Part 3
Riel was left speechless as the trial, surrounded by nobles, sped forward in an instant. Even when brought before the court, it was clear the defendant must be given a chance to plead innocence. Yet her defense was thoroughly ignored for the simple reason that there was “no evidence.”
“Lady Riel, do you admit your crime?”
“No. I cannot. I have already stated that at that time I was clearly with Lady Dyina of the Fisher Marquisate. I request Lady Dyina as a witness.”
She answered calmly. At first she had been flustered and dazed, but the longer the proceedings went on, the colder her head became. Thanks to that, Riel found the strength to insist on her innocence to the end. Moreover, all the witnesses who claimed to have seen her were complete strangers; she was certain someone had framed her.
“I saw her. She was coming out of the room at that time, so I tried to ask where she was going, and she fled in a hurry.”
“Where did Lady Riel go?”
“To where the marquisate’s back gate is.”
What gnawed at her was that every so-called witness belonged either to the Fisher Marquisate or the Nobillis Ducal House. The servants who knew she had shared a room with Lady Dyina lied on the stand and drove her as the culprit. Riel could not shake the feeling that she was a puppet being jerked about by a well-scripted play.
And the one and only reason she, who had thought she would remain composed until the end of the trial, suddenly leapt to her feet—was a single person. Riel remembered whose finger it was that pointed at her, naming her the criminal, with sad eyes and a voice tinged with tears.
“Dyina… Dyina Fisher!”
The young lady of the Fisher Marquisate—and the person closer to Riel than anyone—Dyina Fisher had identified her in court as the culprit. Riel could not forget what she felt in that moment. How could she ever forget that sensation of freezing white from head to toe! Now even a hollow laugh slipped out. A vain, bitter smile forced its way between her lips.
With a sorrowful voice and mournful eyes, sobbing as if she could not bear to meet Riel’s gaze—yet calling Riel the criminal—Dyina Fisher. Riel ground her teeth. Because the witness she had wanted lied, she had, with her own hands, blocked her only path to life. She still couldn’t understand.
“Why—why on earth?”
She screamed and raged, but at a single gesture from the presiding judge she was dragged away. Riel didn’t even know who had attempted to murder the Duke of Nobillis. What reason would the daughter of a mere count’s house have to kill the duke of a high ducal family! Snatches of the ladies’ whispers in the courtroom suddenly resurfaced.
“Who would have known a young lady blinded by love could be so terrifying.”
“Even so, how could she do such a thing.”
She covered her ears. It was best not to lend an ear to such trifling rumors. Riel could not understand why Dyina, who had already taken everything from her, would now pin on her the charge of attempted murder of the Duke of Nobillis. Denying and denying again, Riel cooled the heat about to burst in her head and thought, and thought again.
“What happened to Father and Mother, and to Ian? No—Kyle.”
As she came to her senses, Riel’s anxious gaze swept the interior and then turned to the window set high in the wall. No sooner had she been dragged from the court than she was thrown into a cell. Clenching her teeth, Riel stood and gripped the bars. Rising on tiptoe to peer out, she saw far below, dizzyingly small, the base of a very tall tower.
So startled she couldn’t even scream, Riel clapped a hand over her mouth and slid straight down the wall. She had heard of it. What sort of place the tower at the far northern end, the one farthest from the royal palace, was. The northern tower was used to confine prisoners; the higher the floor, the graver the criminal. Generally only traitors or those near to treason were imprisoned here.
“No. No. I—I, what… This is absurd.”
Riel rejected reality without end. Even as she was hauled by the hair into the prison, even until she fainted, she had refused to believe it. After several repetitions of someone saying “No, you mustn’t,” the door to the little cell where Riel was confined creaked open. Her gaze shot forward like a hawk.
“There’s no need for you to see her.”
“No. It’s all right.”
“I’ll remain by your side just in case, my lady.”
“It’s fine. Would you step outside for a moment? She’s bound anyway; it won’t be easy for her to approach.”
“Oh dear. This won’t do.”
As the door opened, a prison guard poked in his head, and beside him stood a woman with her hood pulled low. The clear-voiced woman removed the hat that hid her face and smiled gently. Riel’s expression grew even colder.
“…Dyina!”
“Mind your manners. You are but a criminal.”
“Please leave us. She’s tied; she won’t be able to come close anyway.”
“Ahh. I really shouldn’t, but…”
Dyina took out a small pouch of gold coins, handed it to the guard, and sent him outside the door. Riel showed no expression as she looked at Dyina—serene smile on her lips, bearing herself with the lofty elegance of a single narcissus blossom.
“Lady Riel.”
Calling Riel’s name, she came to stand before her. Dyina looked upon Riel’s plight as if pitying her and, oh dear, what shall we do, made sorrowful eyes. It was not the behavior befitting a perpetrator toward her victim. In the eyes of others, Dyina was a noble lady of a marquisate to be protected, and Riel was nothing but a criminal who had sinned.
