...at Jericho Hill

[locks_it_up]

The pain fades, and the feeling in his body, as he lies on the rocks of Jericho Hill, Roland on one side of him and Cuthbert on the other. The light fades, too; the rising sun, blazing in his eyes even as a thin sliver above the hilltop, fades into black cloud. Too dark to see, and his life's blood pouring on the ground.

And then he realizes that he can see again, that he is standing without pain or fatigue. Below him lies his own broken body, and Roland and Cuthbert still kneeling beside it, weeping.

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[locks_it_up]

And there's footsteps, and the sound of wings, somewhere close...

...and she's standing next to him, looking down as well.

"Hell of a way to go..."

She cuts a glance sideways to him, and smiles, sympathetically.

"Hi."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He's never seen her face before.

He's seen it every day of his life.

He raises a closed fist to his forehead, and bows to her in deep respect. "Hile, lady-sai."

[locks_it_up]

"Hi, Alain."

She looks down again, then back at him.

"You ready to go, or do you need a second?"

The most elegant form of mercy, in her eyes.

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He stands, looking at them. His dearest friends from boyhood on, his ka-tet, his brothers. The last two gunslingers, now. The end of a world.

"I didn't think it would end this way," he says softly. "Not with one of us going to the clearing. Leaving them. Even with everything, with Jamie and Des..."

As he watches, Cuthbert lifts his dead body's hand, kisses it, lays it on his chest. Alain feels his right hand curl, as if he could feel it. But he can't, and that makes it real to him -- he's left that body, now. He's left them.

Tears prick at his eyes, now. The whole scene, the hill and the blood and the corpses and his ka-tet

(O my brothers)

is fading now, growing distant as if seen through a summer haze.

He looks at her, and she is white and black and realer than anything he has ever seen.

Simply, "I didn't want to go."

He's ready, and he knows it. But still he lingers, just a moment more.

[locks_it_up]

"I know, dear. No one ever does. Not really."

She opens her arms to him, to embrace.

"C'mere."

There is only love in her eyes.

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He goes to her. Silently, and with grief, and with love.

[locks_it_up]

She holds him close, like a mother, like a lover, and there is some sort of safety there in her arms.

And then there is the sound of mighty wings.

What happens next, is not to be spoken of, for there are no words to frame it.