Heir of Beasts

Ch. 5.3- The Gates

"What do you say to these charges?" Sholu asks finally, staring down from the dais with an unforgiving gaze. "Do you dare assert your innocence?"

Mishira glares fiercely but bites her tongue. It's Ezskor who speaks, his voice trembling slightly.

"We don't claim perfect innocence, but we aren't as guilty as you say."

"No?" Sholu asks mockingly, raising his eyebrows. "And how is that?"

"We- we cooperated," he answers quickly. "You said that if we cooperated we wouldn't be harmed."

I shake my head, pitying the man before me. Does he really think that good behavior will save him? That just because he stood quietly at the trial and dared not curse his captor's name he'll be treated mercifully?

His cooperation will get him nowhere: the outcome of this trial was decided long before he entered the room. Doesn't he see that? Hope must still be clouding his vision. Stupid, impossible hope.

"You cooperated," Sholu repeats. "When was that again?"

"You- you know."

"Of course I know. But I'd like you to repeat it."

Ezskor hesitates. "We opened the gates," he says finally, almost plaintively. "You said that if we did we wouldn't be harmed, so we opened the gates. We gave you Rizsava."

"You WHAT?!" I shout, starting up the moment those damning words fall from his lips. My fists hit the table with the force of a thunder clap, making Ezskor flinch back. I lean forward as he leans away, searching his face for signs of a lie because I don't want to believe him capable of treason.

He flinches away from my gaze, face carved with anguish and- and guilt. My heart seizes as I realize this is no sick joke, no lie told to taunt me: it's the truth. Rizsava was never the scene of a battle, only the location of a surrender. Only the ground where two traitors handed over their city on a silver platter.

"Karzsaivi!" I spit, rage coursing through my veins instead of blood. "You're unnatural, all of you! Babies were shot dead in their mother's arms in Arza and you dared to sell your city without so much as a fight-"

A strong hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me back to my chair. I struggle against it, fighting to rise. "You called yourself Dimaraste!" I shout, twisting wildly in Sholu's grip. "Do you even know what you've done, you pathetic sons of whores?"

"Stop it, O'otani," he mutters in my ear. "Stop this right now!"
I ignore him, curses spilling from my mouth like rain from dark clouds. "May your blood run into the river- may your children choke on it-"

"I said stop this!" Sholu bites out angrily, clapping his hand over my mouth. When I try to bite it he wraps it around my neck instead, stopping my words by stopping my breath. "Pathetic," I choke out, gasping as I try to inhale.

"I thought I impressed upon you the importance of you silence!" he hisses at me, releasing his grip so I can take a wheezing breath. "Goddess, O'otani. Control yourself, will you?"

I gasp for breath, gripping the arms of my chair for support. My chest burns but I'm still ready to launch myself across the table at the traitor- to vent my rage on something human-

"Control yourself," he repeats seriously, tightening his grip on my shoulder. "Or do you forget the one that relies upon you?"

Halima? "Never," I cough, swallowing the rage rising like bile in my throat. Never will my madness condemn her. I dig my fingers into the wood of my armrest so hard I drive splinters beneath my nails, but I do not speak.