EDIT: Thanks so much Stella and Pop for your frantic last minute crits, and Pippie for your comments!
It won. Yay!
***
“They will arrive soon.”
How did the words sound in her ears? Did she even hear me? Of that, I could not be sure. She was kneeling so reverently that I could not help but wonder what prayer was running through her head. Bartering with the devil, no doubt. Not that it would do her any good. I knew the devil, and he wouldn't be likely to make any exceptions.
“My Anne, they are coming.”
At this she looked up from her prayer, dark eyes glinting in the early morning light. “I am not your Anne, you detestable toad. I am Queen Anne Boleyn, and you do not own me.”
But, pretty lady, it won't matter at all whose Anne you are when your head is rolling around the Tower grounds, will it? I did not say this, of course. I was not here to bicker with the damned, no matter what satisfaction it might give me. I was here for one reason and for one reason only. I was here to get her out of there. To hell with Henry.
After being sent to her side, I was certainly not prepared for what I found. I had expected a writhing, hysterical girl who would beat against the stone walls in an attempt to knock them down and escape. I had prepared myself for a woman with a manic glint in her eyes who cursed the King’s name from dawn until dusk, and dreamt only in agonizing nightmares.
What I was not expecting was a reasonably calm, accepting woman who kept her head held high and spoke detachedly, as if her words were directed towards some higher being. Maybe they were. Who knew what could be going through her head?
Of course, her acceptance would have been admirable if not for the fact that I had been relying solely on her desire to escape her prison and cheat death. By now, with the executioner summoned and people already on their way to collect her, I had been hoping to be miles away, fleeing England.
Instead, I was perched on her right shoulder, chattering quickly into her ear.
“Your Majesty, we can still escape. I am powerful. I can shatter windows and start hurricanes. I can break down this door and melt its lock until it is nothing but a pile of ashes. I can paralyze the guards until we are far away, and—”
She raised a cool eyebrow, making the Sign on the Cross. “I do not doubt your impressive abilities.”
And what was that supposed to mean?
“Then why not let me take you away from this wretched fate? Your time has not yet come, Anne. You have so much more left in you. It would be criminal to allow your life to end here, so young,” I told her, my voice soothing and smooth.
She seemed to be purposefully ignoring me. Now her prayers were faster, more frantic, as if she was fully aware that she had time for only so many more words. I heard her rattle off the name of every Saint she knew of, and murmur praises to Holy Mary. She seemed to be grasping at straws in a desperate attempt to save her soul.
Taking a look around, I knew it would hardly have been difficult to take her from the Tower by force. The stained glass window that made up the ceiling was easily breakable, and I could more than hold Anne’s small body as we sailed up and out. And then what? Break out in a run across the moat. No one would be able to catch me. I was invincible.
Invincible. If only I could get her to agree with me.
Suddenly, she stopped mid-prayer, and I hoped fervently that she had come to her senses.
“They’re here,” she mouthed; there was not enough voice left in her to utter a sound. Sure enough, they were just beyond the door, their words soft and impassive. They would be oblivious to me, of course, even once they came in. I was but an imp, there to do a mistress’s bidding. It did not matter that my mistress happened to be dead. I had been charged with Anne’s protection long before any of these complications had arisen, and I would keep battling until she, too, lay under the ground.
“Last chance, Majesty,” I hissed, gripping her shoulder blade. “I can stun them in a moment.”
She shook her head slowly, and I knew there was no swaying her.
I unclenched my fists, accepting the fact that I had failed, that my mistress’s last wish would not be fulfilled. There, in my palm, was a scrap of parchment. I stared at it only a moment before shoving it into Anne’s hands.
“Hurry, my Anne, for we have no time left for goodbyes.” I shook my head sadly, knowing what the parchment must say. It was a last letter from my mistress to my charge. And I would not stay to ruin Anne’s last moment with someone very close to her heart.
As I started to disappear, she gasped a little, choking on tears I didn’t know she was capable of crying. “My mother sent you? My mother?”
I pretended not to have heard her. It wouldn’t have done her any good anyways, to change her mind now that there was no turning back. They were already in the room.
She was as good as dead, and there was nothing left for me to do about it.
Gender:
Points: 60568
Reviews: 537