Ander - Part 3: Subchapter 15
15
"Too tight for you, murderer?" Garten asked, pulling hard on the knot around Ander's wrist until it started to dig into his flesh like a thousand tiny teeth.
"No, that feels just about right, thank you," Ander replied.
"Good! Because I predict you'll have to put up with it for quite a while!"
"You shouldn't be so jovial about this, Garten," Nilia said, working on Ander's other wrist. Her knot was just as inescapable, but stopped short of causing him pain, although he doubted this was out of pity or concern.
"Ha! And why shouldn't I be? We haven't had a trail like this in years. My only regret is that it had to come at the cost of Banno's life." He pulled the rope through his fingers, straightening out the coils one jerk at a time until he reached the black stone tied at the other end. He spun it around, turning the stone into a flickering grey circle in the firelight, and hurled it into the air.
Ander watched it sail over the outstretched arm of the Cora statue and drop down on the other side, penduluming back and forth until another Wolf tied it around the statue's ankle, jerking Ander's arm up with every tug.
Garten grabbed the tightening rope and walked with it, pulling it farther along the Cora's arm so that it shifted up and over the thumb, making it look like it was being held by the god itself. "Don't tie that too tightly, now," he instructed the other Wolf. "There's got to be just enough slack."
The Wolf nodded and loosened his knots just a little bit, lowering Ander's arm.
Nilia repeated the process on his left side, but her throw was accurate enough to land right between the Statue's thumb and index finger on the first try. While she went about securing the other end, Ander's eyes wandered across the sea of faces before him, turned into masks of black shadow by the fire at their backs.
Father was right at the forefront, showing no emotion whatsoever, his face as solid and unchanging as a chunk of granite. Standing to his right, in complete contrast to his father, was Hezzi. He had his teeth bared just like Banno used to, and his fur stood up in agitated spikes. His brow was furrowed so deep it looked like it would split his head right down the middle, and his hands were balled into fists, as if he wanted nothing more than to dash over and give Ander another demonstration of his rapid striking skills.
And moving through the crowd, surrounded by that bubble of empty space she always generated around herself, was his mother. But she looked... off, somehow. Not quite herself...
Father noticed this, too. Ander could just make out his sideways whisper to her: "Shekka, are you all right?"
She turned on him as if attacked, barking for the whole tribe to hear, "My son is being tried for murder! Of course I'm not all right!"
Her bubble of space suddenly doubled in size as startled Wolves backed away and Kadai stuttered out his apologies.
Still, there was something different about her, but before Ander could figure out what had changed, the ropes went taut and pulled his arms out straight, locking him in place. Pain shot through all the way from his wrists and up to his neck. He felt stretched out, as if his shoulders would pop right out of their sockets, but the worst pain came from the crooks of his elbows. It felt like his skin would tear open at the seams, and rather than getting used to it, the pain was only building with each passing second.
The drums sped up to a frenzy, riling up the Wolves into a perverse blend of fury and ecstasy.
Ander looked straight up at the behemoth towering over him, its fangs and claws of sharpened stone and its five all-seeing eyes bathed in pulsing firelight. They were now sharing the exact same stance, connected by more than just two lengths of rope.
The time of judgement has come.
"SILENCE!!" Father bellowed, his voice washing over the entire tribe. The drums stopped immediately, and the chatter slowly faded away until only the crackling fire and the ceaseless chirping of crickets could be heard. "Ander, you stand at the feet of the Cora, who sees all. You stand before your family and the entire tribe. You stand here accused of many crimes. Do you understand?"
"I do."
"You stand accused of treason, by disobeying the orders of your Chieftain and setting free a captive of your tribe. Do you deny this crime?"
"I do not."
"You stand accused of blasphemy, by denying the Cora its rightful sacrifice. Do you deny this crime?"
"I do not."
"You stand accused of murder, by taking the life of Banno, your own brother. Do you deny this crime?"
Ander hesitated, but what would be the point of lying at this late stage? He could see Banno's death every time he closed his eyes, even if only to blink, burned into his memory like a brand. He could see the tip of his arrow penetrate his brother's eye, exploding into a shower of red. There was no denying it. He did kill Banno. But Father said he would do everything in his power to help. He had no choice but to trust him.
"I do not."
The crowd livened up again at this.
"He admits it!"
"Why are we even bothering with this trail? Burn him, I say!"
"Pike his head!"
"Gouge his eyes!"
