Amos Daragon_ The Mask Wearer - Bryan Perro [15]
“You made a mistake when you captured the young humanimal in the forest,” Amos said. “He has nothing to do with the misfortunes that have befallen the realm, and he’s the only one who knows something about the real enemy. You have to set him free!”
Barthelemy seemed surprised. “How do you know this? In any case, there is nothing I can do. He’s going to be put to death tomorrow at sunrise.”
“We have to save him,” Amos insisted. “If there is nothing you can do, who should I speak to to gain his freedom?”
“Yaune the Purifier, my young friend!” declared the knight in a respectful tone. “He decreed that any person accused of witchcraft was to be put on the pyre. The knights obey their master and never criticize his orders. Humanimals are treacherous beings that deserve to die. Tonight you’ll be able to attend the boy’s trial. I advise you not to defend him. You could meet the same outcome and end up with him on the fire.”
Amos asked Barthelemy what the trial consisted of, since it was evident that Beorf’s fate had already been decided.
“The humanimal will be submitted to the game of truth. Yaune puts two pieces of paper in his helmet. The word ‘guilty’ is written on one, ‘innocent’ on the other. The accused draws one of the pieces of paper. His choice determines his guilt or innocence. I’ve never seen any accused pull out the piece that says ‘innocent.’ The light inspires Yaune the Purifier and he’s never wrong. If your friend is innocent, the truth will come out and he’ll be saved. But by my word as a knight, that would be the first time it has ever happened!”
Amos walked around the city as he waited for Beorf’s trial. The market square had been transformed into a tribunal. In a few hours, the trial would start. His friend, imprisoned in a cage, was exposed to the eyes and insults of passersby. Some of them threw tomatoes and rotten eggs at him. Beorf fumed silently but his hatred and disdain were clear. Amos met his gaze and gave a quick nod.
Why did it always have to be this way? Amos wondered. Why was ignorance always pushing humans to imprison innocent people, to humiliate them publicly, and to threaten to execute them? Maybe Beorf would be placed on the pyre as his parents had been, condemned without any proof of wrongdoing. And all the villagers gathered in the town square were already salivating at the thought of the upcoming spectacle. Didn’t they have any compassion? Hadn’t this town, under the pretext of protecting itself, killed enough innocent victims? It seemed they needed still another, and probably more, to satisfy their appetite for blood. All these knights thought they were doing the right thing; none looked farther than the tip of his nose to question his actions. Amos, his stomach upset and his heart constricted, felt suddenly nauseated. He threw up behind the dilapidated wall of a deserted house.
An impressive crowd was assembling in the town square when Amos returned. He started pacing up and down, his brain working at full speed. He had to save his new friend, but how? Unable to explain why, he was convinced that Yaune the Purifier’s game of truth was a mere ruse to instill fear in those he ruled. But what was the trick?
Amos picked up two stones of the exact same size but of different colors and put them in his pocket. The darker stone represented the word “guilty,” the pale one the word “innocent.” After ten tries, Amos drew the pale stone six times, the darker stone four times. Again and again he tried, with much the same results. But not once did Amos pick the same stone ten times in a row. So he concluded that it was impossible that Yaune’s game of truth could be fair. According to Barthelemy, there had been many trials and none of the accused had ever won their freedom. They had all been found guilty, which went against all logic.
Suddenly everything became clear in Amos’s mind. If every accused person invariably chose the word “guilty,” it had to be because the word was written on both