Bend Her novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Price of a Man

They let me wash the road off me at the palace, and then they walked me into the great hall.

I had not been in it since the day I was handed over.

Every lord of Tarnmere stood along the walls in their winter furs.

A man from the northern march stood at the foot of the dais.

He wore a long grey coat with a silver chain across it.

That was the envoy.

My brother sat on the throne.

Gisborne stood at his shoulder with his hands folded over his keys.

Ansel knelt in the middle of the floor in iron.

They had put cuffs on his wrists, a collar on his neck and a chain between them.

The iron had dulled his horns to dead grey.

He looked up when I came in.

He said nothing.

I walked down the long carpet with Bess two steps behind me, and I stopped beside him.

"Lin," said Aldous. "Come up here."

"I will stand here."

The court murmured.

"You will stand where I tell you," said Aldous, and then he heard how it sounded and stopped.

"Your Majesty," said the herald, "the charge is read."

He unrolled a scroll.

"Ansel Rooke, once mage of the royal college, stands accused of corrupting the person of the Princess Linnet."

He paused.

"The penalty is hanging."

Nobody breathed.

I looked at Ansel.

He kept his eyes on the floor.

"He did not corrupt me," I said.

"Lin..."

"I went to his bed. I asked him three times. He said no twice."

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