The Gift

by Bryan M. Litfin

  As Ana’s thoughts went to Teo, a flood of memories rushed through her mind. She imagined herself galloping away from danger with her arms around his chest . . . talking late into the night by the glow of a campfire . . . reading the Sacred Writing together . . . quickening his heartbeat over a candlelight dinner the way only a woman can. Teo had snatched her out of the Beyond after her abduction. Hauled her from a glacier’s crevasse. Walked by her side when she was exiled from her homeland. Thrust his spear into a ferocious wolf. Run himself to exhaustion to bring her the bread-mold elixir. He had even let himself be shamed lest she be seen drunk by her friends. To think that I once vomited on him! Ana cringed at the thought. Teo had always been there to protect her, to fight for her, to shield her from enemies—whether they were unscrupulous womanizers with spiked drinks or predatory Rovers or deadly shamans or the carnal Dohj Cristof himself. In all these ways, Ana realized in the lonely prison cell, Teo has spread his wing over me.

  And I’ve thrown it all away.

  What a fool I am! He’s the only man in my life who truly loves me!

  Ana shifted her position on the floor, emotionally drained and exhausted. Her arms had grown numb, so she pulled herself up to a standing position to let the circulation return. Soon the tingling in her hands was maddening. At that moment she heard footsteps in the hall.

  The head jailer and his assistant, Pig-Nose, entered the dungeon. The men tied a rope around her neck. Ana was unchained from the wall and led up a stairway that emerged into a plain, stone room. Though the windows were high, sunlight streamed through. Ana squinted as she gazed at the sky.

  “Take a good look at it, woman,” Pig-Nose said. “This is the last day you’ll ever see the sun.”

  “I do not fear death. I am in Deu’s hands.”

  Ana’s defiant words caused her to remember the object she had hidden under her clothes when she was arrested. Knowing it would have been taken from her, she had kept it out of sight by attaching it to a strap of her undergarment. Now, with her hands free of her chains, she reached beneath her itchy tunic and brought it out: the costly gold necklace Teofil had given her. The face of Iesus Christus was peaceful as he hung on his cross. I will wear it proudly in the sight of all, Ana told herself as she slipped it on.

  A crowd had gathered around the courthouse. It sounded as if the capital city of Likuria was in turmoil over the dohj’s death. Ana could hear one man giving a speech about Cristof’s greatness. Women wailed and men bellowed as the populist orator stoked their fires. A roar of approval went up when the speech concluded with the line, “Today, my people, we must have blood for this heinous murder!” Ana winced at the crowd’s vehement ovation. The jailer noticed her expression.

  “The whole kingdom hates you,” he said. “Everyone wants to see you die. Your trial was delayed so people could travel here.” Ana turned away from the vile man.

  A bailiff arrived and removed the rope from Ana’s neck, then gave her a pair of shoes. He escorted her through a maze of passageways to an ornate door. When he opened it and pushed her forward, Ana found herself facing a sea of hostile faces. The wood-paneled courtroom was filled to capacity. Everywhere she looked, steely eyes gazed at her with malice. Ana’s heart lurched as she realized that any hopes she might have had of pleading self-defense were futile. These people were out for death and nothing less. An awful realization crystallized in Ana’s mind: There will be no deliverance.

  She closed her eyes.

  If this is the end you have for me, Deu, then give me the courage to accept it!

  Emboldened by her prayer, Ana strode forward with her head held high. Though the Likurians might dress her in sackcloth and cut off her hair, Ana decided she would conduct herself with a dignity that would put them to shame.

  Jeers and boos erupted as she entered the courtroom and stepped onto a dais before the judge’s high bench. The judge pounded his gavel to quiet the commotion. When a measure of silence had been achieved, he fixed his gaze on Ana and stared down at her. The top of the man’s head was bald, but a corona of wild hair encircled the back of it. He pointed a gnarled finger in her direction. “Anastasia of Chiveis, you have been condemned. Do you have any last words?”

  Condemned? I haven’t even had a chance to speak yet!

  Ana met the judge’s eyes. “Your Honor, is it the custom in Likuria to sentence a person without a trial? Is this what passes for law and human decency in your land?”

