by Dave Duncan
by producing him here.
The clerks' pens had stopped scratching.
"The inquiry will note that the witness refused
to answer."
"Was that a question?" she said. "It sounded like a
statement."
"How many lovers came to your bed?"
She thought she detected a shimmer of
disapproval among the commissioners, although none
protested. "That question is indecent and
irrelevant, and I demand that it be withdrawn."
"It is not irrelevant, as we shall see. So
there was a second door. Did you also bolt that
or leave it unbarred for your paramours?"
"The secret door led through to another room and
I made certain that the outer door to that was firmly
bolted also."
"You claim you slept. When did you awaken?"
"Around dawn."
"Who or what roused you?"
The commissioners had come alert, all of them, and
she suspected that all the foreign observers had,
too. This was the story they had been waiting for, the
mysterious palace murder that must have been the talk
of all Eurania for months.
"A very bad smell."
"And the cause of that smell?"
"A corpse on the floor beside my bed."
Yes, she agreed, it was--or had been--her
cousin, Prince Courtney. Yes, he was
naked, and yes he had been run through by a sword.
How long he had been dead she did not know, but of
course death had loosed his sphincters. In his
final appearance onstage, Courtney had not
smelled of cloves or roses or lavender.
Being unfamiliar with sword wounds, she did not
know whether he had been impaled from front to back
or back to front, but the chairman was careful not
to ask her that. He and other inquisitors had
arrived at the scene within minutes and had questioned her
then; he knew that her statements had been truthful
and her bewilderment genuine. Wanting now to brand her
a murderer, he must allow her no saving
denials.
"What did you do?"
"I screamed for help. For all I knew the
killer was still there." It was a lame excuse; in
fact the scream had been sheer reflex. "I
unbolted the door to let my ladies in. Then
they screamed, too."
"The secret door?"
"Was closed."
"And the outer door to the other room?"
"I was informed later that it had been found bolted
on the inside."
"This was a few hours after your betrothal was
announced?"
"It was."
"Had you agreed to receive your fianc`e in bed that
night?"
"He had implied he was planning to drop in.
That was why I had made sure both doors were
bolted."
There was a pause, as if the chairman was
mapping out his route very carefully. He risked
another question. "You honestly expect the honorable
commissioners to believe that both the Prince and an
assassin entered through a bolted door and then the
killer went out again, bolting the door on the
inside?"
"No."
"Inform the commissioners of the names of the lovers who
regularly came to you by the secret door."
"Again I protest that question."
"Again I insist that it is relevant and your
refusal to answer is to be taken as admission of
guilt. However, I can inform the commissioners that the
testimony of several former members of the
notorious and disbanded Royal Guard will be placed
before them tomorrow and--"
"What did you do to them?" Malinda screamed.
"Produce the men themselves and let the commissioners
see what--"
"Silence! One more unauthorized remark and you
will be charged with contempt of Parliament." In the
murky candlelight and under the brim of his hat, the
chairman's face looked even more like a skull
than usual, and the shadowed eye sockets
directed their ghoulish stare at Malinda in
warning. He meant contempt of Pestilence and
Nightmare, of course: behave or suffer.
Why did it really matter if he painted her
an assassin when he had hung enough other crimes
around her neck to sink her without a trace? Why was
he risking so much on this last accusation? Because in the
eyes of the other ruling houses of Eurania,
assassination was the great unforgivable, the supreme
villainy, worse even than the trumped up
charges of treason--all dynasties were rooted in
treason if one looked back far enough. It was the
false friend and poisoned kiss that kings really
feared. If she could clear herself of this taint, then
there might still be enough foreign outcry to save her
neck from the block. It was a long shot, but the
alternative was certain death.
"The witnesses affirm," Lambskin said, "that
the accused accepted at least one
guardsman into her bed every night. She herself has
testified that only members of the royal family
and swordsmen of the Royal Guard knew of the
secret door. So now, mistress, will you admit
that the most logical explanation of your cousin's
murder is that either you murdered the Prince
personally or one of your lovers did and you bolted
the door again after he left?"
"That is not the most logical explanation."
The inquisitors flanking her chair did not
accuse her of falsehood. The commissioners
stirred and exchanged glances. She had won a
point! Now the chairman would have to ask her
to elaborate. However much he could and would make
her suffer for it later, tonight she could clear herself of
this, the most dangerous charge.
