Illyna just rolled her eyes. “Locasta is anything but a poor, defenseless woman. She murdered her own mother to impress the Fisher King and came up with a plan to glamour herself, so you thought she was harmless. She plotted with Mombi to come out the hero in their epic battle. Ask yourself why Locasta was so hard on bad magic users, but the black market continued to flourish and they never arrested Mombi for her part in cursing Locasta and killing her mother. It was because it never happened. Locasta did all that and needed a scapegoat.”
“Again, all we have is your word,” Pavius pressed.
“Not just mine. I brought proof, though I want everyone to try not to scream when I bring the Fisher King out. I’ve castrated him and made him quite harmless.”
Pavius really wanted to go there with Illyna sitting on the stage with a huge sack with dried blood on it. It had been sitting at her feet and moving this entire time. Who picked Pavius for a judge, anyway? He wasn’t the brightest candle in the house.
“May I?” Illyna asked, pulling the sack in her lap.
Roxar and Pridius already knew what was in the bag. I was sure all the judges did, Pavius was just so intent on making Locasta look good, he ignored the fact that there was a severed head in the bag.
Roxar and Pridius jumped up and faced the audience.
“Citizens of Oz! What you are about to see will be shocking and upsetting. Please remain calm. You will meet the Fisher King for the first time, and he will say anything to incite chaos and riot. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Don’t react to a single thing he says. Listen and form an opinion of those on trial. Look at what you are about to see and instead of being scared, realize he can’t hurt you anymore.”
I knew what was about to happen. I’d seen the head before. I’d seen the head being severed from the body. I still felt like vomiting when she pulled it out. The Fisher King had been bald when we met him in the cemetery. Galen told us he shaved his entire body so that no one could use his hair against him. His hair had fucking started growing since Illyna cut his head off. It was long enough for her to lift his head out the bag by his hair. The stump of his neck was covered in black, dried blood.
Anyone close to the stage could see there was cow shit all over the rag she had shoved in his mouth. His cruel eyes were bulging in anger at the crowd, and he was trying to scream through the gag. The Fisher King’s face was blood red from anger and indignation.
The crowd was screaming in horror. It didn’t matter if they were male or female; there were people in the crowd who were flat out fainting. Illyna just sat there calmly holding the screaming head above her head while Pridius and Roxar tried to calm the crowd. Pavius looked like he had been told about the head, but didn’t believe it until now. He had sat his ass back down and was fanning his face with parchment. He looked like he was about to vomit.
“Calm down!” Pridius yelled. “It’s just a head. It can’t hurt you. Remember what Illyna said about his ring. All his power was in his ring. He has no hand to wear it on!”
Roxar had been giving everyone a break when the crowd got too rowdy, but he couldn’t do that right now. If we broke and Illyna took the head out again, we’d be right back where we were now.
Ozma leapt up on stage. “People of Oz! Look, it’s harmless. The Fisher King has been castrated,” she said, poking the head in the one eye he had left.
The Fisher King tried to yell louder, but that gag was so deep in his throat, I was surprised he hadn’t choked on it. Ozma pulled some wildflowers she picked in the grass out her pocked. She shoved flowers in the Fisher King’s ears and up his nose. She stood back and faced the crowd.
“See? Totally harmless. Can you calm down so we can continue?”
It seemed to take forever, but eventually, the crowd settled down and stopped screaming. There was still this huge unease. You could feel it in the air. All the audience had was Illyna’s word that the Fisher King was harmless without his ring. I’d also heard it from someone else, someone I trusted. I’d heard the same thing from Galen, and he hadn’t lied to us so far.
Pridius still didn’t trust Illyna. He crossed his arms and glared at her.
“Well, you got the reaction you wanted. Do you intend to take that gag out his mouth and allow him to speak?”
“Yes, I do. I believe your Gillikin judge accused me of being an irrational, jealous woman. I want to show all of Oz who the irrational one is. And knowing the Fisher King, he will not be able to help himself and admit his guilt.”
