anywhere near me.
Reading the note, I saw that it was exactly as Sysapheus claimed it to be. Looking up, I stared at Alerid once more. “Did you write this?”
“I never gave him permission to make the trade,” Astira snapped. “He stole from me is what he did. And I’m through with him. I am done being victimized by my own miserable excuse for a husband.”
Nothing about Astira reminded me of a person victimized. She was too bold, too self-assured for someone who’d supposedly been so beaten down.
Alerid simply covered his face with his hands and gave a long keening, and pitiful groan.
“I demand my pearl back, the cow as restitution, and for this thief”—Astira kicked at Alerid’s hooves with her own—“to be condemned to death.”
All around me I could sense the interest of the humans; they hung on every word of Astira’s, looking to me to see how I’d make this right.
But for once, I was lost. Something about this situation bothered me tremendously. Astira, for one. I’d never heard of a wife asking me to behead her own husband. And the others in the party, how none of them would look at Alerid, but how they all nodded in unison.
I clutched at my stomach. It would not do to look unsure. To be weak in the eyes of my people. But I did not like this. I did not like this at all.
“Alerid, speak up, man,” I snapped at him, trying as best I could to make him give me something. Show me something that proved without a shadow of a doubt that he was innocent of this crime.
Theft in these parts was punishable by death. My hands would be tied in the matter. I did not much care for humans and did not usually care how many heads rolled, but I did not like this feeling I now felt.
“Is this your writing?” I asked him, waving the sheaf around.
It was like the world stood still for a moment. My heart was caught in my throat as I waited to see him deny it with a shake of his head.
Instead he closed his eyes and nodded, and my heart sank like a stone to my knees.
Astira smirked, and the others visibly winced.
I shook my own head, denying what I was seeing before me. It was one thing to condemn a beast to the blade, quite another to send an innocent man to it.
But what if I was wrong? What if he was innocent? The laws of my land were strict and unyielding; steal and lose your head. My laws were absolute, always had been since the moment of my reign. Laws brought peace and stability.
I clenched my jaw, sensing the eyes of hundreds burning through me, all looking to me to make this right.
Brow furrowing, I looked back to the party. “Have any of you any last words to speak on behalf of this man?”
I’d hoped Sysapheus or the bushy-eyed woman might have said something. But they’d all turned their heads aside; all of them refused to even look at me.
The grapes that’d once been so sweet in my stomach now felt like poison burning through me. My mouth grew dry and my head pounded as I muttered the words every inch of me did not wish to speak, “Off with his... head.”
Astira clapped her hands and waved goodbye as my guards dragged the silent, crying Alerid away from the room.
“Go away,” I muttered low at first and then screamed it when no one seemed to notice. “Away!” I pounded a fist on my throne, causing thunder to shake and boom through the confines as my magic exploded out from within me.
With a scream of surprise and shock, the people scattered from the throne room.
Once the final man had cleared, and I was all alone, I shook my head. I’d done wrong. I knew I’d done wrong. I’d not been able to prove it though. Trembling from head to toe, I stared sightlessly at the stone floor, trying to convince myself that Alerid truly was guilty of the crime.
The curl of fog alerted me to Cheshire’s presence long before I finally saw him.
“The man was innocent, you know.”
I hissed, jerking in the direction of the bodiless voice. “You don’t know that!”
The cat often arrived
Reading the note, I saw that it was exactly as Sysapheus claimed it to be. Looking up, I stared at Alerid once more. “Did you write this?”
“I never gave him permission to make the trade,” Astira snapped. “He stole from me is what he did. And I’m through with him. I am done being victimized by my own miserable excuse for a husband.”
Nothing about Astira reminded me of a person victimized. She was too bold, too self-assured for someone who’d supposedly been so beaten down.
Alerid simply covered his face with his hands and gave a long keening, and pitiful groan.
“I demand my pearl back, the cow as restitution, and for this thief”—Astira kicked at Alerid’s hooves with her own—“to be condemned to death.”
All around me I could sense the interest of the humans; they hung on every word of Astira’s, looking to me to see how I’d make this right.
But for once, I was lost. Something about this situation bothered me tremendously. Astira, for one. I’d never heard of a wife asking me to behead her own husband. And the others in the party, how none of them would look at Alerid, but how they all nodded in unison.
I clutched at my stomach. It would not do to look unsure. To be weak in the eyes of my people. But I did not like this. I did not like this at all.
“Alerid, speak up, man,” I snapped at him, trying as best I could to make him give me something. Show me something that proved without a shadow of a doubt that he was innocent of this crime.
Theft in these parts was punishable by death. My hands would be tied in the matter. I did not much care for humans and did not usually care how many heads rolled, but I did not like this feeling I now felt.
“Is this your writing?” I asked him, waving the sheaf around.
It was like the world stood still for a moment. My heart was caught in my throat as I waited to see him deny it with a shake of his head.
Instead he closed his eyes and nodded, and my heart sank like a stone to my knees.
Astira smirked, and the others visibly winced.
I shook my own head, denying what I was seeing before me. It was one thing to condemn a beast to the blade, quite another to send an innocent man to it.
But what if I was wrong? What if he was innocent? The laws of my land were strict and unyielding; steal and lose your head. My laws were absolute, always had been since the moment of my reign. Laws brought peace and stability.
I clenched my jaw, sensing the eyes of hundreds burning through me, all looking to me to make this right.
Brow furrowing, I looked back to the party. “Have any of you any last words to speak on behalf of this man?”
I’d hoped Sysapheus or the bushy-eyed woman might have said something. But they’d all turned their heads aside; all of them refused to even look at me.
The grapes that’d once been so sweet in my stomach now felt like poison burning through me. My mouth grew dry and my head pounded as I muttered the words every inch of me did not wish to speak, “Off with his... head.”
Astira clapped her hands and waved goodbye as my guards dragged the silent, crying Alerid away from the room.
“Go away,” I muttered low at first and then screamed it when no one seemed to notice. “Away!” I pounded a fist on my throne, causing thunder to shake and boom through the confines as my magic exploded out from within me.
With a scream of surprise and shock, the people scattered from the throne room.
Once the final man had cleared, and I was all alone, I shook my head. I’d done wrong. I knew I’d done wrong. I’d not been able to prove it though. Trembling from head to toe, I stared sightlessly at the stone floor, trying to convince myself that Alerid truly was guilty of the crime.
The curl of fog alerted me to Cheshire’s presence long before I finally saw him.
“The man was innocent, you know.”
I hissed, jerking in the direction of the bodiless voice. “You don’t know that!”
The cat often arrived
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