Page 31 of The Eye of the Fifth
The rope waiting for her neck.
Noise. So much noise filled her ears as the soldiers led her to that rope, looped it over her head and tightened it. She caught the pretty soldier’s gaze again, and he looked quickly away. But it had been enough to see regret lingering there.
As her eyes finally adjusted to the aggressive light of the day, she saw them. The jeering crowd who had gathered to watch her die.
Gleeful noise. Angry noise. Triumphant noise. Noise that should not have gone hand in hand with certain death.
Spit left their mouths as they spewed vile words at her, fuelled by an absolute hatred born from their souls. A hatred so deep, so buried in their ancestral beliefs that they’d never even questioned it, never even stopped to wonder if it was justified.
Some of them were howling like wolves: Arc regulars already mourning the loss of their unwavering stream of income.
A Governor joined her on the platform and the crowd suddenly fell quiet as he addressed them, listing the reasons for her prosecution.
‘Oswald!’ A shriek shattered through the stream of damning words. ‘Oswald, Iimploreyou to rethink!’
Lilion burst through the crowd toward the front of the stage, her black hair tousled out of its usual twist, her face pale and desperate. Kyra barely recognised her in this unkempt, wild state.
Union soldiers stepped in her way as Governor Oswald glared down at her and spat, ‘Be quiet, Lilion!’
‘I will not! I advocate for this girl, she is undermyprotection!You cannot-’
‘This is not the Arc, woman!’ Oswald hissed, leaning toward her, his voice lowering so that nosing onlookers would not hear. ‘You havenoauthority here!’
Kyra caught Lilion’s eye, and plastered all over her ashen face was dread. Fear drenched dread.
Did… did Lilion actually give a fuck about herbeyondthe venture she posed?
Oswald took his place once more, shaking himself back to composure before raising his voice to the crowd. ‘For her heinous crimes against the good people of Avaldale, I hereby sentence Kyra Daeiros to be hanged by the neck until dead.’
Cheers. Howls.
Noise.
So much noise.
A screaming voice sliced through it, ‘NO! STOP! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!’
Heart in her throat, Kyra scanned the crowd for Rosary. Her voice sounded again, ‘She’s the Earth Warden, you fools! How else would she have had that power? Youdamnyourselves if you kill her!’
And there she was, elbowing her way to the front, her chocolate brown hair unbound and tangled, face stricken and painted with thick bags under her eyes. As though she hadn’t slept in days. Two Union soldiers detained her before she could get any closer and tried to drag her away, but she screeched, ‘SHOW THEM, KYRA! SHOW THEM WHO YOU ARE! SHOW THEM WHAT ROHEIA GAVE YOU!’
But Kyra was frozen. Whatever magic had surfaced before was now dormant again. Still there, still tingling within… but exhausted. A depleted resource.
The floorboards creaked as the executioner behind her moved to position, and from her peripheral, she saw his hands wrap around the wooden lever that would send her falling to her death.
‘ROHEIA CHOSE HER! YOU DAMN YOURSELVES, YOU IDIOTS!’screamed Rosary. It pierced Kyra’s heart.
If she’d had the chance, Kyra would have told her that it was okay. That she was ready. That Rosary… that Rosary had made her life worth living. She hoped her friend saw all of that in the watery smile she gave her.
Something wrapped around Kyra then, an invisible, soft pressure against her skin.
Rosary sobbed, ‘Please… no!YOU CAN’T!’
The lever was pulled with a great clank, and Kyra braced herself for the fall that would follow, waited for breathing to become a thing ofthe past, prayed her neck would snap immediately instead of hanging in front of this damned crowd as they watched the life slowly seep from her body.
None of that came.
A dumbstruck sort of silence fell over the Citadel’s courtyard as they all looked upon her, hovering in the air where the planks had supported her feet just moments before, the noose still loose around her neck.
