Dragon's Keep (30 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

_Witch
Trial

The
he cell was dark
but for a narrow stream of light from a high slit in
the stone wall. I crept to it fearing what might lurk in the shadows.

"Ali?"

No answer. Our dungeon had twelve cells and a
large torture chamber besides. I hoped Alissandra's cell was not far down the
hall. "Ali?"

What light I had showed me two dead things: a
crow and a
rat. Black feathers were neatly
arranged in a pattern of spreading
circles. Small to large, they rayed
outward like a sun. It seemed a woman's hand had done this. Beside the crow's
bones lay the half-eaten body of the rat. I wrapped my arms about my knees and
rocked, the foul smell and the chill making me long for the clean spill of my
waterfall on Dragon's
Keep
.

Late in the day the cell door opened.

I leaped to a stand.
"Sir.
Have you come to free me?" The old
man flung a bit of bread on the
floor and left, slamming the heavy
door
shut. Two rats from the dark corner raced for my meal.

"Stay back!"
I grabbed my bit of bread and ate standing, the
rats at my feet making do with their brother's carcass.

Black flies buzzed
about my head. I swatted, and
planned
what I would say at my witch trial. I must turn away the sharp words meant to
cut me from the throne, shield myself, and
somehow
reflect them back on the mage so they'd sever Magnus,

On the dawn of my fourth day the cell door
opened and the
guard came in with the
rushlight; I awoke to find the
rats
nibbling on my
hair. I was still screaming when the guard pulled me
from the cell and
bound my hands behind my back. In the Great
Hall
a crowd awaited. It seemed Sir Magnus, who sat above a
ll
dressed in blue velvet and wearing golden gloves,
had called forth
all of Dentsmore and Nesmith besides, for the hall was
full. The younger children clung to their mothers.

All were gathered as if for a great celebration
and the dogs roved about slobbering in anticipation of a feast. I was led to
the center of the room. Sitting on either side of Sir Magnus were
Sheriff William and Father Hugh. It gave my heart
a tug of hope.
Both men were sound and just.

To my right Jossie Brummer stood with Niles, wearing a hardened look. It was the same proud glance she'd given me at age twelve
when she'd found the hidden ring and bested me at the game of sweet apple
crowdie. My heart panged to see Niles had chosen her after his first love, Kit,
had been sent away. Near Jossie stood her father, Keith the miller, and his
plump wife, Kate. Near them was Marn's son, the dark-haired blacksmith.
Mother's band of lady's maids, including the nib-nosed Lady Beech, stood in
assembly. And idling about here or there as if

they
had not a bit of work to do
this day were the castle servants.
Nowhere
in the throng could I see Sister Anne. Her presence would have strengthened me,
but she must have left the castle long ago for the abbey.

Sir Magnus stood. The
crowd murmured excitedly. Yet in all
the
faces besmeared with dirt or clean, none had a smile for me but Cook. I gave
her round face a nod, but she took sudden interest in the rushes at her feet
and tidied up her skirts.

"We are bound today," began Sir
Magnus, "to try this Rosalind who disappeared a year ago to abide with
the beast on
Dragon's Keep. I've called all
present here to give witness to her
witch crimes, which are many, as all
shall see." He lifted his fin
ger in
the air. "But we are a civilized people and do not condemn
on
hearsay."

With this he nodded to the sheriff and
acknowledged Father Hugh. The good Father gazed back, his heavy brows
discontent. "Has this woman, Rosalind, done any crimes that she
be
here?" he asked.

"Well," said Sir Magnus with a
shake of the head, "many may be counted against her if all I hear is true.
I call Niles Broderick first to testify."

Niles
stepped from the crowd proudly wearing his knight's garb, his sunny hair combed
back. He was an arm's length away so I caught the smell of hay and horses, a
welcome scent.

Magnus eyed him encouragingly. "Tell us
what you know, Niles Broderick."

Niles
's
shoulders slumped. It may have been his chain mail vest, but I thought the
weight of what he had to say was heavy

on
him. "A year ago we sailed to Dragon's Keep to
rescue the princess."

