Part
Two.
She understood in her last
moments what Liam and Buri had meant all that time ago, when they
spoke of death being useful. She hadn't agreed then, and the
idealistic part of her, the part of her which had defied tradition
and followed her dreams, still disagreed now. But the hardened
warrior, the mother, the wife, the Champion, the Lioness, agreed now.
It wasn't in her to die in a bed, but it would be worthy of her to
die in this great battle, fighting not against men, but things far
more horrible than anything she had ever faced before.
Two
men, sitting in a tent in a valley, shared their sorrow. They
understood each other, and the woman who had left them, better than
any other ever could. They heard the soldiers returning from the
battle, and a tolling bell began to sound from the small church in
the nearby village.
"That's it then." George sighed, his
eyes bright with tears. "She knew she wouldn't be coming back
from this battle."
"Mithros, George, we all knew that. How
could she have, with that thing's poison running through her
veins?" Jon buried his face in his hands, scraping his black hair,
now streaked more noticeably with grey, away from his face. "If
she'd stayed we might have been able to find a cure…"
"No.
You know as well as I that she wanted to go out fighting." The
former thief king walked to the edge of the tent, staring out between
the flaps at the small body being carried towards them.
"If I
had ordered her she might have stayed." Jon said, "She did a few
times before."
"Only to sneak out the back way when you left."
George snorted, allowing his tears to fall now, blurring his wife's
injuries even as he stared at her composed face. "Alanna never was
much good at following orders she didn't like."
The two men stood there for a long time, their grief muted by the fact they had known this was coming, and knowing that at least this last song of the Lioness was a great one, worthy of remembrance.
Author's note; This is deliberately ambiguous as to the enemy and the time. It is set after Tricksters, many years after in fact, but I can't say any more precisely than that. The enemy isn't too important anyway; it's the fighting that counts here, not who she is fighting against.
What did you think? Constructive criticism very much welcomed! Many thanks to The Silver Queen of Ashes and Lioness Fury on the Dancing Dove for excellent reviews!
HuntressDiana