by Brian Nyaude
6
“Get up Riyo,” my mother screamed in a disgusted way. “What have you done?”
I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was puzzled with what I was seeing. My clothes were covered in blood and it was not mine. I had been lying in the horse stable near the palace. My arm was badly hurt and my back was cramped. Something was wrong and things were not looking too good for me. The sun was about to come out as it was already dawn in the morning. Near my mother, there were servants and guards protecting her.
“Hey you,” I said to one of the guards seeing that my mother was crying.
I figured she wouldn’t answer any of my questions.
“I demand an explanation for this atrocity.”
He didn’t answer as he stepped back and pointed his spear at me. The other guards followed suit as the servants moved away from me. Was this mutiny? Fear rushed through my head faster than I could blink. Something had happened and I was the main culprit seeing as that my hands were covered in blood.
“What should we do with him your highness,” one of the guards asked my mother.
She wiped her tears away slowly.
Without looking at me she said, “take him to his quarters and put chains on his arms and legs.” She didn’t look back as she walked away, no matter how many times I called her to stop she didn’t. The palace guards put chains on me. The strong one reserved for dangerous criminals and hauled me to my room. What’s going on? I was freaking out as my life was being turned upside down in front of me. Someone walked in and it was James. He had a menacing grin on his face. The kind I had never seen before. He looked different and he kept laughing menacingly as he walked towards me.
“Well well,” he grinned. “Looks like you bit the big one this time.”
I never did like the way he talked, most of the times he spoke metaphorically.
“What now James?” I yelled at him rudely. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Just get father.” He got angry and slapped the taste out of my mouth. In Rogue a slap was the worst insult anyone could ever get. I couldn’t do anything about it, my chains were so tight and heavy I could barely budge. There was blood coming out of my mouth. It felt like I had been hit by a rock in my jaw. His strength was monstrous, truly not to be underestimated. I knew that provoking him would only worsen my pain so I didn’t say anything no matter how many bad things he said about me afterwards. Just in the nick of time my father walked in, he was very angry that much I could tell. “James out now,” he yelled pointing him to the door.
James grunted and left slamming the door behind him. I hoped I could clear my name if I reasoned with father.
“Don’t bother please,” he interrupted staring at me with an angry face. “I don’t think I want to hear your stupid excuses.”
I lay there on the ground where the guards had left me wondering what he was going to say next. He paced left to right around my room in a steady pace for half an hour shaking his head and mumbling beneath his breath. He finally stopped just as I was about to start talking, his eyes were filled with rage.
“Okay why did you kill the servant girl?” he yelled in my face violently. “It better be good son.” What the! So this was what it was all about?
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I replied in a confused manner.
It was all true, all I knew was that I had partied all night long with a few noble friends and got drunk. I had passed out on my way back to the palace after I had left the party. Okay maybe I had drank too much, but that didn’t mean I had killed anyone.
“We found the girl’s body next to the horse stable dead,” he said in a harsh manner. “And we found you in the stable covered in her blood.”
He whistled and a guard came in my room holding a sword in his hands. It was covered in dried up blood and the sword belonged to me. I felt a chill go down my spine and hair stand up on my neck. My body felt a rush of cold air as I examined all the clues and facts before me. All the evidence pointed to me. I realized that there was no way this was to going to end well for me even if my father was the king. In Rogue murdering an innocent person without cause was treason and punished by death. Even though we were a powerful fighting nation, we never killed our comrades and fellow citizens. That was an absolute law laid out since ancient times.
“But I didn’t do anything,” I cried out, he wasn’t listening.
His eyes were no longer upon me but somewhere else. I could not tell what he was thinking or what was going on in the back of his mind.
“I will summon the counsel and we will decide what to do with you,” my father said leaving the room.
I did not meet him until I was called to stand up in front of the counsel and my family. My father was sitting at the main sit next to my mother, his second wife, and James. All the time I kept looking at them to try to find some comfort in their expression. My father did not even take one glance at me and so did my mother. James’ mother seemed to be concerned for me; however, James looked happier than normal. I wondered why though. The atmosphere in the room was intense and cold, I felt as if I was among predators. The counsel room was filled with tan and wrinkled old men who were way past their age limit. Some of them looked liked they didn’t even know where they were to begin with. I barely knew some of them. No matter what the situation was, I knew I wasn’t just going to get away with just a slap on the wrist.
