The following morning, Fradel Rurik Korvald(Nevetsecnuac)
and Yenis Luko woke at dawn and, after
their ablutions, ate some dry rations and then
readied the luggage. Leading the
horse by the bridles (reins) with Yenis mounted in the saddle, Fradel
negotiated their way down the sodden path which was occasionally blocked by
moss covered rocks or fallen tree limbs; once out of the periphery of the forest,
Fradel still holding onto (halters) straps and on feet, guided the horse onto
the highway in the direction of Wincox City. They had not gone far, however,
before they were suddenly surrounded (ambushed) by some seventy-to eighty-mounted
guards (constabularies) armed with lances (spears) who’d raced to encircle them.
One of the guards reaching out grabbed her arm and
dismounted her; she was roughly thrown on to the ground and landed on her rear,
next to Fradel (Nevetsecnuac). Fortunately, her physical state, being sturdier
than it looked, had suffered no ill effects. Ignoring Fradel’s concerned queries,
unexpectedly just then, Yenis, fell on her knees before the captain and pleaded
for mercy but all her entreaties (implorations) went unneeded by the
stone-faced Captain who, instead, refusing to listen to any reason, hurled threats
and obscenities at both Fradel and Yenis, while his men loutishly bound and
gagged Fradel and Yenis then tossed (threw) them both into an iron cage mounted
on a wagon, to be carted into the city’s prison.
Along the way, Yenis, shaking from head to toe like a
leaf, all curled up in a ball in the corner of the cage, whimpered pitifully till
at one point she simply passed out; however, the scornful guards simply sneered
and refused to check in on her condition.
As it was, under the guise of a scholar, Fradel (Nevetsecnuac), had been
constrained from using his martial prowess to extricate them from this trouble;
hence, he’d meekly surrendered to this grave injustice.
Surely the matter would be clarified at Court, soon
enough. Nevetsecnuac had mistakenly supposed (assumed).
Upon reaching
their destination, however, the prisoners were then hustled into a dark, damp
and dreary dungeon where they were immobilized in a pillory and locked up for
the night.
The following morning, Magistrate Turo of Birgergon
County, having set aside the documents from his other, minor cases, was
examining Fradel's papers in detail when he suddenly grew flushed in the face.
"This is no simple matter of trespassing. One cannot just sentence him to death and
have done with it." With a grave
visage he sprang to his feet and rushed off at once to his private chamber back
where he summoned his subordinates and confidants to a conference.
"The emperor’s edict, which has stood for these
last twenty years, allows no exception." He summed up after the
briefing. "Yet how could we
prosecute an important personage such as Fradel Rurik Korvald, who clearly
enjoys His Majesty's good graces, and still escape the consequences of
disobeying the Imperial guarantee of safe passage contained in these
documents?"
Turo cupped his head in his hands as the others
exchanged worried glances, knowing that their fate was sealed along with that
of the Magistrate. The more outspoken of
them ventured hastily thought-out suggestions which only served to infuriate
the Magistrate. Increasingly agitated,
Turo drummed his fingers on the desk and demanded immediate, more satisfactory
answers to his dilemma.
The bookish Assistant Chief Constable, who had kept a
thoughtful silence up until then, picked up his courage, noisily cleared his
throat to command the attention of the silent group then spoke, "There is,
unfortunately, another serious concern, related to this one, which also needs
to be addressed, Your Honor."
He retrieved a piece
of paper, a wanted poster, from the leather wrap and, unfolding it, presented
it to the Magistrate.
"I
received this by special courier from the Prefect's Office just this last hour,
and was on the point of having it duplicated and distributed. Please, Your Honor, note carefully how the
description of the female criminal on the left tallies perfectly with the
features of Fradel Rurik Korvald's accomplice. “
“Furthermore, since she was in Fradel Rurik Korvald's
company when she was apprehended, I would venture to guess that he is the
hunted male criminal on the right."
All heads one
by one nodded in concurrence, as the wanted poster was passed around from hand
to hand.
"It's definitely her, Your Honor. But the male's
description is rather vague (sketchy). Nevertheless, we must agree with Lu's
assumption that it could very well be the Scholar Fradel Rurik Korvald."
"Of course, the final word rests with you, Your
Honor."
"Confound it!
More problems!" the Magistrate barked.
He burrowed his
piercing eyes into Lu, venting his fury on the bearer of this news,
"I suppose you would be the one to pile more
rocks on my premature grave. Bah! I asked for an apt solution, not more
complications."