  The courtroom burst into an uproar. The judge’s face crumpled like a prune. “You impudent little cur! How dare you lecture me!”

  Ana felt tempted to wilt under all the shouts and hostility, but she forced herself to stand firm on the dais and not flinch.

  The judge turned to his prosecutor. “Read aloud the findings in this woman’s case. She who questions our legal procedures must bear the weight of the evidence arrayed against her!”

  A man with a white wig and black robe stepped forward with a scroll. Unrolling it, he began to read: “Fact! Anastasia of Chiveis was alone with our most glorious dohj. Fact! She was angry at him and resisted his sovereign will. Fact! She threatened him with death. Fact! Dohj Cristof was found dead with a knife in his throat. Fact! This woman was discovered in the locked room with her hand on the knife. Fact! Anastasia of Chiveis is guilty of regicide!” The crowd groaned at each accusation. When the prosecutor issued his final charge and rolled up his scroll, the tumult rose to a crescendo. Everyone clamored for Ana’s death. The charges weren’t even true, yet this miscarriage of justice would make them seem so. Ana bowed her head, overcome at last by the hatred directed toward her.

  And then everything changed.

  The double doors at the rear of the courtroom banged open. A lone man walked down the center aisle, though Ana could not see who he was.

  “I have come to testify on behalf of Anastasia of Chiveis!” the man proclaimed.

  Teo!

  Once again he has come!

  He made his way toward the dais where Ana stood waiting. With his broad shoulders, handsome face, and confident demeanor, he cut an impressive figure. Ana could sense the crowd’s awe at this unexpected development. Yet it was not awe that she felt, but a human emotion far more beautiful than that.

  As Teo stepped onto the dais and took his place at Ana’s side, he slipped his arm around her waist. “Don’t worry,” he whispered to her in Chiveisian speech. “I know what I’m doing.”

  The judge glared at Teo with disapproving eyes. “Who are you, young man? What business do you have with this court? Speak!”

  “My name is Teofil of Chiveis. I have come to declare before you and all Likuria that the woman you have condemned today is innocent of her charges.” A murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd.

  “Is that so?” the judge sneered. “And how do you know this?”

  “Because I am the one who killed Dohj Cristof!”

  Teo’s shout threw the courtroom into chaos. The place exploded with cries, protests, and arguments. Nobody knew what was happening, but everybody had an opinion.

  “Silence! Silence!” The judge banged his gavel on his bench, then ordered his bailiff to remove the defendant while he got to the bottom of the matter. As the bailiff grabbed Ana’s arm, she turned to Teo, imploring him with her eyes. “Teo, you can’t do this! They’ll bury you alive!”

  He nodded. “I know. Just let me do what I have to do. Trust me!”

  The bailiff hauled Ana out of the raucous courtroom.

  “Young man, if this is some kind of joke, I’ll have you whipped so hard you’ll wish you were thrown down the hole instead.” The judge motioned for the prosecutor to approach Teo. “Take his statement. Get the facts straight.”

  “It’s no joke, Your Honor. I’m confessing to a capital crime. I entered Anastasia’s bedroom through a window and killed the dohj with his own knife.”

  Teo’s bombshell announcement had created a massive disturbance in the courtroom. Everyone was in a state of shock, from the j
udge all the way to the back-row spectators who had come to the trial out of morbid curiosity.

  The prosecutor grilled Teo for the better part of an hour. The man knew how to ask penetrating questions, and Teo cooperated by laying out the facts, holding nothing back.

  At last the prosecutor was satisfied. He read the charges aloud to the stunned courtroom. Teo could feel outrage rise in the room as the fury that had been directed toward Ana was turned on him instead. He became the object of the people’s scorn as they poured out their wrath on a new victim.

  “So you couldn’t stand the burden of your guilt, eh?” The judge seemed delighted that his prosecutor had obtained a confession, despite the fact that Teo had offered himself freely to the court. “It seems what we have here is a classic case of a burning conscience. Well, do not suppose your confession will earn any leniency from me! Regicide is regicide, no matter how it is discovered.”

  The judge raised his eyes from Teo’s face and looked at the ravenous crowd. “Good people of Likuria, what should be done with the man who has killed your king?”

