Judge Adlerk Naiynig rose from his seat and announced imperiously, "This court is adjourned. Let the record state that the findings of this proceeding have proven the guilt of the accused, who will stand before the executioner at sunrise." All to be expected.
The coming sunrise would bring Alderk and the others a surprise they could not fail to appreciate. It would bring them face to face with the reality of their errors. But for the night, Sairou would have his rest.
Dawn came. As the sun's first rays shot over the horizon, the executioner roused himself and set out for the square. The community was gathered in preparation for the first execution of the day. Women and children gathered together in a huddled mass. The men encircled the entire scene in preparation for any trouble - and trouble there was.
Sairou was roused from his bed by the guards and rushed from the cell into the square. He was brought into the circle and dragged onto the platform, his neck placed upon the executioner's block for where his sword would fall.
But the executioner's sword would not fall upon Sairou.
As the executioner came to the platform he asked Sairou if he had any last words, positioning himself above the Kayise's form in preparation to swing the final stroke to end the prisoner's life.
Sairou spoke thus. "Death." With that one utterance, the sword fell from the executioner's hand, his body immobilized. The men of the guarding circle fell to the ground unconscious all at once, and the women and children began to flee screaming.
Sairou stood, unbound his hands and fixed his unkempt appearance. "I pronounce the sentence of death upon this court for the crimes of corruption and unbounded arrogance. I serve your sentence to you now."
Sairou clapped his hands and at once blood began to flow from the eyes of the executioner who fell over dead. The hearts of the men of the circle stopped at that same instant, and not far away, the judge died a short but excruciating death in his bed, writhing as every nerve in his body exploded into a sensation of sudden agony.
The Kayise called out his proclamation to those hiding near the empty square, "I now take stewardship of this court in the absence of worthy public servants!" If the people of the town would think of him as a monster for this, it was only because he was a better quality of monster than the ones he had just dispatched.
