Page 85 of The Stag & The Owl
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Roark stood on the gallows with his handstied behind his back and looked up into a spring sky filled withgrey clouds scudding from south to north.He would’ve liked to feelthe sun on his face one last time, but had learned a long time agoa person didn’t always get what they wanted.
He dropped his gaze from the sky and foundhis mother standing between his father and Logan, front and centerin the crowd of family and friends and onlookers, her eyes brightwith welling tears.He’d told her she didn’t have to be here todaywhen she’d visited him in his cell last night.He couldn’t blameher for not wanting to watch him die in such an undignified manner.She’d tsked and told him she’d been there when he took his firstbreath and she’d be there when he took his last.He lifted his lipsin a toothless smile and dipped his head to her and she liftedtrembling lips to him in return.
He looked to Logan, standing by his mother ashe always had and always would, and dipped his head in thanks andfarewell.He looked to his Uncle Bryce, who’d offered to help himfight his way free as they rode from the keep this morning, withNiels and Grant offering their sword arms as well.Men he liked andrespected.Men who knew the truth of almost all that had happened.Men he’d made swear not to raise arms against his family orRoger’s, lest the alliance he was willing to die for splintered andbroke.Men to whom he nodded his farewells.
Refusing to even look at Roger and his familyof lying, vindictive snakes, Roark looked to his father, who stoodas stiff and unmoved as he had yesterday.Roark had lived hisentire life aware of his father’s indifference, yet it still guttedhim.He sucked a deep breath of salt-tanged air in and blew it out.At least his mother, Logan, and Uncle Bryce, the three peopleclosest to him in the world except for Alina, believed the best ofhim.
Alina.
He’d told her he would fight to stay alivefor her, to be with her again, and he hadn’t kept that promise.Hecouldn’t.Not without causing even more harm and death to hisfamily and hundreds of others.He’d apologized to her so many timesin his mind and heart over the last several days and nights hethought surely her soul had heard his.
He knew she would understand why he’d donewhat he had, as he knew she would grieve him for the rest of herdays, and she would haunt him in the otherworld.They’d loved eachother body, mind, and soul, and he would never regret it.
The hangman stepped up next to Roark and heldout a black linen hood.Roark gave him a grim grin and shook hishead.He wanted his last sight of this world to be one of light,not darkness.With a shrug, the hangman tossed the hood to thegallows deck and then tugged down on the rope, testing its strengthbefore looping the noose around Roark’s neck.
Roark closed his eyes and saw a pair asbright and green as new spring grass smiling into his.He felt hersoft, warm skin beneath his fingers, tasted her kiss, her flesh.Hebreathed in the scent of sweet cherry blossoms and earthy woman,and heard her throaty laughter.
He saw her walking out of the woods towardhim, singing “Somebody,” her voice pure and lilting.He watched herracing along the sea’s shore on her mare, her long legs bare andher mane of cedar blowing in the last, brisk breeze of winter.
He saw her lift her face to the sun and feltits warmth on his.He smiled.At peace.
A flash of light streaked across his eyelidsand he opened them and looked out over the sea of people waiting towatch him hang.A ship was docking at the pier.
The Rover.
He opened his mouth to call out that therewould be witnesses onboard and felt the jolt of the hangman’s handhitting his back and shoving him into oblivion.
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“Rrroooaaarrrk!”Alina’s scream tore out ofher throat as Roark’s body swung out over the gallows and fell witha jerk.“Nnnooo!”The spyglass dropped from her hands and she randown the gangplank as it was being lowered, jumping the last threefeet to the ground.“Han, Bors,” she yelled.“With me.”
She raced for the gallows as factions of thecrowd ran screaming from the armed men flanking her, giving her astraight path to Roark, whose body twisted and turned in theair.
“Help him,” she cried.
A man grabbed Roark by his thighs and heldhis body up, taking the pressure from his neck, while anotherred-headed man held off two of Roger’s men, who had their swordspulled but made no effort to fight or stop them from helpingRoark.
Two other men jumped up onto the gallows andsawed at the rope with their short swords, cutting through it asAlina reached Roark.Her heart stopped as Logan and Bryce loweredan unconscious Roark to the ground and loosened the noose from hisneck.
Alina dropped to the ground at Roark’s headand pressed her fingers to his throat as the shouts of men andscraping of blades rang out.
“I can’t feel a pulse,” she cried.“I can’tfeel a pulse.”
“He isn’t breathing either,” Logan said.
“No.”Alina squeezed back tears.“No.”Shestraddled Roark’s belly and pressed her hands palm down on hischest as she’d seen Hamar do with a newborn foal who hadn’tbreathed on its own in a timely manner.“No.”She pressed down onhis chest again.“You cannot die on me.”She pressed on his chestagain and again.“Not now.Not like this.”She pressed on his chestagain.“You will not die on me, Roark MacInnes,” she whisperedsavagely.She pumped his chest again and again, stopping to watchfor his chest to rise on its own.“Please, Roark,” she cried whenhis chest lay still.“You promised me.”She hit his chest with herfist.“You promised me.”She felt hands on her shoulders, heardkind voices telling her to let him go.She shook the hands off andlowered her mouth to Roark’s ear.“Come back to me, sir stag,” shepleaded.“Come back to your lady owl.”
He lay there unmoving, his eyes closed, hisface ashen.
Gentle hands pulled her up and she staredinto the grief-stricken eyes of Lady Brianna.Into Roark’seyes.
“He’s gone, Alina,” his mother said.“Roarkis gone.”She hugged Alina to her and whispered in her ear.“Hesacrificed himself to save you, to save all of us.”
Alina went ice cold, and then she went raginghot.She stepped back from Roark’s mother and met his father’sstony gaze.“He died for you,” she seethed.“Your son died for you.To keep the alliances between your clan and Roger’s intact.To keepthe hundreds of families dependent on your houses from sufferingthe consequences of such a breach.And you stand there like a, abloodless statue.”She shook her head and swiped at the hot tearsfalling down her cheeks.“What manner of man are you to have neverseen what a good, honorable man your son is?”she said, her voicecutting.“What manner of man he was.”
“Ali girl?”
