Beast: Great Bloodlines Converge Read Online Free Page B

rose over a bright blue sky, it was a beautiful morning as the executioners began to light the oil-soaked wood. They had more fuel on the side to feed the flames, watching as the fire took off rapidly. A hush settled over the crowd, over everyone, watching as the flames began to lick the base of the post where the Maid was secured.
    De Russe was standing about twelve or fifteen feet away, not too terribly far considering how big the flames were going to get. He stood right in front of the Maid, his eyes riveted to hers, just as he had promised. At one point, as the fire began to lick at her feet, she smiled at de Russe and he smiled back. She did not present a smile of fear, nor of bravery. It was the smile of a woman whose life was well spent. She was about to meet God and she was joyful. I am not afraid to die. As he watched the fire burn, he believed her.
    But that belief was put to the test when the flames began to consume her clothing. Her rough woolen breeches were the first to ignite. Since her feet were bare, as they had allowed her no shoes, her feet were starting to catch fire as well. De Russe could see the smoke from the lower part of her body, knowing she was igniting, and it took every bit of strength he had not to rush to help her. There was nothing he could do, anyway. Were he to pull her free, she was already burned and would eventually die a slow and agonizing death from it. It was better to let her go up all at once, as sickening and agonizing as it was to watch.
    But the Maid maintained eye contact with him even as her lower body started to burn. The smile on her face, however, turned to a grimace and eventually, he watched as her eyes rolled back in her head and she turned away, overcome with pain and smoke. As de Russe began to pray that she would fall unconscious before the flames reached higher, the Maid suddenly cried out.
    “French people!” she cried. “Continue to fight, because the voices in whose name I led you to victory truly spoke orders that came from Heaven. Heaven will give you, therefore, the complete victory!”
    It was odd how the small woman’s voice could be heard over everything; the flames, the smoke, and the muffled hush of the crowd. It reverberated off the buildings, off the cathedral itself, as the flames began to snake up her body. Now, her tunic was starting to smoke and the flames from the lower part of her body were beginning to shoot around her shoulders and chin. She gasped but nothing more.
    De Russe found himself fighting off tears. The pain she was experiencing was undoubtedly agonizing but she was bearing it with bravery he had never seen. He was standing so close that the entire front side of his body was searing from the sheer heat of the bonfire and, out of necessity, had to take a few steps back. He could smell her flesh burning now.
    The Maid’s hair began to ignite. As short as it was, it was smoking and little sparks began to flash all around her head. Soon, the flames would consumer her entire face and body, but before she went up in flames entirely, she cried out one last time.
    “Know this, all of you!” she screamed. “You friends and enemies, you men of my time and you men of the future until the end of the world – know that the voices I heard came from Heaven. With this last proclamation, my mission is accomplished!”
    With that, her head pitched forward and, as de Russe watched, went up in flames. Everything about her was in flames now as she became one with the post behind her, with the wood piled up around her. Everything was one, giant, massive flame that shot up into the sky, sending billowing black smoke into the atmosphere.
    De Russe could only pray that she was completely unconscious at this point. He believed so because he could see no movement. He continued to stand there, however, because he’d promised her he would. He had promised her that his face would be the last one she saw before she died and he had fulfilled that vow but,