Chapter 52

There was a long silence as the women and men present seemed to look to each other for agreement, and then a loud cheer broke out, and Kit realized they were chanting, “Mercy!”

A smile threatened to spill across her face, but at the risk of angering her mother, she fought it. A glance at the friendly faces before her showed they all thought she had done well, though she didn’t dare shift her eyes to Eli for fear her mother would notice and lose any semblance of grace she may have gained from the crowd. She did look at Jecob, and he mouthed, “Thank you,” to her, but Kit had to look away, still not sure if it had been enough or what the punishment might be if he was not to lose his head.

Her mother took hold of her arm again, but this time, she did not squeeze. She tilted her head slightly, and in a quiet voice said, “Well played, Katrinetta.”

Kit cleared her throat but said nothing. All of her words had been used up. The queen shifted and looked at her, and as Kit met her eyes, she saw a dreaded narrowing in those dark orbs and knew she hadn’t done Jecobian any favors at all.

“Ladies and men! Silence!” the queen demanded, and a ripple of stillness went across the crowd. “I have heard your response to the princess’s plea, and I must agree, it is always best to show mercy and kindness whenever possible.” The people began to cheer, but she silenced them with a wave of her hand. “However, due to the nature of Jecobian’s crime, I must ensure that no one else can be put at risk, and therefore, rather than having our axman remove his head today, I declare that the punishment for his crimes against the crown shall be the removal of his member and his testicles so that no one else can ever be endangered by this foolish man ever again!”

Kit’s eyes widened in horror as her mother’s decree sunk in, and she felt as if the whole world was spinning around her. Her knees were weak, and her stomach lurched. “Mother! No!” she shouted, grabbing at the queen’s arm, but the older woman stood fast, her face frozen in a wicked grin, and already her guards were dragging Jecob over toward the chopping block.

Panicked, Kit tried to reason with Rona. “Mother, if you do that, he’ll bleed to death! Don’t you know anything of the male anatomy?”

“Silence, Princess!” She turned a sharp eye toward Kit. “You asked for this, remember?”

Before Kit could argue further, Armant stepped up between them. “Pardon me, Your Majesty. I don’t mean to intrude, but if the axman carries out your orders, Jecobian will most certainly bleed to death before he makes it to the infirmary. I can remove them myself….”

“Step back, Physician!” The queen cut him off, wheeling on him quickly enough to make him do as he was told, and he nearly stumbled into Junno as he jumped out of the way.

“Armant—go down there, please!” Kit begged, taking hold of him. “Do what you can!”

The physician looked to the queen who had turned back around and was watching with glee as Jecob was hauled up the other set of stairs to the chopping block, the chains and his trousers making it so that he had to be dragged up each step by the Queen’s Guard. Once he was at the top, Eli ordered them all off, and she could see a bit of an argument between the two groups of guards, though the princess’s eventually won, and the Queen’s Guards went back down the steps jovially.

There were so many bodies between herself and the wooden platform that held the chopping block, Kit could hardly see anyone at all, but she could hear Jecobian screaming over the rest of the crowd. His face was wrinkled in fear, his skin a bright red, and she could hear him pleading, cursing her, saying he’d rather lose his head. Her own guardsmen had stepped in to block her view, and the queen was moving in order to get a better line of sight, mumbling about incompetents.

Kit imagined it would be very difficult to use an ax for what her mother had demanded, and since the block was made to hold the head of a kneeling person and nothing more, she thought even someone as skilled as Jowl would struggle. Eli was right at Jecobian’s ear, he and three of her guardsmen holding him while Jowl got into place. The other guardsmen were still obstructing the view of the chopping block, and she was happy for it, though her mother was outraged, and then Jowl raised up his ax and hammered it down not once but twice, and with each blow, Jecobian screamed so fiercely Kit thought her heart might come through her throat.

What happened next was a whirlwind as her own guardsmen picked him up and carried him off, Armant alongside them. She expected to see more blood than she’d ever seen before, but there was a cloth of some sort covering him, and while it was certainly stained red, there wasn’t as much as she’d expected. Jecobian continued to screech for a few moments and then went very still, and she thought perhaps he had died after all. She turned and looked at her mother, who was smiling triumphantly. “May I go?”

“Certainly,” the queen said, “to your chambers.”

She knew what that meant. She was not to go to the infirmary. Kit bowed as she was required to and then left the dais keeping her head up but walking as quickly as possible. She shot around those who would block her way, those who would seek to congratulate her on a well given speech that had ended up costing Jecobian more than if she’d just kept her mouth shut to begin with. For an entire day, she’d been trying to decide if there was a punishment worse than death, and it turns out there was. She’d just had no idea that even her mother could be so unbelievably cruel.