Chapter Eighty One: Trial By Fire
Carlisle:
Irina's face was twisted in agony as she stared at Kate and Irina; her sisters now lined up to die because of her mistake. I wish I could say something to her.
"Irina!" Caius barked, annoyed at having to address her by name.
Irina's eyes snapped up, and her pain immediately transformed into terror. The agony instead became mine, not only stopping but soothing every inch of my body, even my thoughts, pretending I was not feeling as threatened as she was as the shaking Irina came forward to meet Caius. I prepared myself for another degrading slap, but it did not come. Instead, Caius' voice was quite courteous:
"So you appear to have been quite mistaken in your allegations."
"I'm sorry," Irina whispered shakily. "I should have made sure of what I was seeing. But I had no idea..." She gestured hopelessly towards Bella and Renesmee.
"Dear Caius, could you expect her to have guessed in an instant something so strange and impossible?" Aro came to her defence. "Any of us would have made the same assumption."
Caius waved his hand at Aro to silence him, without taking his piercing gaze off Irina.
"We all know you made a mistake. I mean to speak of your motivations."
Around the field, in patches, some spectators – mostly older vampires – tensed: some in dread, some in anticipation. Caius was well known for his vicious interrogation style, chasing witnesses and suspects into the very corners of their own arguments. Unlike many here, I had seen Caius perform several of these interrogations in person. He always got what he wanted.
"My motivations?" Irina squeaked.
"Yes, for coming to spy on them in the first place."
Irina flinched at the word 'spy,' but said nothing.
"You were unhappy with the Cullens, were you not?" Caius pressed.
Irina turned to me with a pitiful expression on her face. I was glad to have evolved beyond breathing in that moment, because I could not pull air into my lungs. Stress had darkened her eyes to the colour of autumn. My close friend for nearly two centuries. I had hurt her by forbidding her revenge, and when she came to make up, she came face to face what she had believed to be the greatest vampire crime in all our history. Because of this, she was now on trial with Caius. He always won. Her eyes – those pitiful, glistening eyes – told me with a great deal of sorrow but no doubt, that she knew this.
"You were unhappy with the Cullens, were you not?" Caius pressed.
"I was," she admitted.
"Because..?"
"Because the werewolves killed my friend," she whispered, "and the Cullens wouldn't stand aside to let me avenge him."
"The shape-shifters," Aro corrected quietly.
"So the Cullens sided with the shape-shifters against our own kind - against the friend of a friend, even," Caius summarised.
"That's…how I saw it," Irina reluctantly confessed.
"If you'd like to make a formal complaint against the shape-shifters - and the Cullens, for supporting their actions - now would be the perfect time."
The corners of his lips curled in an expectant smile. Irina's eyes flicked across the gathering behind my shoulders, and then she straightened herself bravely. She was going to decline. Irina's defiance would mean her death. She knew this as well as I did. But her complaint would be a solid enough reason to slaughter myself and my family, and probably the wolves as well, if not our entire gathering. So, by some cruel twist of fate, I found myself stuck between sparing my friend's life and my family.
"No, I have no complaint against the wolves, or the Cullens," Irina announced firmly. "You came here today to destroy an Immortal Child. No Immortal Child exists. This was my mistake, and I take full responsibility for it. But the Cullens are innocent, and you have no reason to still be here." She apologised to us, and then turned to the Volturi witnesses to insist that there had been no crime.
As she spoke, Caius raised the incinerator; the final signal. As soon as Irina finished, three of the guard leapt from their ranks and surrounded her. There was the exquisite screech of a vampire being pulled apart, and then Caius slipped between two of the guards. He flicked the incinerator and what was left of Irina went up in flames. The guards returned to their positions, leaving Caius alone beside the burning heap. My knees shuddered, threatening to give way, as Caius shut off the incinerator and left Irina to burn. A gasp rippled through the Volturi's witnesses. Behind me, there was only silence. Even the wolves were holding their breaths.