"SILENCE!!" Father bellowed yet again. "This trial is our sacred law, and I will not have you profane it with your impatience! If I, the father of the deceased, can keep his bloodlust in check, then why can't you!?"
The rabble quieted down a bit, but it took considerably longer than last time. Father would have to be very careful just to keep this from devolving into a full-blown riot.
"You will all get your chance to call for blood once the trail is over, but until then, those involved have the right to speak without interruption. By long tradition, the accuser goes first." He turned to his youngest son. "Hezzi, you're the only one who saw it happen. The floor is yours."
No, Father! Ander thought, distraught. Hezzi hated being the center of attention. He nearly went to pieces last time he was called to make a decision on Kiana's life, and that was just for a simple 'Yes' or 'No'. He couldn't be expected to stand up in front of the entire tribe and make a full account of everything he saw that night! He'd never be able to -
Hezzi calmly walked forward, sparing his brother only the briefest, coldest glare, and turned to face the tribe without a speck of fear.
Was this... really Hezzi?
"You all remember the day Wardo captured that Fox, and how Ander wanted to set her free..."
*
Ander's shoulder blades were beginning to ache, and every time he adjusted his position it felt like they would rip right out of his back like bloody wings, but he didn't care about that. His whole body would probably be screaming before long. What he did care about was the slow, methodical way Hezzi was telling the story, one fact at a time, as if he had rehearsed this speech well in advance. He even spoke about how he wanted to help Kiana escape, without any fear of reprisal. It was as if he simply didn't care anymore. About anything.
This wasn't the little brother he once knew. This wasn't Hezzi at all!
"That's when I heard the scream, and I ran as fast as I could in the direction of the river. It was almost overflowing by that point," he continued in the same monotone, moving from fact to fact without hesitation. "That's where I found the three of them, Ander, Banno, and the Fox. She was lying off to the side, unable to move much because of her ankle. Banno was in the river, holding onto Ander's arm, who was lying on his stomach by the bank. It looked like he was trying to climb back up."
"That's not what he was trying to do!" Ander interrupted before he could stop himself. He couldn't bear to hear Hezzi speak of him that way. Part of the reason he came back was just to set things right, to erase that memory of him standing in the rain with that look of horror in his eyes, as if his older brother had turned into a monster.
"Be quiet, Ander," Father said. "You'll get your turn to speak."
"But -"
"Be. Quiet."
Ander shifted uncomfortably, making the ropes groan.
"You may continue, Hezzi."
"As I said, it looked like Banno was trying to climb out. That's when Ander took an arrow from his quiver and he..."
This was the only part where Hezzi showed any emotion whatsoever. He glanced at Ander, all tied up with his arms outstretched to mirror the Cora, then dropped his eyes to the ground. "He stabbed Banno in the face with it."
Outrage from the crowd. Wolves screamed and shouted, stomped their feet, raised their fists to the air and hurled the foulest curses and insults imaginable at him.
"Murderer!"
"Betrayer!"
"You'll die for this!"
"I hope you burn in hell, you treasonous bastard!"
Ander turned his face away and tried his very best to ignore their words, but they crawled all over his body like a swarm of angry bees, stinging him with their hatred, pumping him full of venom. He could see their shadows on the ground, their elongated arms reaching out for him like black flames. And then...
The quickest sound, like a single flap of a bird's wing. Ander had barely turned his head when the stone struck him squarely against the ear and pain exploded all over the left side of his face, radiating outward like a ripple of heat. He could hear the cheers erupt from the crowd, but there was an odd whistle covering everything, making it difficult to discern any real words among the noise.
Father shouted something, but he couldn't figure out what. His voice was all thick and muffled, as if he was talking through a mouthful of cotton.
Ander tried to swivel his ears a bit, but doing so awoke a hot, burning line of pain inside the left one, and made a warm stickiness dribble down onto his neck. Without too much surprise, Ander realized he must be bleeding rather badly.
"Who threw that!?" Father's voice finally started coming through again. He walked all up and down the front line of Wolves, looking for any guilty faces in the crowd, but there were none. Quite the opposite, actually. Many were claiming responsibility, all clamouring for the credit of first blood while the others cheered and clapped their hands in approval.
"SILENCE!!" Father bellowed. How his voice could stand up to such opposition time and time again without failing was beyond Ander's guess. "The next one to try something like that will have a trial of his own to contend with! So you all better back down and shut up!"
The Wolves did as they were told, but grudgingly so, and only after Nilia and Garten took it upon themselves to help 'persuade' some of the more rowdy individuals with a few well placed (and well seen) shoves.
