“I’ll wager that Epiny doesn’t agree to that.”
“At first, when he was tightening the rules on the men’s behavior, she thought she finally had a commander listening to her concerns about women’s safety on the streets. He’s only become this extreme in the last few weeks, Nevare. I don’t think anyone realizes he means for us to live like this forever.
“He called in all the officers today, to witness him dispensing his justice. The men took their stripes—fifteen each. It just about made me sick to watch. When he got to the woman, some of us objected. I was one of them. The men were soldiers and subject to his rules, I told him, but the woman wasn’t. Thayer wasn’t listening to us, but then the woman said it wasn’t her fault she was a whore, it was the only way she could make a living after her husband was murdered by Amzil.”
He gave me a sideways glance, but I still said nothing. He went on. “That made Captain Thayer sit up and take notice. Amzil has never tried to avoid him since that night; I’d almost say she goes out of her way to put herself in front of him. She addresses him every chance she gets: ‘Are you having a good day, Captain Thayer? Pleasant weather, isn’t it, Captain Thayer?’ She’s a mirror of his guilt, a living and very present reminder of a night when he was neither an officer nor a gentleman. And this widow gave him the perfect reason to be rid of her. He immediately sent two men out to look for Amzil and to bring her to confront her accuser. Everyone knows that she works for me, so they went first to my house. Thank the good god that the Captain had allowed me to go with them; I had told him I didn’t want strange men barging into my house and alarming my delicate wife.”
He paused and we exchanged a look. I suspected the men would have been more alarmed than Epiny. “Amzil wasn’t there, but Epiny’s note was. I scooped it up before anyone else saw it. I called in a neighbor’s housekeeper, one of Epiny’s whistle brigade, to keep an eye on the children for me. We were headed back to headquarters when we encountered Amzil, coming back from market. The men arrested her and took her immediately to Captain Thayer.” His words halted and I knew he didn’t wish to elaborate.
“And then you came here?”
“No! I longed to, but knew that I could not leave Amzil to face him alone.” He looked aside from me. “I did what I could to protect her, Nevare, but she didn’t make it easy. I came with those men, almost like I was leading them to her.” Then his eyes came up to meet mine. “I tried to tell her to be calm. She wouldn’t listen to me. I gave her what protection I could. It wasn’t enough.”
I suddenly felt cold and my ears rang. “What do you mean?” I asked faintly.
“She fought them. They had to drag her. She was kicking and fighting and spitting, screaming to everyone on the street that Thayer was finally going to kill her and rape her like he’d threatened to do. I’ve never seen a woman act like that; it was more like watching a cornered wildcat. Fear, but plenty of hatred, too. As soon as they had her in the Captain’s office, the woman accused her. ‘She’s the one, she killed my husband, and buried him in one of the old buildings in Dead Town. I know she done it, ’cause I sent him out to beg some food of her, when she had plenty and we had nothing. And she killed him and run off. Took me weeks to find his grave. My poor, dear husband. All he wanted was food.’ And the widow broke down in tears.”
“Did Amzil deny it?”
“She wouldn’t say a word. And that other woman sat there, rocking and crying and moaning from time to time, and the Captain started questioning Amzil. ‘Did you do it? Did you kill this woman’s husband?’ And instead of answering him, she started firing questions back at him: ‘Did you strike an unarmed man while others held him for you? Did you keep silent when troops under your command said they would rape me in front of the man I loved? Did you yourself suggest that you would rape me after I was dead, as vengeance on the man you intended to murder?’ For every question he asked her, she asked him a worse one. I think she knew she was facing death and was determined to cut him as deep as she could on the way. In front of every officer in his command, she accused him of those things.”
I couldn’t find breath to ask him what had happened. His repetition of her words “in front of the man I loved” had burned into me like acid.
“The Captain was roused into a fury. He said to her, ‘Tell me the truth, or I’ll have it flogged out of you.’ Then she challenged him. ‘You don’t need a whip. By the good god, if you tell the truth, I vow I will. And if you won’t, then you have no right to question me.’ And it just got cold silent in that room. Everyone looking at him, because most of them knew that what she said about him was true. And then he blurted out, ‘You are right. I will tell the truth and have it be over. I did those things. The deceit of a woman made me do those things. I am guilty.’ And once he’d said it, Amzil looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘I killed that man because he was going to kill me and my children and take our food.’”