  “Death!” they shouted. “Kill him! Send him down the hole!” The threats and accusations filled the courtroom with venomous hate. Though Teo had prepared himself for this moment, the weight of the people’s contempt oppressed him nonetheless. It was a difficult burden to carry, even though he had sought it out.

  The charges against Teo were written up as an affidavit, which he signed in large, bold letters. An affidavit of innocence was prepared for Ana to sign, and the bailiff was sent to fetch her.

  As the climactic moment drew near, the spectators’ mood evolved from anger to bloodlust. They were ready to wreak vengeance upon the guilty. Teo’s wrists were locked into manacles, and he was led to an open space in the flagstone floor. A burly man lifted an iron hatch, revealing a hole no wider than Teo’s shoulders. The musty smell of death wafted up from the abyss.

  The man turned a winch and hauled a chain out of the oubliette. A small plank on the chain was shoved between Teo’s legs so his weight would rest on it like the seat of a childhood swing. In this way prisoners could be lowered down the shaft to ensure a slow death. Teo swallowed as he stared at the mouth of the fearsome oubliette. The thought of being dropped into that tight space made his heart thud in his chest. Deu, help me go all the way, he prayed as he faced the blackness that waited to swallow him whole.

  A door opened across the courtroom. Ana was led in by the bailiff. Teo noticed she was wearing the necklace he had given her. He caught her attention, nodding confidently, but she shook her head at him. Grief was etched upon her face.

  The judge rapped his gavel until the courtroom quieted. “Anastasia of Chiveis, earlier today this court found you guilty of murder. Now that the true facts are known, the penalty owed by you has fallen on this man instead. Affirm your innocence, and you will be a free woman.” He slid the affidavit across the bench, and the prosecutor brought it to Ana along with a quill.

  She gripped the affidavit, her head bowed. For a long moment the courtroom held absolutely still. Teo stared at Ana as she stood illumined in a ray of afternoon sunlight. Though she was dressed in sackcloth and her hair was ragged about her head, Teo found himself transfixed by her beauty. Anastasia’s incredible radiance overpowered the room physically, morally, and spiritually.

  I love her, Teo realized. I will do this deed for her gladly!

  Ana raised her head and held up the affidavit. “Your Honor,” she said, “I refuse to sign.”

  She ripped the paper in two.

  The judge scowled as he pounded his gavel, trying to settle a courtroom that had been thrown into confusion again. Ana stood on the dais while the tumult swirled around her, remaining unmoved like the placid eye of a terrible hurricane. She knew what she had to do, and she intended to see it through.

  Teo’s magnificent act of self-sacrifice had touched Ana to the core. How many times had he put himself in harm’s way for her sake? How many times had he offered himself on her behalf? Too many times to count! Now he had even proven himself willing to die in her place. While Ana waited in the anteroom for Teo to be arraigned, she had been awestruck by the love this man had demonstrated for her again and again. Such deep and precious love had awakened an extravagant love of her own. Ana had arrived at a single, irrefutable conclusion: Though Teo would gladly lay down his life for me, in truth it is I who must lay down mine for him.

  The events in the courthouse had served to clarify a fact Ana already knew in her heart. The person whom Deu would use to recover the New Testament and bring salvation to Chiveis was Teo.Yet the Likurians were going to insist on executing someone today for the murder of their king. Ana could see her death was required so that Teo—and Chiveis—might live.

  As she faced this stark truth, Ana experienced a peace she hadn’t thought possible. Amazed, she realized, I truly want to do this! I rejoice to die in this way! She wasn’t afraid of the oubliette. She wasn’t afraid of death. The suffering would be temporary, and then Deu would welcome her into his arms. Like so many other martyrs in the annals of history, Ana found herself a willing victim in her moment of destiny. Deu had answered her prayers. He had given her one last chance to serve his purposes. For that Ana was grateful beyond words.

  “You brazen woman!” the judge yelled. “Do you think you can make a mockery of my courtroom? I’m not afraid to send you to your doom right now! I swear by all that’s holy, someone is going to pay for the dohj’s death, and I don’t care which of you it is! Now sign that affidavit or the judgment that rests on you will remain!”

