Beyond the Shadows - Brent Weeks [119]
A hush fell.
“This tribunal has further questions, which we ask you to answer for both your own sake and Cenaria’s. If you answer fully and forthrightly, you will be granted a merciful death. If not, you will be bound to the wheel.” Logan held his face impassive, but his stomach turned. The wheel was a cruel death, as bad as Alitaeran cruxing or Modaini drawing and quartering. It was the established punishment for treason. Only treasonous nobles were beheaded, and it had been established that Kylar was no noble. A merciful death for testimony was the most Logan could do for his friend.
“I will answer all I can without compromising my honor,” Kylar said.
“Are you a member of the Sa’kagé?” Logan asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you an assassin?”
Kylar sneered. “Assassins have targets. Wetboys have deaders. I was a wetboy.”
There was a sudden electricity in the room, like thunderheads were rolling by. The crowd had become an audience, and they were pleased with the show. They were getting a chance to peek behind the veil at the Sa’kagé, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“‘Was’?” Duke Wesseros interjected.
“I split with the Sa’kagé during the coup. I don’t kill for money now.”
“So you claim no one ordered you to kill the queen?” Logan asked.
“The Night Angel is the spirit of retribution. No one orders me to do anything, Your Highness, not even you.” A thrill ran through the crowd at the show of defiance.
“Strike him,” Duke Wesseros said.
One of the guards stepped up to the cage but hesitated.
“Strike him!” Duke Wesseros demanded.
The man hit Kylar across the jaw, not hard. Logan could swear the man looked scared.
“Who hired you to kill Terah Graesin?” Logan asked.
“I planned and carried it out alone.”
“Why?” Duke Wesseros asked. “A wetboy might have escaped.”
“If I wanted to, I could escape right now,” Kylar said.
There were titters in the courtroom.
“Well, I don’t know if you’re a wetboy, but you’re certainly an accomplished liar,” Duke Wesseros said.
Kylar glanced at the guards who’d accompanied him up from the Maw. The men looked positively ill. Logan felt a tingling on his right arm and for a moment, could swear he saw something moving from Kylar’s fingers like the shadow of a shadow. He looked around, but no one else seemed to notice anything. Then Kylar’s expression changed like he was deciding against an impulse. Logan had seen the expression enough to know it. “I am an accomplished liar,” Kylar admitted. “I guess it doesn’t matter. You’ve already established that I’m not a Stern, and that I killed the queen, so let’s finish this.”
“You deny the Sa’kagé had any part in the queen’s death?” Duke Wesseros asked.
“Are you a moron or a stooge?” Kylar shot back. “I’ve given Cenaria a king who can neither be bribed or blackmailed. The Sa’kagé is furious with me. The question you’re too afraid to ask is whether the king ordered me to kill Terah Graesin.”
Duke Wesseros jumped to his feet. “How dare you impugn our king’s honor! Strike him!” The court was in an uproar.
Logan stood. “No! Sit!” It took half a minute for everyone to obey, but finally they did. “It’s a fair question. A fair question for us to drag into the light, because everyone’s going to be asking it quietly in the days to come.” Then Logan sat.
“Many of you were at Pavvil’s Grove. You saw Logan kill the ferali,” Kylar said. Logan almost goggled. He and Kylar both knew he hadn’t killed the ferali. It had been Kylar’s assassinating the Godking that had defeated the beast. “Many of you hailed Logan as your king, but he wouldn’t accept the crown then, would he? Do you think he was afraid of Terah Graesin then? How many of her banner men do you think would have stood by her on that day if Logan