“Sir?”
“Did he hurt any of you?”
“I think Huryk got some bruises, sir.”
“Thank you, trooper.” Caesyt turned to Quaeryt. “I have no more questions for this witness.”
Quaeryt looked to Pharyl. “Call your next witness.”
Estall was the next trooper, and the patterns of testimony and questions-and Estall’s answers-were almost exactly the same as Melnar’s had been. So were the testimonies and answers from the last two troopers, although Huryk insisted that Vhalsyr had to have used a whip because the number of whips matched the number of people present.
“Vhalsyr Brennasyn, step forward,” ordered Pharyl, who waited until Vhalsyr faced Quaeryt before continuing. “Would you please tell the honorable justicer what happened on the night of Vendrei, the thirty-fourth of Maris?”
“Honorable Justicer…” Vhalsyr swallowed, then went on. “My brother told me he wanted to go talk with Factor Hyleor. He said he’d had enough of Hyleor’s shit with the girls, his getting them to smoke elveweed and snort curamyn. I told him that Hyleor was a mean sort. He said he’d take care of that. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but I didn’t want him to go alone. Except when we got to a block away, some more guys joined us. They carried whips, and some had knives. I didn’t know any of them. When we got to this house, there was a fellow unloading a little wagon outside the place, and Versoryn, he said that was Hyleor, and they all ran down the drive and wrapped him up with their whips, and dragged him out into the street. I yelled at my brother not to hurt him because he’d get in trouble. He yelled back that Hyleor deserved what he was going to get. Before they could do much, all of a sudden, there were all these troopers riding up. There must have been twenty of them, and they had sabres out. Versoryn, he went crazy, yelling about how Hyleor even had the troopers on his side. He went after one of the rankers or maybe his horse with a knife, and the trooper hit him with his sabre a couple of times. I couldn’t believe it. Everyone else ran, and I didn’t see what happened next. I was still standing there, and the troopers came after me. I tried to run, but they caught me…”
After that, Pharyl spent another quint or so asking questions, but Vhalsyr said nothing at variance with his initial story. Pharyl finally said, “I have no more questions.”
Then Caesyt asked, “Were you carrying a knife or a whip?”
“No, sir.”
“Not even a belt knife?”
“Oh … I had a belt knife. It’s barely as long as my little finger. I never took it out of its sheath.”
“You didn’t have a whip?”
“I never used a whip. I wouldn’t know how.”
“Did you ever strike any of the troopers?”
“Not until they jumped all over me, sir. I just kept trying to keep them from hurting me too bad.”
Quaeryt had his doubts about that, but he listened while Caesyt continued his questioning, until the advocate finally said, “I have no more questions.”
“Do you have a final statement?” Quaeryt asked Pharyl.
“Yes, sir. Whether the accused actually lifted a weapon does not matter. He willfully took part in a group activity that inflicted bodily harm on the factor and that assaulted troopers of Lord Bhayar. He admits to striking troopers, and to trying to escape, which is a sign that he knew what he was doing was an offense against the law…”
When Pharyl had finished, Quaeryt turned to Caesyt. “Your statement, advocate?”
Caesyt stepped forward and faced Quaeryt. “There is no doubt that the late Versoryn did in fact commit the offenses with which his younger brother is being charged, Honorable Justicer … but”-the advocate paused before continuing-“there is absolutely no evidence that Vhalsyr is guilty of anything but poor judgment in accompanying his brother. Not a single one of the troopers saw him with any weapon. The alleged victim of the assault has not appeared to testify-he was summoned, was he not?”
“He was,” Quaeryt said.
“The most with which Vhalsyr can honestly be charged is being disorderly in public, and that only because he felt he was being attacked unfairly by the troopers. That is the only charge of which he can possibly be charged. For those reasons, I move that he be found guilty of that and only that, and that his sentence be limited to the time in which he has already been incarcerated.” Caesyt smiled politely.
Quaeryt could see the situation quite clearly.
“I will take your motion under advisement, advocate.” Quaeryt looked to the patrollers flanking Vhalsyr. “Bring the accused forward.”
Caesyt stepped back slightly and then moved beside Vhalsyr once he stood in front of Quaeryt.
Quaeryt waited several moments before speaking. “Vahlsyr Brennasyn, this hearing finds you not guilty of two counts of assault, but guilty of the lesser charge of disorderly conduct. Your sentence is limited to the time in incarceration that you have already served. You are free to go. This hearing is declared closed.” After a moment Quaeryt nodded to the patrollers. “You can release him.”
The advocate looked stunned. “You’re … deciding … now?”
“You made your case, advocate. I don’t have to like it; I just have to go by the evidence.”
The three hearings that followed were anticlimactic. The accused had no advocates, and all three had been caught in the act with witnesses.
Quaeryt had no doubt that the entire matter surrounding Vhalsyr, Versoryn, Hyleor … and, of course, High Holder Cransyr was anything but over. He just hoped that he’d minimized the damage.
41
Surprisingly, at least to Quaeryt, the rest of Lundi, as well as Mardi and Meredi, turned out to be free of unforeseen difficulties, except for an afternoon rainstorm on Mardi, and some rumbling from Mount Extel on Meredi that died away within a glass-not that he wasn’t busy almost every moment of every day, whether in meeting with the tariff collectors gathered by Jhalyt and trying to determine what factors and others liable for tariffs had perished, and who had not-or their heirs-in going over the comparatively few charred but barely readable records reclaimed by Baharyt, and in checking the master ledgers for receipts that were all too few, mainly coins from the produce sales, against the expenditures that were all too many.
He also had to detail one of the regimental wagons to help Vaelora move supplies and the additional furnishings she had purchased various shops around Extela to the governor’s villa, just in order to make the villa “barely livable,” as she had put it, rather starkly. That brought up the point that the governor needed a coach and team, a teamster, and a wagon for the residence. Every day that passed, he discovered something else that was required. Vaelora had engaged Shenna as her secretary and also hired a cook and maid. She had also persuaded Quaeryt that they would move to the villa on Jeudi, and that had required transporting some grain and fodder from the post to the villa’s stable, among other things, along with working out a guard detail from the permanent cadre of troopers at the post … at least until he could make inquiries and get to work hiring governor’s guards.
The more that had to be done, the more Quaeryt appreciated the two months they had spent at Telaryn Palace, in effect a honeymoon where they had had little worry over the everyday details of life-even compared to the comparatively privileged lives of a governor and his wife.
Jeudi morning, after he saw Vaelora off with the wagons, he sat down at his desk in the small study to read a petition that had arrived immediately after breakfast from a messenger from a Factor Ruent, someone whose name Quaeryt had never heard. From the very heading, Quaeryt sensed trouble.
