by Jason Kenyon
Ithalna said nothing.
‘Come now, Unette, will you not at least acknowledge the accusations?’ Salestis asked.
‘Indeed, surely you must have something to say, after all that you have done?’ Aleks said.
Ithalna maintained her cool stare across the meeting chambers, and neither the pestering of Salestis nor Aleks caused her to say a word. Her smug amusement fading slightly, Salestis gave a snort and began to list off a few more of the accusations, which Archimegadon assumed were largely made up, since Ithalna had been in his company for much of the time when these crimes were supposed to have taken place.
After several minutes of this had passed, he lost patience. Salestis’s list was too long for them to be able to mount any sort of reasonable defence. There was hardly any time for them to call for witnesses or otherwise refute even half of what she was saying, and he could tell that the lead councillor, Aleks, was mostly interested in seeing this trial ended early. If he couldn’t face Salestis down with evidence, perhaps there was another solution, however…
‘Enough!’ he said, and Salestis paused in her reading. ‘This list of lies seems to have no end, and I cannot be arsed to stand here and listen to the full duration. I propose instead this solution – I challenge you, Salestis de’Cirana, to a final duel, to decide this matter once and for all.’
Salestis regarded him silently, and for a moment Archimegadon believed that he’d caught her out, and found a loophole in her plans, a way to take this matter away from her controlled trial.
And then she burst out laughing.
‘Oh dear, Master Forseld, I suspect that you have been listening to a few too many bards,’ Salestis said. ‘That is not how we run things around here, I am afraid. We will be dealing in facts, not deciding matters by martial prowess.’
‘But…’
Despite her ability to ignore the harassment of Salestis and Aleks both, Ithalna’s calm composure faded for a moment, and she winced at this exchange.
Feeling particularly stupid, and mindful of the laughter rumbling through the crowd, Archimegadon fell silent.
‘Very well then,’ Salestis said, once she was satisfied that Archimegadon was done. ‘The next crime is that of assisting the rogue outfit referred to as the Fallen Blade in attacking Stornis Hold, with the aid of the rogue knight Valia and her demonic allies. Not only has she left the region in a state of instability, but the death toll of noble men and women who worked at the hold was unforgivably high. The estimated count currently rests at…’
‘Perhaps we should move away from these wild accusations and return to the facts!’ Archimegadon said.
‘Dear me, another interruption?’ Salestis asked.
‘Indeed so!’ Archimegadon replied. ‘We are here to discover the truth of exactly what has taken place in Valanthas of late, but this list of yours is based upon conjecture and unreliable witnesses, without a shred of evidence to support it.’
‘We have plenty of reliable witnesses,’ Salestis said.
‘Would you perhaps care to call any of them to testify?’ Archimegadon asked.
Salestis gave him a mysterious smile. ‘Naturally… but we do not need to pause the trial for that. Perhaps it would be best if we simply continued to the end of this list.’
‘It seems to me that there are a lot of witness accounts with no actual evidence to back them up,’ Archimegadon said, not quite sure where he was going with this, beyond just trying to generally throw off Salestis’s composure.
‘I should not dismiss our witness accounts so readily if I were you,’ Salestis said. ‘Your friend Unette has kept the Order busy for a long time now, and…’
‘Last I’d heard, Unette was officially considered dead,’ Archimegadon said. ‘It’s funny that you are now happily putting her on trial, despite your many witnesses back then that it was Unette who assassinated the King.’
Salestis watched him quietly, her sheet of crimes forgotten. Archimegadon felt a sudden surge of momentum, and ploughed on.
‘But I put this to you, Supreme Commander,’ Archimegadon said. ‘If it was your word that made Unette the guilty party, yet made the claim that she was dead, then is it not reasonable, now that we find her alive, to question whether it was Unette’s hand that even did the deed at all?’
Ithalna’s eyes flicked over to meet Archimegadon’s, wide and alarmed.