As the Assistant Chief Constable withdrew to the back,
muttering apologies for his untimely introduction of this news, a few of his
colleagues hastened to appease Turo.
"Your Honor it may be good that we became aware
of it now, so that we can take it into consideration."
"Yes, this is to our advantage, for later on it
could have proven disastrous."
Subsequent (Pursuing) hours of intense deliberation,
the conference finally produced a suitable resolution all could agree on: The
Magistrate would not hold the court in Wincox City but would defer the matter
in its entirety for proper disposition by Prefect Micen Do in his superior
court in Denor City, the site of the alleged crime.
Assenting, the relieved Magistrate wiped the
perspiration from his brow (forehead) and swiftly drafted a detailed account of
the trespassing crime, included a sworn deposition from his guards, and added
an inflated account of the great expense incurred in apprehending these felons.
Magistrate Turo then ordered heavier racks to be
fitted for the necks of both prisoners and, that they are dispatched that same
day under heavy guard to the Prefecture in Denor to await their trial and the
subsequent punishment.
The captain
(furnished with Fradel's sealed identity papers, sealed summons along with a
special insert from the inept Magistrate, the transfer order and papers of
indictment on the trespassing charge), along with one hundred armed guards,
escorted the prisoners in heavy chains locked up inside a caged cart, out of
the city.
As mentioned earlier, the trouble having transpired in
such proximity to the capital province Holger, Nevetsecnuac, under the guise of
scholar Fradel Rurik Korvald, had been constrained to remain within the bounds
of scholar’s faculties (abilities) and therefore, had endured (tolerated) this
grave injustice. Nevertheless, his
contingency plan had considered the possibility of this matter not being
cleared up by the Prefex Micen Do either, in which case, he then planned to
take direct action and make good his escape, preferably at an apt opportunity
and place with minimal (disruptive) consequences.
Unfortunately,
he had grossly underestimated the seriousness of his nightmarish situation, the
dept of corruption and the strong security measures that truncated any
possibility of justice or effecting escape, not in Wincox City, nor on the way
to the Prefectural Seat in Denor.
~
)%20AND%20YENIS,%20IN%20CHAINS.jpg) |
| 05-- FRADEL (NEVETSECNUAC)) AND YENIS, IN CHAINS |
Arriving at the Denor city gates by mid-morning, they
(prisoners, Captain and the guards) were all instantly plunged into a large,
hostile crowd of common citizens.
Obviously bribed and coached, the indignant crowd which waited for them
tormented the prisoners all along the route to the Prefect's Office. Yenis and Fradel were pelted with an
assortment of ripe fruit, rotted eggs, slimy and foul-smelling human and animal
excrement as well as being subjected to furious vilification, threats, curses
and blows to the head and back from those who had brought along thick poles for
the purpose.
The stern, hard faced Prefect, Micen Do, on being
informed of the prisoners' arrival, immediately took up his seat and called his
court into session. With order finally
restored, Micen Do had the bailiffs bring both prisoners forward.
As was
customary at the start of any trial the male accused, Fradel, was brought
forward, stripped to the waist and given fifty heavy strokes with iron rods, on
his back until the flesh broke. Not
satisfied with the damage thus inflicted on Fradel's sturdy form, Micen ground
his teeth in contempt and ordered another twenty strokes, accusing the bailiffs
of being too lenient (humane, merciful) in their beating of the prisoner. To his chagrin, not a whimper or plea was
attained from stubborn Fradel’s lips, robbing the Prefect and the gleaned (gathered,
assembled) crowd the sought after perverse satisfaction.
Grumbling under his breath, Micen Do summarily looked
over the indictment papers with a hard visage. He then picked up the documents
bearing the formal complaint and the death warrant itself. Briefly glancing at the report from
Magistrate Turo, he brushed aside Fradel's identity papers with a huff, barely
noting even Fradel's full name.
"The charge of trespassing is solid; we can
therefore dispense with any hearing on that matter. The sentence is death." He moved to quiet the cheering from the crowd
then looked up to formally charge both of the accused with the added crimes of
murder, mutilation and robbery of the honorable Senson Luko.
"I will
withhold the sentence of death pending the outcome of this trial, so as to
determine by the proceedings the severity of the criminals' torture and the
means of their death."
The prisoners were not permitted to enter a plea or
say a single word in their defense at this point in the proceedings. Instead, the court clerk, as ordered, stepped
forward and read out loud the highlights of the case against them, including
the corroborating testimonies of the brothers of the deceased and the servants
of the Luko household.