“Why are you doing this to me! Do you think you’ll be happy after framing someone with a crime?”
“I’m the one who’s frightened. Who would have imagined Lady Riel capable of such a cruel and heinous crime.”
“Ha!”
A sharp sneer sliced the air between the two women. Seeing the unextinguished light in Riel’s eyes—still shining because she had not given up despite everything collapsing in an instant—Dyina shivered.
“Lady Dyina. Today’s trial is not the end of anything. I will petition His Majesty the King to retry the case.”
“Oh, poor Lady Riel.”
Letting her platinum curls spill down, Dyina stepped in and embraced Riel. Riel pushed her away, demanding with an icy voice what her game was. Dyina stroked Riel’s disheveled hair back with her hand and smiled softly.
“His Majesty will not grant your petition.”
“What… do you mean?”
“I came first to deliver the royal command for poor Lady Riel.”
“A royal command?”
“His Majesty has decreed that Riel Tigris, who sought to harm the Duke of Nobillis, be hanged.”
“Lady Dyina—surely not.”
“Surely not?”
“Are you going to kill me outright to gag me because I learned ‘that’?”
Riel’s voice rose, keen as a well-honed blade; her face, too, was edged like a sword. Yet even as she saw the murderous will and hostility written on Riel’s features, Dyina was not startled; she only smiled prettily, like a flower in full bloom.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s little I can tell you, I’m afraid.”
“What?”
“The Captain of the Sword Knights will be forcibly expelled as well, so… is this the extermination of the Tigris family?”
“Lady Dyina!”
“Who could have known the sin of coveting what one must not covet would be so grave.”
“… Ha. The one who coveted what she must not is not me—it’s you, isn’t it?”
There was no need to honor her with polite speech any longer. The back of her head, already numbed, could hurt no more. Riel bared her teeth, eyes glacial.
“Fine. You took everything from me, and now you want to steal even my life?”
“It wasn’t meant to go this far. Think of it as the price for knowing too much.”
“Say it properly, Dyina. You’re trying to kill a person for nothing but your greed and filthy ambition.”
Though Riel struck home with eyes like ice and a voice burning with fury, Dyina’s face remained unruffled. Arms folded, an easy smile at her lips, she went on.
“Well. You could see it that way. If only you hadn’t said you liked the young lord of Nobillis, none of this would have happened. Even now, how about admitting your fault? Then it may not come to the extermination of your house.”
In a voice as soft and small as rolling silver beads, Dyina whispered in Riel’s ear like a devil. Well? Isn’t it a good offer? To that, Riel gave a bitter smile and answered.
“Shut up with that nonsense.”
“What a pity. What would Theo Nobillis say if he saw you like this now? Since you were once in love, would his heart ache for you?”
“Dyina.”
“Oh, right!”
As Riel clenched her teeth and spoke Dyina’s name again in warning, Dyina, as if remembering something, leaned close and murmured low at Riel’s ear.
“The duke you tried to kill was with a royal at the time. You know, don’t you? That attempting to murder a royal is no small crime.”
In that instant, Riel’s eyes widened. She felt her strength drain and the blood in her body grow ice-cold. A blue-black wave crashed over her reason, smothering thought itself.
“I’m sorry, Riel. But attempting regicide is a capital crime, you know that, don’t you?”
The light went out of the blue eyes that had always sparkled. Dyina gently embraced Riel, who stood stupefied under the weight of the blow, patted her back, and left. She even left a hateful “thank you” for the guard who had granted her those last moments with Riel.
“Only because such a beautiful lady asked would I spare even a golden moment for a wretch like this.”
Grumbling, the guard’s voice drifted faintly as he locked the door again. Riel, in the crashing surf of shock, struggled for breath and gathered her wits. A royal. Why was a royal with the duke at that time? Did Dyina learn that and try to kill the duke? And the royal as well? And when she failed, did she plan all along to pin the crime on me, even inviting me to the marquisate? Riel clawed at her hair, lost in thought.
“No.”
If she let go now, not only would she die, but her family would be annihilated. Riel had to survive, no matter what. Even here, where she had not a single ally, where she might die as soon as tomorrow, she schemed for a way to live.
Was there truly no way to prove her innocence? She banged her head against the wall—thud, thud—trying to force herself to think, but of course no solution appeared. When blood began to trickle down from where her head had struck, HARMONIA came into Riel’s sight.
“Riel, remember. You are the one who bears the blood of Tigris, and though you are cautious and won’t use it lightly, your—”
The blood of the Tigris line, the caster’s blood, mana, death. Riel recalled the words the Count of Tigris had spoken when he entrusted HARMONIA to her. The only card in her hand was a single one.
To be continued.
