Chương 236: Chapter 257: Escalation

"And, you're far more ruthless than he is. You proved that when you killed my daughter." The crowd reacted hard to this bombshell accusation. Queen Czoverenne Freckentop knows how to work a crowd too, after all. She's the social manipulator of the royal family, the curator of influence and soft power. She was livid, glaring at me with naked hate. I couldn't fault her for it. After all, I haven't just killed her daughter.

I also spent months baiting her and taunting her with that daughter's death, throwing it into the public discourse and keeping it fresh. I started rumors that she and her husband sacrificed her daughter to a necromancer, I accused them of coverups, I made a mockery of their mourning. And when the body was recovered, I turned it into a political spectacle to vault my way to greater power. So from her perspective I deserve a lot of hate for this.

And I'm not going to explain to her that this was the only way I could be really, really sure that she was not going to cause multiple cities to be destroyed needlessly. And I'm not going to explain to her that all my ambitious aspirations are so I can maximize the number of lives I save. And of course I'm considering that she and her husband started all this when they hired necromancers to poison my home duchy. She apparently does not think that is a relevant factor.

In the meantime, I'm sitting here in front of a huge crowd that I have taken great pains to get very invested in my words, in the middle of an official legal proceeding to determine the direction of my whole future, with a coin spinning that indicates to everyone that the queen did not lie when she accused me of murdering her daughter. Which I did. So, a really tense moment. I turned around and looked at the podium, calling attention to the spinning brass disk, the magical proof that I was guilty.

"Huh," I said as if surprised.

"You really and truly believe that don't you? After everything that's happened." The crowds were murmuring. I turned back to my witness.

"Your Majesty, just how long have you been fostering this resentment against me?" She glared sharply.

"You cannot deny what you did."

"I can deny what I did not do, and I never laid a hand on your daughter. I did not hire anyone, pressure anyone, or compel anyone to hurt your daughter. I have an alibi, I've already been cleared on charges, I've been through several rounds of questioning, I tried to talk your government into letting me save her, I've proven myself several times over and this baseless accusation keeps coming up," I said, letting myself get heated in return. I am rarely the calmest person in a conversation.

"I don't think another suspect was ever considered, and I've been cleared of this over and over. This is personal, isn't it?!" And the judge banged away with his gavel, ordering me back to my podium, away from the witness stand. I held my ground for a few important seconds, almost nose-to-nose with the queen, both of us breathing hard. I was going to have to be the one to give ground. The judge had ordered it, and I was the one on my feet away from my podium. She was seated in the witness stand.

It was clear which of us was going to back away. But it was important that I draw this out. I need the crowd to see me stubborn, angry, and unwilling to back down. The gavel banged again. The queen sneered.

"It was never personal." Clack! I froze, and looked over my shoulder. The still brass disk, sitting flat on top of my station. I turned back to her, and let just a small smile onto my face. And then I drifted back, like a breeze was carrying me off, back towards my place. She followed me with her eyes. There were no more fires and storms and daggers in those eyes. Now there were plans and pawns and angles.

"You want to see personal?" she hissed. And this is a woman who brings her personal grudges with two layers of deniability, three contingency plans, an alibi already in place, the escape route planned and the serial numbers filed off. Every detail worked out to perfect precision before the target is ever in the crosshairs. And that target is me. She lives and dies by the ideals that I have been trying to train into myself, about planning, about exactitude, about not taking chances. And, yes, it's personal.

The coin tells me that.

"Counselor, your time with the witness is over," the judge said, sternly. Apparently his naked favoritism towards me has a concrete limit, and shouting matches with royalty is past that point. Hardly anyone would have let things even approach this point, the judge had given me a lot of rope and I had, right on schedule, hanged myself with it. So he turned to Nuur.

"Plaintiff. Your witness." Nuur was looking more confident than I've seen her in days. And even worse, I don't think her confidence is as misguided now as it was then. She approached the witness stand and curtsied, grateful for the nod she got in return." Your Majesty," she said with sycophantic deference, "until this point the strongest case this counsel has been able to assert against the defendant is the murder charges that the defendant is already acquitted of.

If there are new murder charges that have not yet been tried, that would be far more relevant to the plaintiff's case. Does Your Majesty have prosecutable evidence that the defendant has committed murder, regicide?" The queen paused.

"Not as such," she said.

"Prosecution for murder is a different standard. I said that she killed my daughter, that's what I stand by. Quite separate things. For example, I've never committed a murder," she said, smirking at me. Her eyes were challenging and her lips were disdainful, and it all pulled into a self-satisfied smile. She was beaming me a message. I've never committed a murder, but I've killed hundreds of thousands of my own peasants. Most of them in Meadowtam. That's the difference. Message received loud and clear your Majesty.

