Chapter 81 The trial
Amarien’s POV
I must have fallen asleep when the door of Orgah's little chamber exploded with an alarming thud. Nuns and soldiers filled the room in seconds.
I jumped out of bed, shaken by their presence!
"The curse thing!" One of them said,
"She has a little hideout!" A soldier spat, and he looked at me with venom in his eyes.
It had to be a bad dream, I told myself. But reality jumped on me when the looming Nuns and Soldiers in the room parted to make way for Nun Argo, whose ominous stick banged against the earth, shattering my heart.
She stepped into the room, carefully. There was no hurry or agitation in her composure, unlike the others'. She looked around the room carefully, taking in the half-eaten delicacies that were forbidden here and the soft bed I had all to myself.
Her eyes narrowed on me like a predator to its prey. "So this is where you've been hidden?" She scoffed and leaned in. "I heard you plan to run away, Amarien." She chuckled, and some other nuns joined in laughing.
I shook my head, pleadingly.
It isn't a dream!
By the gods, it isn't!!
"Take her out!"
The Nuns and Soldiers lunged at me and dragged me out of the soft bed. I cried and pleaded for my life, but they only enjoyed my plea.
I was dragged outside to the prayer ground, out in the open air, and what I saw shocked me. They had tied Orgah to a pole, stripped her and had her beaten to pulp. Orgah's swollen eyes stirred to consciousness when I was dragged into the scene.
"Orgah!" My heart ached in my chest. Orgah groaned in pain, but when her eyes fell on me, she offered a kind smile as if reassuring me she was okay.
But she looked nothing close to being that. She looked like she'd be dead in a moment. I looked up to Nun Argo as the soldier, and Nun threw me before her.
"Orgah had nothing to do with this! Please spare her life! It was me…!"
"Silence! You cursed being!" Argos's rage flared.
All the concubines had gathered here to witness the punishment, their whispers filled the air, most of them delightful and spiteful.
Slowly, Argo turns to Orgah like a wheel of death.
"Nun Orgah has proven herself to be unfaithful to this establishment." Argo started her announcement to the crowd. She was chosen by the Emperor himself to serve as my equal and established order to his place. But see what she has done, turn her back on the people because of this cursed being."
The crowd murmured in disapproval. I could tell they were ready, hungry to execute judgment, just like they did to Gina.
Goosebumps crawled up my body when I thought of the punishment for treason.
"Orgah has fed, clothed her, and given her a comfortable place to lay her head."
The crowd descends into a murmur of jest.
"To sound a resounding note of warning to all, Orgah will be punished likewise! She will be left on this pole for days without food or water. Anyone who tends to her is seeking death. And finally she will be banished down the nunnery, never to return till I say so!"
The crowd murmured with dissatisfaction.
"What about the death penalty?" Someone cried out.
"The sacrifice!" another said.
"Orgah should be dead!"
I gulped. If they want Orgah dead, what will they wish for me?
"Quiet!" Argos' roar silenced the crowd, and her predatory eyes finally returned to me. "As for you, Amarien, who would have known that after all these months being with us, you have a gift to offer?"
I froze in shock.
The crowd went crazy.
Feeding info to my shock, she smirked. "Yeah, Amarien. I know you're pregnant."
"What?!" Orgah cried; she fought to let herself loose, but she was too weak. "You're pregnant?!" Disbelief and hurt filled her eyes. I felt my heart wrenched.
I should have trusted Orgah.
I should have!!!
"We would never have learned of this gift she had for us if it hadn't been for a loyal concubine in our midst. My beloved Jana."
My eyes widen as my gaze shut around. Jana stepped out of the crowd, the other Concubines making way for her, looking up at her with envy.
She matched right to the podium, standing at Argos' side, looking down at me on my knees with nothing but delight in her eyes.
"It's my pleasure to serve the nunnery, Nun Argo!"
"How could you?!" I cried out. "Jana, I trusted you!"
"I'm as desperate as you are, Amarien. Besides, you brought this on all of us? Why should you escape the consequences?" Her words peeled through my heart.
"Correct, Jana. Many here have tried to win the Queen's approval. All we needed was a good reason to get rid of Amarien, and you found a very justifiable one." Argo nodded happily. "You will be dutifully rewarded. Queen Catherine has sworn your freedom and your reinstatement into the palace."
"Jana! You said it yourself that Catherine is out for no good. How could you do this?"
Jana rolled her eyes and sighed, "Then perhaps you didn't hear the quiet part out loud, Amarien. Leaving this awful place is better than any subservient rule Catherine has for me."
My gaze returns to Orgah, who was shaking, at this point trying to let herself loose. "Don't touch her, Argo. Don't! She's carrying the Emperor's child! It will get you into trouble to touch her!" Orgah fought and fought to get off the ropes, but no one paid her any heed. Not when her voice was hoarse from dehydration.
Argo's evil gaze resumed on me. "It's time you learn your punishments, Amarien."
I shivered.
"By the proclamation of the gods and the nunnery, we sent you on trial for the sins against the establishment." Argo read with fierce determination of an executional. "You have brought your cursed way into our land and brought sickness and strife to this people's place. You have bewitched Orgah into a subservient role and made yourself comfortable despite our restraints. You, cursed adultress, have brought the result of your sins to us here and have skimmed ways of escape so you would flee the punishment of the gods."
Argo leaned in with a delightful glint in her eyes.
"For all these charges, we declare you guilty!"