When they were all sated, the Margrave and his most vile underlings were led to them, clasped in irons. Seeing them again raised equal parts fury and fear in her. Vero realized that she was clenching Jean’s knee, and the hilt of her sword.

  “My Lord.” The Margrave bowed to the Marquis, a picture of perfect manners in shackles. “I formally surrender to you, Ser.”

  “Thank-you,” replied Jean. “Now, our tribunal shall begin. I will be acting as chief judge, with Morther Sarah representing the church, and the blind ascetic Alexius acting in the interest of the common people.”

  The Margrave’s mask of court manners dropped quickly. “This is outrageous. You have no right to try me at all! Let alone in this doctored court! This is no rule of law!”

  “My bailiffs have swords,” Jean answered simply. “That gives me force of law.”

  The mask of affronted honor was the next to drop. “My Lord, I was compelled to act as I did.” There was stark terror beneath, and Vero thought this was his genuine face showing at last.

  “Oh, really? This court is already familiar with the charges pressed against you. Why don’t you explain this compulsion to us?”

  The Margrave fell to his knees. “I was held slave to a vampyre! The Black Palatine-!”

  “-Wouldn’t bother with you,” Jean finished for him. “And I’ve received good evidence the Black Palatine was destroyed this past winter, months ago.”

  Vero killed the monster herself.

  “He acted through a servant,” the Margrave retorted. “The wife to the Landgrave of Tharebrant.”

  Sidonie. Vero feared that their captors intended to turn them over to her, and the traitorous conspiracy of slayers the vampyress allied herself with. She had no notion why they had not.

  “And what did this vampyre order you to do with these prisoners you took?”

  “To hold them,” replied the Margrave eagerly.

  “Hold them until when? Hold them and do what to them?”

  The defendant’s face fell. “I wasn’t told. I sent letters many times to inquire. No response arrived.”

  “You were not ordered to abuse them?”

  The Margrave was enthusiastic to please, and grasped for this lifeline now offered to him. “I was told to keep the Lady Veronique alive and healthy, as you may see she is.”

  “So, we should consider all treatment of the prisoners while under your captivity to be your own personal responsibility?”

  He immediately backtracked, after hearing his story described to him by Jean in that light. “No, Ser! My guards- I can’t watch their behavior at all times- can I? You know as well as I how it is to manage so many fighting men, and how liable such men are to put their own pleasures over their duties. I’m not responsible-” He continued to bluster condemnations of his own men, and the other defendants did not look pleased by their master’s quick betrayal.

  Jean cut through the noise. “How were you ordered to take these travelers captive in the first place?”

  “A messenger arrived, bearing signs proving that he was from the Landgravine. He told me of their location, and that I would be rewarded for seizing them. I dispatched servants to bring them here right away,” he finished endearingly, a man of such earnest vain pompous delusion he could only presume the Marquis was, at present, merely auditioning for his own witless toady, and that he might impress Jean by his previous willing capacity for the role.

  “Who is this messenger, and where is he now?”

  “He was called Iskander. But he vanished, a fortnight ago.”

  Vero had never seen or heard of any messenger while she was held prisoner. Jean was mostly bemused by the pleading of the accused, but hearing that the messenger left a fortnight ago aroused his curiosity, Vero was not sure why.

  That was not the direction his questioning took, however. “And he claimed you would be rewarded, yes? So, it appears you were not so deep under a compulsion you could not still act in your own self-interest then.”

  A note of sheer panic crept back into the Margrave's voice. “I never harmed the Lady Veronique! I ordered that she be kept alive, and absolutely forbid any of my men to take her carnally! Those were my instructions from the messenger, and those were the instructions I gave!”

  “After you took her captive! I’ve seen the results of your keeping with my own eyes, to say nothing of the others’ treatment. I’ve heard enough already to take it under my own authority to revoke all lands you once held under my feudal bond. I’m also turning all of you over to the interrogators to retrieve every detail of the association with your undead mistress, and your actions taken here. Then this tribunal can go about scheduling executions- or calling for an inquisition.”

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  No one looked pleased by the prospect of an inquisition. Vero was sure Jean only mentioned the possibility to make the first alternative seem much more desirable to the onlookers in the comparison. The prisoners were dragged away in despair, and Jean dismissed the assembly soon after.

  He asked if she wished to spend the night there, but Vero assured him that she would much rather sleep in his camp. Before they left, she caught Dora for a few words to themselves.

  The moment they were alone together, Dora rushed to her. Vero bundled the girl into her arms on instinct. Dora buried her face against Vero’s breast, but Vero could feel her occasionally heave with sobs.

  Vero had no notion of what she should do, so she only held Dora, kissed her, and occasionally tried to coax her to stop crying. After several minutes of trying, at last her attempts at comfort appeared to have an effect. Dora ceased to weep and began to return her kisses.

