‘Bring in the witness. He will give his testimony and then I shall question the accused,’ Rook ordered, before turning to Arcturus.
‘You may make your defence tomorrow, Captain, but if you wish to put anyone on the stand, he or she must testify today. We will get all the questioning out of the way so we can have a quick verdict in the morning.’
Arcturus’s jaw clenched but he remained silent. Fletcher wondered who Arcturus’s witness could be. Seraph, perhaps?
Jakov led a soldier into the room, wearing the charcoal uniform of the Forsyths. Fletcher did not recognise him, but didn’t think he was one of Grindle’s soldiers. They had all been hard, muscular men, while this one was young and skinny, barely older than Fletcher himself. He took his seat at one of the witness podiums.
‘State your name for the jury,’ Charles ordered.
‘I am Private John Butcher of the Forsyth Furies,’ the soldier said in a confident voice. He stared straight ahead, ignoring Fletcher and Othello.
‘Tell me, John. What did you see on the night in question?’
‘We were on a night training exercise, when we heard gunshots. Five men were dead when my squad arrived, so we searched for the attackers. I was separated from my group in the darkness. That was when I saw them.’ John finally looked at Fletcher and Othello, pointing to each of them with a steady finger. ‘I held them at musket-point, hoping reinforcements would arrive in time. It was then that I was paralysed by a Mite’s sting and they escaped. That’s the last I saw of them. My squad found me several hours later.’
‘Thank you, John. That will be all,’ Rook said. John stood and saluted, before marching out of the room. Fletcher watched his stiff back with a heavy heart. He recognised the boy now. The worst part was, it was all true.
‘That concludes the prosecution’s evidence,’ Rook said, lifting his notes to read aloud. ‘In summary. We have the motive – membership of the Anvils for Fletcher, and as for Othello …’ He paused, then lifted another sheet of paper. ‘Well, Othello, he has a rap sheet as long as my arm. Assaulting a Pinkerton, resisting arrest, spreading anti-human propaganda. A known troublemaker.’
‘Circumstantial!’ Arcturus said loudly, looking to the jury.
‘Nonetheless – motive!’ Rook growled, daring Arcturus to disagree. Fletcher’s heart sank further as Rook handed the sheet of paper to the jury to pass around. Othello was guilty of none of those charges. He had simply taken the blame, and the beatings, for his twin brother, Atilla.
‘We know the murder weapons, from the burns on the bodies from Fletcher’s Salamander to the discovery of the Thorsager tomahawk,’ Rook continued, nodding at the weapon on the table. ‘Finally, we have a reliable witness who places them at the scene. Now, we shall interrogate the accused. Guards, bring the dwarf to the witness stand!’
Othello struggled to his feet as the shackles were removed, then shuffled to the podium. He glared at Rook, his moustache bristling as he wrinkled his lip in disgust.
‘Where were you on the night of the attack?’ Rook asked, steepling his fingers.
Othello stared at Rook defiantly. He crossed his arms with a clatter of chains.
‘Why did you attack those men?’ Rook demanded, leaning forward. ‘Did you plan it, or was it a spur of the moment killing?’
Othello’s gaze never wavered. He was like a statue, unblinking and still, but for the steady rise and fall of his chest.
‘Well, it looks as if your gag did the trick, Jakov,’ Rook said, braying with laughter. ‘He’s been struck dumb!’
There was a soft chuckle from behind, and Fletcher turned to see old King Alfric smiling.
‘Still, he does look at me in a distinctly disrespectful way, wouldn’t you agree, Charles?’ Rook said, the humour suddenly gone from his tone.
‘He does indeed. Incredibly disrespectful. Slovenly in appearance, too. Beard unkempt, hair all over the place,’ Charles replied, rubbing his chin. ‘His grooming does not show this courtroom the respect it deserves.’
They were play-acting now, Fletcher could tell. It was like watching a poorly performed pantomime, and it filled him with dread – this was preplanned.
‘Jakov, why don’t you come here and give it a trim,’ Charles said, beckoning the large guard over.
Othello’s face paled. He tried to stand, but Charles slammed his hands on to the dwarf’s shoulders, keeping him in the chair. Ordinarily, the brawny dwarf would have had no trouble escaping Charles’s grip, but the chains impeded him, leaving him swaying back and forth.
