sworn by both the spectre and the blood

[i_am_elizabeth]

It is with the strangest sense of freedom I walk the trails of the jungle island today. The air is not so thick with its usual moisture and is cooler given the recent rain, this brief reprieve from which I have decided to take make full opportunity of, and the sun, which already fights the thin and gently rolling cloud cover is fully tamed by that

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[withoutasea]

If there was one thing that Jenny knew about the church-men and their Lord, it was that they did not forgive easily. With Lorica reined in, she studied the scene for a moment. The head does not disturb her so much; she was a Queen of England, a wife of a soldier and she loved a soldier, too. She had seen the damage that swords could do.

"Come here to me, lady," she said, gently, holding out her hand. Her back straightening, and she was every inch "Elizabeth. Come here to me."

[i_am_elizabeth]

"I cannot stand," I say harshly, eyes locked onto the grass, though the vision blurs.

"I cannot feel my legs enough to stand. Tell me if it still there," I moan, shuddering, wishing it to be gone, for I would rather this some strange spell of my mind than that the actual article and my cousin were truly at hand.

"Tell me if I have not dreamed it."

[withoutasea]

"Then I will come to you," she said, swinging down off Lorica's back easily in her modern clothes, her trousers and man's shirt, and strode towards Elizabeth in the grass.

"It is there, lady," she said, dropping down onto one knee like a Knight. "You do not dream."

[i_am_elizabeth]

"I do not ask how," I said, trying to keep my stomach low, "for I have seen stranger here but God, oh, God, I have not been shown worse."

[strandedseaman]

"Madam!" Horatio's voice was thin in his alarm, shrill in a way he would berate himself for after when whatever trauma he'd stumbled upon here had passed. He rushed forward at the sight of the Queen on her knees, uncertain even as he ran if he ought not be looking away out of respect, but he couldn't very well leave here there.

"Madam, please," he said as he reached her, "tell me what I may do."

[i_am_elizabeth]

I know his voice and so do not recoil- in fact I grab his arm, my fingers taught and digging into the fabric there, though I keep my face hidden, my eyes fiercely shut.

"Tell me it is gone, Horatio. Tell me I did not see it for it is not there!"

[strandedseaman]

Horatio tore his eyes from the sight of her and looked up, his assessment of the scene as swift as it was precise. An executioner's block. He'd not seen one since France, but this was no French machination. That wood was as English as he himself, and undoubtedly a gift from the island.

And then there was the small, stomach curdling matter of that head.

Her daughter's, then. Or perhaps her troublesome kin, Mary Stuart. "Madam," Horatio said slowly. "Regrettably, I cannot." He swallowed thickly. "But I will gladly take it elsewhere."

[i_am_elizabeth]

"Please," I whisper desperately desperately, hating myself for the weakness, my hand dropping from where it does nothing to protect my face to press feebly and ineffectually against my stomacher, as though it would press away the nausea.

"I know not what to do with it. I cannot- Oh, God, that I have done such a thing at all but to find this here and have no proper way of putting her to rest-" My voice fails. It is too much. I feel as though all the blood has drained from me and left me cold and hollow.

[stoicsidekick]

"Ma'am!" Bush saw the Queen as she was sick upon the jungle floor, though he did not immediately spy the source of her distress. For the moment the awkward formality he always possessed when near her was gone. She was only a woman in distress, nothing more. It was only when he kneeled beside her, a hand at her arm to help her up, that he saw the block, and the head beside.

He made no mention of it. "Here- can you stand, ma'am?"

[i_am_elizabeth]

I am not sure if I can. I wish to, for with my feet beneath me I could depart, but the shock of the knowledge more than the scene had struck me deep and knocked the wind from me.

"Forgive me," I say, voice straining against the tightness of my throat, "I am not sure."

[stoicsidekick]

Bush only nodded tightly and brought a hand under the queen's arm in order to haul her to her feet. If she could not stand on her own, he would provide help in doing so as best he could. "Come- he said with a glance over his shoulder at the head, "let's away from here."

[i_am_elizabeth]

Without the layers upon layers of heavy brocade and jewelery I feel light, as some poor sickly sparrow, of inconsequential matter- he lifts me easily, and I keep my hold of his shoulder and arm.

