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“Very good, Raulen,” I said “I think that’s enough for today”

“Thank you, my lord” He rose from the stool and went to the cell door “Sains,” I re at the door and forcing a sreat ill be complete when your innocence is proved”

“No doubt” I returned the saolers are scholars,” Fornella observed after the heavy door had sla us alone She sat on her narrow bunk, surrounded by bundles of parch months of our shared captivity, she had taken on the translating of e it would aze tracked over her now alht bun In recent weeks the skin on her scalp and hands had developed faint red spots and the lines around her eyes grew ever deeper, though she bore it all without coes I asked Raulen to convey to every Imperial official I could recall, she had never once been allowed out of this cell to relate the warning she held Our journey was indeed an abject failure and it seemed the survival of this ens An absurd hope, I knew For all her wits, and Al Sorna’s , the Volarian Empire was monstrous It requires an e for pen and parch to aid your defence, I hope,” Fornella said, glancing up from her oork

“I have no defence, save the truth And that will availnow” The Empress, in her wisdom and benevolence, had sent no less than six learned counsel to act on al scholars of impeccable reputation and, I saw clearly in their faces, absolutely no hope or expectation of securing my acquittal I had listened to the the irl was lying,” Fornella went on “The blindest fool can see that”

“And were I to be judged by a jury of blind fools, I ht have a chance But there will be but one juror, and she is far froht to speak following conviction I can only hope there are ears to hear the warning”

• • •

Despite my continued calm, a calht I had spent the evening arrangingthe coreed to take copies to a select few scholars of h I harboured suspicions that those who didn’t iht seek to claim it as their oork Another copy would be conveyed to Brother Harlick in Varinshold, where at least it would receive a home in the Great Library he hoped to rebuild As the srew dark I took a quill and scrawled the words “A History of the Unified Realrined that ant as Raulen’s, and placed it atop the neatly arranged bundle

I lay back ona particular point of scholarly regret I never heard Al Sorna’s full account

Soht,sound I rose, blinking in the glooht of the cell door sloinging open

She decided not to wait for a trial, I concluded as my perennial calm dissolved and I cast about desperately for soaoler to allow a prisoner any implement beyond the small wooden candlestick I wrote by

I expected Hevren, or more likely so convincing suicide fro open to reveal a slender form in a black dress, her eyes wide and fearful as she beckoned to ency Jervia

For a second I could only stare in a frantic, then I swungto Fornella Over the weeks she had slept e or a salved conscience In either case it took several attempts to wake her and several more to coax her from the bed

“Why is she here?” she whispered, a deep frown on her wrinkled brow as she regarded Jervia fidgeting in the corridor

“I don’t know,” I said, returning to my bunk to pull on my shoes “However, we are provided with an open door, and I intend to use it”

Jervia put a hand overfor lanced back at Fornella, now dressed but no less suspicious “I’ tothe corridor, past the other cells, all eate I ca aside and holding the gate open

“It’s all right,” Jervia whispered “He doesn’t see us”

I stepped closer to the gaoler, taking in the sight of his features, the eyes focused but not on -cherished sight

“You did this,” Ipast Raulen’s bulk to cohter died at Marbellis I gave her back to hiaining a new appreciation for his sense of duty All those years with the Hopekiller in his grasp and he never sought vengeance