The Executioner's Wife

The Noble Deaths

There's just two more chapters left after this! Thank you all for reading and voting so far, especially stephsewan14, elsaisthebest1, and Babyailen76f, who've stuck with this story since the beginning. I really appreciate your votes and comments, and I'm excited to be reaching the end of this story before I go back to edit.  

I listened to Stevie Wonder's Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer for this chapter!

It was time.

Fifteen minutes before nine, Lily went back down to the dungeon, the handkerchief around her scalp, the white nightgown draped over her body, the dirt cradled in the cups of her palms. Her breath and her steps were shaky, but she herself was firm. She could already hear the riled-up anger of the nobles who still did not want to die, scrambling for their lives behind the door.

There was a new guard posted there now, one with a red beard. He stopped her.

"I want to see the traitors of the king."

The red-bearded guard shook his head. "They're being taken to the scaffold in fifteen minutes."

Lily's arms trembled, "The king has said I am allowed to see them."

The guard chuckled. "He would have told us first."

Tears of rage clawed at Lily's throat- but yelling or screaming would only get her sent back to her room. She stepped close, as if to tell the guard an ancient secret. "Last night, one of the servants told me information about an uprising in his Lord's lands. I speak the same language as him- we are from the same country."

The guard frowned, and Lily stepped back, continuing. "They were plotting against the king before the wedding. The servant knows- I have to speak to him again before he is sent to the scaffold."

Lily's lie did not resonate as quickly as she'd hoped. Instead, the guard narrowed his eyes, as if he were trying to pull back the layers of her story. Lily huffed, "Why do you think the king married me?"

The guard blinked, and Lily took advantage of the knowledge gap. It was true- nobody knew that the king had married Lily out of bloated guilt for destroying her ship seven years ago. Nobody here knew anything about her country- nobody could even tell two of her countrymen apart from the other. Lily clung to the lie, "I'm the only one who can gain access to this type of information. You must let me speak to him before he dies."

Behind him, Lily could hear the sound of the large door opening, and the frightened yells of the nobles protesting against their deaths. In minutes, they would all be loaded up and carted to town. She was running out of time.

"This is important. Please." Lily begged.

Whether he was too nervous to take the chance, or tired of Lily in his face, the red-bearded guard opened the dungeon door, and just as quickly closed it behind her. Lily's entrance was muted by the other guards unlocking the cells, and the frustrated screams of the nobles as they were grabbed and moved into the small hallway. Lily would have to act fast.

The crowds crashed into her from both sides, and she knelt again, tearing off her handkerchief to reveal her newly short hair. She ducked into an open cell, avoiding the trampling feet of the prisoners who resisted the guard's hands. Lily took the dirt she had stolen from the day before and rubbed it into her hair and face- then, as she crouched in a corner, pulled off her nightgown, twisted it inside out, and slipped it back on. She stood upright, startled, and hoped no one had seen. Her stomach dropped when she saw another servant watching her.

She was a young girl, not unlike what Lily had been when she was growing up in her village. They were the same height, but Lily could see that her face, her eyes, her fear, were childlike. Most servants kept their heads bowed, kept their faces to the floor, as if that were all they would ever be equal to. But this one looked right at Lily- and what was it she found in her? Was it betrayal? Defeat? An awful, shared fate? Whatever it was, she was trembling from it, and Lily could bear it no longer.