The picture painted was most incriminating. Yenis was described as a wanton, shamefully
promiscuous woman, guilty of immoral misconduct, carrying on (with untold no of
men) secret rendezvous and illicit affairs, who on the night in question had
smuggled her latest lover, Fradel, into her husband's private library in order
to commit murder.
The summation was concocted from the Prefect's own
conjecture and read out to the court.
"After this vile, gruesome deed was accomplished, both the accused
pilfered (made off with) many of the valuables, to enable them a fresh start
elsewhere. Making good their escape,
they successfully eluded the constables on their trail until, after hiding out
in a site forbidden by Imperial decree, where no honest citizen would dare tread,
they were apprehended (ensnared) by the good and proper forces of the law. Guilty
as they are of such reprehensible (appalling) acts, they deserve no mercy from
this court."
The (jovial
outcry) cheers of the spectators painted a sinister smile on the Prefect's
ugly, scar-ridden face as he delayed restoring order to the courtroom.
 |
| 06-PREFECT MICEN DO |
There was only slim evidence, vague at best, from the
only eyewitness, the old gatekeeper, concerning the identity of the lover. Familiar with such goings on, he had failed
to get a good look at the man in the dark as the two made their getaway. He had just minded his own business and had
not raised the alarm until the grisly discovery of the following morning which
brought to light the full scope of their crime.
However, this lack of solid evidence did not deter Prefect, with the
persistent finger of guilt pointed at Fradel; it was enough that he had been
caught along with Yenis.
"Fradel Rurik Korvald is guilty as charged by his
association with a known criminal alone, there being an absence of factual
evidence in this matter."
Prefect Micen Do then rush through the verbal
questioning of the witnesses, practically coaxing their testimony from them in
order to achieve the desired effect.
He was constrained to follow at least the appearance
of proper judicial procedure even though he was completely blinded to any sense
of justice in his eagerness to secure a guilty verdict for both the accused,
Yenis and Fradel.
Why was he so prejudiced? It was because he wished to set a precedent
here. For some time now, moral standards
in Denor have been particularly lax.
Since many fine, upstanding gentlemen, including the Prefect himself,
liked to idle away their time consorting or ogling the beautiful courtesans and
other loose women, in thriving establishments of ill repute posing as
respectable tea houses that had sprung up in a multitude all along the
riverbanks. The river Hain, whose course
meandered along the immediate outskirts of the city, was often thronged with
pleasure boats from which the singing, laughter and music drifted into the
suburbs until all hours of the night, every night.
In this liberal
atmosphere it was left to these same promiscuous men to preach virtue to their
wives and daughters and to keep them from straying and become the playthings of
other men. Such happenings would entail
an ultimate loss of face for these pretentious family men. Even Prefect Micen Do, whose wife was no
great beauty and falling far short of the good looks Yenis bore despite her
present disheveled condition, had vigorously guarded his wife's chastity (fidelity)
from the time of their marriage ceremony with a particularly jealous obsession.
As his second wife (first one was deceased) was much younger than him, Micen Do
had kept her virtually imprisoned within the confines of their home, to prevent
any probability of her straying. This criminal case (adultery and murder) had
naturally struck at the insecure chord of his heart and aligned his sympathies
from the start with the deceased cuckold, Senson Luko, who he feared could just
as easily have been him.
With much of the preliminaries out of the way, it finally
became Fradel's turn to be asked, merely as a formality, how he pleaded to the
charge of murder, mutilation and robbery.
Instead of pleading guilty as he had been instructed to in jail, Fradel with
dignified composure, defiantly looked Micen straight in the eye and boldly
protested his innocence of all three charges.
On the advice of his senior assistant, the Prefect contained his burst
of fury and overlooked Fradel's impertinence.
He ordered the keeper of the stores to produce the most incriminating
evidence; the murder weapon itself, for the court and it was promptly set on
the dais before the bench.
Picking up the knife, mottled with dried blood, Micen
thundered, "Do you still persist in denying that this does not belong to
you? Do you deny that the inscription on
the blade, an engraved 'F', stands for 'Fradel'?" He thrust the blade towards Fradel at arm's
length and stormed, "Confess your crime now, and your death will be
swift. Delay this court and you will
suffer all the agonies of Hell."
Again, Fradel with unwavering resolve, stated his
innocence. With his stoic, heroic
countenance he then, with eloquent speech, enumerated (pointed out) the blatant
loopholes in these unfounded charges against him; and in doing so, broke into
shambles all the evidence amassed against him.