"It cannot be left," I gasp, trying to steel myself, not turning back to look upon the block and its victim.

"God forgive me the signing away of her life, God forgive her her treason, but it... sh... She cannot be left. Is there someone- Might you send someone after us, lieutenant?"

[lt_blade]

The sight was almost enough to make her sick, seeing the woman's head on the block, but it was always easier for Sonya to be strong when someone was troubled.

She'd only been outside to do some sketches, sitting up in a tree to get some inspiration that wasn't from her nightmares. But the direction of the wind soon changed, carrying with it the scent of old metal and wood, and worst still, the scent of blood-the smells of a dungeon. Sonya tried to keep her head in the present, not the past, focusing to keep her breathing steady.

When she found the queen, she slowly walked over, gently placing a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Queen Elizabeth, can you hear me? Can you stand?" She called, but kept her voice soft. Being a soldier, she'd seen too many men like this, she herself had been in a worse state only after her first month on the island.

[i_am_elizabeth]

"I can hear," I say firmly, digging deep beneath the place my breath flutters in search of some resolve.

"I can hear and see and smell- all my sense are traitorously in order. Tell me, have I imagined the apparition on the path before me?"

[lt_blade]

Sonya slowly looked up, her face and expression stoic. 'Oh fucking hell', she thought, 'First Anne, now her.' And before than it was Joe and the prison uniform and her with the body of her fiance...

"You haven't imagined it, I see it too." She replied, her tone militant so as to not betray her feelings."

She took her hand. "Come on, ma'am, you can't stay here." She tried to keep her tone encouraging, as though she were talking to a fellow soldier who just suffered a bad flashback. "There's a place to sit down not far from here, it's up wind too so you don't have to see or smell it." It wasn't exactly proper protocol, but it was what she knew.

[i_am_elizabeth]

I nod, eyes on the ground. My skin feels tight against the bones of my face, as though all the breath has been sucked from my body.

"I could not bear to see it done, when I had ordered it so. It is no surprise I cannot stand to look upon it now."

[over_and_dunne]

It was sad to say that Willie looked at the bloody head for a good long time before he seemed to notice the still living woman. But there were living people everywhere on the island and nothing so special about that. The head was the first bit of death that he had seen since the war and he stared at it numbly for a moment, wondering how it had got there before trying to figure out what he should do for the living lady. She was acting like some of the new soldiers did right before a battle or after they'd just seen their mates blown up. Willie Dunne knew how to deal with soldiers, but not a lady. If she had been one of his sisters or his Gretta he might have known what to do, soothing words and songs, but they were all younger than him.

She was Queen. If there was a right way of doing things with Queens he had never learned it.

"Do you want me to move it?" Willie finally asked, standing between the two ladies, living and dead.

[i_am_elizabeth]

I gasp, looking immediately to the voice and then away again, for he stands in the direction of what remains of my cousin. Of all the people to see me thus, I am fortunate it is he, for before no one else would I feel so unabashed.

"Oh- William- please, do, for I cannot do so myself."

[over_and_dunne]

He paused, considering what to do. If it had been just any old head Willie might have chucked it into the water and be rid of it, but it was a lady's head and obviously important to the Queen. If he had a coat he might've wrapped it up in that, but he was only in his shirtsleeves and anything less than that just wouldn't be proper. But proper or not, it had to be done.

"Please do not turn around, your Highness," he said, turning his back to her and carefully stripping off his shirt. He closed lady's eyes before he wrapped her gently in the cloth, trying his best not to smudge himself with blood, but not truly caring when he could not. Blood had become a common thing for him. His task complete, Willie stood there, the bundle cradled carefully in his arms. Without his shirt he felt even smaller than ever. All his scars were on display for all the world to see, a faded map of pain and fire. "Is there anything you want me to do with her now?"

[i_am_elizabeth]

"I cannot think what," I mumble against the back of my wrist.

"Set it behind the block, perhaps, so that I might send it to be... retrieved and... and set to rest later. My God, William, I am ashamed to show so little stomach. Forgive me, I should prove stronger."

Not even my subject, but I am desperate to hold his admiration, truly. There have been so few I felt so fervently about, and in this place they all seem so precious- to hold on to, and to know, but chief among them young Mister Dunne.