"This I know well," said Magnus
proudly. "I equipped you at your knights fitting." He leaned forward.
"What happened there?"

"We found the princess. I brought her to
the ship, where we awaited Sir Kimball and the slayers' return," said Niles. "But all the while the lady here challenged me to launch the ship and escape
the island. I stood firm for waiting. But she didn't care about the others,
she—"

"I cared about them all!"

"The
accused
is
not
allowed
to
speak
until
all
witnesses
are
heard!" warned Sir Magnus. "That is the
law."

I clenched my teeth as he motioned for Niles to continue. Indeed it was the law, but I'd be hard pressed not to break it with all
this truth-twisting.

"Go on, sir," urged Magnus.

"The others did not come back." Niles paused and crossed himself, as did many in the throng.

"And then the dragon ..." He
frowned and looked askance at me.

"Fear nothing here," said Sir
Magnus.

"The dragon landed near us, cutting off
escape. I charged him but he captured me."

A moan from the crowd.

"As he held me
high in the air, I swung my sword to slice his
throat and shouted for the princess to attack him from below.

She had a knife, but she ..." He shook
his head. "She would not attack. Instead she . . . drew the blade against
her own throat."

I worked to slow my breathing as a series of
gasps and murmurs crossed the room.

"What threat would this be to the
dragon," said Sir Magnus,
"unless
the beast had a special feeling for the girl?" He said these
words
to the air as if they were his thoughts, yet all about heard him clearly.
"What then?" asked
Magnus.

"The dragon cracked my skull. I remember
nothing more until I awoke near the tomb in the arms of our good queen, God
rest her soul." Niles crossed himself again.

"Were any present there to witness this
knight's return from Dragon's Keep?" asked Sir Magnus.

"I was there," said Sir Allweyn.
The falconer emerged from the crowd, his long neck stooped forward. The
baldness had in
creased across his pate in
the time I'd been away. Three gray tufts
remained. These he'd combed
outward like a jester's cap, but there was no joy in his face
nor
in his dark ringed eyes.

"I saw the dragon throw Niles Broderick
on the turf by the tomb. Then the princess tossed her gloves at the queen and
cursed her mother before she flew off on the dragon's back."

More gasps.

"I did not curse her!"

"The accused will be silent or be
gagged!" warned Sir Magnus.

"Indeed," continued Sir Allweyn.
"I was not close enough to hear the curse, but the queen spoke of it
straightaway
. '
Cursed,'

she
cried when I led her to the castle. She was weeping
and all undone by her daughter."

"Hmm," said Sir Magnus. "This
tells us much. The girl tossed her gloves to the ground—and this before the
dragon when we all know a high-born woman does not remove her gloves to any but
her husband."

He shook his head. My blood fairly boiled. I
withheld a hiss.

Magnus went on. "I tended the queen
after that strange night.
How twisted her bowels were and how
morbid her liver."
He looked at the ceiling as if to consult the
chandelier. "Neither toadflax nor bloodletting nor Saint-John's-wort cured
her. Indeed, she muttered strangely to herself often in the months ahead, and
many times called out from her fevered sleep, 'The curse!'" He raised his
voice when he said the words to mimic Mother's tone. This pleased and stunned
the crowd, who always liked a show.

"I wondered what the queen meant,"
said Magnus. "Now I begin to see."

Waves of body heat
wafted from the close-knit crowd. I tried to swallow, my throat dry as stale
bread. "And you
poisoned her
with
poppy potion!"

"Gag her!" ordered Sir Magnus.

"Wait! I'll not speak again."

Too late.
The gag was across my mouth. Sir Magnus looked down
at me. "Who but a witch would curse her mother so," he said,
"and
choose
a dragon's company over her own
kin?"

I screamed into the gag. How the mage twisted
everything!

"It would kill me if my daughter chose a
dragon over me,"

said
Kate Brummer with a nod. And Jossie, who now stood
arm in arm with Niles, held her chin up proudly.

"You may step back, Sir Allweyn,"
said Sir Magnus.

