Darkness Risen (The Ava'Lonan Herstories Book 4) by Emanuel Ako

Author:Emanuel, Ako [Emanuel, Ako]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-04-30T18:30:00+00:00

Morn court had to be the dullest of duties in the Realm. It dragged on and on, case after insignificant case of petty disputes, complaints and petitions, all of which could have been handled by a much lower authority than the Throne. So Silonyi only half-listened to most of the opening statements before delegating the cases to the aides of the Throne. Silonyi glanced around, distracted, bored, taking in the large, light-filled oval Laine. Spectators lined the sides; court flowers and flunkies, socialites and servants, nobles and merchants. Down the middle of the hall, lengthwise, was the petitioner’s aisle, where those who felt they had a matter worth the Throne’s attention came, after having first presented their cases to the court chancellor, who was supposed to weed out the petitions not worth the court’s time.

Apparently that person is not doing her job, Silonyi thought sourly as she delegated another case. How her mother stood the whole thing was beyond her. In fact, how any of the Queens...

Silonyi raised her head.

“Stop.” She looked down on the merchant who halted in mid-word. “Repeat what you just said,” she commanded, frowning. Something about this case caught in her mind. Some tingle ran briefly through her; not the wrongness, but more of a sharpening of interest.

The merchant, Junu’un, caught off-guard in the middle of his animated and impassioned speech, gestured meaninglessly for a moment as he backtracked his thoughts.

“He uh - this - this miscreant cheat me out of a fourth ten-weight per tanya per silver piece,” Junu’un repeated. “I plead that the court do justice by its citizens...”

“How did he do that?” Silonyi interrupted impatiently. “Didn’t you see him weigh them? Didn’t you check the weight on your own scales?”

“I did, Highness, and I sent meh wares to this - this man tru meh assistant in good faith, and see how I been rob blind!” He glared at the accused trader, who looked stoically at her, ignoring his accuser.

“I see.” Silonyi rubbed her lip thoughtfully, made a declining gesture when the Voice asked if she wanted to delegate the case. She looked at the tall, silent defendant, appreciative of his dark, rich brown skin and statuesque features.

“You are not from here, are you?” she asked him finally.

He shook his head. “No Highness. I come for de festival.”

“And have you anything to say in your defense?”

Again the head shake, coupled with a shrug. “Would I be believe?”

“Tell your view of the story and we shall see who will be believed.”

The elegant shrug. “De assistant bring de tanya dem, and tell me de propose price. I weigh dem and tell what my scales say, mek me own quote. I t’ought we woulda haggle, but de assistant, he look at de scale and take de price I say, but he write de wrong amount on de receipt, de price he quote; me din know til latah. And den me hyere, bein’ accuse of stealin’.”

Silonyi glanced to the court warru Kurja off to the side who was

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