He chuckled mockingly. "I doubt that the
commissioners agree with your peculiar personal
logic." His rasping voice was hoarser than ever
after three day's haranguing and badgering. "However
the hour is late, and we are all anxious
to adjourn. Guards, you may remove--"
"Wait!" said a shrill voice. All eyes
swung to the Honorable Alfred Kildare,
Speaker of the Commons, four seats to the
chairman's right. "I wish to hear the witness's
explanation."
The chairman scowled. Whether his feelings had
for once escaped his control or whether he sought
to intimidate the Speaker, he scowled most
horribly. "I repeat, the hour is late."
"A few more minutes will not hurt." Kildare
had withstood King Ambrose in full roar; compared
to him, Horatio Lambskin was an ill-tempered
butterfly. The last time Malinda had seen the
Speaker she had called him a lowborn meddling
upstart and worse; she had threatened to throw him in
a dungeon in the Bastion. But today he was the
only one of them with the manhood to do his duty. Good
chance to him!
The chairman conceded defeat. "Very well.
Witness, you will be brief. Wh
at in your view would
be a more logical explanation?"
Malinda drew a deep breath and began
to gabble as fast as she could. "First, my ladies
found no weapon in the room, so I could not have been
the murderer." It must have been a rapier or a
stiletto. Dog's Sword would not drill a
hole through an opponent, it would chop him in
half. "Second, I am a light
sleeper and would certainly have heard a struggle or
a body falling, so the corpse was brought in already
dead and placed where I would fall over it;
furthermore it was lying on its back and there were
blood smears on its chest, so it had been
stripped after death--my cousin was killed with his
clothes on. As for the locked door, it is common
knowledge that the Dark Chamber has a device called a
Golden Key that will open any door; whether it will
draw a bolt closed also is something the chairman
can discuss better than I."
As Lambskin opened his mouth, she rushed on.
"There is no need to invoke conjuration, though.
Prince Courtney may very well have known of the
secret doors--he had been snooping around
court for forty years--but it is absolutely
certain that the Dark Chamber did, because its
records go back before the palace was built, and
therefore the most logical explanation of the paradox
is that there is another secret way into one of those
two rooms."
The chairman said, "That is the most
absurd--"
"Let her finish!" Kildare squealed.
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker," she said. "I
am grateful for a little courtesy. As a final
fact to be weighed, I remind you of the legal
maxim: Who benefits? What good came to me from
that bizarre crime? Within an hour my own Grand
Inquisitor returned with a squad of
men-at-arms and carried me off, prisoner, here
to the Bastion. The case against me is
ridiculous, but the case against Horatio
Lambskin, who was then Grand--"
"The witness is lying!" one of the inquisitors
shouted at her ear. "The witness is raving!" the
chairman snapped. "Guards, remove--"
"Wait!" shouted several of the commissioners in
tumult. Truly, it was a night of miracles,
for the spokesman who emerged from the hubbub was the
chinless Lord Candlefen, on his feet, flushed and
squeaking with rage.
"Your evident bias is unbecoming, Lord
Chancellor. I am quite put off by it, I must
say. You have accused the witness of innumerable rather
unspeakable crimes; it is only fair that she be
allowed to, er ... register a few remarks.
..."
"Thank you, Cousin," Malinda said as his
outrage dwindled. She could hardly
breathe for the pounding of her heart; sweat ran into her
eyes, making her blink. "You all know that
Lambskin here was my Grand Inquisitor, a
sworn member of my Privy Council. He
betrayed his oath by plying me with false information on
the strengths and whereabouts of both rebel armies, and
probably in many other ways. He was eating out of
all three bowls, and when Prince Courtney
reneged on the promise of the golden chain,
Lambskin had him slain and his body left in my
bedroom to dispose of me also. He then claimed the
chancellorship as his reward from his other traitor
master--"
"Silence!" The chairman slammed his fist on
the table. "The witness may denigrate me, but this
inquiry will not hear sedition against our Sovereign
Lord King Neville! I trust that none of the noble
lords or honorable members supports such
treasonous remarks?"
He glared to left and right, and the commissioners
subsided into tremulous silence. The penalties
for treason would cow anyone.
"I have not finished!" Malinda shouted. "I
claim the right to make a statement in my
defense."
