"Y- yes," she stammered. Her voice hesitant, soft almost a whisper.
"Good," I reply. She looked at me a little confused. "A good king needs three things. Loyalty. Love. Fear. Each of these things more important than the last."
"Without these three things you have chances of rebellion, upstarts. Look at your king. None fear him, therefore they had no fear in planning a rebellion. None of them love him. He's nothing but a tool in their eyes a means to an end. The general was loyal, but look how quickly he turned. All because the previous two were absent."
I paused and stared at Margaret. "Right now I have fear. The people in this room fear me. They know if they were to try anything they would die. The other two will come later."
"Now, do you love him?" I said. My eyes pointing towards the fat tub of lard hanging behind me.
"I- ummm," she hesitated.
"Remember not to lie. I already know the answer. I'm just seeing if you'll answer me honestly."
"Yes." Snickers could be heard through out the crowd, but we're silenced when I looked out at them. My gaze cold with a touch of anger.
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. My tongue clicked against my teeth like a parent that witnessed their child doing something naughty. I look at her with pity. "Here in a little while, you will understand why loving him was the biggest mistake of your life. Go stand over there against the wall until I call for you again."
She let out a soft sigh in relief, her legs nearly gave out, but she obeyed walking off to the side of the room, then she quietly stood against the wall.
"See? Not everyone needs to die." I say as I look out towards the crowd. You could feel the tension in the room relax slightly. Now that they knew that there was a chance that they didn't have to die. They could feel it. Just the slightest shimmer of hope.
"You there, maid step forward." The maid in question steps forward.
Time continued to pass. Some were spared told to stand off to the side. Others were killed for their crimes embezzlement, murder, rape, etc. Some were judged more harshly than others depending on their crimes and positions.
So far twenty people were spared. Two royal guards, five maids, nine castle guards, three cooks and the general. Sounds like a lot, but since I had already judged over fifty people. It meant that less than half of the were not corrupt officials.
Now there was only a few people left, at least in this room. There were others in the castle. If they hadn't run away yet.
"You there step forward." A old man stepped forward and gave a slight bow. My gaze lingered on him for a few moments.
Murder.
I raise my hand and force the old man to his knees. "Margaret, step forward." Margaret stepped forward and stopped in front of me. She started to shake again thinking her judgement had yet to be completed.
"Relax, your judgement is over." Her shaking stopped and she let out a slight sigh of relief.
"I called you back up here, because I'm going to give you a task." She looked confused but didn't voice it. "You Margaret are going to be the one to judge him, or should I say give him his punishment."
"I- I " she stammered. Her confusion more evident than ever.
"Hold on. I will tell you his crime. You just get the right to punish him. Let's tell it in the form of a story. A story that might seem familiar to you as well as others in this room."
She remained silent. Her confusion at this point palpable. Wondering why she was given such a right a right to decide one's fate.
"Before I begin. General if you would hand her your knife.". The general shared Margaret's confusion, but did as he was ordered.
"Now let's begin. Once upon a time, there was a young woman no older than fifteen. Both her and her little brother were orphans. The young woman loved her little brother more than anything an refused to abandon him. She worked, she stole food, she did everything she could to keep them alive. One day her brother got sick. The sickness was unknown. She worked hard to buy medicine to help leviate the symptoms of her brother's illness."
It clicked, Margaret knew this story. It was her story after all. But what did her story have to do with this man's life. She was actually grateful to this man. Though he didn't succeed he did everything he could to cure her brother and alleviate his pain.
"The young woman's brother got worse and worse each passing day. The young woman became more and more worried. Desperately trying to find a way to help him."
I paused a smile crept across my face before I continued. "One day a man appeared, a fat piece of shit of a man, but a man nonetheless."
I look towards the king still hanging there. His eyes the look of horror. He also knew this story and he knew how it ended.
"The man gave the young woman an offer. If she came and worked for him as a maid, in the castle he resided in, he would do his utmost to cure her brother. The young woman looked at him as if he were a shinning ray of hope. She became his maid and treatment started on her brother. She worked tirelessly for the man who was trying to save her brother. She worked till she could no longer feel her fingers, her hands bled, but still continued to work."
