Endings

Alcina crawled away from the battle.

Her whole body ached.

Little wonder, as her life's blood was leaving her from a deep cut to her thigh.

An unlucky place to be stabbed, she observed, unlucky for herself but extremely lucky for her opponent.

Or it had been before she had ended him with a crashing blow to his skull with her shield.

She could see his body now.

See it lying, wide eyed among the rest of the dead. Seemingly caught eternally in the moment that his downed victory had risen and delivered one last kill.

She crawled away from the fight and pulled her useless legs towards a large boulder that, for no foreseeable reason was caught in this flat landscape.

Maybe a land marker or perhaps placed there by holy men marking a place of worship.

If so, maybe it was the reason she was now dying.

Fitting then, that she would go towards it, as though dragging herself towards her death rather than turning away from it in the vain hope of deliverance.

She pulled herself into a sitting position, back against its smooth surface.

She now had a wide angle view of the killing ground.

As she watched her comrades, her brothers and sisters fell.

Some took enemies with them, others left the world without knowing the taste of vengeance.

She watched with remote numbness as her king, the king fell.

He rode upon a horse of pure white, his handsome face set in determination. A determination that continued right up to the point a spear struck him in the right shoulder, at the break in his armour that allowed him to bend his arm.

Funny that at the point of death Alcina was brought back to the previous morning.

She was standing outside her tent which was situated above the rest of the camp at the edge of a slight ledge in the hillside. It gave her the perfect view over the kings army.

Her army.

She was the commander of everyone of the bodies that now rested in their tents, on the eve of battle.

She saw a lone figure drift out of the largest and grandest tent of the whole camp and go to stand, warming his hands.

Alcina downed the last few drops of rum from her mug and went down to join him.

Jarrod was wrapped in thick expensive furs and standing close to the fire, and yet he was shivering. His hands were clasped in front of him, reaching out to the heat.

Alcina stepped beside him and stood silently next to her king.

He did not acknowledge her presence, but after a few minutes of silence he whispered,

"Am I doing the right thing Alcina?"

Alcina said nothing for a moment, "You do what you believe to be right oh king" she said eventually.

"I know" he breathed, his shouldered drooping, "and yet I cant help feeling our enemy feels the same."

"Our enemy is deluded" Alcina said angrily, "They rule through fear and death, they slaughter and murder in the name of their 'God' and twist the ancient teachings of their prophet to fit their own depraved reasoning, they think of nothing but their own pathetic lives, caring nothing for those that are destroyed in way of their pursuits!"

Jarrod shrank even more,

"And yet, maybe..they believe themselves to be just in their pursuits, maybe they see their ways as a means to an end, not just for themselves but also for their people, their interpretations of their scriptures are seen as fact and no one can fault them for trying to make sense of things far beyond them and yet so precious."

"They do evil despicable things," Alcina said stubbornly, bringing herself face to face with her king and master, "Doing such things can only be done by evil men who have no place on this earth and must be eradicated for the sake of their victims"

Jarrod shook his head, his eyes turned up to her,

"But.." he whispered despairingly, "By sentencing them to death and damning my own men to die to achieve that...am I not evil for doing so...is it not an act of evil.."

Alcina stared at the man she would give her life for.

"Do you doubt," she whispered turning away to conceal her own eyes, which had filled with tears, "Do you doubt that their deaths will end their reign of terror?"

"At what cost Alcina?" he said, "What will have to be paid to end this? I fear too much."

The King turned his face to the sky and a single tear fell down his cheek,

"Is there no other way?" he whispered.

Alcina had no answer, she lived to fight, she rarely wondered why.

She placed her hand on Jarrod's arm and squeezed, trying to give comfort.

"We must have faith...it is all we have, the only thing we can trust" she said.

Jarrod shook his head, still staring at the sky,

"I fear I have no faith left to trust"

"Have hope then, let hope guide your thoughts and your sleep"

Jarrod opened his eyes, and looked down at the commander of his army and smiled sadly, his eyes still showed the signs of tears. He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it in thanks,

"I am truly blessed to have you at my side"

"I would have it no other way my lord" Alcina answered, proud.

The king gave her hand one final squeeze and turned to go back to his tent.

Alcina's senses returned to the battle.

Jarod had been right.

This was the cost.

Human life was the cost.

She, her men and her king had given their lives to put an end to evil. But in the process, precious lived had been wasted to no end.

These men and women would have lived on and returned to their families and friends and to their lives if she had her king had not made the one decision to act.

To become evil to put an end to evil.

And this was the result.

With nothing left to give or say, Alcina rested her head back against the boulder and waited for death to take her.