‘You can’t!’ Fletcher shouted, tugging at his manacles. ‘It’s sacrilege to cut a dwarf ’s hair!’
He heaved on them until the metal bit his skin, thin rivulets of blood trickling down his fingers.
Arcturus turned to King Harold, but the monarch sat in silence, his arms crossed. Lord Forsyth, Didric and Lady Faversham were grinning with savage abandon, and old King Alfric was whispering excitedly into Didric’s ear.
‘This is against his civil rights,’ Arcturus said, appealing to the jury. ‘This is illegal!’
‘Dwarves have no rights,’ Rook laughed, as Jakov walked to the podium. ‘We shall make him presentable for the court. A haircut never hurt anyone.’
‘You will not do this!’ Arcturus bellowed, his finger flashing blue as he raised it. The click of the muskets gave him pause, and the guards shuffled forward, the guns pointed at his chest. He sank to his knees beside Fletcher as Jakov withdrew a curved blade, stepping beside Charles and Othello.
‘Don’t watch,’ Arcturus whispered, gripping Fletcher’s wrist to stop him pulling at the sharp metal cuffs. ‘They want to see you suffer.’
Fletcher stared at Othello as he struggled, jerking left and right and gnashing at the hands with his teeth. It made him look like an animal, and the jury shook their heads in disgust.
‘I am beyond suffering,’ Fletcher replied at last, dry-eyed. All he felt was anger, raging hot within him. He could barely stop himself from blasting the manacles from his hands and charging the podium. But he knew it would be suicide, and exactly what his enemies would have wanted.
Jakov’s meaty palm held Othello in place as the blade was raised.
‘Hold still,’ he growled, grasping the dwarf ’s beard. ‘Wouldn’t want an uneven haircut, would you.’
Othello’s head dropped to his chest, the fight gone from him as the first cut was made, the snick of the knife sharp in the silence of the room. He held Fletcher’s gaze as a tuft of hair floated to the ground.
A slow tear trickled down his cheek, but Othello did not cry out. The blade flashed again and again, and each time it felt as if it had been stabbed into Fletcher’s chest. That tear was the last. Othello bore the rest of the assault in stoic silence, and Fletcher willed him all his strength and courage.
‘Good enough, Inquisitors?’ Jakov said, stepping back to admire his handiwork. The beard was trimmed now, almost as short as Rook’s.
‘Hmmm. The ponytail. I’ll keep it as a souvenir,’ Charles said, lifting it with his hand. Othello closed his eyes as the knife swished again.
‘Perhaps I should fashion it into a shaving brush,’ Charles laughed, flicking it back and forth like a horse’s tail.
‘Far too dirty for that,’ Rook replied, wrinkling his nose in disgust. ‘Now the moustache. All of it – I’ve always wondered what a dwarf looks like witho—’
But he never finished his sentence. The doors at the back of the room slammed open, unleashing a gale of rain and whistling wind. A Griffin stalked through the doorway, emerging from the darkness with a screech. There was a uniformed rider astride it, her black hair plastered across pale cheeks. She lifted the goggles from her face, to reveal a pair of grey eyes that surveyed the scene with cold anger.
‘Captain Lovett,’ Fletcher breathed, hardly believing it possible. The last time he had seen her, she had been in a coma, only able to communicate through her Mite, Valens.
Lovett rode down the centre of the room, leaving a
trail of dripping water and ignoring the aghast looks from the crowd on either side. Still astride the regal beast, she stopped beside Jakov and snatched the knife from his hand. Rook, momentarily lost for words, suddenly found his tongue.
‘Captain Lovett. How dare you ride into a court of law! Dismount at once or be found in contempt!’
Lovett let the knife fall to the floor, a look of disgust plain on her face.
‘I can’t,’ she said.
‘Can’t, or won’t?’ Rook snarled, standing up from the high table.
‘Can’t,’ Lovett replied, tossing her hair. ‘I’m paralysed from the waist down.’
9
As Rook spluttered, unsure how to respond, Lovett turned her gaze to Fletcher. She gave him a barely perceptible nod, then walked her Griffin, Lysander, over to the jury.