My smile grew wider in anticipation. "But the man had other plans. You see all dragons have a vice. Every dragon has something they covet more than anything. Dragons are collectors by nature. Most of the time it's gold. Hence the legends of dragons and gold. But it could be anything truthfully. Even something intangible. For this man it was hearts or love. This man coveted the hearts of young women."
A few other maids and servants of the castle looked curiously at the king. Because not only was this story familiar to Margaret, but also to them. When they were at their lowest the king came to them with a deal. Either to save a loved one from illness, erase a debt, among other things.
"The man was obsessed with collecting hearts. It was the only time he actually put any work into something. What he wanted was the young maid's heart and he refused to to share it with another. Not even the young maid's brother. The man went to his castle's healer and told him to slowly kill the brother. He told the healer to make it look like the sickness took him. So the healer who had a bit of a sadistic streak happily complied. I mean he's done this many times before. Hell, he not only has he killed relatives of other servants of the past, he even caused some of them to get sick in the first place. So that the man could swoop in and claim the heart he coveted."
All eyes were on the king and the old healer. Rage filled the hearts of the servants. Margaret stared at the healer with unbridled fury. Sher hands shaking uncontrollably. The normally dignified maid was now a beacon of pure unadulterated rage. Pure and unrelenting wrath was consuming her very being.
"Not only did he cause others to get sick, but he also got young women in debt. By using the kings authority the old healer was able to pull strings from behind the scene. To make the man's wishes come true. Not that he didn't enjoy watching the women suffer as well. The old healer did as he was told and slowly killed the younger brother. When the younger brother died, the young maid cried for days and swore her everlasting, undying loyalty to the man who ordered her brother's death. She even fell in love with the man. Not knowing that the very man she loved used her brother's death as a way to collect her heart. She then continued to work unrelenting for the next fifty years. Eventually proving herself enough to become the man's personal maid. The man secretly relished in the fact that even though he ordered her brother killed, she bathed him, fed him, cleaned up after him and took the utmost care of him. The end."
Margaret stood there stunned. Realizing fifty years of her life was wasted on this horrible excuse of a man. Realizing that she loved the very man that caused her her greatest heartache. She loved knowing he would never would return it, but she was okay with that. However what she couldn't forgive was that he ordered the death of her brother.
Her rage boiled beneath her skin. She desperately tried to hold it in, but it was unrelenting. It couldn't be held down. She screamed. Tears flowed freely down her now red cheeks. She fell to her knees unable to stand.
"Now do you see? How you made the biggest mistake of your life? The man beside you slowly poisoned your brother. A creation of his own making. Made just for situations like yours. Parents, grandparents, lovers, brothers and sisters. Dozens have died. Due to his poisons. Just so the king could lay claim to your heart. Now the choice ....."
Margaret couldn't hear my words anymore. The rage within her had boiled over blinding and deafening. She turned towards the old healer her teeth bared. She was growling. Spit was flying out with every heavy violent breath.
Her fist tightened around the dagger in her hand. Her knuckles turning white. She lunged at the old healer toppling him over. She raised the dagger high into the air. Then it came down with force. Piercing the old healers chest. The healer began to scream in pain, but the knife raised again, then came down again. And again. And again. And again. Over and over again the motion repeated. Each stab of the dagger caused blood to splatter everywhere even across her face. She continued stabbing even after his screams stopped.
The general was about to stop the madness, but I raised my hand to stop him. To let her continue until she was satisfied.
She continued. The other servants who were also wronged by the old healer, at one point had the look of rage etched on their faces now they had showed a mixture of joy and relief. The man that caused heartache to each of them was now covered in his own blood. Laying in a growing puddle.
The stabs finally stopped after a few minutes. The old healer was stabbed over fifty times. Across his body and face. His chest now a huge bloody hole. His face was even stabbed a few times. One particularly nasty stab wound in his eye while he was still alive.
Her breath heaving like she ran a marathon a full speed all the way through. She looked up towards the ceiling her face covered in blood not a trace of her fair skin could be seen. Tears once again flowed. "Jacob.... I'm sorry," she whispered as she pointed the dagger to her throat.