“You can’t Gerard!” Riani had cried fearfully, but mainly in anger and frustration,
“You can’t send me away. Not there. I haven’t done anything!”
Her brother’s face was stone. Standing at six feet tall, a good six inches taller than she, he looked down on her
with a flat expression. His twenty seven years had taught him many things, but at the moment he was
demonstrating nothing except arrogance.
“Riani, I just did, in front of a Court of Law. You’re only here in audience with me now because you’re my sister
and I’m the Duke’s Steward. If you were any one else the old women would be shaving your head, sticking pitch
and feathers on you and sending you on your way in true mob style. If you don’t get a move on they still might.“
His eyes were steel, flashing anger and disappointment at her,
“You’re an exile now. You were found guilty of using that Spell craft that I told you to leave alone, to
enchant a list of men, some of them married and all of them rich.
Now three of them are dead, leaving all their money to you and nothing to their families. The Magemaster of your
own Order confirms an enchantment of the bodies and of the poor wrecks still walking around muttering your name
and wanting to die for love of you. Can you really be still standing here denying it…?”
The arrogant exterior was making way for one of outrage now.
“I have a whore for a sister…and I could almost live with that, but to think that you used your curse in that way.
You didn‘t even need the money“
He took a deep breath and regained his composure.
“It’s a talent Gerard! it’s a talent, not a curse, and I wouldn’t look twice at most of those men, ask yourself,
what would I have to gain? I’m twenty five years old, I’m betrothed to the Duke’s nephew…”
“You were betrothed” he interjected cuttingly.
“I didn’t do anything!” she tried to grab his hand but Gerard had had enough. This was tearing him apart inside. He
wanted to tell her he believed her, comfort her, help her, but he had seen her found guilty in a Court over which
he had presided. He couldn’t do that now without sharing in her guilt in the eyes of everyone who had been present.
To be seen to be offering favouritism to his sister would result in a death sentence for him. He knew deep down
that someone somewhere was well aware of that. He couldn’t show any support to her if he was to clear her name and
find out who was behind this. He didn’t know who might be watching and listening. The Castle was full of places
where just about anyone could do that unseen. Even here in his study. He had long suspected that his private
conversations in this room were not as private as he had once thought .
He forced a coldness he didn’t feel into his voice, swept his arm away from her pleading hand and slapped her hard
across her face. She fell to floor, shocked and frightened, Riani knew that he had never before raised his hand to
any woman. He must truly believe her to be evil. And…she hadn’t done anything!
“Get your things”. He had said calmly.
“Ger…”
“Now, or I swear I will put you out of your misery myself, Witch!” Silently begging her forgiveness he drew his
short sword and held it steadily in front of her.
Riani had regained some dignity and standing to face him, stared at him as if the sword wasn‘t there.
“I enchanted no-one. I don’t even know that spelling. I stole nothing. I have done nothing.”
Then she turned and swept out of the study, not looking back. She stormed up to her room for the last time, flanked
belatedly by two bewildered guards, caught unawares as the door they guarded suddenly burst open, almost knocking
one of them over.
Following her hurriedly into her room there was nothing else for them to do but stand there, expressionless, as she
quickly made up a pack of things that she thought might find essential. Then she picked out her hunting clothes,
her knife and her boots and glared at them.
“Do I have to change in front of you two clots, or would you like to turn your backs? I wouldn’t want two more
charges on the list”.
The men turned their backs without comment, but one muttered just loud enough for her to hear, “Sorry Mistress
Riani, not everyone believes this about you. We are just doing our job.”
“I know”, she sighed with what felt like the last kindness she would feel for along time.
With her clothes changed and her pack on her back, she walked with as much confidence as she could manage back down
to the Court room with her duo of guards. The chattering Court fell to silence as she entered. An old woman spat at
her as she passed. She recognised the woman. It was the wife of one of the men who had been found dead.
She walked on without pausing. There was no point in repeating words of reason that had already been dismissed and
twisted. Her brother was a statue in the Duke’s Throne, looking straight ahead, and not giving her a chance to meet
his eyes.
The Magemaster stood in the Centre of the Courtroom with five mage teachers around him. They wore black robes,
usually reserved for battle and execution. She knew that the Court had found her guilty of murder, and spared her
only because of Gerard. Might not her Order decide to take her life, thinking that she had betrayed every vow that
she had made to them? Behind them was the Portal that would send her to …she didn’t know where. Her Order could
set it to wherever they liked. To the bottom of the sea if they wanted to. She felt her legs start to shake.
“Please don’t let me faint” she begged silently to the inner strength within her, hoping that her fear wasn‘t
shaming her even more.
Magemaster Sol turned to face her, his eyes glistening in fury and intention.
Around her neck still hung the symbol of her order, a dove in flight. The Magemaster ripped it from her without
gentleness and with no ceremony.
“Unworthy!” he declared, pointing at her, his deep bass voice echoing around the silent room.
“Unworthy” chanted the teachers, and the courtroom repeated the chant. The teachers
surrounded her
and ushered her towards the Portal. She knew all of these people. Shame burned in her face, though she knew she had done
nothing to be ashamed of. She felt her hand clasped by someone,
and a note was secretly pressed into it. Whoever it was had closed her hand around it and then quickly loosened their grasp.
She didn’t know who had done it. She held onto it with a desperation that she could never remember feeling before.
She found herself standing in the cylindrical tube called “The Portal”, gripping the note tightly, her pack at her
feet, and the word “Unworthy” resounding around and around in her head. She felt the crackling static of magic
begin to snap and bristle around her and the cylinder began to close. She wanted to have Gerard forgive her, but
her last glimpse of him was of the emotionless official that had awaited her in the courtroom. As the cylinder
clicked shut, the inside of the tube began with two and then started to fill with darting rainbow coloured ribbons
of light. She looked down at her boots and the rays were passing through them. She felt dizzy, and then she felt
sick and then everything went away and she touched oblivion and remained there for what felt like a lifetime.
In the Courtroom the cylinder opened after a few moments to reveal that its occupant had been disposed of into
exile, or perhaps simply disposed of. Not many in the Court cared either way after what they had heard in the way
of prosecution evidence. Cries of “Good Riddance” and similar whoops of self righteousness were raised, but a few
anonymous mutterings of “Shame” were also audible. For the most part though, the Court was quiet. The Portal had
last been used about twenty years ago, and before that no-one could remember when it was last used. It was for the
most heinous of crimes where execution was for some political reason inappropriate, as was the case with Riani.
Some courtiers cast looks of sympathy in Gerard’s direction. It was possible that his sister was now dead instead
of sent into exile. The Portal was a mystery to all but the Mages. No-one, maybe not even they, knew if the thing
still worked properly. No-one had ever come back from exile to say. Some of them, however, with some envy for his
position here watched for signs of a weakness that they could exploit. To be raised to a steward’s position at the
age of twenty seven had angered some of the more conservative of them. Possibly Duke Arrin might reconsider his
rashness when he learned of recent events. A few of them began wondering how they might ensure that he learnt
sooner rather than later, and how they could be presented in the best light within it all.
One of them simply retook his seat, with the immense satisfaction of a job well done showing nowhere at all on his face.
Sevaren was well pleased with this days work.
Gerard briefly consulted the sheet of papers in front of him and said without emotion, and, adding a tinge of
boredom for effect, read:
“This Court will now hear the preamble in the case of The Dukedom of Strant against Stennet”
At the same time he sent out with all of his will to god knows where his love and hope for Riani,
“I will find out the truth. I will, and I will get you home somehow. Forgive me.”
The guards ushered in Tom Stennet, the pig farmer accused of theft, and the normal business of the day was resumed.