Perhaps not Cat, she thought. That might end badly.
“This way,” Void said, quietly.
Emily felt tired, tired and old, as she followed them down a corridor and into a brightly-lit sitting room. Alassa sat on the sofa, Jade beside her. They looked very much in love... Emily felt a sudden twang of jealously, mingled with a grim awareness that it might be a long time before she was free to find love herself. Jade and Alassa had always had a hard core of pragmatism, of practical understanding, that Emily knew she lacked. They could be cold-blooded about love and marriage. She found the thought of being so calculating hard to take.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come earlier,” Alassa said. She squeezed Emily’s hand in a gentle display of affection. “This caught me by surprise.”
“Me, too.” Emily sat on an armchair and gingerly reached out with her senses. The wards didn’t seem designed to spy on them, but it was impossible to be sure. The walls were covered in carvings so pointless she was certain they were designed to conceal peepholes. There could be a dozen people spying on them in a dozen different ways. “What happened?”
“I didn’t hear anything about this, not even a hint,” Alassa said. Her lips twisted. “I’m going to have words with my ambassador. He should have informed me that something like this was in the works. Even if he didn’t know the target...”
She leaned against Jade, her eyes grim. “They should have sought my permission before arresting you,” she said. “That they didn’t...”
Emily nodded, silently, as Lady Barb passed her a mug of Kava. Master Lucknow hadn’t expected her to come quietly. He’d brought a small army of sorcerers with him, enough trained magicians to wear down her defenses and take her alive. She’d been holding back, but she had the feeling they’d been holding back, too. Had he wanted to provoke an incident, then claim she’d been killed resisting arrest? It would certainly save him from having to justify the arrest to a hostile council.
“What now?” Emily wanted to ask Void to do something for Jan, but she didn’t quite dare in front of everyone else. She had a feeling Alassa was going to ask her about Jan, the moment they were alone. Her friend had offered good advice when she’d been dating Caleb. “If the trial is over...”
“Now?” Alassa shrugged. “They’ll try to make a deal.”
Chapter Six
“THERE’S NO ROOM FOR A DEAL,” Lady Barb said, crossly. “These proceedings are blatantly illegal.”
Alassa shrugged, again. “Master Lucknow wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did without some support,” she said. “He’d need several powerful figures on his side. They’ll want to climb down, now the trial turned into a farce, but that won’t be easy if they stand to lose face. They’ll want something before they fold their cards, a fig leaf to conceal the collapse of their case. And... whatever they said the case was about, I highly doubt it was the truth. Or the complete truth.”
Void leaned against the stone wall, casting privacy spells with his fingers. “I imagine they blame you for a great many things,” he said. “And they went along with the trial in hopes of punishing you.”
Emily looked down at her hands. “And they really thought it would get them somewhere?”
Alassa let out a heavy sigh. “A couple of years ago, everyone knew the rules. They lived and died within a framework that everyone understood. It was both good and bad... depending, I suppose, on who you were. A person born into a community would be bound by the rules of that community... whatever they happened to be. There were even ways for individualists to leave the community and strike out for themselves.”
She looked up. “You’ve changed all that, for better or worse. My father went mad because he couldn’t handle the world you created... no, the world the innovations you introduced created. All of a sudden, things are different. Everyone is feeling unsure of themselves. And the events in Alluvia might have pushed them into doing something desperate...”
Emily stared at her. “What happened in Alluvia?”
“We’ll discuss it later.” Alassa stood, brushing down her dress. “Right now, I have to go argue your case.”
“An uprising,” Jade said, as Alassa left the room. “And it’s being blamed on you.”
“It is not your fault,” Lady Barb said, tartly. “There were cracks in society long before you came along. The problems sweeping over the Allied Lands existed well before anyone so much as knew your name. Prince Jock of Hazendel wouldn’t have been targeted for assassination if he hadn’t been a complete asshole to each and every person he met - the fact he was killed by a pistol-wielding commoner is beside the point. The demands for better treatment and even a say in how taxes are spent aren’t new either.”
“Prince Jock was a right little...” Jade cleared his throat. “I have never met anyone viler and I’ve come face to face with necromancers.”
Emily blinked. “When did you do that?”
“Apart from Randor?” Jade smiled. “Master Grey thought that poking the necromantic hive was a good way to get experience. It also nearly got me killed.”
“Master Grey was pretty vile himself,” Emily muttered. “I...”
She looked at Void. “Thank you for coming...”
“You’re welcome,” Void said. “I couldn’t let him condemn you without a fight. If he’d held a proper hearing...”
“It wouldn’t have worked,” Lady Barb said. “There just weren’t any legal grounds to condemn her.”
“They could have tried for a Bill of Attainder,” Void said. “The council itself might have
