Epilogue the ending

At the high point of the ceremony, the King and Queen walked out onto a platform in the main town square. Scar and I were immediately behind them, as we had ever been from the beginning.

The King had insisted that there were no guards around him.

Scar had, unusually for him, argued with the King about this. We hadn't warned him about my premonition, we just decided to be more alert. And it was as well that we were.

In the midst of the thunderous applause from the people, an assassin suddenly appeared right in front of the King and Queen, with a huge curving sword drawn back, ready to sweep through both of them. I had just a moment's warning that he was coming, enough to prompt Scar to start moving.

Even though he was not as fast as he had been in his prime, he was fast enough to get between the assassin and the King and Queen. He stopped the sword with his body, and buried his own knife in the assassin, before falling on the assassin's body. I pulled him off, and held him in my arms. He was dying, and he looked at me and smiled.

"No miracles this time. I have completed my mission twice, and my life is complete."

I knew what he meant. His time had come. He had already died once for the captain, and I knew that he could know no greater honour than to die for him again. He passed away in my arms shortly after.

We laid him to rest in a full state funeral a couple of days later. He rests now at the feet of the King and Queen. The King succumbed to his sickness a couple of months later.

The extra time Scar gave him allowed him to sort out his affairs, and prepare for the succession of power to his eldest son, King Alar. Queen Holly followed him only a few weeks later, she truly died of a broken heart. I would have followed her shortly after, had not King Alar asked me to do one last task.

I am now Head Healer at the Healer's school, responsible for teaching a new generation of healers, young men and women who have answered the highest calling in life.

Here I have found a task that will fill the few years I have left with purpose and happiness, before I join my friends and the love of my life in their place of rest.

So, why am I publishing this now?

Many of the histories of the war in the Dragon's Backbone and of the King's reign are wrong in a number of details concerning me or what happened, since what really happened has been kept secret.

None of the other soldiers who were on the mountains published any account of what happened, all to keep our secret, since it was so key to the King's safety. That early warning saved his life many times. Now only General Gaitalin is left, so I wanted to set the record straight on what really happened.

But this story is more than that, it's very personal, very intimate. I've published it in the original form I wrote it for several reasons.

Since the King was crowned, I have been known as the most desirable woman in Livia. Beyond doubt, Queen Holly was the most beautiful woman in the land until Princess Alanna grew up, but it was me that everyone desired.

I have held my peace on this matter through my life, but I wanted to set my own story on record. It's nice, as an old lady, to know that when I was young, I really was a hot young thing.

But the real reason I am publishing is because of my portrait. My portrait is said to be the most famous portrait in the land. Not only is it highly controversial, it certainly is the most viewed. It was painted in the first few months after the Captain became King.

I had started a clinic for the people. I would see anyone who turned up for an hour each morning. One day a man presented, but rather than being sick, he asked me did I remember sitting for a private painting with a famous painter a year earlier.

Yes, I vaguely remembered that painting. I was at the height of my seedie haze. A rich merchant had come in and hired my services for a couple of days. For two days I had posed in a variety of poses, all completely naked, and most in some form of sexual coupling with one or more partners that the painter had got from somewhere. The painter was quite skilled, and the paintings were unusually realistic. Certainly I was very recognisable in the paintings.

The man leered at me. He had been one of the partners. I told him to get out. But instead he told me that those paintings were still around, and that the current owner knew that I had the best access to the King of all.

If the King didn't die within three days, then these paintings would become public. I told him that he was scum, and that if I ever saw him again he would die.

I spoke to Scar about it. I really didn't want to have those paintings published, I wanted to put that part of my life behind me, and these paintings were extraordinarily lewd. But not only did the King have our personal loyalty, we were in no doubt that the having the captain as king was the best thing for the people and the land, and, for that cause, there was nothing I would not do.

We decided that I would pose for a portrait, and we would show it publicly. The portrait needed to be explicit enough that the blackmailers would not see any point continuing. So we spoke to the official painter of the court, and over the next two days, he painted the portrait that we wanted.

I am shown sitting on a rock, with a mountain scene in the background, snow all around. Other than the mountains and the snow the portrait is exactly how I posed. I am holding a healer's staff in my left hand, my healer's bag is at my feet. The only clothing I am wearing is my knee high boots that I had used in the mountains.

Otherwise I am naked. I am shown looking straight out of the picture, sitting straight with my breasts standing out. My legs are apart with my right leg off to the side, so that my patch and my lips below are clearly visible.

On my face is an expression that is confident, serene and sultry. The artist did an incredible job, and I was stunned when I first looked at the portrait.

My initial idea had been to show the painting for a few days, and then to take it down, and maybe I would let Scar hang it in our room, because — you guessed it — he rather liked it. But the King, and even Holly, loved it so much that they arranged for it to be hung in the public gallery, and I ended up living in the shadow of that portrait.

Scar just loved it, and later in life we often made love beneath it late at night when we thought we were alone. Sometimes the King and Queen joined us, and made love next to us under the portrait. I understand that King Alar has refused to take it down, I guess that the King explained to him how much it meant to his house. Privately, to me, he called it my "ultimate sacrifice". Underneath it he posted a simple but enigmatic caption.

I hope that this story finally lays to rest the speculation about my portrait, my life, and the role I played in the King's life, and explains that caption which reads:

"For the People and the Land."

This is the first novel every written by DJK805

When he was 16

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