Dark Desire, A Reylo Camelot

The smell of smoke

Our eyes made love to each other long before hand....
You were something that felt so new
Yet so familiar to me ,
Like a place I had never been , but somehow left.
I think I have known you my whole life and loved you
A while longer....... N.R. Hart

No one saw the strange hooded figure hiding behind a large pillar at the back of the great hall. He was hanging on every word that was said.
He fell painfully to his knees when he heard the sentence. It rented his heart in two and he could do absolutely nothing about it.

Poe had been told that he was not allowed to sit in on the trial. It was too personal for him ,therefore he was band from the room.

He put on one of his many disguises and hid in the back. He had to know what was being said about his beautiful young queen.

They hadn't even allowed her to say a word in her own defense. She was caught in Bens arms ,so there was no reason for her to try to justify her actions.

Poe saw her standing there , still in the dress she was arrested in. The blood dried to a coppery brown. Her eyes shot defiant fire at her accusers.
She was remarkably radiant, even then. She was so full of life and passion. That being her only fault. She couldn't stop herself from loving someone else , even if that someone was forbidden.

Oh Maker, she was going to pay the ultimate price with her life!

His eyes traveled down to the swelling of her stomach. This was not his child, but his best friends.
That one did hurt. Yoda had said he needed compassion and understanding for them. That as a tall order, but if it was what Yoda advised then he would try.
Rey didn't even want to marry him . She was forced into it as a marriage of State. An alliance between her planet and his.
He knew she tried her very best to be loyal and faithful but sometimes the heart does have a mind of its own.
Now she was finally with child, after years of disappointment. She had her hearts desire , but unfortunately it came to late.
She was not to blame for no heir to the throne.

Poe had slipped through the side door. He thought it ironic that this was the very same door that Ben had slipped through just the other night. He will order it to be walled up after all this unpleasantness is over.

***************

Rey shivered as a cold draft wrapped its self around her shoulders like a heavy frozen blanket.
Here she sat with her two hand maids as they read scripture to her and passed the time praying or talking of better days.
One of them had bandaged Rey's wounded arm with a strip of her own petticoat, and anointed the deep cut with her tears. They would be loyal to their queen until she took her last breath. They knew of her secret and had kept quiet .
She had made peace with her Maker and cried herself dry. Now all she could do was wait for the final hour.

She wondered where Ben was. She couldn't help herself from hoping he got away. She prayed he made it safely home .
He was still so weak when he had fled the scene. One of the guards could have easily found him and killed him.
She would never see him again. Never to look in his eyes and feel his arms around her. Was he thinking of her? Would he be able to live after she died?
If he was dead she would join him soon in the afterlife.

As if this morbid thought brought it to life, the sounds of hammering and activity came from the court yard outside of the castle.

A pyre was being constructed in the center of the yard made of dry wood and hay, with a large pole in the middle.

Rey would have to wait for sundown. The ending of the day and an ending of a two lives, one not yet born.

*******

The orange and salmon sunset touched with plum and indigo was going to be the last sunset Rey would see. Yet, she didn't see it. She hung her head and stared at the ground as she slowly made her way to the site of her death. Her ladies walked behind her, weeping and wringing their hands.
As part of her penance, Rey's lanky hair hung down her back and her feet were bare . She trudged behind her executioner, as he held a lit torch high above his head for everyone to see.

Rey vaguely heard woman weeping and men calling out obscenities in her direction. ' whore...... witch....... Adulteress.'

Gone were the days of love and laughter from her subjects. Some felt sorry for her, some out right hated her. How dare she cavort with a foreigner! Had she no shame?

Far above in the castle, Hux leaned out the window and watched the horizon. The land was heavily forested to the east and west, the north and south rolling hills with quaint farm houses and fields ripe with grain doting the landscape. The heavily wooded forest would be the perfect place to hide  enemy soldiers waiting to attack.

"Anything yet?" Poe questioned with a tremble in his voice. " No , nothing." Hux replied down cast.

Poe would not go to the window . He could not ..... would not look down at the gruesome scene.

He had Hux station himself looking for any sights of a rescue. Surely Ben would come back and save his one true love?

Rey's hands were tied behind her back and helped up onto the scaffolding. She stumbled and nearly fell . She was dizzy with fear by then and couldn't see through her tears. Someone had jumped out of the crowd and placed a small bag around her neck. She knew what this was, and felt a wave of dread tremor through her body. It was gunpowder. It would explode as soon as the flames touched it. It saved the victim from dying a slow agonizing death.

She was firmly secured to the pole and then waited for the executioner to lite the tinder. They looked at each other briefly and the large man in black leather spoke. She could not see his face. No one was to looked upon the face of death. It was always covered and mysterious.

" My lady , do you forgive me?"

" I forgive you." She said, he voice barely above a whisper.

He walked up to the pile of tinder and touched it with the torch.