There's a big to-do in the square this afternoon. A crowd has gathered despite the constant drizzle, barkers selling concessions on the edges and everyone wearing their finest winter clothing, here to see and be seen at the execution. It's a good ten minutes after the courthouse bells have run before the wagon, pulled by a black draft horse, trundles through the parting mass and approaches the central platform. There are three filthy prisoners inside, two men and a woman, each of whom is manhandled in turn as they're brought to the gallows, a noose tugged over their head and brought to rest loosely around their neck.
A list of offenses is read, but it's difficult to catch the speaker's voice from the edge of the crowd. Something about sedition, conspiracy, high crimes. The prisoners stand still and grim, hands tied in front of them, ready to meet their end before they'll beg for mercy. Then, something catches the woman's attention. Her head twitches to one side like a bird's, and her eyes, by chance, land on Pippa and widen in shock. The woman's hair has been chopped short from the neat bun she used to wear, but even in her prisoners' rags, she is unmistakably familiar.
It's that tell-tale twitch of her head and the hawkish movement of her eyes that confirms Pippa's dreadfully building suspicions. It has to be Agata. No one else could possibly flay a human being alive with their stare alone like that.
She's standing along the outskirts of the crowd, one hand on the halter of a tired-looking mule while the other is frozen in place across her mouth. The raucous uproar around her doesn't even seem to touch her, even when a spectator jostles her shoulder; her eyes are fixed on Agata's face.
"No--" She can't watch it, but neither can she look away.
Cutting her gaze away once more, Agata looks utterly shaken, the sort of panic one would expect to see on a person in her predicament. One of the other prisoners looks at her morosely, but she ignores him, instead glancing back to Pippa and giving a desperate jerk of her head: get out of here.
Then, several things happen at once. The lever is pulled, the trapdoors open, and from three windows above Pippa come the telltale twangs of crossbows being fired. A bolt pierces clean through the rope of Agata's companion, who drops through; a second nearly severs hers, leaving only a thread from which she lurches painfully, but the motion is enough to snap it. The third bolt misses entirely, sailing hopelessly past the flailing prisoner's noose and landing instead in the gut of a guard, who wheezes ghoulishly and crumples to the ground. All hell breaks loose. Screams erupt from the crowd as they stampede from the square, more bolts are fired from the windows, and a volley is returned from the guards on the ground. The hanging prisoner eventually falls still, and the other two are nowhere to be seen.
All hell may be breaking loose around her, but Pippa's immediate problem is making sure the mule now rearing up onto his powerful hindquarters doesn't kick her or anyone else in the head as panic overtakes him.
"Rooster!" Crossbow bolts sing and whistle through the air beyond the crowd, and the mad crush of bodies around her would be more than enough to leave her a bloodied and trampled mess if it weren't for the animal whose halter she clings to. His panic makes everyone else give him a wide berth, and maybe that's what saves her.
The last place she wants to be is the centre of the city square, and so even though he fights her, she struggles to pull him towards one of the alleys leading into Fairport's winding streets. "Come on--" she starts, and throws one last, desperate look back towards the gallows; Agata's body doesn't swing from that rope, but wherever she is, she's out of sight now.
The pandemonium continues for some time, people rushing around every which way, a body count racking up from the battle in the square. It's after about twenty minutes that a thin, hooded form straggles into the otherwise unoccupied alley and drops to their knees, rasping hideously as they clutch at their throat. The only visible skin is on their hand, dirty and skeletal, but nonetheless one Pippa has seen before.
The cloaked shape that goes to their knees in the alleyway nearly ends up trod under Rooster's hooves, but Pippa spots them at the last moment and pulls him up sharp. Agitated and afraid, she snaps, "Hey! Get out of the--" but stops short of finishing that sentence.
Some things are too familiar to be forgotten; maybe it's the way the body moves, or the sound of the breathing, even rasping and agonized.
"Agata!" Without thinking, Pippa rushes forward and tries to pull the woman who had been her surrogate mother up to her feet. "Come with me, I'll get you out of the city..!"
Agata stands, but only with Pippa's assistance. She's incredibly weak and clearly having difficulty supporting her own head, which bows forward uncomfortably as she grips the girl's cloak. "Can't-- be seen with-- me," she chokes, and seems to be feebly trying to push her away.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Pippa hisses and won't be pushed away. She's gotten quite strong, not that she was ever much of a weakling even as a child; she had three brothers and an older sister to keep up with, if one counts Colin and Camilla.