Pridius just rolled his eyes. “Very well. Get on with it. But if this is some plot and he can do magic without his ring, all of Oz will bring you down.”
Illyna ripped the shit covered rag out of the Fisher King’s mouth, and his eyes immediately cut to Ozma.
“You pink-haired little bitch. I knew I should have just drained your magic when you were a baby and been done with you. But no. My traitorous wife told me it wouldn’t fully develop until you were much older. I’ve always known women were evil. They are only good for bedding and making babies. The only woman in Oz who is actually trustworthy is Locasta, yet you put her on trial. You’d be better off killing this one and letting Locasta go free.”
I don’t think anyone intended to question the Fisher King as a witness, but Pridius jumped up, and it looked like he intended to. It was totally fucked up to question a severed head, but this trial had been totally fucked up since it started.
“So, you admit Locasta helped you kidnap the heir to the Oz throne to steal her magic?”
“Women with magic have other uses than just babies. I got messed up in that cave and thought I could actually work with one to become more powerful. Illyna is a typical woman. Ruled by her emotions. One look at our children in that graveyard, and she betrayed everything we worked for. Locasta would never have done that. She never let my daughter get away with anything when she raised her. I should have just killed Illyna when she let me out and waited for Locasta’s mother to come to visit when Locasta was just a child.”
Pridius looked disgusted. “Shove the rag back in his mouth and put the head away. I have more questions for you.”
The Fisher King was screaming and trying to bite, but Illyna got the rag back in his mouth. She shoved the head back in the bag and just unceremoniously dropped it on the group. Pridius looked like he was willing to listen to Illyna now, and Pavius looked like his entire world had just been shattered. The audience was just sitting there with their mouths open like they were watching a superb piece of theatre.
“Okay. I’m willing to entertain the notion you plotted against the Fisher King and didn’t just randomly turn against him to save your own hide at that cemetery. Tell us what changed your mind after you thought you were in love with him?”
“I thought I was in love with him. I told him things about special children being born with colorful hair in every generation of certain families. It happened in my family, so it made sense I would have a child like that. I thought I was just helping him understand the Sentinels and why there were only ever four of them except in the case of my twin and me, so there were five of us that beat him.
“I had no idea it got the idea in his head that he could get a child like that out of me. I didn’t want children, but not only did he want a special child, but he also wanted to use fertility magic from where he comes from and Oz to have me have triplets. The number three was very important to him.
“Not only did I not want children, but his prison also was not the appropriate place to raise them. You heard him speak. The Fisher King doesn’t understand women. He thought he could just do a little magic and I would instantly become pregnant with three magical triplets. I kept telling him it didn’t work like that and he kept insisting as a woman, I couldn’t possibly understand it, if you can believe that.
“I refused to do it, and he raped me. That was where the seed of hatred started. He kept raping me until I fell pregnant. Being pregnant changes you. I knew I only had one child in me. I cou
ld only feel the kicks of one babe and my belly didn’t grow large enough for three. I could just feel that this child didn’t have my green hair or the level of magic that I did, but I didn’t tell him.
“I thought he would see his child and change, but he didn’t. As soon as I gave birth, and he looked down and saw it was just one baby with black hair, he snapped the baby’s neck right in front of me. That was when I made a vow. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know when, but one day, I would end him. I would watch him and figure out his weaknesses. I’d strike when I could and end his reign for good.”
“And I believe you,” Pridius said. “I just have a problem with the body count and wreckage you left behind doing so.”
“There would have been a lot more if I wasn’t actively lying to him. Ozma is only alive because I kept telling him she wasn’t old enough to have her full magical abilities. A lot of things Locasta wanted to do in the North, I acted as a buffer and tried to say it would expose her. The Fisher King was supplying most of the ingredients in the Gillikin black market. Locasta would make a big show of arresting someone for using it, and then they would go to her secret prison for him to steal magic.
