The Invisible Chains - Part 3: Bonds of Blood (33 page)

“He had this dungeon built, you know. Used to be under the tower, but the screams kept him out of his sleep, he said. That's why we have this sound proof torture room now. Anyroad... So, one day he's riding out of the castle going hunting and there stands this young farmer women. Standing still. In her best robe. ‘A great harm has been done to me and I want justice done,’ she cries out when prince Pie comes riding by. Now, mind you, the prince was still a little bit drunk from the previous evening. ‘Be quiet wench,’ one of his friends cries at her, ‘don't you see the lord governor has no time for the likes of you?’

“And they rode on. Then the young farmer woman shouts after them, ‘If he has no time to speak justice he is no lord and he has no business being a governor either.’ Now you can imagine nobody had ever spoken to the prince like that. One of his friends was already dismounting, no doubt to teach the young woman a lesson.

But the prince raised his hand and asked, ‘What injustice has been done to you?’

“The girl explained that the handsome young son of the richest farmer of her village had lured her under some pretext into a barn and there forced himself upon her, and that as a result she was pregnant. He denied everything. She didn't want the child. She wanted him punished because she feared he would force himself upon other, innocent girls, just like herself. And she wanted money to go to a wise woman to get rid of his brood that was growing in her.

“The prince thought for a moment and then said, ‘You'll have your wish, woman. I will speak justice, but if I find that you have accused an innocent man for your own gain, this sun is the last you will ever have seen rising.’ ‘I ask no more,’ the girl answered.

“The prince ordered the young farmer's son, and his family, and the elders of the village to be fetched and the Great Hall to be prepared immediately. Then he hastily went back to the castle, because, if the truth be known, by then he had become sick and had to throw up. He also had a spot of the runs.

“His friends said he was in no condition to preside over a long and boring trial, but he waved their concerns away, saying he could both be sick and listen to what people had to say at the same time.

“By midday the hall was filled and prince Pie was sitting on his throne, a man beside him who regularly wiped his forehead with a cloth drenched in cool water out of a bucket. The girl told her story. She was a bit intimidated by all the people standing around, but her voice was firm. The young man denied everything and said that she had seduced him. Then several other girls and young women came forward, wanting to speak.

The prince let them, excusing himself once in a while when he had to retire to relieve himself or vomit.

“The prince himself asked hard questions. Of all the women involved and of the young man. ‘Are you seriously asking me to believe that all these women lied. That they all seduced you, and that you are completely innocent? Think carefully, man. A confession could move me to clemency, and maybe I will let you live.’

“The young man broke down and confessed. He asked for forgiveness. His mother came forward and asked for leniency. She said they would pay everything that was asked to repair as much as they could. She begged for the life of her son. And she got it.

“Prince Pie retired to think about the judgment he would pass, and also for the other reasons I mentioned.

When he came back the whole Hall became quiet. ‘Do you know what you have wrought?’ he asked of the young man. ‘Not only have you violated this young woman's body and forced yourself upon her, you have also destroyed whatever trust she may have had in her fellow man. How can she ever look at any male without being afraid? Without wondering if he too is going to violate her? How can she ever love again?

How can she give herself to someone without thinking of the vile things you did to her? You've forever destroyed the greatest joy and happiness a human being can have. You can never give back what you took away from her. You can never repair what you destroyed. You've given her a life sentence. So I have no other choice than to give you a life sentence as well.’

“Well, he had promised the mother to spare her son's life. I wonder if the young man himself was so happy with that, though. ‘My justice shall be quick and it shall be public,’ Prince Pie continued. ‘I sentence you to be castrated, that you may never violate another human being again, and I want it done forthwith and before everyone present here, so that all may know, that as long as I am lord governor of the Northern Marches these crimes will be punished, regardless whether the perpetrator is rich or powerful. Furthermore, I sentence you to lifelong imprisonment at the Royal Farms, whereto you shall be brought right after your public castration.’

“The young man almost fainted, as did his mother. But she got herself together and kneeled before the prince.

This was their only son, she cried. Wasn't it unjust to rob her of her grandchildren? She begged the prince to spare him the cruel fate of castration.

“The prince answered her that he had already been more than clement in granting her first request. He assured her he would keep his word and let her son live. In fact, he said, he would see to it that from now on the criminals at the Royal Farms would be looked after properly and not he Roy an heworked to death, but that their ailments would be taken care of so that they could lead a long, a very long, productive life, working on the fields from sunrise to sunset. He reminded her that men could very well live without balls. Bet you didn't know that it was prince Pie who ordered the humane treatment of prisoners at the Royal Farms, did you, your highness?”

“No, indeed, I didn't,” Anaxantis replied softly.

“So, the young man was castrated by my great-grandfather. Haven't had any occasion to perform one myself, I have, but my father made me practice on the bodies of criminals they had hung, back when I was a young lad. It's actually a simple procedure. At the time, prince Pie wanted it done publicly, so they stripped the young man. Normally, we would lay him on a table, but then nobody would have been able to see anything.