"If I may," said Sir Allweyn with a
cough.

"What more have you to say?"

"
'Tis
a thing
I fear to speak." He turned his three-tufted head
to the crowd. "A strange sight I saw long ago
still troubles me."

A smile twitched the mage's lip.
"Speak," he offered.

"It concerns an old friend, once a
servant to the princess, who died unnaturally, and whose soul weighs on me.
Some here remember the princess's nursemaid, Marn?"

"Aye!
A kindly sort!" cried
Cook.

"My mother," called the blacksmith.

"I say this with some dread," he
went on. "I knew Marn well and never would she throw herself into the
moat."

"Aye!
That's God's truth!" The blacksmiths voice was deep
and fairly echoed in the hall.

Sir Allweyn sighed. "I was the man who
fished Marn from the water," he said. "And as I lay the lady by the
moat I saw the marks about her throat, too small for a man's hands to
make."

More stirrings from the
crowd behind.

Sir Magnus leaned forward. "What are you
saying, sir?"

"Marks, I say." Sir Allweyn pointed
to me, stretching out his forefinger the way I'd seen him do to coax a small
bird from the cage. "And seeing those marks, I remembered how many times
Marn ran to the muse when the princess was having one of her fits. The poor
woman lived in fear of her. So I wondered at the marks the morn I fished her
from the moat."

"I told ye!" shouted the
blacksmith, raising his fist in the air at Father Hugh. "I told
ye
she'd never killed herself. It was never in her!"

"Hush!"
warned Sir Magnus. "This trial shall be orderly." He
faced Sheriff William. "Why did you not see these
marks?"

The sheriff turned stiffly, sucking in his
belly. "I was still attending to the murder of the chandler's wife,
Tess."

Sir Magnus nodded knowingly.

"And the dragon attacked that same
morning!" called out a villager.

"After the Midsummer Fair!" called
another.

"Demetra died," added a third.

Magnus didn't silence them this time.
"Well," he said at last, giving a sober look about the room. "If
murder is suspected here, we should dig up the nursemaid and look into the
matter."

"There'll be no flesh left on those
bones by now," said the sheriff. He exhaled and his belly rounded for a
moment before his next breath. I closed my eyes. The thought of my dear Marn
all gone to bones brought vomit up my throat. I worked to swallow it,
recalling my lady training. Ah, if Marn were at this trial, she'd defend me.
And
if
I felt faint she'd tell me to lean on her,
though she'd whisper, "Thimbles, how my back
aches," if I rested
for too long.

Marks on her neck? I hadn't seen them on her
drowning day. Sir Allweyn said the bruises were too small for a man's hands—
Mothers last farewell.

Bram was called to testify next. He shook as
he spoke. I'd never seen him tremble so.

"You may speak
plainly," said Sir Magnus.

"I do," said Bram. "That is, I
always have, being a pigboy, thou
knowest."

This brought a snort from Sheriff William.

"Tell us what you came to say."

"Pigs are my pride and duty so I should
have been more watchful, but I let the princess touch a sow one spring, and
that sow birthed a two-headed piglet within the hour!"

A story, I thought, for he had never told me
this. Still, the villagers moaned, the sound crossing the Great Hall like wind
in a thicket.

"Two heads, I say. And I knew it were a
witch-sign. But her being the princess and all, I kilt the piglet swift and
buried it behind the barn."

The crowd was murmuring now with stories of
strange beasts.

"...
born
without a leg after she saw my sheep at the fair," said a man's voice from
behind, "and the lamb had to sport about on three."

". . . and the dog hadn't any
tail," said a woman's voice. "So it was all
rump
and no wag. Have ye ever heard of such?"

Cook rushed forward. "I have some things
to say in defense of the princess!"

Sir Magnus ordered, "Wait your turn,
Cook!"

"Bram's done,
aren't you, pigboy?" said Cook, bustling to the
front of the Great Hall.

"I
be
done,
sir, unless you want to hear her spell."

Sir Magnus's bushy brows went up. "Don't
hold back, son."