I was chained, just like Veny. We were spat on, insulted, and dragged through the mud from the streets of Vaska, the town run by Count Ortaez. I have never felt so humiliated. They were treating me worse than a dog without an owner. I was like scum. And Why? Because a woman accused me of having murdered her husband.
How ridiculous… How painful…
In the short time, I knew him, I came to appreciate Saul. He was a good man, he showed me that every day. How could he have married someone with such a macabre soul as Karet's?
He didn't understand, just as I didn't understand where so much hatred came from the people of Vaska, who spat and beat me while they brought me into the presence of the Count.
Veny's smile had faded. He hadn't muttered a word since he was captured with me. The Count's soldiers also smashed his lute. That must have hurt him more than the grip of the chains, than the insults and blows.
He had been accused of being my accomplice and he had not looked at me.
Maybe he was mad at me. Perhaps he blamed me for everything.
"Black blood!" The villagers who saw me yelled at me.
"Go south, black blood!" Others yelled at me.
"Traitor!" They yelled at Veny. "You met with a black blood!"
When I was captured, the Queen's spirit disappeared, but when I was led through the streets of Vaska in chains, I closed my eyes, concentrated, and invoked the spirit of Her Majesty again.
I wanted her to see what they were doing to me. I wanted her to be a witness to injustice, I wanted her to show what was happening in Alba Terra.
She didn't speak to me either. She didn't protest for me to let her disappear. Perhaps, she felt bad about what she was seeing. She maybe felt guilty.
She was the Queen, and what did she do to change things? What did she do to prevent injustices like the one I was suffering from?
Nothing.
I was taken to Vaska's dungeons, to wait for Veny and me to be brought to trial before Count Ortaez.
They put us in different cells, thankfully. The atmosphere with Veny had been very tense, understandably. I thought he hated me and blamed me.
I don't know how long I waited locked up, behind metal bars, and cornered by dirty walls of wet rocks.
I reflected on the steps that led me to that situation. I reflected on how the hatred of other people could literally cost you your life. I reflected on the role of the monarchs in all the injustices that we suffered, and since they did nothing to help us, I thought they were accomplices.
"I'm sorry," I heard a voice next to me.
It was the Queen.
Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts and broke the icy silence of my cell.
"Your Majesty?"
"I am sorry," she repeated.
I wondered if queens apologized, until then, I thought not. The kings and queens were chosen by the Supreme. They were the highest authority, only the Saints and the Supreme himself were above them.
They are supposed to be almost like deities. They were not mistaken, because their will was also the divine will.
If someone declared themselves an enemy of the kings, they declared themselves enemies of the Supreme one as well.
"All this that is happening to you ...," the queen stammered, "It shouldn't ..."
I nodded. I didn't know what to say.
"We will get out of this," the Queen assured me.
"How?" I asked.
I didn't see how to get out of it. I was prepared to take the consequences. Maybe death. I was tired, frustrated, and lonely. I had no energy left to fight. My spirit was bent.
"I know the laws of the Kingdom," Her Majesty explained to me. "I have studied them all my life to be a queen. I will find a way out of this. I promise."
I did not reply.
Even if the queen whispered in my ear a good defense for my cause, what difference would it make? The Count would have the last word. Everything was against me. I was a dark-skin, a "black blood". There was no way to win.
Or was there?
I realized that I had not cried, so ... I released all my crying.
I cried, a lot, who knows for how long. It felt like an eternity, and I still had tears left to shed.
When I got tired of crying, the Queen's voice whispered in my ear again.
"I have a plan," she said.
A plan?
When she shared her strategy with me… I thought there was hope.
It was worth the try. What did I have to lose? Nothing. Everything was lost for me, anyway.
And then, they took me before the Count. In the common room of his mansion, in front of a small throne, where he was sitting.
Several people from the village surrounded me, giving me looks of hatred. I thought that if the count did not condemn me to death, those same people would kill me on the spot.
"Bachué Quispe," the count yelled, flashing a crooked smile. "The most wanted dark-skin woman in the south."
He knows who I am ...
Count Ortaez was a scrawny man with silver hair, wrinkled skin, and a constant frown. He looked ninety, despite being around sixty.
He looked like a talking corpse.
