“It is not all the same, Raddock Fisher,” Jeorje Watch said, thumping his polished black walking stick. “We can’t just take leave of our customs and civility because someone died. This is the time of Plague, when death comes often. Creator punishes those what sin in his own time. The Tanner girl will have her judgment when the Brook’s standing business is done.”
He spoke with the authority of one who is never questioned, though Selia was Speaker. She accepted the slight—a common one from Jeorje—because he argued to her favor. The later the hour grew, the less likely Renna’s sentence, if death, would take place that very night.
“We could all use some supper,” Tender Harral said, though he and Jeorje were often at odds themselves. “As the Canon says, There’s no justice from a man with an empty stomach. ”
Raddock looked around to the other Speakers for support, but apart from Hog, who was always the last to arrive and the first to leave, all were resolute to keep the council meeting in its traditional fashion. He scowled but gave no further protest. Garric started to open his mouth, but Raddock silenced him with a shake of his head.
They had supper, and discussed the business of each borough in turn over the coffee and cakes that followed.
“Reckon it’s time to see the girl,” Jeorje said when the business of his borough, always handled last, was complete. The closing of old business was the Speaker’s to call, but again he spoke over Selia, thumping his stick like the Speaker’s gavel. She sent the witnesses out onto the porch, then led the nine council members in to see Renna.
“Girl ent faking?” Jeorje asked.
“You can have your own Gatherer examine her, if you like,” Selia said, and Jeorje nodded, calling for his wife Trena, the Herb Gatherer for Southwatch, who was near ninety herself. She left the kitchen and went to the girl’s side.
“Men out,” Jeorje ordered, and they all trooped back out to their seats at the table. Selia sat at the head, and Jeorje, as always, the foot.
Trena emerged some time later and looked to Jeorje, who nodded permission for her to speak. “Whatever she done, girl’s shock is true,” she said, and he nodded again, dismissing her.
“So you’ve seen the state of her,” Selia said, taking up the gavel before Jeorje could try to take over protocol. “I move that any decision should be postponed until she comes back to herself and can speak her own defense.”
“The Core it should!” Raddock shouted. He started to rise, but Jeorje cracked his walking stick on the table, checking him.
“Din’t come all this way to glance at a sleeping girl and leave, Selia,” he said. “Best we hear from the witnesses and accusers now, in proper fashion.” Selia scowled, but no one dared to disagree. Speaker or no, if she went against Jeorje, she would be doing it alone. She called in Garric to make his accusation, and the witnesses, one by one, for the council to question.
“I don’t pretend to know what happened that evening,” Selia said in her closing. “There ent no witness but the girl herself, and she ought to get to speak in her own defense before we pass judgment on her.”
“No witness?!” Raddock cried. “We just heard from Stam Tailor, who seen her heading toward the murder not a moment before!”
“Stam Tailor was rot drunk that night, Raddock,” Selia said, looking to Rusco, who nodded in agreement.
“He sloshed up on my floor, and I threw him out and closed early after that,” Rusco said.
“Blame the one who put the drink in his hand, I say,” Jeorje said. Rusco’s brow furrowed, but he was wise enough to bite his tongue.
“Either he saw the girl or he didn’t, Selia,” Coran Marsh said. Others nodded.
“He saw her in the vicinity, yes,” Selia said, “but not where she went or what she did.”
“You’re suggesting she’s not involved?” Jeorje asked, incredulous.
“Course she’s involved,” Selia snapped. “Any fool can see that. But ent none of us can swear by the sun at how. Maybe the men took to fighting and killed each other. Maybe she killed in her own defense. Coline and Trena both attest she was beat bad.”
“How don’t matter none, Selia,” Raddock said. “Two men can’t kill each other with the same knife. Does knowing which man she killed, if not both, make a difference?”
Jeorje nodded. “And let us not forget it was most likely by feminine wile that the men were taken to wrath. The girl’s promiscuity led them to this path, and she should be held to account.”
“Two men fight over who owns a girl, and we blame the girl?” Meada broke in. “Nonsense!”
“It ent nonsense, Meada Boggin, you’re just too shaded to see it, seeing how the accused’s your kin,” Raddock said.
“There’s the night calling it dark,” Meada said. “I can say the same of you.”
Selia banged her gavel. “If everyone related to a problem in the Brook had to be disqualified in moot, Raddock Fisher, there would be none to argue at all. Everyone has a right to speak. That’s our law.”
“Law,” Raddock mused. “Been reading the law,” he produced a book bound in worn leather, “’specially the law for killers.” He turned to a marked page, and began to read:
“And should the foul deed of murder be committed in the confines of Tibbet’s Brook or its purview, you shall erect a stake in Town Square, and shackle those responsible for all to see for a day of repentance, and a night, without ward or succor, that all may witness the Creator’s wrath upon those who violate this covenant.”
“You can’t be serious!” Selia cried.
“That’s barbaric!” Meada agreed.
“That’s the law,” Raddock sneered.
“See here, Raddock,” Tender Harral said. “That law must be three hundred years old.”
“The Canon is older still, Tender,” Jeorje said. “Will you discount that next? Justice is not meant to be kind.”
“We ent here to rewrite the law,” Raddock said. “The law is the law, ent that what you said, Selia?”
Selia’s nostrils flared, but she nodded.
“All we’re here to debate is whether she’s responsible,” Raddock said, placing Harl’s bloody knife on the table, “and I say it’s clear as day she is.”
“She could’ve picked that up after, Raddock, and you know it,” Tender Harral said. “Cobie wanted Renna’s hand, and Harl threatened twice to cut the stones from him if he tried.”
Raddock barked a laugh. “You might convince some folk that two men could kill each other with the same knife, but they wasn’t just killed. They was mutilated. My great-nephew didn’t hack Harl near to pieces with his manhood gone and a knife in his heart.”
“Man has a point,” Hog said.
Raddock grunted. “So let’s vote and have done.”
“Second,” Hog said. “Town Square has never seen such crowds, and I need to get back to the store.”
“A girl’s life is at stake, and all you care is how many credits you can make off the folk come to gape?” Selia asked.
“Don’t preach to me, Selia,” Hog said. “I was the one had to mop up the blood out of my back room.”