BAM - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Back in her office, Bianchi turned around and looked from face to face before settling on mine.

“Miss Shields, we’ve all seen you’re capable of protecting these girls, but still, I have no choice but to arrest you on treason. No matter what Princess Islana or Miss Peterson have said, it was up to you to keep them here, and go to the authorities about the unsafe feelings of the Princess. You had no right to take them away from the campus and their lessons, even if you made them study our ways when you were gone. The point is that you were being irresponsible and therefore you’re under arrest,” she told me.

“That’s unfair!” Ayra said outraged.

“Ayra! Don’t! Just don’t!” I scolded her.

“But they can’t blame you for my mistake!”

“Yes, they can. And really, they’re right. There were other options besides running.”

“That was my decision! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“In their eyes I did. I let you leave. I should have sought out the best option whilst still keeping you here. It doesn’t matter that I was able to keep you safe out there. It doesn’t matter how many Paha I killed while protecting you.”

“But-”

“No, Ayra, don’t try to stop this. I refuse to let you ruin your future over me. There’s nothing you can do and you shouldn’t try it. This is their decision. You must take what you can get when your future is at stake. You’re too important for this society to blame this all on. I’m not. I’m disposable. Just let it go. Trust the Guardians that will be assigned to you, they’ll keep you safe. And that really is the most important thing here.”

“Well spoken, Miss Shields. Now, if you’d be so kind as to go with the Guardians, they’ll take you into custody,” Bianchi told me.

The Guardians tried to grab my arms to lead me away, but I dodged them. “I’m not going to try to escape, and I can walk on my own.”

So they let me walk myself. We went to the Guardian’s office. There, they led me to the basement, where there were a few cells. The cells were rarely used, so they put me in one of the biggest.

“The headmistress will come by later. Do not try to escape, it will make things worse,” one of the Guardians told me.

* * *

I was in prison for a couple of days now. Headmistress Bianchi apparently thought that I would try to escape, for she let many Guardians watch me. And none of them even spoke a word.

The entire prison area was seriously boring. All walls were flat and light grey. There was a small bathroom in my cell. And the amount of furniture was very small. There was only a bed and a bedside table.

The only distraction was slipping into the heads of my friends. There I could see what was going on in the lessons.

Today was different, though.

There were twenty Guardians assigned to watch me. And another entered the area. Only this one didn’t stop to stand and watch. He came to my cell and opened the door. Then he stepped inside.

“Hands out,” he ordered.

“What’s going on?” I demanded, suspicious.

“Hands out, now!” He was obviously annoyed with me. But he wasn’t the only annoyed one. I’d barely gotten any food the last days and all I could do was stare at some walls or see other people go to lessons. So, I was going to get my answers.

“No. You’ll tell what’s going on first!”

“Guards!” he yelled.

Some Guardians entered my cell and grabbed me, trying to pull my hands out. But this time, I wasn’t going to stay quiet. I shook all of them off. They tried to grab me again, but I dodged them.

Then someone else entered my cell. “Miss Shields,” he addressed me. “Give me your hands and I’ll answer your questions.”

It took me a few seconds to realize that it was Jason who was talking to me.

However, seeing as I was still being attacked from all sides, so I didn’t really give a crap.

“No. You’ll tell me what’s going on first. And then, I will decide whether or not I will come with you,” I told him.

He didn’t answer at first. He just studied me.

“Okay. We’ll do it your way,” he said at last. “You’re called to trial for kidnapping Princess Islana and Miss Peterson.”

“Oh, come on! I didn’t kidnap them! How many times do we have to tell you that? I kept them safe! Safer than any of you here!”

“Safer than on campus?”

“Yes!”

“Well, we all have a hard time believing that, since everybody at this school is safer than you were out in the human world.”

I opened my mouth to protect, but he kept talking.

“And you can stay here and discuss all of that, or you can go to trial. There you will hear if you’ll get a chance at freedom or if you’ll be convicted guilty of treason. And if you stay here, you will not get free. And missing your trial will make sure you won’t be freed.”

I looked into his eyes for a moment. He looked back.

In his eyes, I found reason. The trial was my only shot at freedom.

“Okay. I’ll come,” I told him.

“Good. Now give me your hands, please,” he answered.

So I held out my hands and Jason put extra thick metal handcuffs around them.

I couldn’t help but grin at the sight of them. They apparently thought I couldn’t break them, or at least fight without my hands.

Jason saw my grin and whispered: “It’s not very effective, indeed, but it will make everybody else feel more comfortable.”

Then he touched my shoulder and lead me out of my cell.

Two Guardians tried to grab my elbows and keep me between them.

“Hey! Hands off! I said I’d come, so I won’t try to escape. And in case you hadn’t noticed, I can walk myself. Therefore, no need for you to support me,” I scoffed them.

The Guardians looked at Jason, who shrugged and nodded. He, however, kept his hand on my shoulder.

Together with the twenty Guardians, we walked out of the prison area.

“So, Jason, shouldn’t the council of princesses and the Queen be here for the trial?” I asked him.

“They are here. Why do you think you’ve been in prison for all these days? They had to wait until the council was present,” he answered. Then he looked at me and a troubled look came across his face. Under his breath, he said: “They should have been friendlier and fed you more properly, girl.”

“They just did what they thought was right and tried to make me weaker,” I said without thinking.

I noticed my mistake when he looked at me in alarm.

“How could you have heard that?” he asked.

“Um, I’m walking right beside you. And if you look in any file there is about me, you’ll find that my senses are better than normal Vartija’s.”

“Yes, it’s being mentioned in your files, but I didn’t have any idea you could hear this.”

“Yeah, well, I can also hear those two in the back who think I should be executed for treason,” I said a bit more loudly, so that the two Guardians in question looked up, shocked.

“What did you mean when you said you kept them safe?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“How could you know that?”

“Because I just knew.”

“You do know that this may be the last time you get to tell about yourself, right?”

“It won’t be the last time.”

“You cannot be certain about that.”

“Whatever.”

By now we’d reached the courtroom and in front of me, the double doors creaked open, to reveal a deadly silence.