Wrongful Accusation…
There was no deployment for Kane, no patrol, no promotion. Just a stinging blow to the back of his skull and a beating that rendered him unconscious for three days.
It was raining when he stirred, large drops fell on his upturned face, dripping through a heavy iron grate that he was chained too…
“Ahh… you’re awake.” A foreign voice, somewhere in the dark.
“I’m not dead?” He tasted blood in his mouth.
“How do you feel?” A face drew closer out of the gloom, narrow features, wicked eyes.
“Everything hurts.” Kane pulled against the chains, halfheartedly.
“Then you’re not dead.”
Kane gave up moving and hung limp.
“Neither do you face a death sentence, someone wants you alive boy, they also want you to suffer. Tell me, do you have any idea what we do to rapists down here?”
The question caught Kane off guard… “What do you mean? I’m not a rapist! I never hurt Alleia! I didn’t force her… I’m not a fucking rapist!” Fury gave him strength and he tugged harder against the unyielding chains.
“That’s what it says here, you are charged with rape and found guilty by the woman’s husband, Lord Pepe Montoto signed the sentence papers himself.” The thin character poured through the paperwork ignoring Kane’s desperate protests… ” Says here you got her pregnant, what sort of scum rapes a Royal Princess, leaves her with child then flees the city?!”
Kane felt the cold keen point of a very sharp blade right against the base of his penis and ceased his wriggling, holding himself very still and biting his bottom lip as the blade dug in… just enough to draw blood.
“Silence boy… harken to my words, I am a master of my art and I know truth from lie. I fish for secrets from the most expert of spies and they sing to me. If you are guilty, you will spend years begging me for death.” The blade traced a bloody line up his body, until the point rested poised over his heart, the speaker applied just a fraction of pressure, the blade wicked enough to slice between ribs effortlessly, it would take no strength at all to find its mark… Kane held his breath, feeling its cold sting, warm blood raised to the surface where the point had scratched his flesh…
“I did not rape Alleia.” He spoke calmly, “I loved her, no…I mean… I love her… and I’m going to be a Father… We’re having a son… and I would do anything, anything to be with them both.”
“How compelling.” The knife flashed taking the tip off his ear.
Kane winced “I did not rape Alleia, I love her!” Hot blood poured down his face.
“Most compelling.” The knife vanished, secluded into a tool belt around the interrogators waist. “You said you would do anything to be with her? Yes?”
Kane nodded
“Would you die for her?” The blade reappeared in a swift blur to bite into his throat…
“Yes.” Kane replied swallowing hard. “But then what kind of father would I be?”
The man blinked several times, then chuckled to himself. “You’re no rapist and you make a dreadful hopeless romantic. I think you are honorable and would stand by and support a family, out of duty more than love… I’m not sure you know how to love… You’re a conscript Kane, taken from your family at an early age, raised to fight, raised to kill on command. Soldiers like you don’t love, you have whores who service the barracks, you live and die in uniform. You’re not father material, you’re not a family man. You’re a trained cold blooded killer Kane, but you are no rapist.”
“Can I go?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you pissed off the wrong people Kane, my orders are to make your stay here most… … …unpleasant.”
Anne Harrison 05.03.17
Tatterhood 