This created a great stir in the court, propagating (sowing)
serious dissension among the gleaned (assembled) onlookers, some of whom now
wavered in their resolve about Fradel.
Some even loudly questioned the soundness of the authority's judgment
and actions thus far, crying out that a great injustice had been done by Fradel
Rurik Korvald, who was obviously innocent.
To root out this dangerous, disturbing development,
the concerned Prefect Micen Do angrily interceded. Pointing an accusing finger at Fradel, he
cursed him as the worst kind of renegade, a dangerous, venomous scorpion who
used his cunning abilities to stir up the crowd. He then had Fradel trussed up like an animal,
using even more chains to prevent him moving a muscle, and had him gagged, to
prevent "Fradel's disruptive, treasonous outbursts." Fradel was also given a dozen more lashes to
subdue him and to appease Micen's (fury) ire.
Already prejudged guilty, merely as a formality, Yenis
was next asked, under the threat of torture, to confess her guilt, elaborate on
the details of her crime and admit to the whereabouts of the stolen goods,
which the muddleheaded Prefect only then had recollected to ask.
 |
| 07- YENIS'S TESTIMONY |
"But I'm innocent, Your Honor. I was forcibly abducted." Yenis, bemoaning her fate, dropped to her
knees and in a quivering (trembling), tragic tone pleaded for mercy from the
Court. Despite the overwhelming evidence
against her, grasping at straw in her effort to escape her inevitable, horrible
end, she then mesmerized the court and kept the spectators in rapt attention,
swaying the facts and circumstantial evidence all in her favor. Vehemently claiming her innocence and stating
that she had been grossly wronged by malicious slanders, she pointed an
accusing finger at Fradel, declaring that she had never before that cursed day
set eyes on him, that after Fradel's brutal murder of her beloved husband, this
lecher had forcibly abducted her and sexually assaulted her.
Many groaned in the courtroom, already having
committed to memory Fradel's brilliant defense.
"I've been made to suffer enough injustices, Your
Honor." Her tearful protest came next. "But I care little that my
name is unjustly smeared with filth …that I'll be cut down in the prime of my
life. All that I ask is that I be
allowed to mourn properly, like a dutiful wife should, for my beloved husband
severed (torn) so prematurely from me. Afterwhich,
you may do with me as you wish, Your Honor.
You may torture me, slice me to ribbons, remove my entrails and feed
them to the dogs. I do not care if I'm
ever reborn. I still will not cry
injustice then. My life here or in the
hereafter is of little consequence to me."
She sobbed uncontrollably, the very picture of a virtuous wife.
She was by no means finished with her very convincing melodramatic
performance. Following several more
minutes of hysterical crying, she with a heart wrenching moan raised her
shackled hands and, looking up again lamented (bemoaned) her fate. "Oh pity, pity me; I’ve done nothing to
deserve such agony; oh, but Heaven sees all, Heaven is the only true judge…
Merciful Gods, bear witness, to this great injustice inflicted on me
today!" She tore off clumps of her
disheveled hair and struck her forehead to the floor until a slight trickle of
blood oozed over her eyes.
As many gasped,
she spread her arms helplessly and again casting her gaze upwards, swore,
"May the Almighty Gods strike me dead, right here and now, with a fiery
bolt from Heaven, render me to cinders if I'm trying to deceive Your
Honor."
All present mechanically turned their heads, searching
with fearful eyes upwards. But of
course, no lightning appeared.
"Have pity on me, Your Honor; for how can poor,
defenseless women like me prove my innocence?
I swear I've been framed by those who had hoped to gain from my death.
I swear that I was taken against my will that day by
this rogue, who had butchered my dear husband and made me suffer such
deplorable, unspeakable humiliations. “
“Oh, Heaven pity me; after all I've been through, I'm
not deserving of this cruel treatment.
You’re Honor, look at me, look at me hard; can you not see that I’m no
criminal!"
She continued to implore the Prefect in a hoarse,
tragic tone, "Oh, you can't even begin to imagine what I've been made to
endure. Such shameful, vile torments
I've suffered already by his hand!"
To substantiate her claim, she then tore open her
sleeves to show the scratches and bruises on her arm, supposedly inflicted on
her by her abductor, Fradel.
She claimed
that she had still worse ones all over her body. "Would a lover do this to me?" she
asked indignantly.
Many spectators, beguiled by her words and dramatic
presentation, fixed Fradel with their burning, contemptuous glares while
others, bug-eyed, simply gaped, sighed or shook their heads, wavering now in
their assumption of her guilt.
