POV. Kai
The Hall of Judgment was colder than usual, as if tapestries embroidered with gold threads couldn't stop the ice seeping through the cracks. The white marble columns shone with a pale and severe hue. The air smelled of incense and tension... a mixture that turned my stomach.
The whole court was assembled: a hundred lords, twenty noble ladies, three magistrates, and a representative of the Church with more rings than fingers. My mother, Queen Sibylla, sat on her high, sober throne, watching everything like a kestrel among hyenas.
I was there, not in my prince's cloak or my golden crown, but in my dusty riding boots, my shirt open to my chest, and my tongue sharper than ever. Archie, for his part, stood in the center, standing on the platform, skinny as a dry stalk and trembling as if the whole room were a field of lightning.
But the lords looked at him as if they already saw him hanging by his neck.
"He is accused," intoned one of the magistrates, "of poisoning Lord Elgar. Traces of Hellebora umbra were found in his body. The defendant, Archie Varnes, was seen handling dangerous ingredients the night before.
Lie. Everything he says.
Archie only managed to swallow saliva. I knew that gesture: the one I used before vomiting because of my nerves, usually before an exposure.
Poor baby...
—Anything to say in your defense? asked the magistrate.
"No... "It wasn't like that," he managed to say. Alone... that it was not poison. The compound was part of an experimental mixture. A cure for the plague... They didn't let me explain.
"Convenient excuse. You didn't introduce him to the healers' court," said the representative of the Church, a wiry little man with a wrinkled turnip face.
I got up.
"How convenient, yes. Almost as much as the ingredients that, by the way, someone asked to buy the week before. Lethal ingredients. Including Hellebora umbra concentrated." I looked at the captain of the guard. Bring.
The doors opened. The merchant Eron of Valys entered, his green velvet jacket and head bowed.
"Eron," I said, in a theatrical voice, "you were sent to buy lethal ingredients. By whom? By the defendant Archie Varnes?
"No. It was on Father Marius' orders," said Eron, without hesitation, bowing mockingly to the priest.
A murmur turned into a clamor.
"Lies! Manipulation! Heresy! Marius roared, rising to his feet. He's a sorcerer! He sleeps with the devil by committing blasphemous acts!
"What acts would those be?" I asked.
"Sorcery!" Sacrifices! Sodomy!
"Intelligence is after you," I said, and the room was absolutely silent, "but you are faster.
Sibylla barely smiled at the corner of her mouth. I took it as a round of applause.
"My prince!" The priest spoke again. He must enforce God's desires! Condemn the sinner!
I clicked my tongue.
"Tell me, Lord Freddy, you who served my father—" I turned to the white-bearded old man. You who are a man of the world, what do you call someone with knowledge of herbs who experiments with natural mixtures to heal bodies?
Lord Freddy, in his raspy voice, murmured:
"In the West... he is known as an alchemist.
"Alchemist," I repeated, letting the word resonate. No sorcerer. Not a witch. Not a creature of the devil. But I don't think the title of a commoner is more relevant than the act of a priest committing murder. Ignorance or cowardice, Father Marius? One is bad. The other... it is unforgivable.
"You are just another sinner!" Marius shouted, his face red. He's also a sodomite! We all know it! Why did I visit him at night?!
I didn't move. I just smiled. I approached him, looking him straight ahead.
"Do you know what is done with snakes, Father Marius?"
"You can't...!"
"It's stepping on their heads. I turned to the guard. Get him out of my court. He has stopped speaking for God.
The priest was dragged out amid shrieks and spitting. But before he could take a breath, another lord—one who had always sought scandal like a pig in mud—stood up.
"Blasphemy." Unnatural acts. With the alchemist. He almost laughed. Of course it is a lie and that everything has an explanation. My prince—will you tell us what you did at night? On the quiet? Alone with him?
The entire court held its breath.
Sibylla closed her eyes for a moment, her face as serene as a statue. He did not intercede. I knew this battle was mine.
I turned to them, climbed a step of the platform, and with the sun from the window illuminating my face, I blurted out:
"I read poetry to him. Sometimes we would fall asleep talking about how to find a cure for the plague. I shrugged.
Archie looked at me as if I had just set the sky on fire for him. I almost expected him to pass out.
"Now tell me, Lords of the Court—what is more important?" An alchemist locked in his lab who has already found the cure... or continue with this trial, where compensation will be given to Lord Elgar's family for their unfortunate loss?
Silence. Long. Dense.
And finally, Lord Freddy stood up, slamming his cane on the ground.
"I declare that there is not sufficient evidence to convict the accused. And I propose an independent investigation into the actions of the ecclesiastical representative.
One by one, other lords nodded. Most because it was the right thing to do. Others, because they did not want to antagonize their future king, who could make the room tremble with a single word.