Sinner (14 page)

H
aving hosted the Council of Five three days earlier, now the Great Hall of Sigholt was arrayed for a trial.

About the dais at the far end of the Hall a plain wooden throne, several chairs and a table had been arranged. Before the dais were set several smaller tables. To either side were seats for the SunSoar family, the four remaining heads of the Five Families, their lieutenants and assistants. The body of the Hall was filled with curious, murmuring people from Lakesview, a goodly number of the Icarii Strike Force who were stationed in Sigholt, and most of Sigholt’s servants.

Standing in ranks down either side of the Hall, and behind the seats of the Five and the SunSoar Families, were several hundred silent members of the Lake Guard. Here, as always, to serve StarSon in whatever manner they saw fit. WingRidge CurlClaw stood several paces in front of their leading ranks, only a pace or two behind the Throne of the Stars itself.

At noon the heads of the Five Families filed silently onto the dais and took their seats, and behind them came
Isfrael. He looked tense and unhappy in the stone hall, surrounded by so many people, and he hesitated briefly before finally taking his seat. The SunSoar family then moved into their places: EvenSong, FreeFall’s wife and Axis’ sister, and Zenith. Princess Leagh of the West sat next to Zenith. As the heads of the Five arranged themselves in their seats, Caelum entered the Hall and stepped onto the dais. He glanced at the assembled crowd, then walked over to the throne and sat down silently.

As always he was dressed entirely in black, save for a golden sun that blazed from the centre panel of his tunic. With his black hair and his angry, dark blue eyes, he looked exactly what he was supposed to look like – a dispatcher of justice, and the ultimate authority in the realm.

Zenith looked about for WolfStar but could not see him. She heaved a sigh of relief, and her hands relaxed from the claws they had been bunched into. She had not seen the Enchanter for three days, not since the night he’d kissed her above Sigholt.

She had not slept well since. Her eyes were ringed with dark shadows, her skin pasty. Every time she slept she would find herself on the Island of Mist and Memory, reading the rites at Yuletide, moving familiarly about the quarters of the First Priestess, sitting at her desk to write to her unborn daughter.

The nights were unendurable, and Zenith had taken to drinking stimulants to keep herself awake.

To keep Niah at bay.

Beside her, Leagh was torn between observing the huge crowd gathering in the Hall, and watching her friend with concern. Zenith was not herself, something seemed to be worrying her to the point where the Enchanter virtually refused to eat, and Leagh had almost
forgotten her own troubles in the strength of her anxiety for Zenith.

But every so often Leagh would remember Zared’s stricken face as she’d been dragged from this very Hall, and remember the love and the desperation she’d seen there. She blinked back tears. Zared had ridden out two days ago. She’d heard the clatter of hooves early in the morning, but had not been able to see him from her window. He had gone, and they had not even been able to say goodbye.

Not personally that is, although one of the Lake Guard, somewhat unusually, Leagh thought, had relayed messages between them. “He will fight for you,” the birdman had told her. “Never fear.”

There was a movement in the Hall, and Leagh refocused her eyes on the present.

Caelum had signalled, and now a Strike Force member carried forth a plain wooden chair and placed it in a clear space before the dais.

It faced Caelum.

Again Caelum signalled, and a guard of four Strike Force members escorted Drago into the Hall and to the chair.

Drago glanced about him, blinking in the light, and then he slowly faced Caelum. Leagh drew in her breath at the sight of him. His face was shadowed with beard, his hair and clothes unkempt, his eyes sunken but bright with hostility.

They could at least have given him water to wash with, Leagh thought, and then wondered if he’d even been given water to drink.

“Your name?” Caelum asked softly, but in a voice that carried throughout the Hall.

“My name is Drago SunSoar.” Drago paused. “It
was
once DragonStar SunSoar.”

Caelum’s face tightened in anger.

“Your birth name,” Caelum said, “was stripped from you, and you have no right to mouth it now. Today we sit in judgment to decide whether your life will be stripped from you as well.”

Leagh’s immediate reaction to this initial brief – but highly charged – exchange was a sense of wonderment that Drago’s life had not
already
been taken. Had Drago sat in his cell for the past three nights, watching the shadows about the cell door, expecting assassins with each breath he drew?