  Ana lifted her chin. “Your courtroom is already a mockery. Your justice is a sham. I will never sign.”

  The judge went berserk. Through gnashing teeth he screamed, “Then I sentence you to death and condemn you to hell!” His unruly hair stood up like the mane of some crazed monster.

  Ana stepped off the dais and followed the bailiff to the place where Teo was standing.

  “Ana, no!” he pleaded. “Listen to me! Stop! It has to be me!” He waved his hands wildly, chains clanking at his wrists. Though he tried to approach her, the bailiff intervened and restrained him.

  “Guards, subdue that man!” the judge roared.

  Three deputies hurried forward and grabbed Teo by the shoulders. One of them threw his arm around Teo’s neck in a choke hold. Although Teo fought back, they forced him to his knees. He kept trying to speak, but his voice was suppressed by the deputy’s grip on his throat.

  Immense sorrow rushed upon Ana as she looked at Teo’s face. She pushed aside her sadness and gathered her resolve. No matter the cost, she would not waver from the path Deu had assigned to her.

  Manacles were brought by a young deputy. His hands trembled as he attempted to bind Ana’s wrist, but she clasped his hand in hers and snapped the cuff in place. Her other hand was bound, then the wooden seat on the chain was placed between her legs.

  The crowd leaned forward as Ana teetered at the lip of the oubliette. All the onlookers held their collective breath. Only Teo uttered any sound as he fought against his captors.

  Ana didn’t want to make Teo’s anguished face her final image of him, yet she had something important to say. She caught his attention. He stopped thrashing and looked at her.

  “I love you,” she mouthed to him.

  She saw Teo gasp. Tears flooded his eyes and rolled down his cheeks.

  Deu, help me go all the way, she prayed.

  Ana was forced to drink a cup of seawater. Its saltiness made her gag.

  Then, before anyone could push her, she grasped the chain and stepped into the dark mouth of her grave.

  CHAPTER

  10

  As the lid of the oubliette clanged shut, the spectators in the courtroom moaned, their hunger for sacrifice satisfied. The echo of iron against stone was a death knell that signaled their gratification was complete. The deed was done. Vengeance was achieved, and its taste was sweet and delicious.

  Nevertheless
, on the back row of the crowded courtroom, a lone woman cringed at the day’s proceedings. In contrast to the mob’s surfeit, the woman felt nothing but emptiness inside. Vanita Labella despised herself.

  O god, what have I done? She bowed her head and stared at her feet. Who are you, Vanita?

  You’re a murderer!

  Though Vanita told herself she hadn’t intended things to turn out like this, she knew the sequence of events that had just culminated in the courtroom had been initiated by her own traitorous deed. By approaching the shamans, she had set the wheels in motion. Although Anastasia had ended up being punished for the crime of murder instead of for the defect on her hip, the awful fact remained that Vanita had sold her friend into enemy hands. For what? For a man! For a brainless prince and his accursed money! The whole affair made Vanita feel defiled. “It wasn’t supposed to end this way,” she whispered to herself. She had imagined Anastasia would live out her days in a distant, peaceful valley. Peaceful valley? Who am I kidding? There will be no peace for Anastasia now—just the slow and agonizing death of an innocent woman!

  Vanita gripped her gown in her fists, scrunching her eyes shut. The idea of being forced into that tight underground hole terrified her. The press of its walls . . . the inability to move . . . the cold darkness . . . the thirsty minutes that stretched into hours, then days until Anastasia finally met her end, all parched and shriveled like a skeleton . . .

  Oh god oh god what have I done oh god!

  The tormented woman bolted from her seat and ran from the courtroom to the plaza. The crowds were beginning to disperse, but Vanita didn’t wait for a lane to open among the pedestrians. Elbowing her way past the rabble, she hurried to the grand hotel where she had taken a room. Her father didn’t know she had come to Manacho, but so what? He cared more about his ledger books than his daughter, except when he wanted to show off her beauty to his lecherous friends. Vanita grunted, suppressing the dirty memories. She entered her room and stuffed a few items into a bag, then locked the door and went back outside.