Crown of Hidden Scales novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Hangman Kneels

Rhain did not answer her at first.

He walked forward through the villagers, who parted for him.

He stopped in front of the woman in the flour-stained apron.

Then he went down on his knees in the dirt of the market square.

A murmur ran around us.

I had never seen a man of his height kneel to anyone.

I had certainly never seen the Warden of the Pit do it.

"Yes," he said. "I hanged your brother."

The woman's chin shook.

"He stole a loaf. That's all they ever told us."

"He did not steal a loaf. He had scales on his shoulders, like mine. Someone told the Dowager's people."

He drew off his left glove, then his right.

The scales ran from his knuckles to his elbows in the cold light, dark gold.

The square drew a breath all at once.

"He asked me to tell you the knot wouldn't hurt," Rhain said.

"It did. I'm sorry."

"I should have told you the day I did it, and not waited for someone to ask."

The woman spat in the dirt beside his knee.

He did not flinch from it.

"I hanged thirty-one people over eleven years," he said.

His voice carried to the well and the baker's stall and the wall of faces behind.

"The tanner. The two sisters from Hallow Ford. The girl who sang at the harvest fair."

"I remember every one."

I stood twenty paces off, with the crown still burning faintly in my hands.

I found I could not look at him.

I did not want to see what my own face would do.

"I carried out the Dowager's law because I was told it was mine to carry," he said.

"That's not an excuse. I knew what I was doing."

"I did it, and I hid my own hands while I did."

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