[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

villain, so I won't be a target any longer. We have no choice but to wait for the
attacks to stop while hoping nothing effective will be done until then, so let's fill
some of the time in the most constructive way we can."
He offered her his arm, so Elissia took the arm and let herself be escorted to the
audience chamber. Everyone stood and bowed or curtsied when she and Derand
entered, but not everyone sat down again afterward. The sight of the same scribe
entering and setting up sent a number of people out of the room in disgust, causing
Derand to make a sound of amusement.
"It looks like some of the 'petitioners' thought that yesterday would be considered a
mistake," he murmured to Elissia as they got more comfortable on the thrones.
"They seemed to expect that the man they paid would set me straight on who was
supposed to be granted an audience and who should be ignored. I wonder how they
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made such a mistake."
"Most likely they spoke to that fool Railsley before he was arrested," Elissia
murmured back. "If they'd had any brains they would have demanded their money
back instead of letting him talk them into being patient. Now they're out of luck."
"I'm probably going to charge Railsley with being an accessory to every crime we
should have known about but didn't," Derand added just as softly. "So let's get
started with seeing what he's guilty of."
He turned his head then to nod at the fighters who had a stout, greasy man in
shackles to one side of the room. The man was dressed in very expensive but
rumpled clothing and wore rings on almost all of his fingers, and he looked
completely outraged. Elissia knew that this had to be the moneylender, and she
watched carefully as he was manhandled forward and forced to bow.
"This man is Oldio Fazon, a fool who considers himself a law unto himself,"
Elissia said fairly loudly into the buzz of comments from the other people in the
room. "He pretends to lend money to help people out, but in reality he's only
helping himself. He kidnaps children and sells them into slavery."
"I most certainly do not!" Fazon flared out at once, his indignation clearly growing
stronger. "My clients are lucky that I have a friend who's willing to repay their
loans for them if he's sent children to work out their parents' debt as servants to
him. That isn't slavery or even kidnapping, so I respectfully demand an apology!"
"'Respectfully demand,'" Derand echoed with an odd kind of amusement as he
stared at the man. "You have your ridiculous story all ready, so the idiots on the
thrones of your kingdom should simply nod with understanding and let you go
back to doing as you always have. And since you have been doing this for quite
some time, that brings up a question: if the children are only supposed to be
working off a debt, how many of them can you produce to show that they were
returned home once the debt was repaid?"
"Why - why - there aren't any because the debts haven't yet been paid off," Fazon
said, obviously thinking fast. "And I haven't been doing this for years, only for a
short time, so it's perfectly understandable that none of the children are back yet."
The man began to preen where he stood, clearly proud of the way he'd found out of
the trap, but before Elissia could call him a complete liar someone else did it for her.
"You lie like the disgusting slime you are!" a woman called from the back of the
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chamber before stepping out where she could be seen. "Seven years ago you took
my oldest son to repay the loan my husband was already paying back, just not fast
enough to suit you. Losing our son killed my husband, and our son hasn't been seen
since!"
"She's the liar! Fazon snapped, the look in his dull little eyes showing how furious
he was. "For some reason she hates me, so she's taking this opportunity to lie about
me! She - "
"That's enough!" Derand ordered in a voice so loud that Fazon was left with his
mouth hanging open and no words coming out. "That woman isn't the only one to
accuse you, and how long you've been taking people's children isn't an issue. Doing
something that vile even once would condemn you, and you've already admitted to
committing the crime more than once."
"But it isn't a crime!" Fazon screamed, suddenly losing all control of himself. "I
paid good gold to make sure it wasn't considered a crime, so you can't change
things now! Who do you think you are to barge in here and tell honest merchants
what they can and can't - "
"Honest merchants?" Derand interrupted in a roar, again drowning the stupid man
out. "You're as honest as I'm a delicate poetry lover, but the main point is that I'm
your king! That's who I think I am, and I believe I can prove the contention.
Guards! Take this man and make him tell you the names of everyone involved in
his disgusting crime, including his bullies, whoever he paid off here in Holdisond,
and the man he sent the children to. Once you have him wrung out, arrange for him
to be sold into slavery. But not through his own contact, because that man will be
too busy answering questions for my fighters to have the time to sell him properly."
Fazon began to scream as he was dragged out, but his screams weren't easily heard
over the cheering of most of the people in the chamber. There was also a smattering
of applause, but when Derand held up one hand the cheering and applause changed
to respectful silence. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]