This trial was so one-sided to the point it looked like a kangaroo court that it wasn't even funny.
I know they are guilty.
By now, everyone else knew they were guilty. They had heard the evidence, the testimonies from what could be tentatively called the prosecutors whilst the accused lords and ladies tried to defend themselves as much as they could, despite testimonies from their fellow conspirators who had turned against them.
By 'defence' I meant mostly cursing, raging, railing and be defiant as possible towards the highborn that had betrayed them. It was...interesting to say the least. Their actions didn't do much to try and assuage the galleries of their innocence as well, especially when Lady Harriet had nearly thrown herself at Ser Percy Haigh, a distant cousin of hers and lover (the fact that they seemed to be several trees removed away from each other made that fact easier to stomach about their relationship) about the plans of treasons they had conjured up against me, her hands held up in threat before she was restrained by some guardsmen.
For someone so small, the lady took quite a bit to be held back from probably beating the living shit out of Ser Percy.
Throughout the entire ordeal, I had made a note to myself to check-up on their complaints and see to it that something like this doesn't happen again. Though I doubt it will after this entire fiasco, anyone who probably wanted to rise up against me might find themselves sorely deflated of such a notion, I didn't want to leave anything to chance.
I might not be able to solve all the problems in my reign, but at the very least, I would be able to leave Alfie a stable footing for him to carry on with.
Still though, this entire trial was nothing but me going through the motions since I already knew how it was going to end, but I had to be here since I was the eh, let's say the supreme judge out of the cabal of seven judges. I existed to handle the sentence after deliberation with the other judges, who, in the interests of being fair, had been chosen by lottery.
No-one can really call this system unfair since they all knew what they signed up for years back (though back then and nowconsidering some of them were confused by the summons, they certainly didn't know what the fuck was happening).
Thankfully, this entire thing was now coming to an end and I could finally put my mind to other things that didn't bore the living daylights out of me. "My lords, my ladies, we have heard the evidence and testimonies for the accused that stand before you today that aimed to rebel and cause unrest in our kingdom. Many of their fellow conspirators have spoken to their conspiracy and the accused have been given chances to defend themselves," a hushed laughter erupted in the courtroom at the various 'defences' that had been on show. "The seven judges you see before you shall give their verdict, before that, any of you may step forward and be given a chance to speak for yourself."
I didn't honestly care since my decision was already made, but I figured I might as well give these lot their last words before I have their heads. And here I am, finding myself in a situation were I am calling for the heads of people. Man, Westeros did things to a man that was quite hard to believe.
Blue eyes roamed over each of the defendants seeing if any of them were willing to step forward and give one last plea for mercy that might just do it enough for me to not kill them and perhaps send them off to a more palatable punishment or exile of some kind.
I hear the wall is rather nice this time of the year.
Ashleigh Rambton stepped forward, much to my surprise. She had been the quietest one out of the entire seven. In fact, I don't think she had said a word during the entire trial.
She swallowed hard as she lifted her head to stare up at me in my seat, ignoring the looks that came from her fellow defendants. "Your Grace," her voice was rather weak, but there was a certainty in the tone that she spoke. "If His Grace would hear me, I would beg you to open your heart and hear my plea for mercy."
The wily Petyr Rosby's eyes narrowed some as he leaned forward in his seat. "Mercy? This should be good. Go on then woman, what's your excuse for endangering the king's peace?"
"I confess my guilt," the lady admitted through grit teeth, ignoring the hushed tones of shock that permeated throughout the court. "I confess of plotting treason against my rightful king, but I did so in the love of my fellow lords, ladies and my house your grace."
"Your..." Lady Anya's aged voice broke through the sounds as she spoke. "...love for your fellow highborn and house would have brought possible ruin upon our kingdom. Our little kingdom is still young and the sharks still circle the waters. Rebellion of any kind is not what is needed."
Ashleigh swallowed back a reply. "I know, my lady. I know. But the course of action that we took was the only one we felt was necessary, to make the king listen to our complaints."
I'm pretty sure I have this annual thing-
"You and your lot could have voiced your concerns at the next Congress." Lord Petyr remarked with a snort.