Ander's ear was uncomfortably warm, and it throbbed with every heartbeat, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
"Nilia! Garten! You have my permission to deal with any troublemakers as you see fit," Father said.
They both nodded their understanding, then spread out to opposite ends of the crowd, Garten with a huge smile on his face.
Father cleared his throat, then turned back to his children. "Now Hezzi, please continue."
"There's not much more to say, Father. Banno got swept away, and then it was only me, Ander, and the Fox." Hezzi paused, perhaps to think. "Ander told me that..." He stopped again, and bit down on his bottom lip.
"What did Ander tell you, son?"
"He told me that Banno tried to kill both him and the Fox, and that he wanted to kill me, too."
Some Wolves scoffed at this, but not very loudly. With Nilia and Garten patrolling the rows, it would be wiser to keep quiet (at least until they moved out of earshot).
"Do you think Ander was telling the truth?"
"No," Hezzi said immediately, and Ander's heart sink.
"So, what do you think really happened? Let us hear your thoughts."
"I believe Banno went after Ander to try and stop him. There was supposed to be a sacrifice the next day, and he was really looking forward to it. A lot of Wolves were."
Some nods of agreement, some whispers of "Yes", but Ander was probably one of the few who noticed the way Hezzi said 'Wolves' instead of 'us' or 'we all'. Whether that meant anything remained to be seen, but he would take any scrap of hope he could get, no matter how small.
"Maybe Banno really did try to kill the Fox, I don't know. But I do know that, even if he only wanted to bring her back, there's no way Ander would allow that to happen, because either way would end up with her getting killed, and I know that's something he would never allow."
"And why's that?"
Hezzi looked at Father as if the answer should have been obvious. "Because he's Ander. He can't even kill a squirrel without remorse."
"And yet you saw him kill his own brother."
"That's because..." Hezzi looked at Ander, seemingly conflicted, perhaps debating with himself whether he should say what he really wanted to say, or something different.
Barred from speaking, Ander could do no more than plead with his eyes, begging his little brother to understand.
It's me, Hezzi, he thought, hoping that, somehow, he'd be able to hear. It's Ander! Your big brother! Don't do this!
Hezzi squared his shoulders and said, "I believe Ander always hated Banno. And that's the truth."
Ander's knees buckled under the weight of this damnation, and if it weren't for the ropes painfully tightening around his wrists and keeping him upright, he very well might have sunk all the way to the ground. What made it worse was how Hezzi really was telling the truth, and everyone knew it, including Ander. Some deep, resentful part of him always hated his older brother, still hated him as a matter of fact. Banno was the personification of everything wrong with this tribe and, by extension, everything wrong with his own life. He was sick, twisted, demented. Crazy in a way not even fitting of an animal.
But Ander never wanted him dead. He never wanted to kill! He was forced to! If there was any other way, he never would have -
Not so different... after all...
Ander balled his hands into fists, but this only caused the ropes to bite into his flesh even deeper, cutting off the circulation.
"Do you have anything more to say, Hezzi?" Father asked.
Hezzi shook his head.
"Then you are done for now. You may step down."
Hezzi gratefully rejoined the crowd, but he kept his head low the entire time, even when those behind him gave his shoulders a reassuring squeeze, and told him what a good job he had done, and how proud Banno would have been.
Further down in the same row, Ander noticed the little Renna girl, the same one who had the soft spot for owls. She had her fingers intertwined and fidgeted with them constantly, clasping them together and unclasping them again, throwing rapid glances Hezzi's way. She looked to be on the verge of tears.
Ander relaxed his hands, which had become numb and prickly. If he was to have any chance, he would have to keep his emotions under control, no matter what.
"Now it is your turn, Ander," Father said. "Don't you dare lie to your tribe, and don't you dare leave anything out. Understand?"
Ander understood perfectly. If he told them absolutely everything there was to tell, then maybe the Wolves would be able to take his account and compare it to the Banno they knew in their own lives, just like Father had done, and come to see the truth for themselves. Even if he could only convince a few of them, it might turn out to be the difference between life and death.
So he began.
"Hezzi was right about everything that lead up to my confrontation with Banno, but he wasn't there when it started. He only saw the conclusion, and even that was not what it appeared to be. I don't blame Hezzi for believing otherwise. It was dark, and raining, and he was a fair distance away when it happened. I probably would have believed the same thing if I was in his place. But he didn't hear the things Banno said, nor see the things he did. I was trying to figure out a way to cross the river when he..."
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