Chapter 22 #2
“This stupid little boy is lying to you, Your Majesty!” Jonah’s mother yelled, still restrained on the ground.
“Let her up. Let’s hear what she has to say.” King Julian motioned for his guardians to assist the angry fae woman up, giving her some sense of dignity as she tried to fight an unwinnable battle.
“My son has been mercilessly bullied by this deceitful little prick and his friends for years.” The fae woman’s face reddened as she threw an accusatory finger at Zane.
“Despite everything Jonah and I have done, nothing remedied the situation. My son was pushed to his limit and uttered an incredibly foolish but toothless threat. He has never possessed the ability to wield dark arcana. He was tested at birth by your very own arcana master. He’s a sweet boy whose proficiency is in earth arcana—he loves animals and helping others.
This is an egregious error. You cannot punish him based on the lies of a spoiled brat who is incapable of speaking the truth and whose family is devoid of any honour.
They supported the Obsidian Court during the rebellion, and yet they’re allowed to remain here and sully our court with their presence.
Our family stood steadfast behind you, and that should hold far more weight than any statement given by any member of that family.
Anything they have to say should be disregarded as worthless trash.
I beg you, Your Majesty, please let him go.
Jonah deserves punishment for what he did, and I will follow through on that myself.
But he does not deserve death.” The sobbing fae woman fell to her knees, her hands clasped together in front of her chest. She stared up at the king expectantly, hope that her emotional appeal for leniency had hit its mark written all across her face.
The king lowered his chin, eyes fixed on the fae woman. My heart ached for him to show forgiveness and for this mother fighting for her son’s life.
“He’s going to let the boy go, right?” I whispered to Everett. “He’s not going to kill him just because of what the other one said, is he?”
Before Everett had a moment to respond, King Julian loudly cleared his throat.
“Aurelia, do you have something you would like to add?” His voice boomed across the silent courtyard.
Shuffling feet and craning necks were the only other sounds, as all the fae present strained to get a glimpse of the human woman the king had just addressed during a very serious matter.
I broke into a full-body sweat as I felt the eyes of everyone home in on me. “No, Your Majesty,” I replied. My face reddened under the intensity of the king’s stare.
“I insist. As you are Prince Sterling’s guest, it would be rude if I didn’t get your human opinion on fae matters,” he said as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.
I glanced over to Sterling, who had barely moved a muscle the entire time we had been standing in the courtyard. His gaze slowly fell to mine as a cold look of indifference settled over him.
“We don’t have all day. Spit it out already,” Sterling finally said.
If he intended to upset me, he had succeeded in his task.
Frustrated and annoyed, I looked at the fae woman, who was still on her knees, and took a deep breath.
“I don’t think it’s right that this boy should lose his life just because of what this one said.
” I pointed in the direction of Zane, who looked at me with an unsettling amount of contempt.
“If you’re going to sentence someone so severely, there should be solid proof, not hearsay. ”
King Julian looked at me curiously, scratching his beard as he contemplated his next words. “So you think Zane is lying?”
The boy and his family now stared at me with murderous intent. I held up my hands in defence. “I didn’t say he was lying. I don’t think his word alone should be enough to sentence someone to death.”
Zane’s father glared at me and then turned to the king. “Why are we having to listen to this human-woman tell us how to manage our affairs? My son has told you what happened. Now, punish the boy!”
King Julian’s calm indifference turned to icy rage as he looked at Zane’s father. “You presume to tell your king what to do?”
Immediately Zane’s father backed down. “No, Your Majesty. I apologize. I—”
The king flicked his hand to Zane and shouted an order to the nearest guardian.
“Grab the boy. We will find out now who is telling the truth. We can’t have any innocent blood on our hands, can we?
” The king’s eyes bored into mine, confirming that the last part of his statement was directed toward me.
Everett placed a hand behind my back and leaned in to whisper, “We should step back a bit.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine here.”
The guardians grabbed Zane and hauled him up the platform steps, away from his family.
The boy screamed and cried, begging his father to do something.