-Never mind.
"And why would the king listen to us?" Some strength and fire and zeal had come into the lady as she glared back heatedly at Lord Petyr. "We are highborn of middling import, scattered throughout the land. Your Grace, none can deny that your reign has been prosperous-."
"Then why try to rebel you foolish woman?" Lord Petyr asked, harshly. "The power of the rivers and hills cannot be matched and you would put it all in jeopardy for some foolish bit of pride! Bah! I say begone with you woman, ask for mercy if you wish, you shall find nought from me!" A boney finger was jabbed in the direction of each of the other accused. "And for the rest of you as well!"
I did not know I had such a loyal supporter in Lord Petyr, but then again, Rosby lands have always been fertile and wealthy. They just happened to get even more fertile and wealthy with the introduction of cotton. It seemed as I longer I kept him and his coffers full, the Rosbys (or this one in particular) were going to be on my side.
The harsh words from Lord Petyr had been more than enough to sent the Lady Ashleigh back scrambling to her seat, her face finding the stone floor of the courtroom mighty interesting. I could feel the so very well chuffed look that Lord Petyr was probably wearing on his face.
Still though, her words had given me something to think about. It seemed my reforms were more than likely stirring up some reactionaries or conservatives in the ranks. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were actual people who thought like she did for various reasons among my more powerful lords.
In the future, it seemed I needed to proceed with caution in any and all of my future ventures.
"Anyone else?" I asked and to no-one's surprise, none of the other four accused bothered to step forward. I nodded. "If that is so, then we shall give out our sentences." I began with the furthest most seated judge. "Ser Oscar?"
"Guilty." the solemn man replied without missing a single beat.
I nodded as I took that into account. That's one. "Lady Ysilla?"
"Guilty."
Two.
"Ser Desmond?"
"Guilty."
Four.
"Lady Portia?"
"Guilty."
Five.
"Lady Anya?"
"Guilty."
Six.
"Lord Petyr?"
With a snort of the nose as he leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms, the wily lord gave his verdict. "Guilty."
Well, that was easy. I was almost half-tempted to troll them until I realised this was actually a very serious moment and thus my trolling would not be appreciated.
"Treason is a vile thing." I began with a heavy sigh since I knew where I was going with this, even if I feel like I didn't want to be the one doing this or giving out the verdict. Apparently, sentencing someone else to die was apparently, far more difficult than killing someone in the midst of battle, which was very strange, to me anyway. "Especially treason meted out for one's own gain. I never thought such a decision would be thrust upon me like this, but it seems we can't all have what we want. Your actions could have very well jeopardised the peace of the realm and as Lord Petyr himself said, the kingdom itself. For that, your punishment must be equal to the crime that you have committed." I picked up my glaive. "Lords Vypren, Harlton, Cargyll, Rollingford and Ladies Rambton and Haigh, I hereby find you guilty of the judges laid upon you. You shall be stripped of your lands, titles and incomes and be sentence you to death."
The hammer smacked the gavel once and that was it. "This court has now ended." I said above the din of hushed whispers at the sentencing before it got too loud.
Rising up from my seat, I led the judges out as the hushed whispers became louder and louder before they were silenced by the closing of the side doors.
*****
"I suppose you got what you wanted from that trial?" Lady Anya asked as we walked on a sedated pace on account of her advanced age.
It says a lot about the old lady that she decided to go through with it instead of simply leaving her summons to one of her family members.
I had to bite my cheek. "I don't know what you mean, my lady."
"I might be old, but my wits have yet to leave me." the elderly lady remarked with something akin to a scoff. "I'm sure you knew how that trial was going to end or you wouldn't have made such a spectacle out of it."
"To be the honest, the spectacle was the last thing I wanted for it to happen." I admitted with a sigh. I glanced around with some measure of slyness to make sure it was just me, the old lady and the guards. "Yes, I knew of their guilt, but it was only me. Everything else was all you, you came to those conclusions yourself. I must say, it worked out better than I thought it would. I expected a couple not guilties in there."
