The Wandering God

35 The Punishment Fits the Crime 3/3

罪有应得
Zuì yǒu yīng dé
One deserves one's punishment.
The punishment fits the crime.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When I realized Captain Duan meant to tie me up with the corpse, I began to struggle again, revulsion adding strength to my limbs.

"Oh? Why so unwilling? You should have thought harder before you committed your crime." The captain laughed and threw me down against the battlements beside the corpse.

Struggling to sit up against the battlements, I looked to where Captain Duan stood above me, fiddling with the ropes that tied the corpse to the post.

The corpse swayed in the wind. In the light of the stars, I saw that its arms were stretched out of shape, distorted by the weight of their own body. Most of the hair had fallen from the head, and the scalp that showed through was weathered and dried like leather.

I could not see the chest from where I was, but I suspected from the way the ribs caved in at the waist that the birds had already picked the innards clean.

The smell of the corpse, even in the cold night wind, caused bile to rise in my throat. I quashed it. I could not afford to feel nauseous now. If I could just get away, get back to the prince, I knew Sanli would keep me from being subjected to this excessive punishment.

I looked back, along the way Captain Duan had dragged me. The door was still open, its black mouth yawning, welcoming me back down into the warm belly of the fortress. Along the the opposite direction, the battlements ended abruptly. There would be no way down there.

The battlements we stood on were less than a length wide. On the outer side, a raised wall of about a length rose, and it was this wall my back was propped against. Wind whipped over the top of the wall and down into the courtyard, threatening to pull anyone who lost their balance to the stones below.

The battlements were too narrow for me to try and push my way past the captain. And even if I managed to pass him, he would catch me and drag me back.

I felt panic and despair creeping within my insides, whispering for me to give in, to stop struggling and accept my punishment. It would be cold, and vile, and humiliating, but it would not kill me. I would survive it.

No. I will not submit to such punishment. I will not accept it.

I slid my hand down my leg, into my remaining boot.

Luckily, it was the one I kept my knife in.

"Why are you doing this?" I gasped, trying to sound out of breath and desperate. It was not hard.

"You've committed a crime. Of course, you must be punished," the captain replied, eyes still on the knots of the ropes, fingers struggling to loosen them. "Oh curses. It looks like I'll have to tie you up here with him. Hope you don't mind."

Captain Duan smiled, eyes meeting my own. He bent down and reached for me.

I drew my knife and plunged it into his shoulder, just at the gap in his leather armor.

He gave a grunt that I heard in my right ear as I dashed past him. The battlement stone was cold and rough beneath my one bare foot, and the freezing wind stung my eyes.