"You are being wanted by the Duke of the South. You managed to escape the law until you reached our lands. I could turn you over to Duke Al-Thule, but, you have been brought before me on charges of cold-blooded murder," the Count continued. "You are accused by this woman," he pointed to Karet, who was among the watching crowd. "She says that you stabbed her husband with a knife to steal the few belongings they had."
"Thief! Black blood murderer! " The other people screamed.
I gulped. Did not answer.
"Those humble people were poor," said the Count. "Humble peasants who only wanted to host you and still killed the man who helped you. What a despicable act! My stomach churns just imagining what that poor man felt before you stabbed the knife in his throat. "
"Murderess! Witch!" They kept yelling.
Did not answer.
In my naivety, I thought that Karet would be the only witness, her word against mine, but no. I underestimated how wicked people can be.
"The wife of the murdered man is not the only witness," the Count announced and I shuddered. "Let the next witness enter."
The room doors opened, I turned around and my heart jumped. The new witness was the woman I had taught to cook rabbit broth.
How? How was it possible?
The woman stopped next to me, barely ten steps from me, looking straight at the Count. I was scrutinizing her with my eyes, but she never looked at me.
"Your name?" Asked the count.
"Yahaira, my lord."
"Where do you come from?"
"I come from a small village, close to the border with de Mountains."
"I see. And what do you have to tell us about the accused, Yahaira?"
The woman gulped.
"This black blood took advantage of the kindness of our village. We gave her lodging and food and still, she stole food from our house. "
Screams of horror in the crowd.
"Lie!" I screamed. "This is all a lie!"
"Be quiet!" The Count ordered me.
I looked down and tried to hide the angry tears that fell down my cheekbones.
"Black blood is not to be trusted, my Lord," the woman continued. "They are primitive, cheaters by nature. They are not capable of following the laws of the civilization of the Supreme and of our King. "
The Count nodded slowly and the people applauded.
I wanted to jump on all of them and hit, scratch, and bite them. Inside me, I felt like what they thought I was: an uncivilized beast.
Sure, when they treat you like an animal, you start to feel like one.
What injustice! What injustice! What injustice!
"How do you declare yourself, Bachué Quispe?" Asked the Count.
"Innocent, my lord," I finally raised my voice.
The crowd booed me.
The Count twisted his lips into a crooked smile.
"Do you have any witnesses or evidence to corroborate your innocence?"
"Veny the bard, he is my witness, my Lord."
"You mean your accomplice in such a heinous crime? Are you serious? How true can the testimony of another accused have? "
They booed louder.
"This woman is a harpy!" Karet stepped forward and pointed her index finger at me. "She is a witch of dark arts! She deserves to die at the stake! "
"You killed your husband and you know it!" I retorted angrily.
"Liar! Only poisonous words come out of that viper's mouth! "
The crowd booed me and the count only showed his crooked smile. It was as if he was enjoying the show as if he was witnessing the act of a street circus.
Maybe he knew Karet was lying, but he didn't care.
"Since the accused has no evidence or witnesses," announced the Count, "on behalf of the Supreme, of all his children the saints and of His Majesty the King, I declare Bachué Quispe guilty of murdered and she will be sentenced to hang."
The crowd clapped and cheered.
It was time to implement Queen Catherine's plan.
"I appeal to Duke Soto!" I screamed with all my might.
Absolute silence.
"Excuse me?" The Count asked, confused.
"I appeal to Duke Soto, my Lord," I repeated. "According to Alba Terra law, when a defendant receives the death sentence from a Count, one can appeal the decision to a Duke. In this case, Duke Soto, guardian of the North. "
"What are you talking about, black blood?" Asked the Count, annoyed.
"It is the law of Alba Terra, my Lord," I replied.
The crowd erupted in insults and boos at me.
The Count was confused, uncomfortable. He waved his hand to call out to a man in a velvet suit, elegant, who stood in the crowd. Perhaps his legal advisor.
The refined man, perfectly shaven, spoke into the Count's ear.
Lord Ortaez nodded and his adviser walked away.
"Bachué Quispe!" The count exclaimed, immediately the crowd fell silent, waiting for what he had to say. "Indeed the law allows you to appeal to the Duke, but that instance will only occur if the Duke accepts the appeal."
"I am aware of that, my Lord," I assured.
"A message will be sent to Duke Soto with your appeal request. Your execution will be postponed until his reply. "
The guards seized me by the arms and dragged me out of the compound. Gone were the screams and boos.
I had bought a little time ... and hoped the plan would work.