She scoffed. "After what we heard? Don't be silly, your grace. If someone had given the 'not guilty' judgement, I would have checked what was inside their little heads."
"Perhaps."
Now that I think about it, would a couple not guilties have given the trial a semblance of it being fair? But then again, that would have gone wholly against what the evidence that had been heard and shown in court. It would raise questions that one of the defendants had got themselves in cahoots with a judge.
In other words, scenarios were I would not like to deal with.
"How did you come across those little plots anyhow?" she asked as we turned towards the main hall, passing various clerks that stood to the side to bow politely in my direction. "And you happened to turn all of those against them?"
"Someone always talks, my lady." I answered. "Especially if it means they'll get paid for it. It's quite sad really, but much appreciated. Though I doubt their little rebellion would have gone unnoticed. Lord Blackwood's little ravens have been nesting around some of them lords for one reason or another."
Lady Anya quirked an eyebrow up at me. "Little...ravens?"
I shrugged at her with a impish smile. "I'm very creative with my names."
"I can tell." she looked around the hallway for a moment. "Now, would it be too much of an old lady to ask a king to show her around his, what did you call it, palace? I'd like to have a finer look of this grand building of yours."
"I would be much obliged my lady."
*****
I paused for a moment, to take into account the great beast that was being led wandering around this part of the royal garden. At this moment, I realised that it would have been quite nice to have some pipe or something to smoke on as I looked at the lumbering beast wander about my garden.
Speaking of my garden, I felt sorry for the gardeners that had to take care of the garden after the beast was done trotting on it. Actually, after all the beasts were done trotting on it. Oh well, I was paying them well enough for this kind of shit.
"That's an elephant." I noted, turning to face Theoden Attavos. Gone was the fresh-faced young man from some two years back, instead, came back a man with a beard and a scar across his face. I assume their was a story behind that scar for later.
He nodded with the sort of gravitas of a man who had dealt with a lot of shit and couldn't find himself caring anymore. "Aye, your grace. That it is."
"An elephant." I repeated, looking back to the monstrosity. "Queerest elephant I have ever seen though."
Like queerest elephant ever. I don't think I've ever heard of an elephant with greyish-black skin or one that had four tusks. In fact, if it was any larger, I would think it was an olephant and I would be questioning as to why I was in Lord of the Rings.
The merchant glanced at me, an eyebrow raised in interest. "You have seen elephants before?"
Oh right, Westeros didn't have elephants. "No," I began, shaking my head in the smoothest manner possible. "But I have read descriptions of them in books as well as drawings of them. None of them have ever mentioned that kind of elephant before." I finished, nodding in the direction of the elephant once more as it was led around for the court to see by some essosi that in the manner of their dressing reminded me somewhat of Middle Eastern flavourings.
I was no expect but I'd wager on Persian influences rather than Arabic.
Theoden nodded his head in understanding. "No surprises there, your grace. Shan Paviz was more than kind enough to share a pair of such a creature. Apparently its a rare breed in his kingdom."
Shan Paviz? Would it be wrong for me to assume that I was getting a rather strong Persian/Arabic/Middle Eastern vibe here? I couldn't help but wonder which expy of an original earth kingdom his kingdom took after. The Ottomans? Safavids? Achaemenid?
"A rare breed and he just gave us a pair?" I asked with some mild scepticism. Looking at the merchant from the corner of my eye, I continued speaking. "What does this shan want in return then?"
"Nothing but trade really, your grace." the merchant replied honestly. "We came upon the Shan of Zabhad on our return journey from Yi Ti. Our hulls were filled to the brim with trade goods that we were able to sell for a great amount of coin and exchange for other goods in the markets of Zabhad. The shan is an open man and generous, these elephants were a gift to us. I suspect he would like for it for us to come back in the future."
I made a noise. "I'll think about it." I was already making notes to sent more trade missions to Yi Ti if the returns on this mission was better than I thought it would be. "So apart from animals that will probably need some kind of zoo or something, did you bring anything back in terms of knowledge? Especially from Yi Ti?"
That really had most of my interest really.
