Chapter 42

 

The sun started to rise on the day and Nick stood in the courtyard, next to Tressey, now officially known as Lady Katherina Greta von Stroebel. Their hands brushed, and he could not help slipping his pinky finger around hers. She glanced at him, a hint of a smile creeping over her features, though it faded quickly. The darkness of the coming moments seemed to weigh heavily in the dawning light.

His mother and father stood to his left and Tressey to his right. They waited for the execution of the former Duke von Gruenewald and Madame Gothel. The hanging platform had been erected, starting yesterday afternoon, when the grand duke’s ruling had been read. Nick had been released of all charges against him, as he had acted in self defense, as well as in the defense of his betrothed. Even the grand duke understood the need to defend one’s love.

Penn, however, was not pleased with the grand duke’s decision. Penn, who usually had a smile and a charming word on his lips at any given moment, looked stricken. He had been given von Gruenewald’s holdings–all of them–and would officially become Duke von Gruenewald when the execution was over. Nick had hoped Penn would be happy, for the holdings would be back where they belonged. Instead, Penn looked ready to murder someone.

Bryan had received a commendation and another title, bringing him to the higher rank of Marquis von Auerbach, which he adapted to instantly.

Yet even with all this swirling around Nick, only one thing mattered. Tressey was leaving. He knew she needed to go, but still did not understand why she wished to cancel the betrothal. He had only just found her. He did not want to lose her.

Not now. Not ever.

The deep rhythm of a drum began to beat and the prisoners were escorted to the platform, pulling Nick’s attention from Tressey. The entire crowd shifted, their attention riveted to the prisoners coming to the platform.

There was a flavor of death in the air, an expectation of justice. Slowly Orbert took the platform, his true tendencies revealed as he sniveled and sobbed with every step. His cries echoed through the courtyard as he pleaded obligation to his lands, to his people. As he begged for mercy. The crowd–which included almost every person inhabiting the castle and the grounds, as well as a few travelers from Gruenewald–whispered at the man’s blubbering and, from the tone, not out of pity. And many watched not only the proceedings, but Penn. 

Nick wondered if he found the sniveling of his uncle amusing, but instead, Penn wore a face of utter sobriety, his expression grim, his brows furrowed in anger.

Gothel walked behind Gruenewald and, unlike him, held her head high. Next to Nick, Tressey took a sharp breath. Gothel looked even older than she had in the dungeons. She was gaunt–her skin pulled tight over her bones–her hair white as though struck by lightning and her eyes wild and pale against the shadows around her eyes.

For a moment, Nick wondered at the necessity of hanging a woman so old and decrepit. Surely she would die soon enough? She seemed most of the way there already. The only part of her to show any life at all was her eyes. She frantically scanned the crowd, though her face never changed expression.

Gruenewald was placed at the noose on the left, Gothel on the right. The drumming continued, increasing in tempo as the headsman placed a hood over Gruenewald’s head and guided him into place. The charges were read against him, and he jerked and twitched with every word.

Nick turned to Tressey, intending to ask her if the sight discomfited her, but she had her eyes on Gothel, who seemed to have found the object of her search at last. Gothel had a faint smile on her lips and her gaze was firmly fixed on someone–or something–though it was not Tressey.

Who was she looking at? He tried to see, but it could have been a number of people, most of whom he did not recognize. He looked back as the headsman approached Gothel, hood at the ready. As they read the charges, her lips moved and Tressey went rigid beside him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down to her.

“What, what is it?” Nick whispered in her ear.

“She is casting a spell.”

“No, she could not be. It would do no good,” Nick said, trying to reassure her, though he wondered if she was not casting some kind of curse on the castle or the lands. Tressey had told him she was capable of poisoning water supplies, and it was possibly how the von Stroebels’ plague had started.

Panic washed through him and he headed for one of the soldiers near the platform. “Send some men to check all the castle water supplies.”

“My lord?” the soldier asked, looking at him as if he were crazy.

“Go, do it. I want to be sure the water has not been poisoned.”

The guard nodded, eyes wide. After all, most of the residents–including the merchants who kept their tents in the far corner of the courtyard–used the castle’s supply. It was fed by several underground springs into a large reservoir beneath. If, somehow, Gothel had managed to escape her cell and poison the water… He did not want to think of the repercussions.

The drumming reached its crescendo, and Nick turned just in time to see the bodies fall.

That should have been the end of it.

Instead, a massive puff of smoke burst from Gothel’s body, clouding the platform and the first few rows of people. Everyone choked, coughing and crying out as they tried to move away from the smoke, only to run into those behind them.

“Tressey.”

Nick turned to look for her. He caught glimpses of her through the panicking crowd. She stood utterly motionless in the chaos, staring at Gothel’s body and the smoke swirling around her. Her eyes were wide and her mouth moved as she waved her hands in the air. He was only moments away from her, when he almost tripped over someone on their hands and knees on the ground.

“Enrika!”

Kiki scooped something up and shoved it in her dress.

Nick spat a curse, picking his sister off the ground. “What are you doing? You are going to get yourself killed!”

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out, for once, and she let him drag her to Tressey. Nick, being taller than almost everyone, was able to see around the crowd, and began herding both women toward the castle. His mother and father had already made it back to the main entrance.

The smoke had begun to dissipate by the time the trio joined them, but the coughing only seemed to be worsening. Men and women had tears in their eyes as they coughed to fight the bitter smell. Nick’s eyes were starting to burn, and he reached to rub them.

“Do not!” Tressey said, grabbing his arm. “That will only irritate it. Water. You need water.”

Nick nodded, and started directing them toward the nearest wellhead. Evidently, he was not alone in his thinking, and many people swarmed near one, fighting over access to the water.

He worked his way toward the water supply but when he reached it, paused. The guard had not returned to report on the water. This could very well have been part of Gothel’s plan for revenge. Anxiety gnawed at his stomach. He had to do something. He could not let everyone become sick.

“Please, wait!” he called.

Tressey surged through the crowd. “One line, everyone, please…” She reached for the water and Nick stopped her.

People screamed and cried for relief, but several guards had arrived and were keeping them under control. For the moment.

“Wait,” he said. “We do not know if it is tainted…”

“And we will not know until we try it.” Tressey pulled the ladle out of the bucket and sniffed the water.

“Tressey, no.”

“I would know quicker than anyone if it is poisoned and needed an antidote.”

Before he could stop her, she splashed some in her eyes, then took a great sip off the ladle.

She began to cough and Nick slapped the ladle out of her hand. “Tressey!” He turned to one of the guards. “Get a healer here now!”

Tressey waved her hands in the air. “No, no, wait, please…” She coughed again. When she looked at him, she smiled. “It went down wrong.”

Nick let out a breath, and glanced at the growing crowd. Their eyes were all beginning to swell.

“It is safe?”

Tressey nodded and started dishing out water to the people in line, helping them wash their eyes out and take a few sips to soothe their throats. The guards assisted, and Nick found a few extra ladles to serve people faster, but it still took almost an hour to attend to everyone.

After the last people were taken care of, Nick turned to look at the two bodies swinging from the platform.

Tressey stepped to his side, rubbing his arm. “It is over. She is gone.”

Nick nodded. “Yes, it is over.”