"I haven’t decided. She has to die, obviously, but I don’t know whether to have her hanged or beheaded. I was thinking about stoning, but there are so many who would want to throw stones that it would be impossible to control the crowd."

"Does she really have to die?"

"My dear Gabrielle, of course she has to die. She has killed dozens, maybe even hundreds over the years. It is a fit and just punishment."

"But wouldn’t she suffer more by spending the remainder of her life locked away in a cell?"

"Perhaps, but the people cry out for vengeance. Even though I am king there are some things that the public must be permitted to demand. Every good leader know this."

"But surely knowing she is locked away would satisfy their lust for retribution."

"Wife, in many ways you are still as innocent and as naive as the day we wed. No, they clamor for blood, for the blood of the Barbarian Bitch. Although…."

"Yes?" Queen Gabrielle asked hopefully, "You have an idea?"

"Possibly. Rather than an execution, a public flogging every ten days may please them."

"Not too many lashes, I would hope."

"Not too many – not enough to kill her, but enough to satisfy the crowd. I would say a hundred or so."

"So many? I was thinking maybe ten, or fifteen."

Laughing again, King Belos replied. "How little you know about these things! The people would not stand for such an inadequate punishment. Children are given ten lashes for being disrespectable. "

"But…."

"But, nothing. I don’t understand your concern with this woman, or her punishment. You have never shown an interest in these kinds of things before."

"It is hard to explain, my Husband, but as you have said, I am still so innocent of so much that goes on. If I am to serve as a real queen shouldn’t I be attentive to everything that happens?"

"Somehow, I think your interest has less to do with affairs of state and more to do with your fascination with this evil woman."

"Yes, you are correct, of course. But if I may — I have been your wife for five years, and they have been happy years for me. But a queen needs to know more than the gossip of the Royal Court. When you met me I was just an ordinary peasant girl who read from her scrolls to children…."

"And good little stories they were," the king interrupted.

"Yes, good stories — but simple, children's stories. One day I would like to write about things that interest men and women, not just children. And I feel if I can understand what it is that made this barbarian woman so evil and murderous then I will not be so naive. Surely there was a time when she was not a cruel, heartless person."

"I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to be anywhere this beast is. You don’t realize how malevolent she is. No, my Wife, I forbid you to go near her."

"But I will be outside the cell, and she is shackled within. How can she harm me?"

"With her evil eyes and her foul mouth and her poisonous ideas. You heard my words – I forbid it. This discussion has ended
. She will be flogged with one hundred lashes in three days."