Realms of Shadow - Lizz Baldwin [5]
They continued to protest, each trying to shout the other down. Andoris, noting that the testimony was becoming jumbled on the ivory spiral-even the Spiral Court was having a hard time telling the two apart- forked the fingers of his right hand, simultaneously casting a holding spell upon them both. Each woman froze in place, unable to do more than breathe or blink, but still capable of hearing any testimony given against her.
"They're both guilty," Ptack muttered, peering back and forth at the frozen figures. "One's the arcanist, and the other's her shadow double. One directed the crime, the other committed it. Execute them both-but force them to say what they've done with my research notes, first."
Andoris crooked his finger. "The mantle."
Ptack plucked it from his shoulders with a grateful shudder, as if removing a leech. Andoris gestured, and the mantle floated across the circle that held the Blamira claimant with the gown and gem-dusted face. As soon as she was released from her spell she flung the mantle across her shoulders with a haughty expression and stood poised and expectant, waiting for Andoris's questions.
"Are you Shiris Blamira?" he asked.
"I am," she began, then winced as the mantle struck a slightly sour note. "That is, I believe that I am. There is a chance, of course, that I am wrong. If I am the shadow double, I wouldn't know it. I have all of Shiris Blamira's physical and mental attributes, including her spellcasting abilities-even the same memories."
"And the same motivations to commit theft?" Wentar asked.
Ha! Got her!
Andoris held up a hand. "The accused is not required to speculate on whether she might have committed the crime," he cautioned. "Only to testify as to whether or not she did commit the crime."
Wentar considered a moment, then said, "Assume, for now, that you are the original Shiris Blamira, and answer my questions accordingly." He pointed at the woman in the other maze-circle. "Did you create this shadow double?"
"I must have. It wouldn't be possible for another arcanist to have created so exact a duplicate." "Do you remember casting the spell?" "No. I know only that the shadow double must have been created yesterday-and that somehow, my memory of yesterday has vanished."
"What do you remember?" Andoris asked.
"One moment I was sitting in the library of the Shadow Consortium, reading and enjoying my morning tea, and the next, I found myself in my laboratory, face-to-face with this… creature. I thought it was a doppelganger at first, and only realized what it must be after I tried to magically bind it-and it dismissed the binding as if it had cast the spell itself. That's when I realized it must be a shadow double."
"Did you try to command it?"
Blamira nodded vigorously. "Immediately-but it didn't work. Somehow, the thing must have become free willed."
Free willed?
Back in the bedchamber, the homunculus was sitting on the edge of Andoris's four-poster bed, riveted by the testimony.
"Did you try to dismiss the shadow double?" Andoris asked.
Blamira nodded. "That didn't work either."
"Did you try dispelling the magic that sustained it?"
"Of course I did," Blamira said, curling her lip disdainfully. "I'm not some newly initiated apprentice, you know."
Andoris thought for a moment, then asked, "When did the constabulary arrest you?"
"At shadowfall-dusk," Blamira answered. "That was the first I heard of the missing research notes."
"Did you steal Ptack's research?" Andoris asked bluntly.
Blamira looked pointedly at her double and said, "One of us did. It may or may not have been me."
"Do you know where the stolen research notes are now?"
"No."
Throughout Blamira's testimony, the mantle of truth echoed her words with a continuous harmony, without striking a single off note. Blamira was telling the truth.
Andoris tried a different line of questioning. "When your memory returned, what was the shadow double doing?"
"What do you mean?" Blamira asked,