Old Korivian stepped back into the barrels of liquor. He put his knuckle into his mouth. She tried to imagine what he was seeing, flesh and bone bent to fill a machine made for another species. Her muscles and organs, forced to fuse with foreign fibers until nothing of just her remained. To have him see her was an intrusion, a portrait of her nakedness that she just wanted to erase.
Commander Korivian came out of the cellar. Two of his guards awaited him. He wiped his brow and tucked the bag of stones into his robe. "That thing was no lady. It didn't go easy. There is a barrel standing upright on the floor, take it out to the garden and bury it near the sunrise wall."
The lord went to his chamber and did not come out until the first light.
His son shut cabinets and drawers with too much force. The girl's last day alive seemed to be ruining his mood. Old Korivian stood at the broken front door to intercept him. "I hope that the intruder did not interfere with your sleep."
"Do you think I could sleep? How can I sleep when so much is at stake? I am going to lose her. If I was more eloquent, if my words had more force, more weight; I might be able to keep her alive." The young man pushed past his father out the open door. Two men turned the corner of the hedge with shovels. The son turned around. "What happened to the intruder, father?"
"He threatened your life. I could not let that stand."
"Sirena is going to be punished because of accusations of what you just routinely commanded."
Old Korivian reached out and grabbed his son's upper arm. "Do not lose your head today. No matter what happens. We are at the edge of an abyss. It will consume us both. Our only hope is to find a place for it to reside within us."
"I need your influence and all you give me is your words."
Old Korivian took his place in the chamber of lords, trying to ignore the chatter and gossip of his enemies. Full attendance did not usually happen, some rural dukes did not attend at all. This case seemed to be different. They were here to see him ruined. His son opened them up to this when he lobbied the council to take up the affair. His son claimed the girl as property, so the case landed on the docket.
He could hear someone whisper behind him. "The boy has all his father's self-assurance, but none of his ruthlessness. He is an empty glove."
"Can you believe a lord could demean himself with such a wretch? To take her flesh is understandable. To get so hung up because it is your first? The boy has no shame."
The wretch made her appearance. The living cage walked up out of the tunnel of sequestration. The tree's bowed branches were evenly spaced to prevent escape. Its roots were bound in the large eight legged carapace that moved at an attendant's command. The girl did not look well, pale face, sunken eyes, sweaty brow. The way she closed her eyes when she swayed, a clear sign of extreme nausea. It was common for criminals to feign such things. The court seemed to be ignoring the ruse. The arachnids that escorted her stopped at the Lord of Defense's station. The girl looked into the young Korivian's eyes for a long time, lovers pushed to their limits.
The song of devotion ended. The Old Lord played the synthesized call to summary with an intentional stutter effect. "Ca, Ca, Call To Summary." The over rich reverb filled the chamber.
The Lord of Accusation took his cue. He used the old traditional poses in his arguments, a callback to the time when poise counted for just as much as evidence and argument. The modern peers were not supposed to give points for these forms, but they had an effect. The dukes in the chamber applauded at each of his displays. His presence could not be denied. He pounded the desk at his station and lifted his hands over his head holding an appeal to the heavens. The lords applauded. He closed his eyes and looked serene, a penitent unaffected by the adulation around him. He opened his eyes, refreshed and fully in control.
"Lord Peers, yesterday we saw footage from an independent sector drone working in the victim's house. The footage clearly showed the accused brutally murdering the guardians that chose to love her, chose to take her in, chose to give her their name. Six witnesses testified to this girl's ungrateful character. The matron that governed her in the asylum said the accused was an unruly girl that had no respect for authority and felt entitled to certain freedoms. The accused routinely refused to give confession, refused to give information about fellow orphans, and tried to escape repeatedly. These tendencies never got any better. In fact as the girl aged her vices and defects became more pronounced. She grew into a secretive, selfish girl, ungrateful to her superiors. Your duty is clear. I ask that you protect us and yourselves by giving this girl the justice of the court. The crooked branch has to be cut off. This crooked girl has to be cut down."
The chamber of dukes beat their canes in a steady beat. They chanted the call to action. "Cut her down. Cut her down. Cut her down."
The Old Lord played the file for the summary of defense. "Sum, Sum, Summary Of Defense."
Young Korivian would not get up from his station. He hunkered over into himself. His shoulders quivered. It was clear the young man was crying. The landed dukes started to jeer. The youth tore the helmet from his head and threw it across the floor. He walked the chamber staring into the audience wiping his face and daring someone to meet his eyes.
"You all think this is justice? She never had a chance. There is no honor here. This is a den of thieves, of hypocrites. Some of you have children. She was just a child when her parents died. You would never allow any of your young to set foot in any of the places she was forced to live. Yesterday you heard the testimony of three orphans that lived with her in those foul institutions. They told us about rotten food, cruel masters, and forced labor. They told you about how Sirena protected them from deviants, how she shared her food, and cared for them when they fell ill. You all know she is innocent. You all know she deserves better. You just refuse to care. If there was any justice here you would all be down below in the cells waiting for your turn."
"Bre, Bre, Breach Of Etiquette." The sound effect had a red flashing light that accompanied it. The young Lord of Defense turned to face the Old Lord on his platform. Two members of the security force took him by the arms and forced him into his seat.
The Old Lord pointed to the Cordon of Peers. "Give us your judgment."
One by one the lords stood up and one by one they gave their verdict. "Cut her down."
The Old Lord played another file. "Time To Cut." He came down off his dais. An attendant got down on one knee and held a razor stick up over his head. The Old Lord took the blade. Before he could draw it from its sheath, young Korivian began to wail like a child that lost a limb. The girl could not be given justice. She was already dead.
Old Korivian paid his son's fine to the chief attendant and gave the man a year's wages to ensure his son was delivered into his custody, bound and gagged, so no more damage could be done. He paid the attendant two years wages for the right to bury the girl in his own garden. The attendant snickered. "I guess your son freed the girl after all. If you hurry you can get her home while she is still warm. You all can have dinner together and not have to worry about getting an ax in your skull." Old Korivian did not laugh.
The wyre wood parted and they cut Sirena's limp body down. She looked like she just closed her eyes for a nap. A healer listened to her heart and went back to his paperwork. One of the attendants suspiciously ran a blade down the girl's wrist. She did not bleed. Old Korivian snatched the girl up and carried her out of the chamber in his own arms. The dukes that stuck around to watch swore there was an air of tenderness about him as he put the body into his carriage. His son struggled and fought but the old man took him out the same way, like his son wasn't a lord, just a child.
The toddler ran with bowed legs. The boy's shorts were flecked with pieces of the sea as he charged the retreating surf. The little body stopped and turned trying to flee a larger wave that wanted to claim the child for itself. The boy cried out as the cold water knocked him down. His mother, a young woman from Thian, wore the long dark veil. She scooped him up and tried to soothe him, tried to get his face to register something other than shock. The girl's scarred wrist was exposed. The boy's father slid her sleeve down and bounced his son on his knee, kissed him on his cheek. The grandfather led the child by the hand, back out to the surf. They faced the sea together, letting the water take away the sand beneath their feet. The sensation had a certain pleasure.
Some people say the trial changed old lord Korivian. He still punished all those that wronged him but sometimes he rewarded those that served. His household talked amongst themselves about how he retired to his chambers in the evenings to be alone. Some of the servants claimed to hear someone else in his chambers, someone crying like a woman, like a woman grieving for something she lost.