“Okay let’s begin,” my father started, he stood up and addressed the counsel.
He began to speak about me in way that even I would hate myself too. The counsel elders looked horrified at what they were hearing. Their facial expressions changed as my father spoke. The whole time I had been standing, my back was cramping up badly and I had an itch on my leg that distracted me from listening any further. I really wanted to sit down and scratch it hard, but I couldn’t. The guards had added extra chains and weights to keep me from attacking my family and the elders when judgment was passed on me and I didn’t like it. It was probably to keep my uncontrollable rage from going berserk.
“Hang him,” some of the bellowed and others said, “he might be innocent.”
They argued for a while deciding what to do with me, I felt like a buffalo among hyenas. I mean they were not going to eat me, but in the back of my mind it felt like it. I caught a glimpse of my mother and saw tears in her eyes. There was nothing that I could say that would comfort her. Her only son standing trial for murder, I couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind. I had put her in a difficult position and I wish I could take back what had happened; however, I couldn’t.
“Excuse me,” I said politely raising my head. “Can I say something?”
They were outraged by this action.
“How dare you? A criminal address the counsel with an excuse me,” one of them said aiming to spit on me.
Unfortunately for him he spit on himself and fell silent. I laughed silently, it had been the funniest thing I had seen the whole day and by the way I was feeling right then I needed that laugh. It went on forever as they kept arguing unable to come up with a decision. Couldn’t they examine the facts and evidence first? All that tied me to the murder was the blood on my clothes and sword. Weren’t there any witnesses in the stand to testify? I couldn’t believe my fate lay in their hands. In that messed up state, no one had even asked for me to testify my side of the story. It was my fate they were deciding and yet my opinion didn’t matter.
Unable to contain his anger my father snapped, “silent you old buffoons. Clearly if this goes on we will be here all night.”
He gently stepped down from his chair and walked around the room twice.
“I will make the final decision in this matter so your opinions don’t matter anymore,” he yelled slamming his fist on one the tables.
The table cracked apart and the room fell into silence. I could see the sweat coming down from the old geezers; clearly this kind of violence was bad for their health. He began pacing again back and fo
rth around the room. No that again! I would have rather continued to listen to the council members argue back and forth than watch him pace back and forth. Standing and waiting was just a waste of time knowing him it would probably be several minutes before he came to a decision. Surprisingly he was done thinking. That was too fast! Had he already made his decision? An offense like murder would get me locked up in prison in Rogue if I was lucky. Hopefully he would decide to lock me up in the dungeons of the palace. My father looked at me one last time and then on the floor. He went and sat back on his chair silently thinking. His facial expression had changed and everyone including me eagerly awaited his final decision.
“Banishment,” he bellowed out loud, mother screamed out at what he said.
My head felt heavy and I felt cramps from all over my body.
“Your majesty isn’t that a bit extreme considering the circumstances?” one of the council members said sincerely. “He is your son after all. Sending him out there into the world would mean death for a Roguean.”
The other members agreed with each other
“Silence you fools!” father yelled at them, “my decision is final and I don’t care who he is.” Banishment was the worst kind of punishment one could ever get in Rogue. Being an outcast certainly meant death to the people of Rogue. The whole world hated us for what we had done in the ancient wars. In their eyes we were ruthless monsters with emotional problems and needed to be wiped out. In fact they had tried to do that after the war was over, but we proved to be great adversaries and we overcame all their forces combined.
“Please father I’m innocent,” I screamed out loud with tears. “I didn’t kill her. You have to believe me.”
It was too late, the decision had been made and I had to accept my fate. Banished! It was hard to acknowledge what had happened. Was it really real or just some bad joke? I felt tired and sweaty all over. Suddenly I became dizzy and fell to the ground hardly breathing. James was the first to approach me. He knelt down beside me and roughly gripped onto me.
“He is fine,” he reassured everyone. “He is just a little tired and shaken.”
James looked right back at me smiling menacingly as he held me tight and came closer to my ear. He whispered quietly, “I killed her with your sword and you are going to take all the blame for it.”
What? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from him. So I was innocent after all which was a relief to hear. But my strength had gone along with my voice. I was very tired and in a state of shock from everything that had happened to me. My eyes were closing slowly as I lost consciousness. It seemed all that stress was too much for my mind and body to handle. I wanted to tell my father what I had found out, but I couldn’t. I tried as possible to reach out to him, only to find myself falling deep into the dark abyss.