“Locasta wanted him to provide her with something deadly for the black market. Something that would start killing the Gillikin. She thought it would spread fear, and she could make more arrests so the Fisher King could get stronger and they could step up their plans to take over the East and steal magic from Oz. I had to lie and convince them that doing that would have people questioning Locasta’s methods if the black market had gotten that far out of control and the rest of Oz may notice and get involved. Telling them killing innocent Gillikin was wrong would have just gotten me laughed at.”
“So, you saved a few Gillikin, and you saved Ozma. You didn’t stop the deaths of two Sentinels. Why don’t you tell the audience the truth about Dorothy Gale and Locasta’s trusted servant Esiro?”
Illyna’s shoulders slumped. “The Fisher King did somehow get his three special children, but he still wasn’t happy. He wanted three sons, but he got one son and two daughters. He was angry for days, and I know he was conflicted about the two girls. On the one hand, it was his perfect number three; on the other, the Fisher King hates women. He didn’t know if he wanted to kill them or preserve his little trifecta.
“The only reason he didn’t kill them is that he wanted to use them for babies to make more powerful children for him to steal magic from. Both of my daughters had the same spell put on them as Ozma, except they were not made to think they were boys.
“The Fisher King wanted to run an experiment. One of my daughters was sent to Locasta, for Locasta to beat into submission as her servant. The Gillikin would know her as Esiro. The Fisher King wanted to see what a child of Oz and his realm would be like if they were raised back where he comes from. He used his ring to make a portal to a random location where he came from and left her on the doorstep of a farm.
“You would know that child as Dorothy Gale. She’s of two worlds, but Oz kept calling her back home. When I felt that house traveling over the Deadly Desert, so did Locasta. Locasta came to the prison and said it was the perfect way to take out Adora in the East without putting any of us up against her. I didn’t want my child to be responsible for the death of another person. I also knew Locasta and the Fisher King intended to send her to the Wizard, knowing he had a vendetta against Azami.
“I refused. Locasta has issues controlling the elements, but I could grab ahold of that tornado and aim it where I wanted. They both knew that. I tried to say I wouldn’t do it, and it wasn’t the right way, but the Fisher King didn’t agree with me.
“They gave me an ultimatum. I could aim the house at Adora of the East, or the Fisher King would just kidnap Dorothy when she landed, kill her in front of me, then kill me after. It was either aim a house at Adora and hope she got out of the way in time or lose my daughter and die myself. If I died, there would be no one left to fight him that knew his weaknesses. It was a no-win situation. I aimed the house and hoped she got out of the way in time, but we all know how that story ended.”
“We intend to call your children to the stand,” Roxar said. “One can give us testimony about the Fisher King, and the other can give us testimony about Locasta. The other was scared and confused every time she ended up in Oz. Was your revenge really worth everything they went through?”
“Don’t you think I tried to come up with a way to get them away from him? That I tried to think of a way I could have gotten all of us to one of the Sentinels that wasn’t compromised, and we could have beaten him together? You forget, I have three children and one of me. The Fisher King knows what teleportation power looks like and he learned how to brew his own after he started his university. He didn’t like using his ring to travel because it drains the magic.
“He was a light sleeper and tied my wrist to his at night. He would have known if I had gotten up in the middle of the night to run away or brew potion. If he saw me brewing teleportation powder when I wasn’t going anywhere with him, he would have just killed me, no questions asked.
“Even if I wasn’t shackled to him at night, how was I to run with three babies and no way to teleport? If I had gone on foot, he would have caught me and killed all of us. I couldn’t figure out how then, so tell me. How was I supposed to get all of us to a non-compromised Sentinel? They had a hard life, yes. And it’s my fault. I fully intend to accept whatever punishment I am given. If I could take back what they went through, I would, but at least they are alive.”