“My sister RiverStar is dead,” Caelum said, his eyes locked with Drago’s. “She was your sister, too, and you shared the bond of the womb. It is abhorrent,” Caelum almost spat the word, “to me that you could murder not only your own sister but a sister with whom you shared the womb bond.”

Beside Leagh, Zenith roused and opened her mouth to speak, obviously as perturbed as Leagh that Caelum was not even going to pretend impartiality. But EvenSong also saw her movement, and laid a restraining hand on Zenith’s arm.

Sadness overwhelmed Leagh. She remembered how kind Drago had been when helping her down to meet Zared in the courtyard. Without his support that day, Leagh did not think she would have been as calm or composed. Yet all she could feel here in this Hall was a communal hatred towards Drago that was as stunning in its blindness as it was in its intensity.

They
should
have killed him earlier, she thought, surreptitiously brushing away a tear, for that would have been kinder than this public spectacle.

“Your predilection for violence is legendary,” Caelum continued, his voice more controlled but his hands white where they gripped the arms of the throne. “You allied yourself with Gorgrael the Destroyer against your parents
and the realm of Tencendor. Your single betrayal was almost enough to prove the undoing of this entire nation!”

“How am I supposed to believe that this happened?” Drago cried, stung into response. “I am told this tale, but I remember none of it! As far as I am concerned it is an excuse made up to justify our father’s own misjudgments and his almost failure to stop Gorgrael!”

A murmuring arose from the body of the Hall. Caelum’s face was rigid with anger, but before he could speak Drago forged on, his own face lined and pale, his violet eyes darkened by intense emotion.

“Remember that I am not on trial here and now for what
may
have happened forty years ago! Have I not paid enough?”

“
You?
Well may
we
ask, have
we
not paid enough for your past crime? Don’t you have any idea how it continues to plague…Ah! Enough of that! You are on trial here and now for your present crime and for your
life!
” Caelum paused, controlled himself, then waved at a guard. “Sit him down.”

A guard laid a hand on his shoulder and Drago sank down into his chair. Leagh thought he wore the face of a man who knew he was dead. Why this public charade, Caelum? she thought. Why?

As Drago sat down, Caelum stood and spoke to the assembly. All those present who could remember Axis addressing the crowd outside Carlon when he had proclaimed Tencendor could instantly see his father’s blood in Caelum. He had, if not quite the same aura of command, then the beauty, grace, and presence of his father.

“My friends,” he said, and held out his hand in supplication, “let me tell you what I know. Three nights ago I was talking with my father’s brother, Zared, and my
remaining sister Zenith. We heard the Mage-King Isfrael cry out from the direction of RiverStar’s chamber and we rushed to investigate. When we reached her chamber, we found Isfrael and Talon FreeFall standing before Drago, who was crouched in undeniable guilt over RiverStar’s body, the vile blade he had used to murder her still clutched in his hand. FreeFall, will you explain how you came to find Drago?”

FreeFall stood and, speaking in an even tone, but keeping his eyes away from Drago, told how he and Isfrael had been conversing in his rooms when they’d felt, as Isfrael had said, a despair emanating from RiverStar’s chamber. On investigating, they’d found Drago crouched over her body. When he’d finished speaking he sat down.

“I thank you, Talon,” Caelum said, then turned to Isfrael. “My Lord Mage-King, did Talon FreeFall speak truly?”

Isfrael stood. “He did, StarSon.”

“I thank you, Mage-King.” And Isfrael sat down.

Now Caelum turned his attention to his sister. “Zenith, have I described what we heard and saw accurately?”

Hesitant and uncomfortable, Zenith slowly rose to her feet. She opened her mouth, but had to lick her lips before any sound came out. “We heard Isfrael cry out, and when we reached RiverStar’s chamber we found the Mage-King and FreeFall. And we saw Drago SunSoar before RiverStar’s corpse.”

“And he clutched the murderous knife in his hand?”

“He clutched a knife in his hand, yes. But –”

“I thank you, Zenith. You may sit.”

Zenith sank down, and Leagh took her arm, trying to give her friend some comfort. No-one liked testifying against a brother, and surely not against one as unfairly treated as this.

Caelum faced Drago once more. “Stand, if you please.”

