Page 457 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

– Your Holiness, you have listened to some of the "broken" gifted ones, haven’t
you? But they did not know how truly strong Anna was. You knew it. So, you should
not be mad, for that is in vain really!

Caraffa stopped right in front of me and gave an infuriated shriek:
– Can Anna go with her spirit out of her body? Answer, Madonna!

– Of course, she can, your Holiness! It is the simplest thing she can do.
It was a lie... But if it could save my girl from suffering, I was ready to repeat it
again and again, a thousand times!
Caraffa intently reflected on something for a while.

– Well, Madonna Isidora, everything has been decided then. It’s useless to torture
Anna. She will kill all my executioners, which, forgive me, does suit me at all. She
will repeat her Grandfather’s tricks and I simply don’t have time for it. You will spend
this night with your daughter, but it will be your last night together, because Anna will
die in the morning. She will go to the fire... You have one night to change your decision,
Madonna.
Caraffa whipped round and left the room...

We were taken from the torture cell and driven to a dark and dirty "cage" with
nothing in it except for the straw on the floor, on which we collapsed firmly hugging
each other, as if it could help us to survive... There was no hope for us, only black
despair.
I held my treasure in my arms, my only, amazingly gifted girl, and grieved... Oh,
if only Anna had stayed in Meteora! No Caraffa’s force would get her there! But she
did not stay... Fearing for me, she came here offering her life in return for mine. She
knew that thus she would give me some time to try to kill Caraffa...
The images of our short life in the house of her father and grandfather, where I
taught Anna to be strong so persistently, flashed before my eyes. There I repeated to
her so many times how wonderful life was and how happy hers would be... But I was
wrong... Anna’s life ended right now, preventing her from feeling the happiness I had
felt in my life...

We sat in the corner on the straw hugging each other with our numb hands. I
stroked her twisted, blood-sticky, long hair, knowing that I did it for the last time. My
eyes were dry, although my heart was torn with sobbing. I think the pain was too strong
to wash it with tears.
Firmly pressing Anna to my chest, I felt how quickly and cruelly time flowed into
"nowhere", carrying away the last hours of her surprisingly-brave life.

The night came to its end. And like it was the night before my father’s murder, I
dozed! I gave a start and jumped in horror to wake up my dear girl. But Anna did not
sleep. She gently stroked my face with her now disfigured thin hands and quietly
whispered:
– You are so beautiful, mother... I love you so much! I beg you, hold on! Don’t
give up! It’s all the same for me now... It’s deliverance. There will be no more pain. So
dad told me. I know they are waiting for me. And then we all will wait for you. Hold
on, mother! Hold on, dear!

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