‘It seems to me that the liar here is you, Supreme Commander,’ Archimegadon said. ‘I suggest to this court that it was in fact your hand that did this deed, and that the true assassin of the King was you!’
Consternation broke out across the audience, and the knights who backed up Terrek lost their composure and began talking to one another animatedly. Archimegadon, despite still having his arms bound, struck as arrogant a pose as he could, encouraged by the reaction of the crowd.
Then there was a polite cough.
‘Excuse me, please, could everyone kindly quieten down?’ Councillor Aleks asked, and steadily the meeting chamber fell silent. She leaned over the podium slightly to get a better look at Archimegadon. ‘Sir, you have been very noisy during the proceedings so far. I am starting to gain an understand of exactly what has been going on in this whole affair, and I appreciate your honesty in speaking openly to us.’
Archimegadon nodded, smiling broadly.
‘But it seems that you have been deceived and misled by this woman, Unette Alhamis,’ Aleks went on. ‘You see, it was not just Salestis who witnessed Unette murdering her husband. I was present, along with the entire Central Council, as the King had called us all to an emergency meeting just before midnight to discuss affairs regarding Tarmuna. When we arrived, we found Unette there, in the middle of the act. It is not conceivably possible for Salestis to have been guilty of this crime.’
The room hushed, and Archimegadon felt everything inside him seize up. Ithalna had lied to him? She’d actually been the one to murder her husband after all? He glared over at her accusingly, and she had the decency to look shame-faced.
So it was true. Ithalna had been lying about that all along, and because she’d been honest about the Syrakh, Archimegadon had taken the rest of her deceptions as truth.
He spied Salestis watching him with undisguised amusement, and felt all his hopes slip away. Out of foolish pride, he’d decided to side against Salestis, assuming that he could somehow manage to at least create enough doubt that the Central Council would have to investigate Salestis’s activities before they made a decision, giving him time to work out a way to get out of the palace. That had relied upon the words of Ithalna, which had been deceit concealed behind truth, and he’d thrown away Salestis’s deal, and the last chance to save his friends.
As for Salestis, he got the cold feeling that she had expected for him to try this all along. If he’d gone with her deal, she would have had an even easier time of it, while now he’d just made a total mockery of any defence he might have raised, and there was no chance that he or Ithalna would be walking out of here without a death sentence.
‘Well,’ Salestis said, ‘that’s blown your lies out of the water.’
Archimegadon opened his mouth for a sharp reply, but he had nothing to say. He’d had few enough ideas to begin with, and now he’d lost any advantage he might have found. The evidence of the Syrakh was likely buried by now, and it was becoming more and more certain that he would be joining it soon. Falling for Ithalna’s lie had made it impossible for him to attempt any more bluffs.
‘That is enough of this interruption,’ Councillor Aleks said. ‘Please continue with the evidence, Supreme Commander.’
‘Of course,’ Salestis said. ‘As we have seen, the entire Central Council bore witness to Unette’s crimes. I feel this requires some further explanation, as it is indeed true that we concealed Unette’s escape, since the Central Council agreed with me that public knowledge of Unette being on the loose might incentivise any rogue outfits like the Fallen Blade to recruit her as a figurehead for their crimes. Wi
th the rest of the challenges the kingdom faced, we wished to deal with that one quietly, to prevent a panic.’
Archimegadon was barely listening any more. He just directed his scowl at Ithalna, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable now. Why had she murdered the King anyway? She’d already pointed out that she had nothing to gain from it! He wished that the entire room would empty so he could get an answer from her before they all died, but he doubted that he’d ever get the chance now.
The list of crimes went on for a while longer, and then Salestis asked over one of her paladins, who was carrying a sheaf of papers. He handed some of them over to her as she spoke, and she laid a few of them on a small table next to her.
‘Here we have many of the statements by members of the Central Council who witnessed the assassination, along with reports from some of our commanders across Valanthas who have been dealing with Cleric plots over the past few months,’ Salestis said. ‘Of most note are these confessions that we extracted from the leading six Cleric conspirators here in Arenfel.’
