The next executioner to peer through the bars at her was empty-handed.
Catt tensed and she reached slowly and smoothly for the pyramid of cups.
Not entirely empty-handed. A key-ring jingled in the executioner's hand as they began to unlock the door.
As Catt got a clear look at her executioner, her heart sank, and the clay cup dropped harmless out of her fingers.
This one was so huge, they had to turn their shoulders sideways to fit through the cell door. Massively muscled arms protruded from the black uniform, with skin the texture of red sandstone. The keyring was held daintily in hands bigger than Catt's head, with fingers each ending in hooked claws. The ogre's face was too big to be completely covered by the mask, and she could see where the eye-holes had been whittled larger to accommodate widely-set eyes. This executioner's axe seemed to be twice the size of the other ones she had seen.
Catt sat up straight on the cot, swallowed, and waited for her life to flash before her eyes.
"Good news, miss! You're to be released!" said the ogre, cheerfully.