Stalemate

Chapter 45

The sun scorched the cobblestone street. The city was silent, holding its breath while it waited for Maud Croxley to die.

    Ashtin stood, shoulder-to-shoulder with Clu Budrene and the other members of the Budrene House. Opposite them stood the remaining members of the Gibson house, separated only by the gallow, a pine scaffolding structure perched on stilts and looming like the vacant townhouses. Behind Ashtin, hundreds of common folk spectated the executions. They had already witnessed three of them: three Minarian boys who'd aided Maud Croxley in assassinating Danica Gibson.

    The morning had been long. Rather than hanging them all at once, the council had decided, for reasons vague to Ashtin, that the criminals would be hanged one by one. Ashtin watched three young boys dangle, at first kicking their legs and squirming like fish on a hook, before exhaling a final time and going limp.

    The executioner, a short stone-faced man, was now lowering the third limp boy down to the undercarriage for his assistants to have the noose removed and reset. The crowd was ghostly quiet, far more quiet than any crowd Ashtin had been a part of before. The footsteps of the assistants, the whispering among the watchers, the wind howling against the buildings, these sounds were pronounced and exaggerated in Ashtin's ears.

    She held her cards at her side, remembering the words she'd spoken, and the deadened crowd who listened. Her dispassionate delivery, and the feeling like no one believed what she was saying to them. As far as they were concerned, she should have been hanged with the rest.

    There was a delay after the final boy was carried off on a cot, his hand dangling off the cotton fabric, the skin under his fingernails blue. Ashtin wanted more than anything to look away. At the grit below her, or inside the storefront windows of the shops, or at the sky. But Clu had told her she must look. She must never take her eyes away. I"ll kill you if you do. You must look. To show them.

    He was always threatening to kill her now; it didn't have the effect on her that it once had. It was almost like a game now. Perhaps these words would become meaningless over time, and she would stop feeling sick and frightened. Then, much later in her life, when she least expected it, he would say these words again. And this time he would mean it.

    There was a lapse in time. Before, Ashtin had not noticed where the bodies were being taken or how the executioner pulled the rope back up with a bored disposition like he was thinking about what he'd eat for supper later, or that he needed to stop by the baker's to get bread. As if killing people was mindless work. Before she'd stared at the other boys, attached to one another with a row of iron shackles, waiting to die. She'd watched their young faces, emotionless. Their eyes set in front of them, watching as their friend climbed the stairs to his death. Ashtin knew they must have been reciting the proverb to themselves.

    She always knew this was how a Minarian was supposed to behave in these circumstances. He was supposed to act robotic, to communicate to the Dordans that they had no power over him; it was what was taught to them from the moment they spoke their first word, took their first step. This was what strength looked like. Forgetting one's human instincts to show courage.

    Ashtin had never viewed it as courage.

    They must have chosen to conceal Maud for dramatic effect. She had not stood in line behind the others. Instead, Ashtin watched as the crowd slowly began to split down the middle. She watched heads turn to gaze upon the murderer. First she saw the empty faces of the guards on either side of Maud. It was not until Eustace Gibson, Danica's successor, and his father moved aside that Ashtin gazed upon Maud.

    Behind the members of the council, the townspeople shouted at Maud.

    "Witch!"

    "Murderer!"

    "Burn in hell!"

    She came forward, hands bound behind her back, dressed in black. Her hair was tied back into a low bun to reveal her neck. Chestnut tendrils framed her pretty face; her forehead glistened with sweat. Her black eyes stared at nothing, disregarding the crowd of people who despised her.

    Ashtin almost looked away. But she felt Clu's eyes staring down at her. He was enjoying this; he was enjoying punishing her. At the foot of the steps, one of the guards unshackled Maud, and she walked, elegantly, up the stairs to the executioner.

    He seized her by the arm and yanked her to the front of the platform, displaying her for all to see. The crowd went into an uproar.

    Maud's expression did not change. She stared ahead, over the roof of the building. The executioner allowed the crowd to holler for a long time before he held up a hand. Ashtin listened as the yelling came to a slow cease.

    Still holding her by the arm, the executioner drew in a breath. His reptile eyes scanned the crowd. "Maud Croxley!" his voice boomed. The first time she'd heard him speak, when he'd announced ____, the first boy to be hanged, Ashtin had been startled by the authority in his voice, and wondered how such a voice could come out of such a small man. Maud stood at least a foot over the man; if she wanted to, Ashtin was sure Maud could easily escape from his grasp. "Sentenced to hanging for the assassination of House leader Danica Gibson!"

    Then he turned to Maud. "Do you have any final words?"

    The crowd waited for her to speak. Like the other three, she said nothing.

    "Very well," the executioner said. He guided her over to the hole in the scaffolding. He reached for the noose and began slipping it over Maud's head. The sound of their footsteps echoed, a breeze unsettled the wooden structure.

    Ashtin stared at Maud, her hands balled at her sides. She blinked away the wetness forming in her eyes. If she cried, even if she did not look away, she knew Clu would punish her for it. He would not have her beaten; it was always something subtle, something seemingly so insignificant that Ashtin might drive herself mad over it if she wasn't sure of Clu's disdain for her.

    The executioner tightened the noose around Maud's neck. Maud's face still did not change. He pushed her over the hinges in the platform. The part she now stood on would collapse in a moment.

    His hand grazed the lever that would kill her.

    At the last moment, Maud found Ashtin's gaze. She smiled at her, but it was not her usual smile. Not the smile she had once regarded Ashtin with when she saw her at Town Hall, or the one from when she came into their shared bedroom their first day at the mansion. Or even the smile from that night: the crazed, delirious smile spotted with Danica Gibson's blood. This smile was twisted and mocking. It reached into Ashtin's heart and crushed it. Ashtin watched her lips move, forming a single word. A word meant only for Ashtin.

    "Traitor," her lips said.

    The executioner yanked the lever, and Maud's head snapped forward.

    For the final time, Maud had been right.

The End