Heated, animated discussions simultaneously erupted,
first outside, then inside the courtroom between those that believed Yenis's
innocence and saw her as a tragic victim and those that recalled Fradel's
testimony or simply knew better.
Fradel, bursting with indignation and outrage,
struggled violently against his shackles.
Some of the chains were stretched to the breaking point. All who witnessed this gasped in fear and
awe. Some, who had been hardest on
Fradel, now were tongue-tied, eyeing the exits as a pale-yellow streak ran down
their backs.
Just then, on a signal from the Prefect, a serious
blow to Fradel's head rendered him dizzy and almost unconscious. He was vulnerable after all! Those who, just moments before, were worried,
grinned sheepishly at their own stupidity and cowardice; presently emboldened,
they spat and cursed the prisoner.
Warm blood, meanwhile, oozed from the contusion,
smearing half of Fradel's face. He
tasted the salty fluid (blood) on his lips, as he wavered in his stance,
dancing stars and flashing lights appeared before his eyes. He was surrounded by this crowd of ignorant
nincompoops. Easily swayed, they craved
even more of his blood as the real culprit was winning their sympathies.
Even the stern visage of the Prefect was undergoing a
significant change. Secretly smitten by
this beauty, he was mellowing.
Fortunately, a discreet whisper in his ear by his sound assistant Mouro,
a former client of the Luko clan, quickly brought Micen to his senses.
"No use denying your guilt, vixen!" waving
the documented proof in her face, he cursed Yenis.
Fuming at
having almost been made into a fool by her, he then shouted for her to be
punished by five strokes to her legs.
At once the heavy bamboo staffs (poles, sticks)
mercilessly rained down on her frail, delicately shaped legs, each stroke
intensified her ear-piercing shrieks and blood-curdling screams, evoking even
more pity for her from the already beguiled crowd.
"Why punish her?" They grumbled, biting their lips and shaking
their heads. "She is such a beauty,
too."
"Silence in the court!" The furious Prefect pounded his gavel on the
bench to restore order. When silence
again reigned, Micen ordered the bailiffs to punish with blows the next one of
the spectators who dared to utter a single sound of discontent.
Menacingly the bailiffs, with sinister smiles, held
their bamboo staff high, ready to strike and searched the already cowering
crowd for victims.
When Yenis was next questioned about the severed parts
of her husband, Honorable Senson Luko, liver and heart and what became of them,
she claimed ignorance of parts’ exact whereabouts and no amount of pressure
applied could make her change her testimony.
Just then, when the Prefect again remembered the
missing booty, he skipped over that line of questioning and asked instead of
the whereabouts of it from her.
She fell on her knees and readily volunteered the
answer; all the while sticking to her claim, that she had been taken to Kuno
Temple by force where she had witnessed the culprit, Fradel, her abductor,
burying it in the Large Hall.
"With an
aim to retrieve it later, the knave has cunningly disguised it as a burial
mound for those cursed monks." she sneered. "But, nevertheless, you'll find it under
that pile of worthless bones. He even
threatened to bury me there, too, if I did not cooperate with his vile
lust." Cupping her face in her
hands, she gave a convincing shudder, as if recalling his disgusting ogling of
her.
Fradel could hardly contain his bursting rage, and a
fierce storm grew in his heart. What
harm had he done her, to deserve such treachery?
Observing this, Micen grimaced in satisfaction,
assuming this emotion attested to the truth of the facts but, in a second, his
face again became clouded, for this presented him with a fresh set of problems,
since the search for and retrieval of the goods would not be possible until
after a special dispensation was secured from the Imperial Court.
On top of this, another worry also besets him. Now that the burgled stash’s (loot's,
plunder’s) whereabouts had been so carelessly disclosed to the entire court, he
feared that, despite the penalty of death, some of the spectators may retrieve
it before he could. This meant even more
effort and manpower to secure the temple area from such an unwanted intrusion.
Having no interest in the arts or literature, the name
Fradel Rurik Korvald had meant absolutely nothing to Prefex Micen. Fortunately, Ashrath, one of the court
clerks, had chanced upon a volume of Fradel's poetry a couple of years prior as
he was visiting a relative in the Capital, and he now suddenly recalled just
who that name stood for, as well as the acclaimed poet's influence among the
elite there. He hastened forward to
discretely whisper his warnings into the Prefect's ear, just before sentence was
to be passed on the accused.
