the one torch, almost seeming to mock him. He wrapped his hands around hers, attempting to pull the blade away from her, but she held fast to it. "Please," Nefertiri whispered. "This is how it has to end. I'll do it myself."

"No, you don't have the strength."

"You do."

He couldn't let her waste away like this, watch her as she faded through the weeks, look on helplessly as their child left them before he'd had a chance to take a breath. They probably wouldn't let Achsu-rai be with her; in a few hours they would notice she was gone and would eventually find her. He couldn't help but feel a bit selfish for thinking such things. Nefertiri was the one who was dying. He realized as he looked into her glistening eyes that he was dying right alongside her. The only way he could have gone on was knowing that she was still alive, safe, though he might never again be with her...

"This isn't really the end, you know," she said, as if to convince him. "Wherever we go, whether it be heaven or hell...you'll be there when I wake up."

He couldn't live in a world that had ripped her away from him. Achsu-rai came to a decision, and she saw it in his eyes.

"I love you," she whispered one last time, and as soon as the words were formed, there also ripped from her lips a short, strangled cry. Her limbs slackened, her head dropped gracefully forward to lie on his shoulder.

His hands were immediately covered in her blood; his fingerprints left sticky marks on her shoulders as he laid her body gently back on the cot. The knife had gone straight through her heart, killing her almost instantly. Her death seemed too crude, the blade too harsh, for such a graceful being. Achsu-rai still gripped the handle of the knife but couldn't bring himself to pull it out of her chest. For a moment he had the irrational thought that maybe they could take it all back, that maybe they were only dreaming, but the blood that soaked his beloved's gown had already sealed her fate. Achsu-rai leaned down and kissed her eyelids closed, her skin so cold against his lips mere moments after her death.

Death. She was gone. Forever.