Eden

46

The crowd shouts, and the speech-making man listens, and then says, "So it is agreed then. We set her free?"

I'm relieved for a moment, thinking I misheard what was being said earlier, but then the crowd shouts no, of course not, and I realize this is some kind of a formal question, a part of a ritual, where he makes silly suggestions and then people disagree.

And right now they're disagreeing quite strongly. They shout. They spit. They call out horrible things, about how they want her to die.

The speech-making man listens for a moment, then holds up his hand for silence. And the crowd goes quiet, listening carefully, and this is obviously part of the ritual, too.

"An agreement is needed, then," The speech-making man shouts. "What shall her sentence be? She is a murderer, so we may take her life, or put her in the river to forget, or she may go oath-bound to another, if someone will stand at her side and take her."

The crowd keeps shouting about executing her, and suggesting all sorts of horrible ways how. Someone has a rope, and is waving it around, and it's fairly clear they plan to tie it around her neck and throw her off the bridge. I mean, I suppose that's why the trial is happening here, so they can do that easily. Or put her in the river underneath us, if they decide on doing that. They shout, and argue, and some people want to use the rope, but others are being far crueller, and talking about cutting her open or burning her. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see any of it. I don't even know what some of it means, but I don't want to see it.

I really don't think I can do much except look away, though.

I look at the prisoner. She looks proud, not scared, which is brave of her, in the circumstances. She keeps glancing over the side of the bridge at the river, though, too, as if that worries her more than anything else. I think of what the water-seller told me about the river water, and can imagine why, but even so, it seems odd she's more bothered by the river than by the threat of her imminent death.

I think about that, as I watch her.