Ithalna looked over at Salestis in surprise, almost tearing herself free of her guard’s hold.
‘Each of these six Clerics gave us confessions regarding the details of the plot,’ Salestis went on. ‘Most notably, the Cleric named Kasai told us everything about the plot, from its inception to how Unette planned to carry it out.
‘Each detail she mentioned tallied with how it had gone through on the day, and so we were able to verify that the reason Unette went along with it was simply that she disliked her husband, and so based on that alone, she was willing to cut into the heart of Valanthas itself. For the rest, they were sympathisers with Tarmuna, and wished to prevent His Majesty from retaliating to several attacks the Tarmunath people initiated across our borders.’
‘Knight Champion Terrek, I know that you expressed some interested in looking through these details,’ Aleks said. ‘Please feel free to investigate them now, if you wish.’
Terrek bowed his head and crossed the chamber to join Salestis in front of the podium. As he looked through the evidence Salestis had gathered, the room remained deathly silent, while Ithalna stared miserably at the floor. Archimegadon had no idea what to do with himself now. If Ithalna had actually plotted with the Six against the King, and they’d all confessed to it, then regardless of whether what they had said was true or not, there was very little that would convince anyone of anything different.
‘Don’t look so upset, Unette,’ Salestis said, while Terrek was reading the assembled evidence.
Ithalna glared back at Salestis, but said nothing.
‘After all, you will get to join your Cleric friends soon enough,’ Salestis said. ‘I am sure we can arrange to have you beheaded just like the other six.’
‘No!’ Ithalna said. ‘Damn you, you didn’t have to kill them! It was my idea!’
‘Well, that sounds like a confession to me,’ Salestis said, smirking.
Archimegadon didn’t really care any more. If he was going to die either way, then having his head cut off somehow sounded much less unpleasant than dangling on the rope. He also supposed, with a wry smile, that he was fortunate after all; Faul had said that they didn’t use the axe very much in Arenfel.
He blinked. Wait a moment… if they didn’t use the axe much, then did that mean..?
‘Erm, excuse me, milady councillor?’ he called up to Aleks.
Aleks raised an eyebrow. ‘You again? What is it?’
‘Ah, I was wondering if records of executions were kept here,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘Something has occurred to me, and I feel that it will be relevant to the case.’
‘We do keep records, yes,’ Aleks said. ‘I fail to see how any records of executions will change what I witnessed in the King’s chambers, though.’
‘Consider it my last request,’ Archimegadon said.
Salestis watched him with suspicious eyes. ‘I don’t believe this will be relevant,’ she said. ‘What purpose is there in delaying the decision?’
‘We have some time to kill while Knight Champion Terrek reads through your considerable evidence,’ Aleks replied. ‘If this man has something relevant, then I cannot turn my eyes away. Should it be another embarrassing error of his judgement, then I look forward to further entertainment.’
Archimegadon waited tensely, knowing that everything rested on the records matching his suspicions, and moreover on the listed information being the exact sort he needed. Salestis sent a man to collect the execution records, her discomfort clear. He wasn’t feeling confident enough yet to manage any sort of smug grin, but he did at least have the strength to ignore her piercing eyes.
So this was it. If this didn’t help, then Archimegadon had absolutely no clue what to do, but he was starting to fit all the pieces together. Everything that Ithalna had told him, since her confession to truly being Unette, had been a mix of truth and lies, but certain parts of those lies had been born from coincidences that were not really coincidences at all. That Salestis had become Supreme Commander after heroically seeing off Unette was perhaps not so different from the plan to make Malthanes Supreme Commander using the Syrakh – they were devised by the mind of the same woman, who had lived her life resenting the false fame her parents had won from avoiding the slow and traumatic death of the Eld Rot curse by dying heroically to the necromancer Tel Ariel’s demons.
But now it seemed that one of her minions may have made an oversight, and if that turned out to be true, then Archimegadon could finally turn the situation back on Salestis.