Suddenly an uproarious, boisterous laugh from the back
rocked the entire courtroom, nearly shaking it to its foundation. As if of one body, all heads turned to see a
seated, fiery red-haired giant.
"Such insolence…
Who dares be so brazen and disorderly!
Bring forth the cheeky knave before me at once!" Micen bellowed.
The crowd (peeled) snapped apart in the middle to
allow the rushing bailiffs to reach the culprit. But the minute those in the lead came upon
the stranger, still seated and glaring at them, they lost their nerves and
froze perfectly still Like Mannequins allowing the rest that came after them to
pile into them.
The crowd outside the door craned their necks to see
what was happening inside.
As the fierce stranger slowly rose to his feet and,
with measured steps, walked weightily towards the Prefect, he looked even more
formidable, and the intimidated bailiffs and the crowd once more voluntarily
shrunk to the sides.
Unobstructed, the giant, (blazing) red-haired stranger
walked straight to the bench, picked up the murderer's weapon and rammed the
knife into the wood up to its hilt, barely missing Micen's knuckles.
Then, pointing a finger at the terrified Prefect, he
thundered, "This trial is a travesty of justice, and you are not fit to be
sitting on that seat."
Panning the
crowd with venomous eyes he bellowed, "All of you are beneath my
contempt!" and he spat on the floor in disgust.
His intense gaze now turned back on the prefect, it
burrowed deep into Micen's flesh, making the Prefect (break out) squirm in cold
sweat.
With a wry grin the stranger growled, "Pay heed,
for I will say this only once! This man,
known as Fradel Rurik Korvald, is innocent of any wrongdoing. He is a gallant, principled young man whose
only crime thus far is that he is too soft. Otherwise, he would not have found
himself in this despicable mess (farcical situation).”
He grimaced
coldly, “If you had taken the trouble, you sorry excuse for a Prefect, to
properly examine his papers you would have seen for yourself that he is a
stranger to these parts. I, myself, came
across him at a remote inn in Zhingcho Province at the same time that your
perjuring witnesses claimed that he was consorting with this vile, treacherous
woman, whose lying tongue should be cut from her mouth."
He had only to
turn his burning gaze in her direction, his hand resting on the sword hilt at
his waist, to cause Yenis to recognize him as the ghost in her room at Kuno
Temple. She shrieked and collapsed
unconscious to the floor like a stone.
"Bah! The worm is not worth tainting my sword with
her vile body fluids."
With a snort of
contempt, he again addressed Micen Do, "I will be leaving you now but, if
in three days’ time Fradel Rurik Korvald is not released, you will answer for
it to my sword's blade. The metal
thirsts for the heads of your kind."
 |
| 09- IMMORTAL ZONAR KUNTZU |
With a cold
sneer he turned his back to the Prefect, "I dare you to have your men
obstruct my way!"
As he passed by Fradel, he stayed his footing (steps)
just long enough to grimace at Fradel and bowed his head slightly. "I,
Zonar Kuntzu, now return the favor."
He let out a boisterous, sinister laugh which grated
on the nerves of the packed courtroom, then narrowed his eyes and, with a
serious visage, advised Fradel, "You must harden your heart for what is to
come and to finish the job I've started here."
As his hand saw the air, a sudden clap of thunder
deafened everyone and immersed the courtroom in a thick mass of fiery smoke and
light. When it cleared, as fast as it
had appeared, the stranger had disappeared into thin air.
All stood frozen, their tongues sticking out of gaping
mouths, as they stared at the spot where, just seconds before, Zonar had
stood. It took some time before their
breathing normalized, their heartbeat regulated, and they ceased trembling long
enough to remember to retract their tongues.
Those with the stronger constitutions now jostled
towards the door, stampeding over the bodies of the weaker ones who had fallen
underfoot. On their heels the rest
followed, tottering (lurching) in streams to the outside. Their knees knocking, their limbs trembling,
they all repeated the persistent murmur etched on their lips, "Zonar! Zonar!
We have seen the messenger of Death!"
The Prefect, having received the greatest scare of all
(still tongue-tied,) at the urging of Mouro, finally regained his senses and
power of speech. With his lackluster eyes, purple lips and pale, sickly face
drenched in perspiration, he gave up any idea of restoring order to the court
and, after dispatching the guards to search for the stranger, quickly adjourned
the proceedings. With the secretary
carrying the bulk of the documents, he withdrew to his private quarters while
the prisoners were hauled off to once more be pilloried in their dark cells.
(END OF SECTION 22)
JP.jpg)
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