  “I’m sorry. And I’ve soaked your beautiful new dress.”

  “I could hardly care less. You aren’t hurt are you, my love? I can send for a doctor…”

  Dora laughed a little and shook her head, but she still clung to Vero. “No, but it pleases me to still hear you call me ‘my love.’ I feared- but I understand completely, of course.”

  “That’s excellent. If you understand completely, then you can explain it all to me.”

  “Explain what?”

  “Whatever it is we’re discussing. The subject has eluded me.”

  “Vero, I thought you were only teasing me with those stories about having a noble lover- I didn’t know that… but the Marquis de Fer is the richest man on the continent, outside of the Republic! Why did you ever leave Velois in the first place?”

  “To practice my trade.” Vero found herself shifting into her lower speaking register.

  “Why practice a trade at all, when one knows a fellow who has the means to buy you anything you desire?”

  “But then, suppose that this fellow decides not to use his means to buy me whatever I desire?”

  “When a fellow looks at a woman the way the Marquis looks at you, he always buys her whatever she desires.”

  “Ah!” Vero laughed. “I’m glad to see you’re well enough to explain the ways of the world to me again. I feared- I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from those bastards. I-”

  “-Don’t be foolish, Virgil. How can one man protect anyone from a castle full of brigands, who haven’t the least consideration for the laws of hospitality set out by the gods themselves? I only started to cry because- well, it’s all been such a terror. When I saw you- a woman doesn’t expect to see her husband in a fabulous new dress, and on the arm of the richest and most handsome man in Velois. Although you do look very beautiful.”

  “Not so beautiful as you, cherie.”

  “Do you really mean that?”

  “I do.” Vero gave her a proper, lengthy kiss. “Jean is the first man- first person, I ever fell in love with. But there were also reasons why I left him years ago. It’s still too soon after meeting him again for me to tell you honestly how I feel, because I don’t know myself yet. But none of that alters my feelings for you.” Dora swooned in her arms. “I want you to be prepared, however. His lordship may call me away from you often over the next several days. We shall need his help to deal with the Curia and their allies.”

  “That hardly matters. Someone of my profession can’t honestly hold onto feelings of jealousy after all, can she? My heart belongs to you eternally. All I wish from you in return is to spare only the slightest sign of affection for me. So long as I have only a few moments of respite alone with you, my heart shall still sing with them all the hours until we can be together again.”

  They kissed a final time before separating, and each returned to the others alone.

  Before they left Redrock, Jean took Vero to watch the executions. Of all their company, only she chose to watch their former tormentors meet their end.

  She was torn between satisfaction and revulsion by her desire to be a witness. Vero knew that Jean never ordered an execution without being present to see the deed done. He once told her he thought it was craven for a judge to do otherwise. If he was going, then Vero refused to do otherwise.

  “How did you ever learn we were being held here?” Vero asked, while the prisoners were being led out in full view of their former subjects.

  The populace had completely transferred all loyalty to their new rulers, and the former masters of that place were met with nothing but the scorn due those vanquished.

  “An anonymous message was sent to Freddie- a fortnight ago,” Jean answered.

  “That was why the timing of this messenger, Iskander, interested you.”

  “You noticed that, did you? I shall need to watch my face more carefully. Yes, the timing does seem coincidental, doesn’t it?”

  “But if this Iskander was the one who arranged our capture, why would he later act to secure our release?”

  “I’m not certain. It’s also possible he merely learned that word had reached us, and wished to leave before we arrived.”

  “Hmm.” The whole matter troubled Vero.

  The beheading of the nobles went first, beginning with those lowest in rank, and climaxing with the former ruler of that loathsome castle. Watching these executions gave her the most pleasure. It was a quicker and kinder death than the peasant criminals would receive, but Vero still thought it was justice enough to see an aristocrat’s head come off.

  Much of the crowd felt the same way, and many of them went away once the Margrave had been done with. After that there were the hangings. Those were for the common men, the ones who personally violated Dora and Conner at the behest of the beheaded. A few of these men were hardened into dispassion, but most looked terrified. There were pleas for clemency.

  Not all the prisoners shared the same depths of depravity, although all of them were cruel in some aspect. The truly innocent were already sorted out by this time. Vero pointed out those who she knew held themselves back from the worst abuses though.

  Jean spoke with his executioner, who took additional care with the nooses of those she named. Their necks were broken at once by their falls, and their bodies were left out for the wild crows to retrieve their souls.

  All the rest hung from their necks for a long time before they died. Even the hard men were afraid by the end, and they all shit themselves as they expired. Jean ordered a trench dug, and those not left out for the birds were all entombed together in a mass grave, for their souls to fester deep in the dark earth.

  By the end, Vero was sickened at the entire process. She still thought that she made the right decision to attend. Jean was right, it was craven to order a man to die and refuse to witness the deed done. The one thing Vero never wished him to believe of her, was to be craven.

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