The shout snapped Marisa out of her reverie and she scrambled to her feet.
"You need to pay attention," Rico spat, his voice sounding almost comical with his broken nose. "Our guest of honor is arriving."
Just as Rico said that trumpets sounded and the bustling crowd quieted. From the far side of the square a troop of guards led a tightly bound man to the gallows. Next to her Rico was breathing heavily. He seemed nervous. Between the broken nose and the set of his shoulders, he came off as a bitter teenager.
"We have no time for sight seeing." Rico snapped. "Raise your bow."
An arrow found the string and she let her eyes wander with her thoughts. This Rico seemed different. No longer the self assured knight with cruelty lingering beneath the surface, but now a man who understood doubt. Something had shaken him.
When her mind turned back to the task at hand the prisoner was being fitted with rope. He was average height, thin build, but that's all she could see with the black sack covering his face. Somehow he seemed at ease while the knot was placed over his left shoulder. The black clad executioner stepped back and a man stepped forward, dressed in the red of a judge.
"Before you stands the Faceless Prince, charged with uncountable crimes warranting execution," the judges voice boomed. "By royal decree, and with no remorse, he has been given such a punishment."
At the end of the echoing announcement, the judge sharply wrenched the sack off the rebel's head, revealing a plain iron mask beneath. The Prince stood, his chin raised high and his violet eyes staring beyond everything around him. Even in the ugly white of the condemned, he held a dangerous beauty. Marisa found her eyes lingering on the smooth metal of his mask, wondering what was beneath.
"We shall now give the condemned the chance to speak his last words."
At the judge's words, the Prince shifted and his eyes met hers. Her heart started beating out of control.
"I never thought I would die." She could almost hear the pitiful chuckle. "I always thought that people would be here to save me, to protect me. Because... I always tried to protect them."
His eyes were sad and Marisa's aim wavered. When they shifted to a chilling shade of red, however, she remembered the stories and she forced her hands to remain steady.
"But I am alone now." He spat the words and everyone watching flinched. "I have failed."
The king raised a hand. The executioner nodded. Marisa looked away. Distantly she heard the snap of his neck. Marisa would never know of the future she let die. Two months later she would die at the hands of the Faceless Watchers. A week after Nero had been assassinated by the Church of Aeons.
