BAM - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I walked into the courtroom, while still being escorted by the Guardians.

The room was packed with people; all the teachers were there, as were a whole lot of Guardian and most of my classmates. Up front, in the jury-box, were all the Princesses. And save me, the judge was the Queen.

In our society we have 9 royal families, Adurna, Vixór, Eròmen, Islana, Evarínya, Tharzami, Hymoná, Dèximar, Maurumi. Every family had his own Princess and one of those 9 Princesses was elected to be Queen. Our current Queen was Ruth Tharzami.

I was now at the place where I was to sit down. Before I did though, I turned in the direction of the Queen and curtsied, and towards the Princesses as well. If I was going to be judged, at least they wouldn’t judge my manners against the authorities.

Then I sat down, for the first time realizing that I was alone at the table. That couldn’t be right, right? Shouldn’t there be a lawyer to defend me? What was going on?

At the other table sat two guys in black suits with black ties and neat black hair. If I hadn’t know that most lawyers in our world dyed their hair black and always wore neat black clothes, I seriously would have thought they were the Men in Black, especially because on the table in front of them I saw two pairs of dark sunglasses.

Creepy.

Before I could notice anything else, the Queen called the room to order.

“I welcome the jury, the public, the plaintiff and the defendant to this courtroom. Today we discuss the case of kidnapping of Princess Islana and Miss Peterson by Miss Shields.”

I wanted to tell them that I didn’t kidnap my friends, but I caught myself just in time.  It wouldn’t help my case.

“Five years ago, on the 5^th of November, Miss Brianna Etain Shields left the Academy in company of Princess Ayra Gwynne Islana and Miss Moira Peterson. Miss Shields, would you care to explain to us your reason for taking these two girls away from the protection of the Academy?” the Queen asked me.

I rose from my seat and carefully thought of what to say.

“Yes, thank you, your Majesty. To begin, I have a question. Am I to assume that I will have to defend myself today? No matter what my supposed crimes should be, do I not have the right of having a lawyer?” I asked the Princesses and Queen.

“To answer that, Miss Shields, no lawyer was willing to accept your case, nor your limited means of payment, seeing as how your bank account has been blocked to avoid you being able to go back out into the world,” the Queen answered me.

“Very well, then I’ll defend my own case. I would like to say that I did not kidnap the Princess or Miss Peterson. It was not my decision to leave. I was given the choice to let the Princess leave by herself or join her. Miss Peterson chose to leave as well. I tried to convince them to stay. As for why the Princess wanted to leave, I will say only this: I do not know. I went with them to protect them. I know that nobody here will believe me, I’m only a Vartija, not Royal, not irreplaceable. You can banish me, or throw me into jail, I don’t care. But sooner or later you will realize that I spoke the truth,” I say to the jury and the judge. Then I address the entire room. “Are your consciences strong enough to carry the fact around that you punished an innocent, especially if you realized how wrong you were after I had died?” I looked back at the Queen. “I did not commit the crime you accuse me off. I know my mistake of not forcing them to stay, but I was not willing to risk my friend hating me for forcing her to do such a thing. I was not willing to risk facing a lawsuit for forcing a Princess to do something. Instead I joined her. I protected her and Miss Peterson against every danger we came across. Together we came across many Paha, and I always made sure they would be safe. I would always make them run and to leave the fighting to me. I told them that if I were to die in a fight, they had to go back, because I would not allow them to wander out in the human world without the proper protection. I did what I had to. Is that so wrong? Is that enough to accuse me of kidnapping my best friends? Is that enough to try to convict me?”

Everybody was silent as I finished talking.

Looking around, I locked gazes with Ayra and Moira. They just nodded at me. Then I sat back down, waiting for the trial to continue.

After a couple minutes, they continued. The two lawyers called up some of the Guardians that had come to take us back to the Academy. They confirmed the fact that I fought really good and they confirmed that I had killed the Paha that had attacked us that day. Next up they questioned Ayra and Moira. They told those present that everything I had done to keep them safe and to help them and to provide for them in any way I could.

When everybody had been questioned, the Queen and the jury rose and left to discuss what had been said.

Just as they left, the main door opened a little and someone slipped inside. The person closed the door again and walked over to the front of the room, to sit right behind me.

I didn’t really pay attention to the person at first. But then he or she tapped a finger on my shoulder.

I turned in my seat and looked up into a familiar face. A face I’d known since I was eleven years old.

“Marco!” I whispered.

“Hey kiddo, how are you holding up?” he asked me, also whispering.

“I’m okay. How are you? What have you been up to the past 5 years?”

“I’m good, and I’ve been keeping my eyes out looking for signs you, while also working a lot. When this all gets cleared up, we’ll catch up,” he answered just as the doors opened and the Queen and Princesses re-entered the room.

“Here goes nothing,” I murmured under my breath as they walked to the front of the room and sat back down.

“Miss Shields, please come to the front,” the Queen said to me.

I rose and walked up to the front, respectfully bowing my head before looking at her.

Her expression gave nothing away, but in her eyes, I saw disgust when she looked at me. Then she flashed her eyes to Ayra and back to me before she got up and stood facing the people present in the courtroom.

“In light of recent event, we would like to trust upon you all the importance of this case. Never before has a Royal family stood upon the brick of extinction. Princess Islana is therefore incredibly important to the entire Brádu. The chance existed that we might have lost her forever, due to made choices. However, seeing as how she is still with us, we are willing to be a little lenient here today. We have come to understand that Miss Shields did not kidnap the Princess and Miss Peterson. That does not mean she’s completely empty of fault, for she did not stop them from leaving. But, as said before, she did protect them. Therefore we will not banish her, nor imprison her, nor strip her from her opportunity to become a promised Guardian. She will however be watched so she doesn’t make any more mistakes,” the Queen said. Then she turned to me. “Miss Shields, you will commit to community service every weekend for the remainder of your time here at Saint Jennifer’s Academy. You shall attend to every class you get and you shall never be late in class. You will not be involved in irresponsible activities: no fighting and no partying are just two of the things concluded in this rule. Every school rule will be obeyed. If you do not hold yourself to these rules, things won’t end so well for you. Do you understand me?”

“Perfectly, Your Majesty. Thank you,” I answered politely.

“Very well. This concludes our business here. Court dismissed,” she said before walking out the doors.