Pridius’ face softened. “I can’t tell you how you could have gotten them to safety. It sounds like every option you had was a bad one.”
Roxar stepped forward. “We’ve heard how you fell for the Fisher King, but you are not the only one on trial. How did Locasta come to be involved?”
“I had no idea this was going on while I was alone in that cave with him. My twin sister took up the post of Sentinel of the North. As time passed, future generations of Sentinels in the North were trying to get something arranged where someone would relieve me. It would have been almost impossible because of how Sentinels are born. I would have had to have taken the place of one of the Sentinels who took mine guarding the cave, and it would have messed up the Sentinel line.
“The rest of the Sentinels knew what I knew about this and disagreed with the North. Really, I didn’t need to be relieved. I just needed someone other than the Fisher King to talk to. The Northern Sentinels were campaigning for someone to replace me, but none came to visit me until after I fell for the Fisher King’s charms and let him out, hundreds of years after I took up my post.
“It was Locasta’s mother that came to visit me. Locasta was just a child. The Fisher King saw them coming to the cave and wanted to use them. He wanted me to twist Locasta’s mother to his side so he could have people to steal magic from and get stronger. It was supposed to be my job to groom Locasta’s mother.
“I tried talking to her mother in a way that it seemed to him like I was grooming her, but everything I was telling her would trigger her Sentinel training, and she would alert the other Sentinels something was going on at that prison.
“Locasta’s line is cunning, but my sister had always been weaker in magic than I was. Locasta’s line has stronger magic than most people in Oz, but she’s not as strong as the other Sentinels. There was a lot of inbreeding after my sister trying to get their magic stronger.
“Locasta’s mother, bless her, listened to everything I had to say for ten years. I had to break it down and explain it to her like I would a child. It was almost like she had no Sentinel training or just couldn’t see the danger we were all in. I kept insisting she leave Locasta at home, but she said Locasta went everywhere she did.
“I had no idea little Locasta was sitting there listening to me and understanding everything I said. Instead of running from danger and alerting the other Sentinels, she ran to it. In an attempt to impress the Fisher King, she thought up a g
lamour of a harmless old lady and came up with a plot with her best friend, Mombi.
“Locasta teleported to the prison late one night covered in blood. She had murdered her mother to impress the Fisher King. She asked to speak to him directly, and he made himself be seen. She told him she had an idea to strengthen him. With her mother dead, she would be Sentinel of the North. Mombi agreed to take part in her story it was Mombi that cursed Locasta to look forever old and murdered her mother.
“The story Locasta would give out was that there was a magical battle, and she defeated Mombi and bound her magic. She banished Mombi to the outskirts of the North and in return, Locasta would make sure she had everything she wanted to keep quiet.
“The Fisher King was impressed, and Locasta was instantly smitten with him. She asked to be made a second wife, and he agreed. He was only using her. He would have eventually drained her magic, just like he would have drained mine when he no longer needed us. Once he no longer needed the inside scoop on magic in Oz and had taken everything there was to take, and he would have stolen our magic and left Oz for good for another place to steal magic from.”
Pavius heard every word of her story, heard the Fisher King, and was still looking for any shred of evidence Locasta hadn’t duped the North.
“Is there any proof Locasta murdered her mother and conspired with Mombi?”
“Actually, yes. There is. Locasta likes to keep trophies of her kills. She has a trunk of souvenirs somewhere. She cut off the bloodied bodice of her mother’s gown. She bragged it was her mother’s favorite dress, and she wore it all the time. Anyone who remembers her mother should recognize that bodice. There are other trophies in there too. Partial hides of talking animals she killed, personal totems of people she had arrested for the Fisher King, bits of jewelry of people she arrested and had killed because she thought they were onto her. Have you searched her rooms?”
The look on Pavius’ face said they clearly hadn’t. He’d probably left them exactly as they were because he thought this trial would prove her innocence, and she’d just be going right back to them.
Oz Has Spoken: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 3) Page 21