Leagh’s face hardened. This was more than ridiculous! Drago was up and down like a child’s string puppet.

Drago stood.

“Face those here assembled, if you please.”

Drago did not move, a muscle working in his cheek.

“
Face those here assembled!
”

A guard’s hand fell on Drago’s shoulder, but Drago wrenched himself about on his own. Slowly he raised his eyes. Before him a thousand pitiless eyes stared back.

“Did I speak the truth, Drago? Did I tell it how it was? Answer!”

Drago fought to suppress his fury. Did Caelum want him to stand forth and admit to his own sister’s murder?

Apparently so. “
Answer!
”

“Isfrael, FreeFall and then Caelum, Zenith and Zared found me in RiverStar’s chamber,” he finally said. “Kneeling over RiverStar’s body. A knife in my hand.”

“And is it not true that you murdered RiverStar?”

Drago took a huge breath. “I cannot remember, but I cannot believe that I killed her.”

Caelum paused, as if considering the idiocy of that denial. His mouth curled sardonically. “I cannot remember,” he repeated, shaking his head slightly.

Then he addressed FreeFall and Isfrael once more. “My Lords, you say that you felt a ‘wrongness’ that led you to discover Drago over RiverStar’s corpse. Do you think that ‘wrongness’ indicates the time of her death?”

FreeFall indicated that Isfrael should answer. He was the one with the magical ability, not FreeFall.

Isfrael considered carefully. “StarSon, the sense of wrongness hit very suddenly. I assume that it indicated the moment of RiverStar’s death.”

“Good,” Caelum said. “How long was the time
interval between feeling the wrongness and discovering Drago in RiverStar’s chamber?”

“Very short,” Isfrael said. “We ran as soon as we felt it. Seven or eight heartbeats’ space, no more. RiverStar’s chamber is only two doors from FreeFall’s.”

Caelum nodded, as if considering. “Then, brother Isfrael, do you consider there was enough time in these seven or eight heartbeats for someone else to have escaped RiverStar’s chamber?”

Isfrael shook his head. “We would have seen another person. We were out of FreeFall’s chamber almost instantly. Of course,” he added, “someone winged could have left via her window. Or,” and he cast his eyes slowly about the hall, “someone with sufficient magical ability could have just vanished.”

“I do thank you,” Caelum said, nodding as if considering Isfrael’s words, then turned back to Drago. “The time between RiverStar’s death and the discovery of you with her corpse was tiny, Drago. Yet you say you did not murder her. If
not,
then mayhap you saw who
did.
Who, Drago? Who vanished or dropped from the window?”

Caelum paused melodramatically. “Who?”

Drago swung back to look at Caelum. “My memory is blank, brother! Can you not understand that?”

“You have a very agreeable memory to so forget your own sister’s murder.” Caelum’s voice was heavy with sarcasm.

“StarSon.”

Caelum – as Leagh – leapt in surprise as Zenith’s clear voice rang through the chamber. He glared at her, his eyes dark with anger. “Zenith, you have no right to –”

“Caelum,” Zenith interrupted, shaking off Leagh’s hand and standing. “You are correct in saying that Drago might have seen the true murderer. If so, then any
one of the SunSoar Enchanters can easily solve this mystery. Yet he says he cannot remember. How easily this can be solved! We could employ the Song of Recall to see what happened with Drago’s own eyes. Witness with him.”

“You would witness your own sister’s death?” Caelum took a horrified step back.

“If it would reveal her true murderer, then yes,” Zenith said.

Caelum stared at her. “You are right,” he said eventually, “the Song of Recall will clearly show whether Drago is lying or not.” His tone clearly indicated which one he thought it would be.

Zenith shot Drago a smile of encouragement as she sat down. He returned her look, but his face was unreadable.

“Drago!” Caelum stepped down from the Throne of the Stars and moved forward, within a pace of Drago. “Drago,” he said more softly, “attend my power!”

A hint of music brushed through the air. Leagh knew what was happening, Caelum was using a thread of music from the Star Dance to create a Song of Recall. She could barely hear it herself, but knew the Song must be thundering through every Enchanter in the Hall.

Zenith trembled at her side, and Leagh glanced at her. Zenith seemed alright, her eyes fixed on Drago, and Leagh turned back to look.