She grabs hold of Rooster's halter again and coaxes him closer with a few clicks of her tongue, then looks quickly back to Agata. "I'll boost you up onto his back, just grab hold of his withers so you don't fall off."
Not in any position to argue, Agata nods defeatedly and allows herself to be boosted. She's light, too light perhaps, but manages enough strength to grip at the base of Rooster's mane while she tries to hold herself steady.
Pippa takes the opportunity to swiftly look around herself to see if they are drawing any attention to themselves and decides that even if there are curious eyes on them, they belong to people who probably won't go running to the duke's men anyway. She hoists herself up onto Rooster's back behind Agata, nimble as can be, snatches up the lead rope that will now have to serve as reins, and coaxes the mule into a gambolling trot.
"If anyone asks," she hisses, "you're my infirm mother, you have the pox, and I'm taking you home to die peacefully in your bed."
Agata nods mutely, and looks like she's about ready to do just that. Knowing that she would likely not survive a fall off this mule, she rationalizes that it's too late to jump ship now, and lets Pippa spirit her away.
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one grey day in Fairport
It's a good ten minutes after the courthouse bells have run before the wagon, pulled by a black draft horse, trundles through the parting mass and approaches the central platform. There are three filthy prisoners inside, two men and a woman, each of whom is manhandled in turn as they're brought to the gallows, a noose tugged over their head and brought to rest loosely around their neck.
A list of offenses is read, but it's difficult to catch the speaker's voice from the edge of the crowd. Something about sedition, conspiracy, high crimes. The prisoners stand still and grim, hands tied in front of them, ready to meet their end before they'll beg for mercy. Then, something catches the woman's attention.
Her head twitches to one side like a bird's, and her eyes, by chance, land on Pippa and widen in shock. The woman's hair has been chopped short from the neat bun she used to wear, but even in her prisoners' rags, she is unmistakably familiar.
no subject
She's standing along the outskirts of the crowd, one hand on the halter of a tired-looking mule while the other is frozen in place across her mouth. The raucous uproar around her doesn't even seem to touch her, even when a spectator jostles her shoulder; her eyes are fixed on Agata's face.
"No--" She can't watch it, but neither can she look away.
no subject
Then, several things happen at once. The lever is pulled, the trapdoors open, and from three windows above Pippa come the telltale twangs of crossbows being fired.
A bolt pierces clean through the rope of Agata's companion, who drops through; a second nearly severs hers, leaving only a thread from which she lurches painfully, but the motion is enough to snap it. The third bolt misses entirely, sailing hopelessly past the flailing prisoner's noose and landing instead in the gut of a guard, who wheezes ghoulishly and crumples to the ground.
All hell breaks loose. Screams erupt from the crowd as they stampede from the square, more bolts are fired from the windows, and a volley is returned from the guards on the ground. The hanging prisoner eventually falls still, and the other two are nowhere to be seen.
no subject
"Rooster!" Crossbow bolts sing and whistle through the air beyond the crowd, and the mad crush of bodies around her would be more than enough to leave her a bloodied and trampled mess if it weren't for the animal whose halter she clings to. His panic makes everyone else give him a wide berth, and maybe that's what saves her.
The last place she wants to be is the centre of the city square, and so even though he fights her, she struggles to pull him towards one of the alleys leading into Fairport's winding streets. "Come on--" she starts, and throws one last, desperate look back towards the gallows; Agata's body doesn't swing from that rope, but wherever she is, she's out of sight now.
no subject
It's after about twenty minutes that a thin, hooded form straggles into the otherwise unoccupied alley and drops to their knees, rasping hideously as they clutch at their throat.
The only visible skin is on their hand, dirty and skeletal, but nonetheless one Pippa has seen before.
no subject
Some things are too familiar to be forgotten; maybe it's the way the body moves, or the sound of the breathing, even rasping and agonized.
"Agata!" Without thinking, Pippa rushes forward and tries to pull the woman who had been her surrogate mother up to her feet. "Come with me, I'll get you out of the city..!"
no subject
"Can't-- be seen with-- me," she chokes, and seems to be feebly trying to push her away.
no subject
She grabs hold of Rooster's halter again and coaxes him closer with a few clicks of her tongue, then looks quickly back to Agata. "I'll boost you up onto his back, just grab hold of his withers so you don't fall off."
no subject
no subject
"If anyone asks," she hisses, "you're my infirm mother, you have the pox, and I'm taking you home to die peacefully in your bed."
no subject