Chapter Thirty-Six
Olympia
Five days.
That was how long I’d been held here and how long Milo and Pax had informed me I would be until the Tribunal could be called and a trial arranged.
My prison wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and certainly not as bad as I knew Cosmo could make it.
A well-furnished room complete with full bed, attached bathroom, and empty closet, dressers, and vanity table served as my cell.
It was comfortable, though drenched in a sickening emerald.
They’d taken out all the clothes and cosmetics and removed any wall fixtures or mirrors I could disassemble or break to create a weapon.
They’d been thorough. I imagined I had Myrine to thank for that.
She was the only member of the family who ever came to my room.
I knew some of Dante’s cousins must stand watch beyond the door but they never dared to enter or see to any of my needs.
That task was reserved for Myrine alone and she completed them with an averted gaze and a grimace.
Her attitude, more than any other condition of my imprisonment, grated on me until I could no longer take it.
On the morning of the fifth day, when she appeared with my breakfast in hand, I broke my silence.
“Did you know he beat him?” I asked.
Myrine stilled. Every muscle in her body went rigid as she fought to maintain her focus on the tray balancing in her right hand.
Without removing her gaze from the buttered croissant and assortment of fresh fruit, she moved again to set the tray on the corner of the vanity which had been serving as my dinner table.
Then she simply turned and strode back toward the door in an obvious bid to make an exit without answering me. I wasn’t having it.
“If you didn’t know, you’re a fool,” I spat at her retreating back. “And if you did, you’re a monster. Even more than I am.”
She froze again in the threshold. I watched the only movement that came from her direction, a slight rising and falling of her torso as she breathed in and out.
“I thought you loved him,” I snapped and then, softer. “I thought you loved me.”
That got her moving again. She stepped through the door and slammed it shut behind her, so sharply the furniture rattled against the empty walls.
My lip quivered so I bit it, hard. That was stupid.
Of course she’d never loved me. She wasn’t my mother.
She was his and she’d still allowed Cosmo to abuse him.
If that was how she felt about her own son, how could she have ever loved me?
How could she ever love anyone? Maybe a Viper simply couldn’t feel love.
I left the breakfast where it sat on the edge of the table.
I didn’t have the stomach to eat now, not after that interaction, and I hadn’t truly been convinced I’d be able to eat before either.
My trial was today. It had been five days, as Milo had said.
Unless they’d made a last minute change I was yet unaware of, I’d be marched down to the Deck to face the Tribunal soon enough.
Cosmo was claiming I’d committed a cold blooded murder and only later said it was in self-defense to justify my actions.
If I was found guilty, I’d be executed. It was the only sentence for murder in Sanctuary.
So excuse a girl if she didn’t much feel like a croissant.
How are you holding up? Luca’s voice entered my mind for the first time since my capture.
I frowned and crossed my arms as I paced to the opposite side of the room.
Nice of you to ask, I grumbled, more than a little upset that the only one capable of reaching out to me besides Milo and Pax and their supervised visits had waited this long to ask if I was okay.
I didn’t know, Olympia. My grandfather just now told me about the trial. He said he didn’t want me to overreact.
I snorted and shook my head as I ran my fingers over the smooth silk of the emerald sheets on the bed.
Of course, I replied. That’s just like Raghnall to withhold any information that isn’t directly of use to him.
You didn’t answer me, Luca reminded me firmly. How are you?
I’m a prisoner, Luca. I’m as well as can be expected. Cosmo wanted me dead.
Cosmo isn’t the only one in charge of making that determination.
When was the last time the Viper didn’t get what he wanted?
The silence in response was uncomfortable. It felt like an acknowledgement of the truth of the statement, a truth I wasn’t actually ready to come to terms with, no matter how ready I was to say it aloud.
I’ll be there today, he promised instead, to support you and to remind my grandfather what the right choice is.
I killed him, Luca, but only because he tried to kill me first.
He hadn’t asked. It was an unspoken policy between us that we never inquired about guilt, merely supported each other no matter what.
Luca had stood by my side through more monstrosities than I could count and I’d always backed him on the rare occasions he’d gone toe to toe with his own Patriarch.