‘I am here to tell you that Fletcher and Othello were not complicit in the crime. They were defending themselves from being attacked by ten men, and they barely escaped with their lives. The dwarf had been shot and Fletcher was carrying him to safety. My own Mite, Valens, stung a soldier who had captured them, allowing them to get away.’
‘You helped them escape?’ Rook roared, slamming his fists on the table. ‘After the murder of five soldiers?’
‘I saved them from being slaughtered in cold blood, after merely protecting themselves from a group of soldiers who were hunting dwarves for sport.’ Lovett’s voice was clear and confident, her gaze moving steadily across the jury.
Charles held up a hand and wagged a finger, smiling and shaking his head.
‘Not so fast, Captain Lovett. I have it on good authority that you were in ethershock until a few months ago … hence your unfortunate paralysis. How could you have seen the events that night?’
‘Through Valens, my demon. I was able to learn to see through his eyes without using a scrying stone, as have others before me.’ She lifted her chin and stared back, defiantly.
‘Preposterous. Only the most skilled of summoners are able to master that technique,’ Charles said, waving his hand dismissively.
‘Yes,’ Lovett said simply. Charles pursed his lips, but could think of no reply.
‘Well, if this is true, we could test it right now,’ Rook laughed.
‘Please do,’ Lovett replied.
Rook paused for a moment, staring at Lovett’s face over clasped hands. Her eyes bore into his, daring him to challenge her.
‘Let us assume that you are able to scry without a Corundum crystal to aid you,’ Rook said, examining his nails. ‘Your testimony is worthless, regardless of this ability. Or should I say, precisely because of it.’
‘Why is that?’ Arcturus asked. ‘There have been other cases where evidence has been given based on what was seen while scrying.’
‘Yes, but that was because they saw it with their own two eyes, on the stone itself. Lovett claims to have seen it all in her mind’s eye, as it were. There is no precedent for this and I rule it inadmissible in court. You are dismissed, Captain Lovett.’
‘This is ludicrous,’ Arcturus shouted, striding up to the podium.
‘It is law, Captain. I make it, you follow it.’ Rook couldn’t help but smile as Arcturus’s face reddened with rage.
‘Jury, please disregard Captain Lovett’s statements,’ Charles said, pushing Arcturus back to his table. ‘And Arcturus. Speak in that way again and we will hold you in contempt of court, leaving the criminals to defend themselves.’
Arcturus stood rigidly, his arms crooked as if he could barely prevent himself from tackling Charles to the ground.
With visible effort, Arcturus turned away, instead grasping Othello by the shoulder and leading him back to Fletcher. The dwarf stared at his feet in silence, avoiding his friend’s eyes. He looked smaller somehow, diminished. The stoic dwarf, who had borne so much, had been broken.
Fletcher’s hatred for his tormentors simmered inside of him. They had all the power, and he had none. This trial was a farce, the verdict a foregone conclusion. Even as he raged, his thoughts were preoccupied with one, frightening realisation: he was going to die, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Berdon … Sylva … he would never see them again.
‘I won’t stand for this,’ Lovett said, crossing her arms.
‘Yes … I can see that,’ Rook said.
He grinned at his jibe, and Fletcher heard Lord Forsyth snort with laughter.
Captain Lovett ignored him and turned to the jury.
‘Listen to your conscience, not these charlatans,’ she said, pointing a finger at the two Inquisitors. ‘These boys are victims of circumstance, nothing more.’
‘That’s quite enough, Captain,’ Rook snapped. ‘My patience wears thin. One more word …’ He nodded at the nearest guard, who raised his rifle, the barrel wavering slightly under her griffin Lysander’s steely-eyed gaze.
‘Now, do you have any other witnesses that you would like to call forth, or can we call it a day?’ Charles asked.
Captain Lovett turned to Arcturus, and Fletcher heard her whisper.
‘Sir Caulder was held up by the guards outside.’
Arcturus paused for a moment, then shook his head.
‘No … that is all,’ he announced, then turned to Lovett and said in a low voice. ‘It won’t make a blind bit of difference, no matter what he has to say.’
Rook grinned as he caught Arcturus’s words and raised his gavel.
