The Blade Witch

Chapter Sixteen - Penance

The main square was thick with
onlookers. It seemed as if every guard in
the city was present, barking at the crowd.
doing their best to contain the chaos that
was threatening to spill over. Overlooking
the scene was the prison that served as the
base for the city guard, none of its features
had changed since Estra's return to the
city, but somehow it stood darker and
more foreboding. In front of was a crudely
constructed platform whose most
prominent feature was a row of
guillotines, each bearing a hungry blade,
sharpened at an angle with a comfortable
spot for a head to rest beneath.

"The guard captain." Brennan wheezed
behind her, still slow to recover from his
rapid dash to collect her from the brothel.
"He's out of control is what. Has some
kind of list. Sent out his guards to cöllect
the names at high-noon. Lency was one of
them. I tried to stop them but..." He
stroked a finger across the cut on his head,
bringing forth a fresh trickle of blood.

The throng was thick, guards were trying
to corral the common folk into sections to
negligible effect. Foodstuffs were being
thrown and moving closer to the platform
was looking like more and more of an
impossibility. Estra threw a man to the
pave stones hard enough to leave his nose
bloodied. He rose to his feet, fists ready to
strike before he caught sight of Estra's
face and made the wise decision to back
away.

"Fuck is the problem over here?" A
guardswoman strode forth with sunlight shining off her metal breastplate and an
iron mace swinging at her side.
"Won't be
having any trouble, less you want to-" her
words stopped short as Estra closed the
gap between them, her blade springing
from its sheath before the woman's hand
could make it half-way to her own
weapon.

The Blade Witch grabbed the woman by
her collar, pulling her in close enough for
spittle to fly in her face. "Where the fuck
is my friend," Estra barked. "Little thing,
black hair, tell me."

The woman tried to free herself to no
avail, her eyes searching around wildly for
backup that she wouldn't find in the midst
of such a large crowd. In the end, Estra's
question was answered with a chorus of
noise erupting around the guillotine
platform.

A man walked up thessteps, each footfall echoing with a wooden creak that
somehow managed to overpower the
discontent of the onlookers. Guards stood
upon the weathered battlements of the
prison, crossbows trained and eyes
scanning for any movement made against
their leader. In the man's hand was a chain
that led a parade of a half-dozen prisoners.

The prisoner at the head of the procession
was the spectacle that quieted the crowd.
He was a hunchbacked towering figure,
even larger than the freakish giant on
display at the nightly circus. He had a
strange distortion to his physique that was
plain even through his thick clothes and
the leather bag thrown over his head with
only a single eye hole crudely cut into it.

It occurred to Estra that she'd only seen a
person so mountainous one before,
though she struggled to place exactly
where. Before she could chase down the
memory the sight of eye prisoner at the back of the procession caught Estra's
attention. Among the other bedraggled
looking individuals, Lency walked with
her head down, matted hair covering her
face, unattended cuts and bruises lining
her thin frame, along with other obvious
signs of torture.

The sight stole the wind from Estra's lungs
and replaced the burning heat in her body
with a chilling quiet. The guard captain
began his speech as Estra threw the guard
to the side, making her way roughly
towards the platform as all the prisoners,
save for the giant man, were forced down
to their knees in front of their respective
guillotines.

"The time has come for change, " the guard
captain's voice that cut through the noise
like an axe through water. The hum
around him died down as everyone ears
strained to hear his speech. "Too long has
the corruption writhing beneath this city been allowed to go unchecked. You all
know of what I speak. We have all
allowed the Defiler to dig her claws into
this once great land and sour the hearts of
a people who were once righteous and
free." His weathered eyes scanned the crowd warily, pausing on Estra for just a
moment, "I have done the best I could to
persevere, Those under my command have
worked their hardest to maintain order and
fight back with civility, but the time has
come for harsher action. Today is the day
that things change. Today is the day that
those responsible will begin to face due
justice."

A few shouts of agreement rose from the
crowd, but more shouts of discontent
gathered to flood them away.

The guard captain raised his free hand to
bring some semblance of order back to the
scene. "I will not lie to you all. The road to
redemption will be a harsh one. There will
be much bloodshed in, these streets; more
than I've ever wanted to see, but it must be
done." He looked over his shoulder at the five prisoners kneeling behind him, each
with an executioner at their side with a
hand resting on a lever. "The people you
see before you are each key members of
the Defiler's regime. They will be where
the redemption begins."

He turned to face the crowd once more,
raising a hand to the giant at his side as if
he were presenting a trophy. "But I am a
fair man. I would never certify an
execution without presenting proper
evidence. The man you see before you has
come to me for atonement. Once he served
the Defiler, and now he wished to wash
his hands clean of his sins."

Estra paused for a moment, a sudden
realization washing over her, sucking the
strength from her bones as a sharp pain
jabbed through her abdomen.

"Please sir," the guard captain said,
nodding to the giant. "State for us the
crimes of each person here, including your
own if you will."

The sack on the giant's head shifted as he
turned to face the prisoners. The throng
grew quiet enough that the jangling of the
massive manacles restraining his wrists
could be heard, chiming out a sort of death
knoll as he spoke in a gravelly voice like a
slobbering hound mad with rabies.

"Jansen, he once traveled with Helena and
me for some time. He was with us when
we burned down the convent one the
cliffs. Haven't seen him since that night."

The guard captain faced the crowd,
waiting for any protests that might come
before he nodded to the executioner at the prisoner's side. The woman moved
dutifully, jerking back the lever that ended
the prisoner's life in a brilliant flash of silver.

As the man's head thudded into the basket
waiting to collect it, the giant moved in
front of a pretty woman whose neck was
lined with more pearls than even the
richest of Wulfdonria's society could claim
to own. "This woman is a thief. Nothing
more and nothing less. The things that
Helena needs, but can't obtain herself, this
woman finds a way to obtain for her."
Another twang cried out as the second
guillotine cut through the woman's neck,
sending a rainfall of priceless pearls
rolling across the platform.  A few of the more uncouth crowd members rushed forward to collect them but found
themselves warded away by the collection
of guards surrounding the platform.

Next in line was a portly man with a balding head. "Martane Daltara, the
elected mayor of Wulfdonria and Helena's
closest ally. He onlyserved her out of fear for his life and his family, but still, he
served," the mayor opened his mouth,
trying to make a whimpering plea that was
cut off by a swift kick to the face from a
guard who left his chin bloodied. This
man's executioner didn't even wait for a
signal from the guard captain before
ending the mayor's life,

"This man here," the giant said, raising a
finger at an elderly man devoid of both
eyes and seemingly all will to live. "Is
Helena's advisor. He's the one who
brought Helena back to this damned city.
Told her if she wanted to be free from of
her torment she had to face the demons of
her past. Had to peer into the-"

"That's enough," the captain barked at the
man, cutting off his statement. The old
man rested his head readily as if he were
lying down after a hard day's work. The
slanted steel the fell on him seemed to
pass thrgugh with ugh more ease than in had for the others.

"On to the next one," the guard captain
ordered.

The giant stared down the blind man's
disembodied head for a while longer
before he approached Lency. The strength
returned to Estra's limbs once more as she
shook herself from the shock that had
overtaken her body. Any sense of tact
she'd had about the situation was long
gone as she found herself throwing men
and women to the ground. As she neared
the platform, her disruption brought the
attention of the guards. They surrounded
her, clubs at the ready.