But this was different and it was important to me that he knew the truth; that I never would have killed Bade if I didn’t have to.
I know, Olympia, he said with a sigh a moment later.
I didn’t want to do it, I vowed. I would never attack him like that, Viper or not, knowing what he meant to you, knowing what–
I know, but I’m not ready to talk about him with you. Not yet.
I nodded, though the grotesque thought fleeted through my mind that he might not get another chance.
Have you talked to Milo? I asked. Only Pax came yesterday so I thought—
My conversation with Luca was interrupted by the door opening abruptly once more. I expected Myrine, come to take away my uneaten breakfast and leave me alone again but, instead, I was face to face with two scowling Guardians.
Olympia? Luca asked, concern underlying his tone.
They’re here, I told him as the two officers stepped forward and grabbed my arms roughly.
Good luck. I’ll be there.
I blinked and banished my former partner from my mind.
I devoted every ounce of my energy to memorizing the way they yanked me through the door and down the hall, the way they nearly wrenched my arms out of socket when they pulled me out of House Viper and pushed me forward into a waiting crowd.
I stumbled forward, catching myself and raising my chin as I glared at the other Guardians who’d come to bring me to my trial.
A dozen, in all. I couldn’t help the way my lips curled into a wicked grin at the idea of how many of them they felt it might take to subdue me should I decide to run.
Then I was being manhandled again, practically dragged through the empty First Ring and down the steps to the Second.
There were more people here, more eyes to watch in shock as the Guardians hauled a First Ring daughter to the Deck.
Even more people on the Third stared as I passed and then we were descending into the sea of curious spectators arranged around the crumbled arch of the twelfth tunnel.
The Guardians shoved and prodded me through the crowd until I stood before the Tribunal. Then they left my side, pushing the line back to give the Patriarchs and Matriarch of our society room to work. I raised my gaze to meet my grandmother’s who frowned back.
Trying not to imagine that as the ominous sign it likely was, I turned toward Raghnall and Cosmo who sat staring at me with expressions of indifference and fury.
I kept my chin raised high as I stood atop the little pedestal they’d erected for me.
Whispers and murmurs rushed through the crowd as the Guardians pressed them back but no one called for quiet.
Cosmo’s glare was burning a hole through me while Nascha and Raghnall looked on, waiting.
Once the spectators had calmed, Raghnall got to his feet and raised his arms. Silence fell.
“Olympia, daughter of Avus, you stand accused of murder,” he announced, grimly. “As the victim in question is a son of Viper, I will be presiding over this hearing. Are there any objections to this?”
“I object.”
The crowd fell to shocked whispers once again as they cleared away to reveal a priest in voluminous emerald robes. He was the oldest man I’d ever seen with only wisps of gray hair flying around his shriveled head and he shook like a leaf as he stepped forward to face the Tribunal.
“You have recently been tied to House Avus by the marriage of your granddaughter, and proclaimed Heir, to the Heir of Avus,” the old man croaked, head shaking as his neck swiveled in Milo’s direction.
My cousin was standing against the inner wall of the city, arms crossed and frowning. Rather than looking at the priest accusing our House of meddling in the fairness of this trial, he was watching me. When I caught his eye, he gave me a small nod, the only show of support he could manage.
“You dare question my integrity?” Raghnall boomed so loudly the elder sunk into himself as he pulled away back into the crowd.
“I did not marry the boy. Why should my judgment be clouded by the marriage of my granddaughter when I have another granddaughter who’s given birth to a Viper?
My allegiances are not on trial here, Priest. I’ll remind you to check what color robe you’re wearing the next time you seek to accuse me of bias. ”
The priest bowed deeply before cowering behind the line of Guardians once more. Raghnall’s enraged gaze swept the crowd again.
“Are there any other objections?” he snarled.
No one moved an inch.
“Good,” he barked. “Then perhaps we can be done with this justice before the gods return to order it themselves.”
Around me, members of every ring shifted uneasily on their feet.
Raghnall had always had a temper and, to be entirely honest, his motivations were difficult to guess.
One could be certain the patriarch of House Lynx would always act in his best interest but the question was how he viewed that interest and if it was in the same way others did.