So they kept him standing upright, held fast by two strong men. Then they made a slit on the right side in his ball sack, exposing the testicle. You can just sort of fold the skin back a bit. The ball itself is attached by what look like cords. Actually they're little tubes. They're cut with a sharp knife. Couldn't tell myself, since the men I practiced on were already dead, but it seems to hurt like none of your business. Most of the time they faint at that stage, the lucky bastards, or so my father told me. By all accounts our young man did, and the men who were holding him had to keep him upright by slinging his arms over their shoulders. Then the ends of the tubes are cauterized with a red hot knife. Though I myself would use pliers, also red hot of course, and sort of nip them. Never got to try it out, though.”

He fell silent, probably thinking about his innovative technique.

“Then they brought him to the farms,” Anaxantis prodded him on.

“Well, first they did the other side and sewed him up, but yes, then they threw him upon a cart, without his fine clothes of course, and hauled him off. The prince ordered a physician to go with him and to see to it that he could be chained to a work gang as soon as possible. He was about twenty at the time. They say he lived to a ripe old age of sixty-eight.

“The mother was a real piece of work, though. She went to the girl and offered her a fortune if she would bear the child. She would not have to take care of it. They would take it out of her hands. She begged the girl to have mercy on her, since her son would never have children anymore. It wouldn't be fair, she said, to punish her by robbing her of a grandchild.

“Prince Pie intervened. To the mother he said that she had somehow raised her son believing that he was better than the people he forced himself upon, and that he doubted she should get the occasion to raise another child, even a grandchild, in that manner. Nevertheless, if the young woman was agreeable, he wouldn't forbid it. The young woman said she couldn't bear the thought of bringing the offspring of her violator in the world. She wanted the bitter herbs that would rid her of the evil growth in her belly, she said.

And so the prince ordered it be done.

“There is a final, strange twist to the story. A few days later prince Pie sought the young woman out in her little cottage. She was surprised to see him standing there, when she opened the door, as you can imagine. He offered her a slim bottle, all made out of glass. Very, very expensive, with a silver base and stopper. It was filled with clover honey, you know the liquid, light yellow one. The one you can see through. In it were the balls of the young man. Did you know honey has preservative qualities? ‘I want you to put this on your nightstand,’ prince Pie said, ‘and put a candle behind it. d,’ hinserWhenever you wake screaming because

you dreamed of him, you can look at this little bottle, see his balls floating in honey, and you will know, without a shadow of a doubt you will know he can never, ever harm you again. You will know justice has been done. You will know the unforgivable transgression was not forgiven.’ That's what he said.”

Hrenwick scraped his throat, and he fetched two beakers and a small jug out of a cupboard. He filled both beakers with wine.

“It's vinegar, really, your highness, but I have nothing better I'm afraid.”

“Thank you,” Anaxantis said mechanically, deep in thought. “That was harsh,” he added after having taken a taste of the wine.

“This rotgut? Yes, it is... Oh, you mean what happened. Well, I'm sure your highness knows a lot more about these things than us simple folks. But for a long time afterwards girls could go naked through the streets if they fancied — not that they ever did, mind you, more's the pity — and no man would have dared touch them against their wishes. It spoke to the imagination, you see. Nobody wanted to have his balls put on honey. And like your predecessor said, it was an unforgivable transgression after all.”

“
An unforgivable transgression,”
Anaxantis thought somberly.

Anaxantis ran over the inner courtyard to the tower. There was a storm raging over Lorseth. He greeted the pages on duty perfunctorily.

“
Gorth said he snuck in with the servants in the afternoon. Not likely. The servants are only allowed up there
in the morning. So how did he get in?”

His mother had taught him that it often helped to just retrace your steps when confronted with a problem. He went up to the new oaken door where they had caught Gorth and stood thinking for a while.

He couldn't have come from up the stairs. Obviously. Thinking hard, he walked down again to the entrance hall. There he looked around. The door? No. Somebody would have seen him. A guard. A page. Somebody.

He looked up. There was a narrow slit in the wall. Too narrow and moreover there was a glass pane in it.

Then he looked at the stairs and suddenly he saw there was a narrow passage beside them. At the end, hidden under the stairs, invisible from every angle except the one he was looking from now, was a small door.

It opened easily enough. He almost fell down the steep stairs, but managed to keep his balance just in time.

The only light he had was that from the hallway. Then he saw a torch lying at the base of the stair, together with a tinderbox. After three tries he got it going.

Before him was a long, cellar-like room, dusty and dirty. It hadn't been used in ages he reckoned.

“
How stupid, stupid, stupid I've been. I should have known that like all castles of this age this one too has a
secret exit. And this is the logical place, leading to the one side that can't be laid siege to. The side facing the
sea.”

He came at the end and found the little door. Beside it lay a rack that used to cover it. He opened it and found himself standing on a little platform, the great balcony of his chambers high above him.

“
So, that's how he got in. There must be a path leading to the beach. Well, I'm closing the door behind me
and I'll take care of the closie o helittle door under the stairs tomorrow. Sorry, Gorth.”