The Executioner's Wife

Bonus Chapter: The Shoreside City

Alois had been to the shoreside before- nothing was new to him there. He knew the sound of the ocean falling lazily onto the sand, the fishermen calling to each other as they crossed paths over the blue, the wary paranoia in the tanned people's eyes as they swerved him on the street. The room he was given was nice, at least. It was always nice, with an appropriate view of the sea and a bed big enough to fit two of him. Provided by the city's magistrate, Alois dined on the fat man's dime and, if he had the energy, would stroll along the piers to watch the towering masts of the boats protest against the sky. For a tourist, the city promised adventure. For Alois, his trips were strictly morbid business. They were often three-day excursions- arrival, execution, departure. Seventy-two hours, in a different place at least, but still alone. 

Then he married Lily. 

Just a month after the wedding, he was assigned to take the head of a merchant who'd spit on the magistrate's portrait. Since this magistrate was a close friend of the king, the monarch often lent Alois to settle any personal offenses, as if the man were a pencil to borrow for a hit list. But the generous overtime pay numbed any particular offense Alois might have taken from this. 

Lily, excited by the prospect of going to the city by the sea (even on morbid business), asked to tag along. Surprisingly, the magistrate had no issue with it- as long as the executioner's wife would have no interference with the duty at hand. Alois assured him, she wouldn't. 

Alois, of course, had seen everything there before. But he had never seen Lily see everything for the first time. As the white buildings crested over the hill and the ocean rose up right after, Lily released the cutest and scariest shriek Alois had ever heard from her. 

Their room aroused similar awe from her, as Alois set down their luggage and directed their frightened drivers to the tip on the nightstand. Lily touched the bedcovers on the giant mattress, and the curtains fluttering in the breeze. She leaned out of the window to inhale the view of the sea. Her exhaustion was immediately forgotten. Now, she wanted to explore. 

"But I know you're tired." She told him empathetically. "So I can go by myself." 

His anxiety about the rough part of the city- the pickpockets, the handsy men, even the swindling old ladies- quelled his amusement at her excitement. Lily could hold her own, sure- she swore as brilliantly as a sailor and could punch almost as hard. But he didn't want her scrapping in a new place that would already view her oddly. He insisted, "I'll come with you." 

Lily shook her head. "You have to get ready for tomorrow. I don't want you to be tired." 

"The execution's in the afternoon. I'll be fine."

Lily bit her lip, excited by the idea of exploring with him. "Are you sure?"

He grinned, "You'll need someone to show you around, anyway. You've got no sense of direction."

Lily sucked her teeth. "I already have a guide. His name is Armando." 

Alois snorted. "We've been here five seconds and you already have a new boyfriend?" He kept his large hand on the small of her back as they walked to the door. Lily flashed her gapped smile. 

"What can I say? My rotation goes worldwide."

The sun was generous to Lily's skin, casting a golden glow about her features as she scampered like an excited kid. All of the things that Alois found dull or exhausted of novelty were revived in her eagerness. He introduced her to the piers that he wandered before an execution, and she pointed out the ridiculous names of the boats- like the "Mabel's Revenge" and the "Booby Trap". They hiked up the sloping hills of the city, and for the first time, Alois didn't notice the side-eyes of those anxious few who knew what he was there for. Lily was going on about something- in some book she had read, the myth of the city was said to be that it was built over the bones of two doomed lovers who had chosen death over being separated forever. But she was unimpressed.