Two sets of emotions rushed through Seraphina, contradicting each other. She didn’t want Rune to go. What did it mean that the sergeant wanted to see him? Was Rune going to be hurt? Tortured? She didn’t want to be left alone in this freezing cell; she’d gotten too used to his presence. But then, maybe it was a good thing. If Rune told the sergeant that Hartmann had stopped his letter from reaching Krähenstein Academy, that he wanted Seraphina dead and he’d thrown her in a cell with a man...
Her thoughts clashed in her aching head, and she didn’t know what she wanted.
Rune squeezed her shoulder lightly before pushing to his feet and following the watchmen. The door clanged shut, and she felt utterly alone and devastated. What if he didn’t return? What if this had just been the last time she’d talked to him and felt his warmth, and she’d spent it thinking that he was too close and she couldn’t bear it?
She clambered to her feet. Pain shot through her lower belly, and she had to reach for the wall to support herself. She stayed like that for a few minutes, trying to think rationally. If theybelieved that Rune had committed those murders, then there was no way they wouldn’t return him to his cell. Unless...
How hadn’t she thought about it before? How hadn’t she realized? Rune was in here awaiting his trial, but once the trial happened and he was proven guilty, the punishment for manslaughter was death by decapitation. She knew that, but she’d been distracted by him being so vague in answering her questions, then by his confession that he didn’t actually do it. Hell! She’d been distracted by her own predicament, and she hadn’t come to truly care about him until a few days ago.
Did he know he would get the death sentence? She’d asked him if this was his way to end it without having to do it himself, and she’d suggested there were easier ways. How cruel of her to say that to him! What if all this time, he’d known what would happen because he’d planned it?
Seraphina started pacing the cell. Despite the biting cold, she felt feverish.
No, this couldn’t happen. For one, he was innocent. Not that anyone would believe him now. And two, because the penal code was so strict, the city watch always investigated crimes like these thoroughly. There had been changes in the justice system in the past years. The new Bavarian Penal Code adopted in 1813 kept the death penalty, but barbaric methods, like the breaking wheel, were replaced with the more humane practice of decapitation.
Humane... There was nothing humane about anything that happened in this prison. She could hear the convicts through the walls and knew that even if they hadn’t killed anyone and they were here for lesser crimes, half of them would still die before spring came. Their death sentence was undeniable, just not on paper.
No, Rune couldn’t die. He was too... He was just...
She didn’t want him to die.
Seraphina let her hands follow the wall as she inspected the cell, inch by inch. She knew her previous cell by heart, but not this one. With Rune gone, this was the first time she was alone between these four walls, so she took the opportunity to learn them through her fingertips. It didn’t take her long to discover they were covered in Rune’s carvings. Most of them were clustered above the wooden cot. She traced the shape of wings and wondered if it was a bird or an angel he’d tried to sketch. Then she found his verses.
She took her time reading them, her fingers pressing against the letters, digging into the small spaces between them. She had to go over the lines of text two or three times to make sure she identified every word. The carvings weren’t always clean or well defined.
“Let others kneel at gilded thrones,
I worship at your skin and bones.
My only prayer, only creed,
Is your every burning need.”
“Oh,” she gasped. Who had he written this for?
Her fingers moved lower on the wall.
“Don’t you smell the rot on me?
The sweet decay of memory?
Breathe me in, my only cure,
There is nothing left that’s pure.”
Seraphina hung her head and smiled. She couldn’t agree more. There truly was nothing left that was even remotely pure. Not in this place, and not in the whole world, if men were ready to kill over bones, adding more bones to the pile.
She moved to the wall underneath the barred window and traced more lines.
“I am a thing of ruin, a blasphemy of flesh.”
Noise erupted down the corridor, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Heavy steps approached the cell, and she didn’t have time to read the rest of it. She huddled in a corner, covering her face with her hands. The door was unlocked, and her nose caught Rune’s distinctive scent – his musk and his sweat, which she didn’t find repulsive at all, more like comforting. She’d gotten used to the smell of his skin. On top of all that, there was a layer of fresh, cold air. They’d taken him outside, probably to the gatehouse.
He was back now, and that was all that mattered.
The watchmen left them, and Seraphina focused hard on keeping calm. She wanted to turn around, jump into his arms and ask him if he was all right.
She wasn’t going to do any of that.