"Now she has taken full responsibility for her actions." Caius smiled coldly as his eyes flicked towards the front line - to where I knew Tanya and Kate were standing.
Don't do it, I pleaded silently, forcing myself to keep facing the front. Seconds ticked by in tense silence, waiting for something to topple the impossibly fragile peace. I ground my teeth together, and Caius' red eyes returned to my face, glistening hungrily. He knew - he had known all along - that Irina would defend us. He didn't care about that, either. He was mad. He would have his vengeance on this impudent coven who dared oppose him. And Irina's death was exactly the right way to go about it; he had driven a stake so hard into the hearts of the other Denali sisters, they would care nothing for the consequences: they would attack.
"Stop them!" Edward cried. I whipped around as Tanya, shrieking hysterically, lunged towards Caius. Edward grabbed her arm, holding her back for just long enough for me to wrap my arms around her waist.
"Get...off...me!" I picked up between several Russian curses. I struggled to hold on as she continued to kick and flail around.
"It's too late to help her," I reasoned, trying to keep the panic out of my voice as I ducked under an elbow. "Don't give him what he wants!"
I watched in horror as Kate, too, broke out of rank. Rosalie tried to grab her, but in less than a second was shocked into a crumpled heap on the ground. Emmett tried next, managing to bring Kate to the ground before he too was rendered useless. Kate rolled to her feet, and I heard Caius laugh quietly to himself. It seemed he was going to get his bloodbath after all.
"Carlisle...let...me...go!" Tanya continued to shriek. She hooked her ankle around the back of my knee and pulled. I staggered, but didn't fall. I couldn't fall. The consequences were too great.
My shoulder socket jarred as Tanya twisted. The shock of pain echoed through my whole body. I shut my eyes. Think of Esme, Edward, Bella, Nessie, I begged myself. Don't let go. Someone else will stop Kate. Please, God, let someone stop her.
My prayers were answered as Garrett flew towards her, knocking her to the ground again. Kate roared with fury, but Garrett refused to relinquish his hold. He wrapped his arms around her and gritted his teeth against the pain he knew was coming. Kate shocked him, and his whole body shuddered. She tried again; this time, he jerked with a violent spasm and his eyes rolled back in his head. Still he held firmly.
Tanya, on the other hand, had doubled her efforts to break free of my grasp. She stomped on my feet, pinched and scratched at my hands, elbowed me in the chin. I was nearly screaming with the effort...I could feel my hold slipping...any moment now I would lose her.
"Zafrina!" Edward called. Kate calmed down; her screams became moans. Mercifully, Tanya stopped struggling too. I was tempted to relinquish my grasp, but not yet. I steadied my footing and waited, just in case.
"Give me my sight back," Tanya demanded. Zafrina was steadily watching Kate. Now that Tanya was more manageable, I watched too. Poor Garrett looked as though he might never get up again...but then he did. He looked as stunned and dishevelled as someone who had narrowly avoided being hit by a train, but he was all right.
"If I let you up, will you knock me down again, Kate?" he whispered, sounding a little out of breath. In response, Kate snarled and thrashed wildly, pain and fury burning in her black eyes. It hurt to see her like that; I was glad Tanya could not.
"Listen to me Tanya, Kate," I instructed, keeping my voice low and quite so nobody would hear it shaking. "Vengeance doesn't help her now. Irina wouldn't want you to throw your lives away like this. Think about what you're doing: if you attack them, we will all die."
Tanya finally let her shoulders slump. Weakened by her grief, she leant on me for support. I shifted my grip, turning her in my arms so that she faced me.
"Tanya, I'm sorry, I understand you want to fight back," I told her. "But please, don't make it at the expense of the rest of us. Irina died to save us. Don't throw that away. Please." My voice faded to a breath. I looked deep into Tanya's sorrowful eyes, and she slowly nodded. I slowly nodded back, and let my arms fall to my sides.