The Mage of Blue Elm

Chapter Six

I measured time in drips of water. A steady plunk, plunk, plunk that part of me hoped might drive me mad so that I could be excused of charges on the basis of insanity. I regretted spending my last vial on fleeing the guards in the street. Not that I knew enough magic to get me out of this cell regardless.

Many, many water drips later, a guard brought me a tray of food. Cold vegetable stew and a hunk of bread that tasted only a couple days stale. I ate slowly, methodically, trying to eat up time with the meal, wondering when I would be called to trial.

It all feels very routine. I giggled, the sound echoing in the tiny chamber and drowning out the water momentarily. Perhaps, I was going insane.

I dozed, counted water drops, imagined I was back at sea, picked at a thread in my shirt, ate another cold, day-old meal and was finally summoned to the Council chamber.

Not much had changed in the seven years since I had last been here. They had replaced the carpet, and there seemed to be several additional wall sconces. But the hard-backed wooden pews were the same, as was the raised dais on which the five Council members sat in comfortable wing-backed chairs behind a stone table. I was marched into the little wooden pen constructed in the center of the floor that faced the Council. The guards shackled my hands to an iron ring and I tried to remain still as the cuffs chaffed against my raw skin.

There was no audience save for the guard that remained once the heavy doors behind me were closed. The resounding boom took a few seconds to fade and I used it to study the five people before me. The Council was made up of one representative from each of the three governing families, a representative from the Merchant's Guild, and a representative of the City Guard. I recognized the wizened matriarch of the family of First Manor. Grishelda. She had been present at my last sentencing and was the only one who suggested a death sentence. Her cold grey eyes found mind and hardened as though we were sharing the same thought.

The rest were strangers. There was a portly man with a large mustache from the family of Second Manor; a middle-aged woman with a severe jawline and heavy khol lining her eyes from the Merchant's Guild; a stone statue of a human being with knuckles the size of my wrist from the City Guard; and finally, a handsome, utterly bored-looking younger man from the family of Third Manor. He was the only one I scrutinized closely.

He was slumped in his chair, looking off into the distance as though this was the last place he wanted to be. Was his wife or his mother the Lady of Third Manor? His age made it difficult to be sure. Did he know how desperately she wanted to speak with me? Had she whispered instructions in his ear about how to potentially sway this trial?

My pulse fluttered like a bird in my chest. His presence made me more nervous. Had this just been a regular trial, I would be facing the same sentence. Banishment was not ideal, but it would not be the devastating blow it had been last time. This time, I had no intention of serving my sentence at sea. I would make my escape as soon as I could and reenter the city disguised only long enough to find Franc and flee. But with the shadow of the Lady of Third Manor hanging over my head, my immediate future was murkier than a puddle behind a tavern.

The boom of the door had finally folded back into the silence of the chamber and I took a deep breath. The Lady of First Manor picked up a piece of paper and began to speak in her nasally, creaking voice. It scratched down my spine just as it had last time and the chains around my wrists clinked as I shivered.

"This trial is now in session. The accused, Fayore Dumont, stands before us charged with the use of forbidden magic. Miss Dumont was previously found guilty of the same misdemeanor seven years ago and, as I understand it, has just returned from completing her sentence." She set down her paper and cleared her throat in a manner that suggested she was gargling rocks. "Tell me, child, do you not understand the laws of this island? Or do you think yourself above them?"