Brightly Burning

'I intend to,' Theran said flatly. 'Now, in the sight of all these witnesses, so that there can be no question of the depth of your obsession and insane hatred.' He stepped back; Jedin stepped forward as Lan swallowed hard, and waited.

A moment later, Lan was surrounded by a faint, blue glow, clearly visible against the universal white of the platform, the draping, and the white uniforms. Very few people, even those living in the capital, had actually seen a Truth Spell in action, and from the front to the rear they craned their necks, peering up at the platform in avid curiosity.

Jedin wasted no time; after a few preliminaries to establish that Lan was, indeed, Lavan Chitward, and that he had attended the Merchants' School as stated, he went straight to the heart of the matter.

'Describe the situation between the younger pupils and the older,' Jedin ordered.

In a strained voice, Lan related everything that Pol already knew about the behavior of the Sixth Form, as the crowd listened closely, and began to radiate disapproval—not of Lan, but of the gang of bullies who had so dominated every other pupil in the school. Jisette Jelnack, however, stirred angrily.

'Lies!' she shrieked, when Lan was finished. 'All lies!'

Now the Seneschal's Herald stepped forward and offered Theran a sheaf of papers. 'This is testimony from forty other pupils of the Merchants' School, all taken under Truth Spell and witnessed, that corroborate and add to the statements of Lavan Chitward,' he said, for the benefit of the crowd. 'These include statements from the boys who survived the fire and styled themselves 'Sixth Formers,' and were the followers of the Jelnack boy.'

'Lies!' Jisette shrieked again. Theran glared at her, rapidly losing patience—a feat in itself, for Theran's patience was nothing short of monumental.

'Woman, you will be silent unless permission is granted you to speak,' he thundered. 'If you cannot be silent, you will be gagged. Do you understand this?'

Angrily, she stared up at the King, as if she were the rightful ruler and not he. Then she nodded once, sharply, with extreme reluctance.

Lan was not out from under the burden yet, and Jedin returned to him. 'Describe, from the moment that you were accosted in the classroom after dismissal, precisely what occurred on the day of the fire.'

Shaking so that his distress must be visible even to the farthest corner of the Great Square, Lan complied, leaving out nothing. He faltered when trying to describe how his Gift suddenly erupted and broke free of his control; rather than coach him, Jedin asked very specific questions that enabled him to give details that would satisfy even the most skeptical that, untrained as he was, and not even knowing what it was that had happened, there was nothing he could have done to stop what had happened once it got started. The blue glow of the Truth Spell never wavered through all of this. Finally Jedin asked the most important question of all.

'Did you intend for anyone to be hurt?' he asked, almost gently.

Lan shook his head.

'What did you want?' Jedin persisted.

'I just wanted them to leave me alone!' Lan cried, his voice breaking. 'All I ever wanted was to be left alone!'

It was obvious that not only his voice was cracking, but his nerves, and Jedin dismissed the Truth Spell, nodded once to the King, and stepped back into his proper place.

But Jisette could no longer control herself. 'You see! You see! He murdered my boy in cold blood! I demand—'

'Silence!' Theran shouted, making everyone jump. 'Guards, gag the prisoner!'

The Guards, looking pleased for the first time this afternoon, obeyed him with alacrity. Jisette struggled, but uselessly. In a moment, she was silenced, and glared all around her with eyes so wide that the whites showed all around.

Another murmur rose from the crowd, this one of approval. 'I'd'a given the bitch the back of m'hand a candlemark agone,' one man behind Pol muttered to his neighbor.

'Trainee Lavan, called Firestarter, has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the entire Guard and Collegium that his Gift is now under control,' said the Lord Marshal, over the comments of the crowd. 'Under attack, he eliminated the weapons of his attackers, and confined them, without harming them.'

'Very good,' Theran responded with utmost gravity; this, of course, was to settle any remaining unease concerning Lan's Gift. 'And there is no doubt that the Companion Kalira's Choice is a true one?'

'No doubt whatsoever, Sire,' Jedin supplied. 'And everyone knows that a Companion does not Choose the unworthy.'

Despite what poor Lan was going through, Pol had to admire the way that Theran had orchestrated these proceedings. Every possible doubt that could arise had been set up, like a target, and neatly knocked down. Only one possible thing remained, an analogy to what had occurred at the school that even the dullest could understand.

Theran stood up, and glared down at the Jelnack woman. Unrepentant to the last, she glared back up at him.

'Woman, your child willfully and intentionally went about that school throwing stones aimed to hurt,' he rumbled, as the crowd stilled, the better to hear his words. 'He triggered an avalanche with his stones when he aimed at Trainee Lavan. The fact that the avalanche killed him is his own fault and no one else's; not the fault of Lavan or even of the avalanche itself. Those who take delight in causing harm would do well to heed his example and his fate.'

Pol nodded with satisfaction; Theran must have been working on those exact words for the better part of a day. He could not have chosen a better simile, or one more memorable and graphic.

'As for you,' Theran continued, 'we have thought long and hard about your punishment. You are very clearly obsessed, for the warning you had and the evidence you have heard was not sufficient; just as clearly, you are no longer able to consider your actions rationally. We do not execute the insane in this land. It is obvious that your family can exert no control over you, and thus cannot be trusted with your custody. Our Healers have enough to do;