3.20: Justice – 1
A dozen soldiers and craftsmen arrived and froze, their eyes staring at all the carnage.
The explosion must have been loud enough to be heard over the constant roar of Powerfall.
“Stop gawking,” Lothar ordered sharply. “Start cleaning this up!”
“No!” I said out loud.
He looked at me.
“Call the Ducklings here.”
Theo was the first to break himself out of shock. He turned toward the workshop where the five teenagers worked, when they arrived on their own, breathing heavily.
“Master! Are you—what happened?” Aldren asked, his eyes darting from me to the carnage.
The sight of their shocked faces pulled me out of my thoughts.
“A mistake. One little oversight,” I said, pushing myself up. “I forgot that steel hitting steel can produce sparks, and this is the result. If I and the General had been in this room, we would have died.”
Their faces blanched.
I stepped closer to them. “This is why I told you to not mess with flight without me. Try as we might, power is not our slave. It does not warn, unlike wild animals. I thought I knew exactly what I was doing, but one little oversight almost killed me, with no warning at all. Now do you understand why you can’t mess around on your own?”
They nodded silently.
“Good,” I said, swatting dirt off my clothes. “Tell someone to repair the wall.”
We left the workshop, with soldiers ordered to not let anyone approach it.
Half an hour later, I found myself in my home, sitting on the bed, with Aprilia fussing over me.
She looked me over, breathing heavily, then again, like a concerned mother.
“I’m fine,” I said, pushing her hand away.
“Are you?” she almost shrieked. “You’re covered in sweat!”
“I almost died of my own stupidity. I’m shaken, not hurt.”
“You—you idiot!” she said, throwing a weak fist at my chest. A lone tear fell from her eyes, driving a spike of pain through my chest. “You almost left me again!” she croaked, her voice breaking.
I pulled her into my lap, resting my head on her shoulder. I breathed her scent in, as her warmth made my heart unclench.
She tried to pull away. “Let me go!”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I made an honest mistake.”
She stilled, then turned to look into my eyes. “Promise me it won’t happen again!”
I sighed. “I promise that I will be more careful.”
“That’s not what I asked!”
“I can’t do that. People make mistakes. I’m not above them. All I can promise is that I’ll do my best to be careful,” I said, squeezing her further into myself.
Her face fell, while her arms slipped around me.
I fell back on the bed, pulling her down with me.
An hour later, we came back into the castle’s courtyard. My bodyguards stiffened as they fell in line around us.
The sky above us was cloudy, but the clouds were closer to white than gray in color. Hopefully it wouldn’t rain today.
“Do you really have to meet him?” she asked, as we began walking towards the Military HQ.
“Yes.”
“We can postpone the trial.”
“No. I want to be done with it as soon as possible,” I said, absentmindedly fidgeting with the steel balls in my pocket.
In the headquarters, a guard opened the gate to the jail for me, which was built into the castle. The smell of waste and unwashed bodies hit me like a wall.
“A terrible day to have enhanced senses,” I thought, as I turned them down.
“Have you not maintained hygiene here?” I asked the guard.
He stammered, looking down.
I sighed, then turned around to face the military’s thin third-in-command.
“Why does the jail smell so bad?”
“Must be the chamber pots,” Rafiel replied in his usual monotone. “I’ll have them emptied.”
“And personal hygiene?”
He blinked, uncomprehending.
“Do you provide the prisoners with a bath?”
“Baths? For criminals?”
“Rafiel, disease doesn’t care who is virtuous and who is not. You’re creating a petri—a perfect environment for it to grow in there. If it sprouts, it’ll spread to anyone who gets close. Give a bucket of hot water and some soap to each of them. I want them at their best when they face justice.”
“It’ll be done,” he said, nodding stiffly.
Bracing for the stench, I walked back inside.
A long corridor stretched ahead, its left side the palisade made of thick tree trunks, painted white with lime. Sunlight spilled from the gaps onto the dark cells that lined the opposite side.
“Messiah! Please spare my grandson!” Meyer shouted from the first one.
I walked away before his extended hand could grab me.
While his wailing echoed in the corridor, eyes set in dirty, sunken faces looked at me through cast iron bars of other cells. Some fearful, some glaring in hate.
The guard led me forward.
“What’s with the stool?” I asked him, pointing to the short stool he was carrying.
“For sittin’, milord. The General wanted me to draw somethin’. Didn’t tell me wha’.”
“You’re an artist?”
His face reddened. “I’ve been told I ‘ave a deft hand.”
Someone spat at my feet.
Ignoring them, we walked up to the last cell.
There, the old, withered man lay slumped on the black stone floor. No, it was a thick layer of grime that covered the entire floor. His clothes were heavily stained, while his once silver beard was almost black, matted with dirt and bits of food, unkempt and overgrown. His skin hung loosely off his body like dried prune.
“Hyde,” I called to him.
He didn’t move.
“Hyde!”
Listless blue eyes slowly opened to look at me.
As our eyes met, his hackles raised.
“Are you here to mock me, Messiah?”
“I’m here to do you a favor.”
He scoffed. “Going to kill me yourself?”
“No. Tell me about your granddaughters.”
His eyes narrowed, in hate, and hidden underneath, something more vulnerable. “Why would I do that?” he spat.
“I will try to find them. If I do, I’ll rescue them.”
His face twisted in defiance.
“I don’t need your pity, Nahnoan.”