"This is not a trial," the terrible old man
said sourly, "so there is no such right. However, the
witness will be provided with pen and paper and allowed
to submit a written statement to the inquiry.
"Silence, mistress! One more word and you will be
removed.
"Honorable commissioners, over the last three
days you have heard the witness confess that even as a child
she was in frequent rebellion against her father and
liege lord, King Ambrose IV; that she gave
her aunt, Princess Agnes, a conjuration that
caused her death; that she connived at a massive
deception to conceal the true facts of that murder;
that she and the traitor Roland between them arranged for
her father to be at Wetshore at a time known to his
sworn enemy, the Baelish King; that she spoke
with the Bael on his ship and obtained promises from
him, and that he, having allowed her to disembark, then
slew her father, the said King Ambrose of
Chivial; that when Master Secretary Kromman
was murdered shortly thereafter, she was cognizant
of the killers' identity and failed to report it to the
authorities; that she proceeded to Ironhall and
bound a troop of half-trained swordsmen as her
personal Blades upon improper
authority; that while under her direction these
killers caused the deaths of fifteen innocent people
in Sycamore Square the following day; that she
conspired with the traitor Roland, accepting money
she knew to be embezzled; that she suborned the
servants of the crown in raising a private force,
although she was aware that this was a treasonous act; that
she flouted a lawful command of the Council of
Regency by leaving the place where she had been
confined for her protection and coming into the presence of the
King's Majesty, namely her brother, the late
Ambrose V; that she deliberately shortened the
child's life by withholding spiritual treatment from him in his
sickness; that he died very soon after she had fed him
his last meal with her own hand; that she then conspired with
others to slay her brother, Lord Granville, and
did claim the throne of Chivial although she was
excluded from the succession by reason of her
marriage to Radgar Aeleding; that the confessed
traitor Roland was treacherously assassinated
here in the Bastion while her guest, but that she
passed off his death as natural and failed
to initiate a proper inquiry or hunt for the
murderers; that in her unlawful position as ruler
of the land, she committed divers acts, including the
improper execution of her husband, the said
Radgar Aeleding, in a hasty and illegal man-
ner before he could be properly questioned about the conspira-
cy in which they had joined; that it was by her warrant that
mercenary troops sacked the town of Pompifarth,
causing the death of hundreds of people and widespread
loss of property." The chairman paused, and for a
moment even he displayed normal human
weariness. Then he rallied in a final burst of
venom. "You have also just heard her peculiar
explanation of how unknown malicious persons
disfigured her bedchamber floor by leaving upon it the
naked body of her cousin, Prince Courtney.
"Guards, remove the prisoner. The inquiry
is adjourned."
I told you so.
SIR DOG
Back up the twisted stairway she went,
back to her cold, cramped, and lonely little
cell. The men-at-arms thumped the door closed
behind her, clattered the lock shut, and
doubtless then marched away. There was no sign of
Pestilence or Nightmare, but a stub of candle
stood upon her chair, flickering a tiny flame in
the windy darkness, and beside it an inkwell, a
quill, and a single sheet of paper. Exhausted,
the Queen flopped down on the pallet and huddled
herself up small to stare at this wonder.
The Chancellor had kept his word! She could
write out her defense. She had only one page
and perhaps one hour left on that candle; no doubt the
paper would be removed at dawn, ready or not.
She wondered whether it was Lambskin or his master
who was so spiteful--whether she was being punished for
slighting the grim old man or for the death of
Granville. Neville might not be the master in
that team, only the puppet. After so long in her
solitude, she could not even guess.
The lock clattered again, hinges squeaked, and
she cringed, fearing it would be Pestilence and
Nightmare coming to carry out the Chancellor's threat
to hand her over to "the men." They had not
specified whether they meant the Bastion's
professional torturers or miscellaneous
ruffians. She had gambled that their intimidation was
only bluff. They would gain nothing by maltreating
her now. All the same she was relieved when a
single man-at-arms entered and closed the door
quietly behind him. He seemed no threat so she
ignored him.
After three days she still did not know what the
trial had signified. That brief intervention
by Mister Speaker--may the spirits favor him forever!
--suggested that Parliament was not totally under the
Usurper's heel yet. Alas, the powers of the
crown in dealing with treason were almost unlimited.
More than likely the inquiry would wind up its
parody hearings tomorrow ... approve a report the