“Boss, where are you going?”
“Huh? I don’t—oh, House of the Iorich, I guess.”
“You think he’ll know what to do?”
“I guess if we’re going to go into this, we ought to find out what is liable to happen to Aliera. Remember Aliera? She’s the one who got us involved in this?”
“Are you expecting gratitude?”
“No. I just know if it were me—”
“Yeah, yeah.”
We reached the house safely, and I made the now-familiar trek to Perisil’s office and clapped. He peered out the door, then opened it. I went in.
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” he asked me. He looked genuinely curious.
“Never mind.”
I took the chair opposite him and said, “I have something going that might do, um, something. I need to check it with you.”
He nodded. “Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to give me at least one or two more details than that if you want an intelligent comment.”
It took me a moment to realize he was jesting; I don’t know if that says something about him, or about me. I said, “All right, just this once. Here’s the situation as I see it, stop me if I’m wrong about something: The Jher—that is, certain groups are trying to pressure the Empress. The leverage they have is the scandal about Tirma, which is going to annoy a lot of the people who matter, although exactly why they care I couldn’t say.” He gave me a look, but didn’t interrupt.
I went on. “The Empress, after you and I started making trouble and kicking things up, reconsidered, and decided to have an official investigation into the events. There will be an effort to stop the investigation and cast blame at some idiot group of Teckla by assassinating Caltho.”
“Desaniek.”
“No, I was wrong about that. Her assistant, Caltho.”
“Hmmm. That would work too.”
“Even better, because it will happen at a public meeting where he is supposed to answer questions about what is happening and why.”
“I see.”
“All right, so, if I manage to stop the assassination, does that give us any leverage to get Aliera released?”
He was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Stop it how?”
“By killing the assassin before he can kill Caltho.”
He was quiet for a bit longer, then. “It depends on a number of things. How are you. . . where. . .” His voice trailed off and he looked uncomfortable. I’d never seen him look uncomfortable before; I think I enjoyed it.
“The way I see it going down, I’ll take him before he ever gets to the meeting.”
“Then, excuse me, how will anyone know?”
“No one will know.”
“Then I don’t see how it will have any effect on our case.”
“Uh. Yeah, there’s that. Okay, what if I made it more dramatic?”
“You mean, a rescue at the last minute and all?”
I nodded. “I have no idea if I can, or how, but I might be able to pull something like that off.”
He nodded slowly, rubbing his chin, then said, “No.”
“No?”
“Legally, it would have no standing. Let me explain. There are three ways this can go: She can be tried for what she was arrested for, or she—”
“Wait, what she was really arrested for, or what the official charges were?”
He blinked, hesitated, and said, “I’ll start over. There are three ways this can go. One: She can be arrested for practicing Elder Sorcery, she—”
“It’s crap.”
He shrugged. “That’s as may be. Two: She can be investigated for her role, if any, in the massacre. Or, three: All charges could be dropped and she could be released.”
“Eh? Well, that would be best. How can we get that to happen?”
“I’ve no idea. I’m just listing the possibilities. Now, I can represent her on the charge of Elder Sorcery. If the investigation into the massacre happens, she should find another advocate, because that falls under Military Code, or Imperial Responsibility, or some combination, and in any case I know nothing about it.”
“Well, but getting her released—”
“That isn’t something we do; that’s just something that could happen if the Empress takes it into her head to do it, or if the Justicer decides there’s no case. Now, we’re going to be appearing before Justicer Moriv. I’ve tried cases with her before, and we get along all right.”
“That’s important, I assume.”
He nodded. “She’s easygoing, for a Justicer, but doesn’t tolerate any deviations from strict code; that’s probably why they picked her.”
“But she has to obey Imperial orders, right? I mean, if the Empress tells her to drop the case, she has to drop it.”
He hesitated. “It isn’t that simple.”
I stifled a groan.
“An order from the Imperial Advocate would do it, certainly.”
“Hmmm?”
“The one representing the Empire in the proceedings. My opponent, if you will.”
“Oh. Is that something liable to happen?”
“If he thinks he can’t win.”
“How do we convince him he can’t win?”
“In court.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“It’s what I’ve been working on.”
“How’s it looking so far?”
“Not all that good, but there are a few points that might get us somewhere.”
“And if the Empress ordered the, what was it? Imperial Advocate? to stop the prosecution?”
“Same as ordering the Justicer to. Technically, they aren’t permitted to. But, ah, it would have a strong influence. I can’t predict what would happen.”
“So we’re back to convincing Her Majesty to drop it, and hoping for the best.”
He gave me a look. “Or I might win the case.”
“Right. Sorry.” I hesitated. “The Empress is under a lot of pressure from a lot of different directions. What happens if she sees a way out?”
“Leading question. She’ll take it, of course, barring any significant factors you haven’t mentioned.”
“How would it work?”
“The best way is to present a request to dismiss to the Justicer and the Imperial Advocate, with a copy to Her Majesty. The trick is finding grounds for the request. We don’t actually have any, which puts all of them in a tricky position.”
“I have information that the idea of arresting Aliera came from the Jhereg representative; does that help?”
“Is it information from someone who will say so under the Orb?”
“Uh, no.”
“Then it doesn’t help.” He hesitated. “Unless.”
“Hmmm?”
“The idea came from the Jhereg representative—to whom?”
“Uh, to the Empire.”
“No, no. To whom did the representative make—”
“Oh. To Her Majesty.”
“Ah. That’s different. Then the Orb will remember it, which means that it happened legally.”
“Um, and so?”
“So we present a claim on conspiracy against the Jhereg.”
“Oh, they’ll love me for that.”
He shrugged. “They have a lot of affection for you now, do they?”
“Good point. How does it work?”
“We present a petition to have the Orb interrogated about the source for the idea of arresting Aliera—it doesn’t matter how we know about it, as long as we’re specific about the request. Then you have to show reasonable probability that there was a Jhereg assassin working against the investigation.”