Välikirja: The Wyvern's Pact

Chapter Twenty-One - Death Sentence

I just wanna dedicate this chapter to one of the best teen writers I know, one of my closest friends. She's just so amazing and fun. :)

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Chapter Twenty-One - Death Sentence

          The red-headed magister struck another lightning bolt to let me see the chains that bound Master Cato in place. The two chains were laid out in a slanting fashion, which, together, made an 'X' symbol in front of him, one end of each chain connected to his wrists. Both of his arms were stretched upwards, one pointing northeast, the other northwest. His head hung like a puppet without a puppeteer. He seemed lifeless, as if he could no longer survive the pain the magisters had made him endure.

          The noise made him stir. He blinked a few times and stared at us intently. "K-Koshka? Wh-What are you...doing here?"

          I gripped on the cell bars and shook my arms. "Why are they doing this to you?" I whisper-yelled. "Why didn't you fight back? Where's Sumner?"

          A blood-smeared smile formed across his face. "Ask that woman standing beside you. She can tell you why." Then he coughed blood and grunted in pain as the chains kept him from moving.

          "Why?" I asked Magister Xamira without looking at her.

          "Master Cato had always been the black sheep among the elites. He believed that goodness was not a weakness, but a strength, a power only a few could wield," she began, "but the others thought otherwise. Some, like Magister Radella and I, shared the same thought, but we didn't express that in front of everyone. We knew that would us in danger. When Safia was about to be executed months ago, he stood up for her and proclaimed his revolutionary thoughts that, in a way, earned him his death sentence."

          Master Cato said nothing as the magister beside me told what happened when I was gone. I took that as proof that what she spoke was the truth.

          "Safia was about to be burned to death, a bag covering her head to keep her from breathing properly. It was all Magister Elfreda's plan, and she let the students throw stones at her, even if it killed her. But here came Master Cato who shielded her from the stones and removed the bag over her head. The head magister reprimanded him for doing so, and told him, 'You never change, Cato. You've always been the weak one. This was why you never became as strong as I was.' But Master Cato didn't allow her to belittle him that easily. He answered that he chose to use his gift 'for justice.' Those were his own words."

          She stopped talking, like the whole memory was being played out in her mind at the moment, and everything seemed so real that she couldn't distinguish which was currently and which was only a memory now.

          "And what happened next?"

          She was shaken out of her reverie and continued, "Magister Elfreda proclaimed to everyone the curse, everything about your kind. She said that you posed a threat to the castle, and that you had to be gotten rid of before Aethelgard crumbles. It was revealed that the head magister knew all about you, all about you and your mates. That dragon was her mate. She purposefully let Safia kill him, and she enjoyed her agony. Then, after a long while of arguing, the man who would execute Safia was presented."

          "Who was it?" I asked.

          Thunder rumbled from outside. "Sumner."

          My mouth opened in a gasp, I slowly turned my head to look at Master Cato, the man who treated Sumner as his own son. "Why? How did he turn into that? What happened?"