One of the two patroller guards in maroon and blue stationed outside the double doors of the inner hall stepped forward, then stopped, as if he recognized Kharl.
“Lord Kharl is going up to the library,” Demyst announced.
The guard watched, but said nothing as Kharl and the undercaptain turned and made their way up the narrow staircase.
Neither Fasyn nor the other clerk happened to be in his chambers, although one chamber had a wall lamp lit. They might have been in the Hall of Justice or conferring with the lord justicers.
Just before the library archway, Kharl stopped, recalling the rifles in the residence barracks and Hagen’s warnings. He turned to the undercaptain. “I think it might be better if you watched the hallway here, and the top of the stairs. That way, someone can′t get too close without being seen.”
“See …?”
“If you’re out here, you can see if anyone is headed my way. You can check the library first, if that will make you feel better.”
Demyst frowned, then nodded. “Put that way, it does make sense, ser.” He paused. “There aren’t any other entrances, are there?”
“No. There used to be a back entrance, but it was walled up years ago, it looks like.”
Once inside the library, Kharl began to look through the shelves. Very quickly, he noticed that there were no volumes of cases that appeared to have been bound recently. He searched until he found one that seemed to be the most recent and checked it. There were two dates, a Cyadoran date of 1898 A.F. and a second date. The second date was stated as the 27th year of Ostcrag, Lord West. For a moment, Kharl frowned, then nodded. Every ruler of the West Quadrant was Lord West. Ostcrag was Lord West’s personal name, as Osten was that of his eldest son. From what Kharl recalled, Lord West-or Ostcrag-had celebrated his thirtieth year as Lord West only a year before Kharl had left Brysta. That meant that the newest volume was almost four years old.
After almost half a glass of perusing volumes, Kharl could find no newer compilation of cases. By comparison, he was fairly certain that the newest case volumes in Hall of Justice in Valmurl were little more than a year old, if that.
He turned as he sensed Fasyn heading toward him.
“How are you finding things?” asked the chief clerk.
“I think it will take a little while before I know where everything is,” Kharl admitted. “I couldn’t find any recent cases.”
Fasyn did not quite meet Kharl’s gaze. “We’re somewhat behind in compiling those. There are only the two of us.”
“It takes a great deal of work,” suggested Kharl, “and a good hand.”
“I’ve heard that the role of the bailiff is different in Austra,” suggested Fasyn quickly.
“I haven’t seen a case tried here,” Kharl replied. “So I couldn’t say. There’s no difference in the guide you provided and in how it’s done in Valmurl. There’s generally only one guard at the outer doors, though. Also, the Lord of Austra does not preside in any cases.”
“What about the dating?”
Fasyn was clearly going to avoid commenting on Lord West’s role in justicing, Kharl reflected.
“From the cases I’ve read here … I’ve only read a few,” Kharl replied. “You’re using two dates. All the dating in Austra is from the founding of Valmurl, and that was some sixteen hundred years ago. Only the old cases have Cyadoran dates.”
“Hmmm … I didn’t know that.”
Kharl managed to conceal his surprise, because Fasyn was lying. “I’m sure I’ll find other differences, especially after I see how the lord justicers handle matters.”
“You plan on observing?”
“How else will I see the differences?”
“There is that,” murmured the overclerk.
Kharl could tell that Fasyn was not pleased with that thought.
“Do you still follow the Justicer’s Challenge?” asked Fasyn.
“The offer is made, but I don’t know of a time that it’s been taken. What about here?”
“Some would-be advocate who wanted to be lord justicer tried it, I’d say fifteen years back.” Fasyn paused. “No. Sixteen, because one of the cases was the Asolin case. He came close, won four out of five. That was right after Lord Justicer Reynol took the dais.”
“What was the case he lost? The challenger, I mean, if you recall.”
“Oh … that was an assault on a tariff farmer.” Fasyn laughed.”The challenger claimed that, when a tariff farmer exceeded the authority delegated by the Lord of the Quadrant, he could not act under the mantle of the Lord, and therefore an assault was not a crime against the Lord, but against a person, and therefore, merited but a flogging, since no weapons were used. The precedents state clearly that tariffing is a sole privilege of the Lord, and that when delegated, anything that interferes with that privilege constitutes a crime against the Lord.” Fasyn shrugged. “He ended up getting eighty lashes. It took him three days to die.”
“He followed the Code of Cyad, and not the more recent precedents?” asked Kharl.
Fasyn frowned.
Kharl decided to explain. It was one of the few cases where he did know something because he’d seen and followed a tariff farmer’s case in Austra, and because he’d researched some to find out what would happen if he’d done something to Fyngel, the tariff farmer who had cost him his cooperage. “The Code of Cyad made that an absolute law, but that was when the tariffs were collected directly by officials appointed by the Emperor of Cyador. The Lords of both Nordla and Austra have asserted that precedent, but I never did find a proclamation or a case that actually confirmed that authority.” He laughed softly. “Not that I’d challenge a Lord on that point.”
“You’re a wise advocate in that, Lord Kharl.”
Kharl did not correct the clerk’s assumption that he was an advocate.
“I can see that you’re busy.” Fasyn nodded and turned.
As Kharl followed the overclerk with his eyes, he noticed the robed figure of a lord justicer in the hallway outside. Kharl walked around and behind the shelf, out of sight of the two Nordlans and Demyst. There he raised his sight shield and turned back to follow the overclerk.
Both men walked to Fasyn’s chamber. Kharl had to hurry to slip inside before Reynol gestured for the overclerk to close the door. The mage had to flatten himself against the wall between two bookcases.
“What more did you find out about this envoy?” Reynol cleared his throat. “He is an envoy. I checked with Overcaptain Osten.”
“He knows his way around the cases. He has a recommendation from the lord justicer of Austra. The way it is written, it would be hard to forge. From all that, and the way he speaks, I’d say he’s an advocate, or close enough that it makes little difference. He’s not lord-born, but not low crafter. He’s not practiced much. It could be that he was trained, then was granted lands by Lord Ghrant.”
“Payback for supporting Ghrant in the revolt, no doubt.” Reynol’s words were sneering.
“Why would Ghrant send an advocate and call him a scholar of the law?” mused Fasyn. “Do you think he really might be?”
“I don’t know, but Captain Egen says that Lord West will want to know,” replied Reynol. “We don’t wish to displease Captain Egen.”
“No, ser.”
“Watch him closely. Find out anything more that you can.”
“Yes, your lordship.”
“Let us get back to the Hall. We need to dispose of that cabinetmaker.” Reynol turned.
Kharl did not move until the two had left. Leaving his sight shield up, he moved back to the library and out of eyeshot from Demyst before releasing it. He doubted he would find much more of immediate interest to him in the library, but he needed to make sure of that.
LXII
Kharl finally returned to the residence sometime closer to two glasses past noon. Before finding Erdyl, he washed up, then came back down the front staircase.