The Duke Should Divorce Me, So Why Is He Stalling My Death? novel · Chapter 16 of 32
Chapter 16: The Salt Test
The summons came on the forty-fourth day, on thick Temple paper, delivered by two grey-robed elders.
They stood in the Veyrath hall with their hands tucked in their sleeves, and one of them did the talking.
"The Temple has received a petition," he said. "Signed by eleven ladies of the Court. It states that the Duchess of Veyrath has changed beyond reason in six weeks, and asks the Temple to determine whether she is still herself."
Alaric stood on the stair above them.
"Whose petition?" he said.
"The names are held in confidence."
"Naturally," Alaric said.
"The test is the Salt. It is gentle. It will be held this afternoon, in the sanctuary."
Lysandra looked at her husband.
He looked at her.
She saw the thought cross his face: if she refuses, it is guilt, and if she goes, it is a trap.
"We will attend," Alaric said.
By four o'clock the sanctuary was full.
It was a round white hall under a glass dome.
Down the middle ran a circle of salt, three paces across, poured thick on the floor.
At its center stood a stool and a silver bowl.
Anneliese waited beside the bowl in her white robe, with her hands folded.
Lysandra took in the situation at a glance.
The Temple's Salt of Truth was an old rite, harmless to an honest soul.
In the book it had been a plot device.
The ordeal drew a possessing spirit out of a body, if one was there.
It burned skin, and it blistered, and the elders would call it proof.
She had a fair idea what a bowl of salt water with a little lye in it could do to a woman's throat.
"Duchess," said the elder, "you will step into the circle and drink what is in the bowl."
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