The riches were all nice and all really, but what I wanted was knowledge. It was nice to know that according to Theoden, he had made more than a king's ransom from his journey to the east which according to our agreement, seventy percent of it was going to be mine (a bit one-sided? Yes, but he wasn't the one gifting him with a fleet of ships), I cared more for the sort of advances Yi Ti could have possibly made in the arts of the sciences.
Once again, depending on which Imperial China dynasty Yi Ti was currently embodying, they would still most likely be more advanced in several subjects of the sciences than here in the west. I was actually interested in what Yi Ti was doing, but I doubted that Theoden had spent enough time to actually get enough information on the political layout of the empire.
The merchant shifted some were he stood. "Some, your grace, but not to the extent I think you would be pleased with. The YiTish guard their knowledge jealously, though we did have some modicum of success in purchasing books of knowledge in the Isle of Leng. Perhaps they would be a suitable enough replacement."
Nodding, I said. "Some is better than none. Good work, Master Attavos. In the future, I might be in need of your merchant skills once more."
He turned and bowed. "I would be glad of service, your grace."
"...Wait, I don't speak YiTish. I don't think anyone at court or in the capital speaks YiTish."
"I wouldn't worry about it your grace. I was able to acquire the services of some native speakers of the language to translate both YiTish text and that of the Lengii."
Before I could say anything, the loud squeal of a girl attracted my attention and I nearly lost it at the sight of Triss running right round the elephant.
"Triss!"
It can best be said that my voice had gone decidedly high to the point it could not be considered kingly at all. Before I knew it, my legs had carried me over to her and she was already in my hands and me, berating her. "What do you think you are doing young lady?" I asked as I moved away from the darkly skinned elephant.
"Seeing the elephants." She replied, seemingly nonplussed at all about the danger she had been putting herself in. "And the big cats with the orange stripes and spots. There's like so many animals I've never seen before! It's really wonderful!"
Big cats with orange stripes and spots? Did she mean tigers and leopards? But tigers had black stripes and I think leopards were only found in Africa or more precisely, the Africa equivalent here. And that place was a death trap that anyone with half a sane mind wouldn't go to.
Wait, I was berating my daughter for an act of sheer stupidity. I shouldn't let my mind wander off.
"That elephant could have hurt you." I said, setting her down. "You shouldn't run around large creatures like that. And where is your brother? He should have been looking after you." I asked, looking around for Henry.
The prodigal son had returned home with the first of the many treasures and goods from the far east that Theoden had come with. Apparently, he had been tasked with showing the way, despite the fact the journey was just upstream on some barges from Saltpans to Edmynburgh.
"He said it was fine." Triss replied, blowing a lock of reddish-brown hair out of her face. "He asked the minders if it was alright. They said yes."
Henry was supposed to be the quiet, responsible one. "Your brother should know better. If your mother found out about this," I rather would not think about what would happen to me.
"Your Grace," Theoden spoke up politely. I had forgotten about him as he stood of at the side somewhat uncomfortably but not enough for it to be noticeable from a distance. "From my understanding, the elephants are well trained. They would not harm a fly."
Triss pointed to the merchant in a giddy enough man. "See? Even the ser says they are gentle! No danger at all!"
I was sceptical of this claim.
Theoden must have seen the scepticism on my face and coughed into a curled hand. "Throughout the journey from Zabhad, through stormy weather and rough seas, I hear the elephants made nary a sound. In fact, they were the calmest out of all the creatures, something the sailors attributed to the handlers. They whispered about some magics and potions that they gave to the elephants." Magic. That can never be good. "Nonsense really, but the handlers sure do know what they are doing, your grace. On my word, the princess has nothing to fear."
I took hold of Triss' hand nonetheless, her small, soft one, in my large calloused one. "Thank you for that, Master Attavos, but alas, I fear for my children as a father. Now, care to give me an overview of all the other cargo you brought with you from your journey to the east? We shall go into detail later."
"Of course."
My hand tightened around that of Triss' as she tried to get away. This was to be her punishment for scaring the living daylights out of me, to hear me go on about boring old king stuff.