L. Modesitt - Ordermaster

The rear door opened once more, and two armsmen in green and black escorted a thin, wiry man with lank red hair into the chamber.

“Tellark, the tanner, step forward!” called out the bailiff.

Kharl noted that the tanner wore a clean gray undertunic and trousers, boots, and that his hands were not tied or chained. He did not look to be bruised. Kharl could not sense any hints of chaos about the man, and there was no feel of injury. The mage waited as the tanner approached the dais, then halted several cubits short of the lord justicer.

“You are Tellark, the tanner, and your home and business are located at the intersection of Renderers Way and the Southwest Lane?” The justicer’s dry voice barely reached Kharl, although the mage was less than a rod from Priost.

“Yes, Lord Justicer.” The tanner’s response was hardly audible.

“You are charged with the murder of Yeson, the tariff farmer for the southwest quarter of Valmurl.” Priost waited several moments. “Did you kill Yeson?”

The wiry tanner looked down at the polished gray granite of the floor, then straight at Priost, but did not reply.

“The accused being mute, and without an advocate, the justicing enters a statement of denial.”

Kharl nodded to himself. He approved of the Austran practice of assuming a person charged was innocent until the evidence was provided. According to Jusof, that was supposed to be the code for both Austra and Nordla, but Kharl certainly hadn’t seen it in his own case. Nor had Charee.

He glanced to his right, where Jusof was writing quickly, but in a clear, if small, script.

Without a word, the armsmen escorted Tellark to the table opposite the one where Jusof and Kharl were seated and had the tanner sit in the middle chair. Both armsmen remained standing, their backs to the wall, a cubit from Tellark.

“The first witness,” ordered Priost.

The hall doors opened, and a large figure of a man, seemingly overflowing his maroon tunic, slouched inside.

“Bebarak, step forward!” commanded the bailiff.

The big man lumbered forward, and Kharl noted that the scabbard at his right side was empty, as was the knife sheath at his left. Bebarak halted short of the dais.

“You are Bebarak, chief guard to the tariff farmer Yeson?”

“Ah … yes, your honorship. Well … I was.”

“Ser or lord justicer will suffice.”

Bebarak looked dumbly at Priost.

“Just call me ser.”

“Yes, ser.”

After several more questions establishing who Bebarak was and that he had seen the incident, Priost asked, “After you entered the tannery, what happened?”

“Well, ser … Master Yeson, he walked up to him-the tanner over there-and he told him that his time was up. He said he’d best come up with the ten golds, or it’d be hard on him-”

“Did he say ‘ten golds’?”

“Yes, ser. He’d been saying that we needed the ten golds earlier-like, too. Anyway, Master Yeson told him his time was up, and the fellow said no he wouldn’t because Yeson was overcharging, and it wasn’t right, and that he’d been taking too much for years.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, ser … Master Yeson, he laughed. He told the tanner to stop complaining, that everyone paid the tariff farmer. He said he’d be paying like he did every year, and he told him to stop whining, and just like that the tanner bent down; then he straightened up, and he had this hammer. He hit Master Yeson upside his head, and Master Yeson fell over. He weren’t breathing, either, pretty soon.”

“What did the tanner do?”

“He just stood there.”

Priost asked a number of other questions, but the guard’s story remained essentially the same-and truthful, Kharl noted. When the guard was finished, he was escorted from the hall. All through the process, Jusof kept writing.

The next witness was Keromont, Lord Ghrant’s tariff steward. Even as he stopped before the dais, his eyes darted from the lord justicer to Kharl and back to the lord justicer.

“Steward,” Priost said firmly, “so long as you tell what is so, I doubt you have much to fear from Lord Kharl. He is hear to learn how justice is done.”

“Yes, ser.”

“Now … according to your records, what was the tariff assessed on Tellark the tanner?”

“Five golds, Lord Justicer.”

“Five.” Priost nodded. “Were you aware that Yeson was insisting on ten from Tellark?”

“Ah … sir. Not … precisely. Might I explain, ser?”

“Go ahead.”

“Tariff farmers collect tariffs for the Lord of Austra. They have been allowed to require somewhat more than the assessed tariff in order to cover their expenses. If a tariff farmer has to make many visits to someone, or cover the tariffs due themselves until they can collect, that excess can be larger. I did not know how much more than five golds that Yeson was charging, but it is always more.”

“How much more?”

“Usually … and this is only what is considered customary, Lord Justicer, the excess is roughly one gold for every ten of tariff. That is, if large sums are not past due.”

“So you would not consider it unusual for Yeson to have charged Tellark, say five and a half golds, even six?”

“No, ser.”

“Did you know if Tellark happened to be habitually late in paying his tariffs?”

“From what Yeson told me, it would have been unlikely. If what he said was true. He had said that he was fortunate in having no great delinquencies.”

“To your knowledge, had Yeson misled you in the past on this fact?”

“No, ser.”

Once more the questions went on, but Kharl didn’t see that they added that much.

After Keromont came a series of witnesses, including the tanner’s wife. She claimed she had not seen the murder, that her consort was a good man, that he would not have murdered any good person, and, in response to Priost’s questioning, that her consort had been aware that Yeson was overtariffing, but had not known what to do about it. Then came the other two guards of the tariff farmer and a neighbor who had summoned the Watch patrollers.

Jusof kept writing, scarcely looking up from the growing sheaf of paper that he had created.

Finally, some time near midday, the lord justicer called no more witnesses and instead looked to his right. “Tellark, rise and come forward.”

The tanner did not speak as the armsmen escorted him to a position in front of the dais.

“You have heard the evidence against you. Do you have anything tosay that justicing should know? Have any of the witnesses said anything that is not true?”

Tellark remained silent.

“Master tanner, this is your last chance to say anything in your own defense.”

Kharl could sense Priost’s frustration. At least, he thought the thin miasma of order-bounded chaos around the lord justicer was frustration.

“Won’t change nothing, ser. ”

“Let me be the judge of that. You stand accused of murder. All of the witnesses save your consort have testified that you committed this murder. If you have anything to say in defense of yourself, you should speak now.”

Tellark shuddered, but did not speak.

Priost waited, far longer than Kharl would have.

Then, finally, the tanner spoke. “He was cheating everyone, ser. Taking golds in the name of the Lord, but keeping’em. Everyone knew it. Even the steward knew it. No one did nothing. Some years, I could pay it, hard as it was. I couldn’t this year. Emela, she lost the baby and couldn’t help none, and I had to hire Balsat’s boy. I told Yeson that, and all he said was that everyone had a story, and iffin I knew what was good for me, I’d be paying. I knows what he was saying. His guards, they burned down that cooper’s place. Kundark couldn’t pay, neither. No one did nothing then, neither. Everyone said it was an accident. Wasn’t no accident.” Tellark closed his mouth sharply, as if he had said too much.