The room at large had not really paid attention to this exchange between Archimegadon, Salestis, and Aleks. Most of them were interested in whether Terrek would lend Salestis his support. If he did, then much of the tension between the knights and paladins could conveniently be written off as the fault of Unette, rather than the result of Salestis’s plots.
However, there was some stirring when the man Salestis had sent to collect the execution records returned. Archimegadon unconsciously moved his hands to take the records from him, only to remember that he was still shackled, and moreover the man had no intention of giving the records to Archimegadon. He instead stepped over to Salestis, and presented the records to her.
There was another quiet cough.
‘I would like to look at the records myself,’ Aleks said. ‘Kindly hand them up here, Salestis.’
Salestis didn’t look too impressed by this, but she passed the records over anyway. Aleks resumed her comfortable position up on the podium, and flicked open the book in which Faul and his fellow executioners had been recording the deaths of Arenfel’s most despised criminals. Archimegadon briefly wondered if Malthanes had remembered to add Valia’s brother to that list.
‘Very well, I have the records here now, master… er…?’
‘Archimegadon, Mage for Hire,’ he replied.
‘His name is Ardon Forseld,’ Salestis said.
‘I see,’ Aleks said. ‘What do you want me to check?’
‘This is pointless,’ Salestis said.
‘If you please, could you check if Kasai’s name is listed there?’ Archimegadon asked.
‘Oh, good grief, the executions aren’t listed by name, they are listed by date,’ Aleks replied. ‘Salestis, when was this Kasai person – and her fellow Clerics – when were they killed?’
Salestis frowned. ‘Uhm, I am not sure of the exact date. I should think it was not long after the assassination.’
‘Actually, I will tell you when I believe it took place,’ Archimegadon said. ‘You’ll find that Kasai and the others were executed on the same date that the King was assassinated.’
‘That’s nonsense!’ Salestis said.
Archimegadon watched her expression, and saw that she wasn’t sure about that herself. Had one of her underlings mistakenly gone ahead and performed the execution early? But he remembered well what Faul had said – the last time they’d used the axe had been on the night of the King’s murder.
�
�My goodness… no, the man is right,’ Aleks said. ‘Here it is, on the night of the storm, and signed off by Sir Malthanes no less.’
Archimegadon took a great deal of pleasure in the pained eye-roll that Salestis performed at the mention of it being Malthanes’s mistake.
‘So then, if the cultists were executed before the King’s assassination, and Salestis has their signed confessions, then this surely means that she knew all about it?’ Archimegadon asked.
‘No, they were executed after the assassination on the same night,’ Salestis replied.
‘Was it not a midnight meeting?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘That was certainly a fast bit of work!’
Terrek had looked over now, and indeed the crowd at large had turned their attention on the conversation going on between the three at the podium. Several of the paladins were talking quietly amongst themselves, and they seemed to be focusing their attention on one paladin amongst them in particular, though Archimegadon could not hear what they were saying to her.
‘I don’t know, I received the information later,’ Salestis said, sweat breaking out on her forehead. ‘If Malthanes didn’t share the information with me in time, I can’t say.’
‘Actually, I’ve been looking over these confessions,’ Terrek said. ‘They bear the signatures of the confessors, as well as the interrogator and you yourself, Supreme Commander. This would surely mean that you were present.’
‘I signed them later,’ Salestis said. ‘I do a lot of my paperwork late, I have a huge amount to work through all the time in my position.’
‘I don’t believe that’s true,’ Archimegadon said. ‘Knight Champion Terrek, I heard that you were also involved in these discussions regarding the matter of Tarmuna. Why, exactly, were you not present at this midnight meeting to witness the murder along with everyone else?’
‘I was called away from the palace that evening,’ Terrek replied. ‘Because…’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Because Sir Malthanes was visiting for those few days to report on the situation in Ferrina, and he wanted to meet at the cathedral until late to discuss the possible assistance of my knights. I was staying there and only received the message about the King’s meeting a few minutes before midnight.’
