Blood and Scales

Chapter 15 - Public Execution

Aelia was blindfolded by the guards as the last light of day faded in the cold stone cell. She was bound tightly by rough ropes and pushed out the door. Her shoulder hit the edge of the doorframe, and she winced as she felt it pop out of the socket. She winced again as she felt it pop back in.

The guards pulled her roughly up the stairs, and she tripped over most of them. The rough stones scraped her shins. She was sure she left a trail of blood on the steps, but they healed again almost as fast as they were made. The healing didn’t spare her the pain.

After being pushed and pulled this way and that through the maze-like corridors of the prison, she tasted fresh air for the first time in nearly a week. It was sweet and burned her parched throat, but she savored it nonetheless. The sweetness of the air was quickly soured by the fact that there was a wailing mob calling for her death.

Aelia flinched at every shout as they pushed her through the jeering crowds of lizigoths. The occasional rock hit her, and her skin itched as the bruise healed nearly instantly. She was pelted by other things as well, but they mostly went splat and left her feeling sticky. It was the smell that bothered her most about that.

She was once again dragged up some steps, and then thrown down to her knees, which screamed in pain at being so abused. She knew that the only reason any of this even hurt was that she was starving and weakened. All the same she didn’t really feel that this sort of treatment was warranted. After all, what had she really done wrong?

Aelia’s eyes took only a moment to adjust when the blindfold was removed from her eyes. She was horrified when she came face to face with her executioner - Ardera. The crowd’s fervor grew. She couldn’t make out any particular thing they said, but the feeling behind it was clear.

They thought she was a monster. They thought she was a murderer. The hatred burned, and the thought that they wanted her dead wore her down to resignation. For the second time that week, she knew that she was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. The chief of the village held his arms up to silence the gathered crowd which, as if by magic, complied.

“We are here today,” the chief began solemnly, “to avenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, and our elders. Killed in a vicious and unprovoked attack by a warband of vicious monsters. Those standing here today are only doing so because of the brave sacrifices of our honored dead.

“Tonight’s feast will ensure that their courage and strength remain in our village. As is our tradition, the fallen will be consumed first by the youngest named then on by age until their essence has been consumed. But first, we must deal with the last remaining stain on our village - this monster who turned our promising young Grunna into a beast like her. His essence will not be consumed tonight. To do so would bring a curse into our village, and so for the robbery of his greatness, this monster will be executed.

“We are giving our new druid the honor of overseeing this execution. She has distinguished herself in the recent invasion by the evil monsters from outside the swamp with her protection of the children of the nursery and the slaying of the monster’s leader as he tried to steal them from their beds,” the chief finished, and a loud cheering and applause roared out after his proclamation.

Aelia barely heard the footsteps coming from behind her as she was dragged to her feet. A rough noose slipped over her head, and tightened uncomfortably. She saw feet coming around from behind her, and a hand pulled her face up. Her horror turned to confusion as Ardera grinned and winked at her.

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“Trust me,” she mouthed, then turned towards the crowd.

“We now offer prayers to the spirits of the land,” she intoned loudly and solemnly as she turned back to the crowd “to accept the souls of our honored dead as one of them.”

There was a soft whispering that filled the crowd as they all bowed their heads in some sort of prayer. Everyone, that is, except Aelia and Ardera. The lizigoth druid grinned wickedly and whipping a sword from underneath her robes, ran at Aelia.

Aelia flinched, and tripped backwards, pulling the noose tight around her throat. Ardera kicked the lever that opened the trap door underneath Aelia’s feet, and deftly sliced through the rope that was strangling her. They both fell into a cart.

Ardera landed on Aelia, knocking the wind out of her.

“Sorry, about that,” Ardera said, as she rolled off Aelia and whipped her robes off to reveal traveling clothes, “I didn’t have a lot of time to plan your rescue.”

“Wait, you didn’t betray me?” Aelia could feel hope well up in her heart and tears well up in her eyes.

“Of course not, silly,” Ardera laughed, “I said you could join my tribe didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but…” Aelia was interrupted by cries of outrage from the villagers.

“I’m afraid that I will likely no longer be welcome in this tribe anymore, but we can discuss that later,” Ardera grabbed one of the two sacks and thrust it into Aelia’s arms, and slung the other over her shoulder, “unless you wanted to be executed for no reason.”

“Of course not!” Aelia exclaimed, as she also slung the sack over her shoulder.

“Then follow me,” Ardera grabbed her hand and ran out from under the raised platform. With a twist of her wrist, the reeds that made up the path from the town center started to grow and wove themselves into a thick wall between them and the villagers.

The two women ran through the empty village until they hit the edge of the swamp.

“This is going to take me a second,” Ardera said, dropping the sack of supplies at her feet. Ardera crouched down, and touching the ground with her palms, a few feet in front of her vines started growing slowly at first, but then getting thicker and sprouting nasty needle thin thorns.

Sweat beaded on Ardera’s brow and after a few minutes the vines wove themselves into the trees. Aelia just then noticed that they weren’t just in front of them, but extended as far as she could see around the village.

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Ardera fell on her tail, gasping for breath. The villagers had managed to break through the reed barrier but were getting tangled in this new thorny barrier and spat curses at them with everything they had.

“I think this means you’re going to be Aelia the wanderess after all.” Ardera said after she managed to catch her breath. She dusted herself off and picked up her sack.

“Only if you’ll be Ardera the Wanderess.” Aelia said back in a teasing tone, while bumping her shoulder against Ardera’s .

“It certainly has a ring to it, but doesn’t having the same last name mean we’re family to your people?” Ardera asked, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of her neck. Aelia thought it was adorable that Ardera wasn’t looking at her when she said that.

“Of course it does,” Aelia said and grabbing the woman’s chin pulled the lizigoth into a strangely toothy and very awkward kiss.

“We’re going to have to work on that,” Ardera chuckled.

“Definitely,” Aelia laughed.

The two women, weighed down with large sacks of supplies, hand in hand and grinning from ear to ear, ran off into the moonrise.