“It’s a last favor I’m doing for you, who led the Cha to freedom.”
“And why did we have to flee in the first place? Because of you bloody Nahnoans!” He thrust an accusatory finger at me.
“Me? The one who guided your people through Nobhart?”
“And gained power over us all in exchange!” he roared.
“By your own Council’s consent, not force. Now, if you are done with your tantrum, let’s finish our discussion. Once I’m the Prince Consort of Nahnon,” I said, forcing myself to remain calm, “I will have enough influence to start a kingdom-wide search. I have already asked the Queen to find the Cha who remain there and have them moved to Chadom.”
He gulped as his breathing became ragged. Wild eyes looked back at me.
“Lies,” he hissed.
“I gain nothing from lying to your sorry ass.”
“Yes you do! You think I can’t see it? If I break; if I declare you our true Messiah, it will destroy the spirit of those who have followed me. You would be free to fill our haven with more Nahnoan filth!”
“I don’t need your support anymore, nor have I ever claimed to be a Messiah.”
“You claimed you met God!”
“Maybe he wasn’t. Even if he was, that’s not why I’m here. So, are you going to let this one chance go?”
He paused to catch his breath, then looked back at me. Bloodshot eyes searched my face with desperation, before hardening.
“I don’t need your words. They’re gone.”
“You don’t know that. Not for sure.”
“You think I didn’t search for them? Spent every coin I earned on it?”
“You were just one man. With the resources I will have at my disposal after my marriage, even my half-hearted attempts would be far more effective than any commoner’s lifelong efforts.”
His face twisted in a sneer. “Why do you care?”
“It’s called being a good person.”
The soldier beside me sniggered. A glare from me shut him up.
“Call it justice, mercy or whatever you want,” I continued. “It will be the last thing I do for you, as a favor for your people saving my life. They could have left me to die after the battle in Nobhart, but they didn’t.”
“No.”
I began to turn. “You sure?”
“They’re gone.”
I reluctantly turned to face him again. “I won’t offer again.”
He refused to meet my eyes.
“I don’t guarantee anything,” I said, “nor will the search be my highest priority. Not when the future of entire realms is in danger, but I promise you, I will try.”
He remained mute.
Sighing, I turned and began walking towards the only exit.
“Wait!” he shouted.
I reluctantly turned back.
Hands tightly holding onto the bars, his wild eyes searched mine.
“You… you’re not lying?” he asked, barely above a whisper.
“No.”
His face crumpled. “Avina and Alina…” he croaked. “They were all that were left of my Hersh, and he—he took them!”
He broke into sobs.
We waited for him to calm down.
Once he had, he gave me their description, while the soldier who had led me inside sketched on a piece of parchment.
Soon, he had finished it.
I took it from him.
Two rather fetching young women, with delicate noses and well-defined eyebrows, just like their grandfather. Definitely twins.
“If this is a trick to soften me,” Hyde hissed, “I promise you, I’ll curse you from the beyond.”
I didn’t reply. Instead, I turned the charcoal sketch towards him.
“They look like this?”
“Yes!”
His arm reached out to take it, but I pulled it away.
Carefully rolling the parchment, I tucked it in my pocket. “Good. See you at the trial.”
“Let me see them!”
“No. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what your men almost did.” My voice came out as a hiss.
“I didn’t want to hurt Lothar or Aprilia! If they had cooperated, nothing would have happened to them!”
“Yes, your decrepit ass could have definitely stopped young men from doing what they wanted to.”
A desperate cry tore out of him.
“Please!”
I paused and looked at the pleading eyes.
All defiance had gone out of them. He was just a tired, broken old man, hanging on to a thin thread of hope.
Sighing, I gave the sketch to the soldier. “Make a copy and give it to him.”
With that, I turned around and walked out.
Three hours later, I stood on top of the bastion that was my home, looking at the interior of the valley, fidgeting with the steel ball that had almost killed me. The insulae on this side were just skeletons, their construction postponed to prioritize the insulae for the immigrants at the Bay, the castle and the not so distant fencing for the pasture that held the dozens of sheep, cattle and horses I had brought.
I understood the fear that drove Hyde’s supporters. The same group of people who had driven them out of their homes had now arrived on their shores. I would have tried to explain to them that the individual was not the group, nor would I let anyone who had driven them out of Nahnon stay in Chadom, but the men had gone far beyond the point of no return.
They couldn’t be let off with just some words. Not anymore. Justice had to be done.
A column of men emerged from the forest on eastern side of the valley, escorted by soldiers.
They were here.
“Sire,” a deep voice spoke.
I turned to the side to see Lothar standing at attention.
“General?”
“Everyone is here.”
“The Bay?”
“The immigrants couldn’t believe we were really giving the insulae to them, until we let them move into them. They were a lot more cooperative when I left.”
“Good.”
I walked inwards to look at the massive courtyard.
Hundreds of people had already arrived, with more filing in.
A hundred young men stood separate from them, wearing clothes dyed army green.
Next to them, a gallows had been set up.
“Hyde?” Lothar asked.
“I talked to him.”
He exhaled in relief.
“Not going to tell me why you asked me to talk to him?”
“I can’t search for his granddaughters. Only you can.”
I doubted that was the sole reason behind his request, but let it go for the moment.
As Aprilia arrived, along with the three Elders, soldiers marched out of the Military HQ, escorting eight men and a woman between them.
Time to establish rule-of-law.
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