‘Well, it’s nice to see that we are in agreement on that point. Court is adjourned until tomorrow morning, when we will hear your defence. We should have a verdict by the afternoon … and the convicts dead by evening.’
They didn’t let Fletcher stay with Othello, though he knew that he was not far away when they threw him back in his cell – he could hear Uhtred’s angry bellows through the wall. The words were muffled, but there was the splinter of broken furniture and yells from the guards. A few moments later, Jakov burst through the door, and Uhtred was hurled to the ground at Fletcher’s feet.
‘You can calm down in here,’ Jakov snarled, wiping a trickle of blood from his face. His lip was cut and a red bruise was blossoming on the corner of his jaw. ‘Raise your hand to the guards again and I’ll give you the same beauty treatment I gave your son.’
Fletcher advanced on him, flaring a fireball into existence as he did so.
‘Get out,’ Fletcher snarled. ‘Or I’ll give you the beauty treatment I gave Didric.’
The door slammed shut before Fletcher had even finished speaking. The fireball spun above his finger and for a moment he was tempted to blast the door apart. Unlike the steel entrance in the underground cell, this one was made of wood.
‘Thank you, Fletcher,’ Uhtred groaned, dragging himself up into the chair. He clutched his side and winced, turning his back on the door.
‘He’s a monster, both inside and out,’ Fletcher growled, absorbing the fireball’s mana back through his fingers. He would need all the mana he could get if he had a chance to escape, but now was not the time.
‘Come here. I have something to tell you.’ Uhtred’s words came in short bursts – his injuries had to be worse than Fletcher thought: beneath his beard it was difficult to see the damage his brawl with Jakov had wrought. Fletcher pulled up a chair and sat beside him.
‘I won’t let you and my son die here. I have a plan,’ Uhtred growled. ‘We’re going to break you out.’
Fletcher couldn’t think of a reply, but his heart sank. No good could come from this.
‘The dwarven recruits are not far from here. I will fetch them and we will storm the village.’
‘Don’t even think about it,’ Fletcher said in a low hiss, looking fearfully at the door. ‘The consequences would be catastrophic. All the goodwill you have won with King Harold, gone. The end of peace between dwarves and men. You would throw this country into civil war, and you would lose.’
‘No, Fletcher. Our soldiers have been armed and trained now. We have Othello here to capture demons fo
r our own summon—’
‘So what?’ Fletcher snapped, cutting him off. ‘You forget, I heard your debate at the war council. Nothing has changed since then.’
‘But it has, Fletcher. We will take Didric’s castle. It has enough supplies to last a decade and the king would not waste his troops laying siege to it. The cannons will be enough to dissuade an attack from Hominum’s flying battlemages, the Celestial Corps, and we can use the money there to trade with the elves. We will carve out our own kingdom.’ Uhtred’s eyes were unfocused, but his words shocked Fletcher to the very core. The dwarf had believed in peace, like Othello, but something was broken within him now. Fletcher only hoped he could repair the damage.
‘What about Thaissa and Briss, and all the other dwarves in Corcillum? Have you considered what would happen to them?’
Uhtred was silent, twisting his callused hands in his lap. Fletcher continued.
‘Arcturus and Lovett are here, do you think they would stand by idly as you openly rebel? Or would you kill them too? The king and his father are also present, not to mention dozens of nobles, each one a powerful summoner in their own right. As for the castle, it’s heavily defended day and night because of the convicts. If you say the Celestial Corps can’t beat its cannons, what hope do your dwarves have? Your soldiers would die bravely, but it would be dwarven blood that stains the earth tomorrow, and none other.’
Uhtred blinked, tears running down his face. The anger that had gripped him so tightly abandoned him, leaving only pain behind.
‘I have failed my people,’ Uhtred gasped, his broad shoulders heaving. ‘I have failed my son.’
Fletcher put his arm around the dwarf’s hefty shoulders. It filled him with fury to see the Thorsagers brought so low, but he pushed that feeling aside. It was compassion that was needed now.
‘Don’t let what those scumbags did to Othello jeopardise everything you and he have achieved. This is what they want. Remember, the king—’
‘The king has abandoned us!’ Uhtred bellowed, hitting the table with his fist. ‘He watched! He watched as they did that to my boy. My brave, kindhearted boy.’
The Inquisition Page 6