The boy’s father hung his head in shame as the guardians carried his son away, helpless to stop whatever was coming next.
King Julian whispered something into the ear of one of the guardians on the platform, and shortly afterward, the guardian took off in the direction of the palace.
Zane had cold iron chains wrapped around his wrists and arms, his arcana now unavailable to him.
The tighter the gloved guardian pulled on the chains, the more noticeable the sound of searing flesh became.
My years as a healer had afforded me many things, and today I was most thankful for my ability to tolerate painful sights, sounds, and smells.
Zane fell hard, face-first, onto the platform. His arms were pinned beneath his body as he writhed in agony.
“Get up and act like a fae,” King Julian spat at him, while a nearby guardian kicked the boy in the gut.
Zane’s mother started sobbing loudly, while his father did his best to temper his emotions while comforting his wife.
Thalos appeared, exiting the palace with a malevolent smile on his face and a small silver container in his hand.
King Julian took the silver flask from Thalos.
He approached Zane, grabbed him by the face, and emptied the contents of the flask into his mouth.
A shocked gasp escaped members of the crowd.
“What just happened?” I asked Everett.
“King Julian just gave the boy veritas elixir. Fae, like humans, are quite adept at lying, so we use it to force honesty out of someone. The boy will not be able to lie when answering King Julian’s next questions.”
I nodded. “What happens if both boys are telling the truth?”
Everett looked at me like I had a second head on my shoulders. “Someone is dying today, Aurelia. It all depends on who King Julian thinks is the guiltiest.”
A large lump formed in my throat as the enormity of the situation finally settled on me. A child was going to die today, regardless. None of this was correct. I shook my head in disgust. “I wish to leave. I do not want to be part of this disgusting display.”
A pained look came over Everett’s face. “We must stay. Or we will both be up there next.”
I crossed my arms and looked away from the guardian. Sensing a set of eyes on me, I looked around to see Sterling staring daggers across the platform at me. I quickly dropped my gaze to the ground, unable to maintain eye contact.
“Now that the veritas elixir has had time to work, I am going to ask you only one question, Zane. Please answer it truthfully.” The king chuckled heartily at his own joke, while members of the court laughed along.
Both Zane’s parents and Jonah’s mother stood silent. Their anger and grief were clearly etched across their faces. Zane whimpered, the pain from the cold iron chains preventing the boy from formulating a response.
“Who visited the human quarter to seek out a dark arcana mage to provide them with a curse to use on one of your classmates?”
The court collectively held its breath as Zane struggled to respond.
It appeared as though the boy was fighting his own body.
His mouth was trying to move, but he was wriggling around to prevent the truth from leaving his lips.
Looking like a bubble that was about to pop, the boy’s mouth exploded open as he loudly exclaimed, “It was me!”
Just as quickly as the words left the boy’s mouth, the scene around us turned into chaos.
Zane’s mother began shrieking, while his father was cursing at the king.
The crowd erupted into cheers. A guardian let Jonah free from his restraints, while Jonah’s mother rushed onto the platform and hurriedly escorted her son away.
Everett brought out a handkerchief from somewhere in his armour and began wiping my face.
“What?” I started and looked down to see red droplets all over my clothes.
I wiped a hand on my face to find blood smears on it.
I looked up immediately in front of me and saw Zane crumpled on the platform in an unmoving heap, while Thalos was standing proudly over him with a raised bloody fist that held the boy’s once beating heart.
I felt the stinging sensation of bile at the back of my throat shortly before I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the courtyard.
A large hand rubbed my back in circular motions, while another handed me a handkerchief.
Wiping my mouth with the cloth, I looked up and nodded in thanks to the guardian.
“We should go,” Everett stated tersely.
I stared at the ground, unable to form thoughts. “Yeah. Sure,” I muttered, my feet shuffling along the vomit-covered courtyard.
As Everett and I were leaving the courtyard, I weakly managed a look back to see the guardians rounding up Zane’s family, presumably to suffer a similar fate to their son’s.