“Presented before you are the unworthy vermin of Red Valley,” the lord of the castle commences his address. “Standing accused of burglary, thievery, and murder, the fate of the sullied few rests in our hands. Hitherto, my leniency hath fostered treacherous depravity. For as thou knoweth, forsaken law left unrequited shall breed a brigand and enemy to Voracia!”
“No!”
I could hear the criminals. Specifically, the one who pleaded in a final effort for salvation. But one does not plead before the deaf, I would say.
“I only killed the cutthroat after he stole into my home. My daughter hardly speaks for his contemptible act!”
I see a little thing running past the guards. “Papa!” she screams as she makes for what I presume to be her father’s arms. That is a helpless act.
“Marian!” he cries.
“Take her!” milord commands before turning, presumably, to the despairing father in the gallows. Before those forlorn men, he stands as a husk of metal and crimson, eyes both lifeless and deriding. “A child as unruly as her father, one foreseeable problem on top of another.”
I could see a woman approach milord, kneeling before him, pleading, “Please! I beg you to spare my husband. It was our hunger spurring his fool actions, milord. Almost all of our water is gone, and we are without food!” I can assume she alludes to a different soul in the gallows. Another criminal whose execution lay inevitable.
“Then thou art the madness behind his crime!” milord decries, turning her words like a reflex.
‘NO! Desperate is all we are! Mercy our only plea!”
“Please!” Now another man has boldly stepped forward. A terribly severe boldness. “My brother, there, he has his family! Take my own life and spare his!”
What is this willingness to die? Why would he sacrifice himself for another? Is he a madman? Milord appears settled in his contemplation. Unusual of him. Such pauses are but feigned consideration for the meek, as I have come to learn.
“I have a thought!” milord declares. “Dane…”
‘Tis as if he senses my approach. “Yes?” I answer, suspecting his needs.
“Deal with these!”
‘Twas a simple command. Therefore, I stepped before the prostrating man and woman, and they flinched at my approach--the woman utterly frightened and uncertain, the man lightly stepping back with tight fist and eyes aghast. It is because of their fear and hesitation that I can catch them in their flight. Their backs turned, spines exposed, I strike bare-handed and deliberately.
As they are no longer conscious, I drag their beaten bodies before the gallows, underneath milord’s imperious gaze. “There is no protest in the breath of men that may sway milord.”
“Hour of reckoning!”
Tears, I see them stream down faces as his words mar the ears of mob and accused.
“Let the worms who deem themselves above the law take heed this day! To the parasites, brigands, heathens, and apostates who desecrate this Dukedom and beyond! Thieves! Vagrants! Share this fate, for an affront against my house is an affront unto country; an affront unto the land is an affront against us. ”
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