Eden

45

The speech-making man looks around, and says again, "All saw this deed occur?"

And the crowd shouts yes again. They all seem quite cheerful about that, unsettlingly so, and also quite pleased with themselves, like everything about this is already decided.

I wonder if it is. I wonder if the crowd's agreement is maybe all the evidence they need. I'm not sure I want to be somewhere with such casual justice, but to my relief it seems not. Not, because after those shouts, the speech-making man begins asking questions. Or at least, he points to a few people, apparently chosen at random. He points, and says, "Did you see this deed yourself," and each person, one after another says that yes they did.

After the speech-making man has pointed at four people, and been told yes each saw the murder occur, he stops doing that, and seems satisfied with what he's heard. "Then this accusation is true," he says, and sounds terribly formal. "Four have spoken. This one has murdered another, one of our clan. It is decided and is true."

And that seems to be that, to my surprise. So it's a trial, with a cross-examination, but a perfunctory one. Which now is already over.

"Very well," the speech-making man says to the crowd. "We agree this is a thing she has done. What then is her fate?"

The crowd start shouting, as if each wants a different thing, and the loudest will get their way. And I almost wonder if that's true, they're so loud about it. They shout, and it seems like there are many different choices, and some of them are pretty grotesque. They want to drown her, and burn her, and hang her, and cut her open, and I don't want to think about what exactly they mean by some of those.

I stand and listen, scared, suddenly upset by being here, by where I've ended up. Beside me, Lexi seems to feel the same way. She is suddenly standing very close to me, pressing her arm against mine, watching silently. It's unsettling, what we're hearing, but after a moment I decide we're not in any danger ourselves. The anger is focussed, directed at the tied-up woman. The water-seller, at least, doesn't seem to be worried. She just keeps on working, taking coins and handing people the cup to drink from, which I assume means we're safe enough just standing here, quietly watching.

All the same, it's a little strange being part of that violent, vengeful mob.