possessions.
When the scene was finished Quillion waved his hand again and Edrigu's bed chamber vanished to be replaced once more by featureless crimson walls.
'What do you have to say in your defense, Matthew?'
'From the tone of your voice, it sounds like it doesn't matter what I say. You've already made up your mind.' I'd have asked for a lawyer, but it wouldn't have done any good. There aren't any in Nekropolis. As far as the Darkfolk are concerned, lawyers just slow down the swift course of justice. Besides, they're too scary, even for Nekropolis.
'My recreation is based on evidence delivered to me by Edrigu's servants. The theft triggered an alarm and when they investigated they were able to draw forth an image of your committing the robbery from the minds of the chamber guardians. The servants then sent Silent Jack out to fetch you and informed me of the robbery. I promptly dispatched a Sentinel to accompany Jack. It took a while for them to find you. I must admit it was rather clever of you to hide inside the Foundry. Baron's defenses against industrial espionage prevented us from tracking you by magical means. Luckily Jack encountered the cabbie who dropped you off at the Foundry and was able to convince him to share what he knew about your whereabouts.'
A wave of anger rushed through me. 'If you hurt Lazlo…'
Quillion raised a hand to forestall me. 'Relax. The demon is little the worse for wear. Besides, his kind heals swiftly. The main thing is that thanks to his grudging cooperation we were able to find you. And while Silent Jack was unable to materialize inside the Foundry, he is quite capable of relying on physical force when the need arises, and he was able to gain entrance that way. He's a very versatile creature, that Jack.'
'Why didn't Edrigu himself come after me once he woke up? I thought Darklords prefer to handle affronts against them personally.'
Quillion looked at me and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to answer. But finally he said, 'Edrigu – like the other Darklords – expends a great deal of energy during the Renewal Ceremony. This year, because the ceremony was disrupted, the Lords were required to devote an extra measure of power to ensure Umbriel was recharged for another year. Because of this the Darklords have been recuperating and are currently… indisposed.'
This was news to me. But now that I thought about it I hadn't heard of any Darklords making appearances in public since the last Renewal Ceremony.
'So they're… what? All sleeping, like Edrigu?'
'Basically. They must restore the energy they lost, and while they sleep this deeply, they cannot be awakened. Usually they wake within a few weeks, but the process is taking longer this year. And when none of the Darklords are available to dispense justice in their Dominions, that task falls to the First Adjudicator: me. I have answered your questions, Matthew, because it's not every day that we receive a… guest of your stature. After all, you did help the Darklords and Father Dis complete the Renewal Ceremony this year and your service to the city was much appreciated. That's the only reason we're having this conversation. If you were anyone else your case would already have been decided. Now, I will ask you for the final time: what do you have to say in your defense?'
I thought of Devona then. She'd surely guessed where the Sentinel had intended to take me, if not why, and she was probably on her way to the Nightspire. Even now she might be standing at the entrance, trying to convince the guards to let her in to see me. I tried to reach out and connect to her through our psychic link, but I didn't sense her presence. Either she was too far away, or the Inquisitory was enchanted to prevent magical and psychic energies from functioning inside it. Either way, I wasn't able to reassure her that I was all right, which – given my situation – would've been a lie anyway.
At that point I decided to ditch my tough guy act and cooperate with Quillion. I told him everything that had happened to me that night in detail, up to the moment when the Sentinel took me into custody. I finished by showing him the seam on my neck as evidence that Victor Baron had recently reattached my head to my body.
When my story was done Quillion looked thoughtful. The walls became less solid looking as he considered, wavering as if formed from crimson liquid, and I realized the chamber was linked to his mind. It certainly made for a good interrogation room. Confronting suspects with scenes of them committing a crime was a great way to get them to confess. But I reminded myself that what I'd witnessed wasn't exactly the magical equivalent of video from a security camera. It was a recreation based on interpreted evidence and not proof by a long shot. Unfortunately an Adjudicator doesn't need proof. He or she just has to believe a suspect is guilty in order to pronounce a sentence. I just had to hope that my story, strange as it was, had sowed a seed of doubt in Quillion's mind about my guilt.
'You must admit that on the surface your story is quite outlandish,' Quillion said after a time. 'You expect me to believe that someone knew you carried Edrigu's mark, and what's more, that they knew it could be used to gain access to his collection. And that this someone stole your body, somehow animated it, and used it to steal the object?'
'I told you that Acantha asked me about Edrigu's mark and showed a close up of my hand on her program. Hundreds saw it, maybe thousands. One of them must've realized what the mark could be used for.'
'Then why not just steal your hand?' Quillion asked.
I shrugged. 'I'm no expert in Darklord magic. Maybe most of my body was needed for the mark to work properly. Maybe someone wanted to frame me and they wanted to make sure there was enough of 'me' present to be recorded by whatever security methods Edrigu had in place. Are you sure the chamber guardians saw me as complete? In other words, did I have a head?'
'Yes,' Quillion said, but then he frowned. 'I'll admit that the guardians' mental description lacked a certain amount of visual clarity, however. It's difficult to see through an aura of flame, you know. Their impressions of you were more mystically derived than visually. They know it was a zombie that entered the chamber, and they recognized the power inherent in Edrigu's mark. You are the only individual in the city who matches those criteria.'
'So my headless body might've been used to commit the theft. Someone might have been controlling it from a distance, like a marionette with a very long set of strings.'
'I suppose,' Quillion said, but he sounded unconvinced.
I decided to try a different tack. 'What was stolen?'
'An object of some importance to Edrigu, obviously, since he wore it on his person. Unfortunately none of his servants seem to know its purpose and since the Darklord himself is asleep and cannot be wakened to tell us more…' Quillion trailed off.
'Contact Victor Baron,' I suggested. 'He can back me up.'
'Speaking with Baron would prove nothing. You could've committed the theft, perhaps at the behest of a client, and later cut off your own head and gone to the Foundry to have it reattached in an attempt to establish an alibi.'
'I'm not a mercenary,' I snapped. 'I'm a private detective. There's a big difference.'
'You do favors for people and they pay you in return,' Quillion said with a shrug. 'Perhaps this time the payment was enough to get you to suspend your moral code.'
I wanted to tell Quillion he could shove my moral code up his hairless ass, but I knew it wouldn't help my case, so instead I said, 'You could ask Devona. She-' I stopped myself. Quillion would just assume she'd lie to protect me. 'We could ask Dis to verify my story. With his power…'
'Father Dis is a god,' Quillion said stiffly. 'He has far more important matters to attend to than deciding the fate of one zombie.'
Quillion's dismissal of my idea had come a bit too quickly and was made too forcefully for me to take it at face value. A second later I realized what was really going on.
'You won't ask Dis to help me because you can't. He's resting just like the Darklords, isn't he?'
Quillion reluctantly nodded. 'Dis normally uses far more energy than any of the Darklords during the Renewal Ceremony, but this year was especially taxing for him. He sleeps deeply, and like the Darklords, he cannot be awakened until he is restored to full strength.'
This was bad for the city. With Dis and the Darklords temporarily out of commission Nekropolis was virtually unprotected. If a major crisis developed there would be no one available to deal with it. Hopefully, things would keep running smoothly enough until the Darklords awakened. If not… well, I didn't want to think about that.
'So what are we left with?' I asked. 'We agree on the fact that my body was used to commit a crime, but
