The Blade Witch: Songs of Eldrin, Book 0.5

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.

"What's going on Brennan?" Estra asked closing in on the back of the crowd.

"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 collect 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 the steps, 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 once before, though she struggled to place exactly where. Before she could chase down the memory, the sight of the 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 only served 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 through with much more ease than it 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.