"Would you clarify your statements then, Your Majesty?"

"What we know is that Princess Harigold is responsible. That it was her plan and her machinations. The actual murderer probably did not even know that Lady Natalie was involved at all," the queen said distinctly.

"We have found all the steps in the chain of events, and the people she used as puppets. During this whole week, while the bloodthirsty sorceress has been here at this trial, we've been rolling up her whole organization like a carpet. This proceeding has been the perfect opportunity to dismantle her conspiracy without her interference, keeping her attention on these matters instead of the network of criminals and decoys she associates with."

"Objection your honor," I said, raising my hand.

"What the witness is saying is clearly false because there is no conspiracy and I had nothing to do with this. As I've established." This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. This put the judge in a difficult position. For one thing, the witness has just been accused in plain speech of perjury, which normally requires some consideration or investigation. But on the other hand the witness is the throne of the kingdom, the Queen Majesty.

In short, his boss's boss's boss. It would be foolishness to let himself be the method for my attacks on her. But on the juggling hand, the accusation that the queen just made does contradict settled rulings and matters of legal fact from his own court. But on the spinning plate, he knows as well as anyone that his court and his colleagues are corrupt and make bad rulings all the time.

And the alley-oop behind the back: the queen and I are both known for being vindictive, sneaky, patient, vicious and petty to those who have wronged us.

"Overruled," he said carefully.

"The witness can make her statement because she is not, as she pointed out, contesting the specific ruling that defendant was previously exonerated for. An objection will be sustained if counsel can refute the new allegation." Well fuck. Like, genuinely, fuck. So far I have managed to stay ahead of trouble by balancing between two statements. Half the time I can deflect trouble with "Of course I didn't murder Princess Lachel Freckentop."

And half the time, I can roll my eyes with "of course I knew all about it, but that doesn't mean I killed her". But now, for the first time, someone is really bearing down on the middle ground that I can't dodge: because yes, I did have Lachel killed. I did manipulate events and place pawns specifically to have her executed for my own reasons. I did not murder her but I could hardly claim that I had not gotten her killed.

I have only barely been able to scrape a space between those so far, and my story is not going to hold up very long if anyone started putting pressure on that specific button. The judge looked at me neutrally, while I hung there in silence. His voice was lowered just a little, and his tone was rather respectful when he asked, "Lady Harigold? Do you have additional reasons to object to these allegations?" I looked at him and let my helpless bafflement show up on my face.

"Other than the fact that she can't be telling the truth based on what I positively know? No, aside from that rather significant objection... I don't know, maybe I could object and say that her Majesty would not actually make a credible accusation on this stand right now? If she believed that her information was a threat to me she would never reveal that without her magister guards around her." Because I won't lie, I'm a little confused by that.

Right now I've got her life in my hands, and she does not live the sort of life where other people have the ability to kill her. There's laws, walls, wards, guards, and secret programs all to keep her from ever being at any sort of risk. So did she have some protection going that I was not aware of right now? Or, was she just the kind of person who would taunt and talk shit and bring out her strongest accusations just when she's most vulnerable? You know, like I would.

I know this about myself: If someone is pushing at me my impulse is to make them wish they weren't pushing me. I'm gonna be really pissed off if I keep finding fundamental similarities between me and this bitch. Fortunately it still seems that the most important distinctions still separate us. We might both be ruthless, yes.

But while I would sacrifice someone else's daughter for the safety and protection of a hundred thousand strangers, she would choose to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives for her personal profit. And while my methods may look ambitious and self-aggrandizing, I know the difference. The judge was stiff now, less respectful, less amused.

"Counselor, your previous statement had certain insinuations you would want to retract." I looked up at the audience that was staring restlessly back, murmurs and movement all around us. Seconds ago I had casually mentioned that I could easily kill the Queen Majesty right there in front of everyone. Just because I was actively wondering what gave her the fucking nerve, does not mean I should make this an out-loud thought.

"I withdraw my objection until Her Majesty clarifies these vague and meaningless insinuations into something concrete enough to matter," I said, glaring back at the bitch.

"What's insinuated?" she scoffed.

"I am flat-out telling you that we have found your accomplices, arrested them, and have them in questioning. Did you think there was really no reason for us to post royal guards on your school's campus? They've spent weeks tearing the place apart for every clue, to make sure there was no room for error. We have magister investigators retracing their steps so we can re-create the entire chain of events.

The proof is being assembled, the trap is closing in on you, and you are not going to get away with this any longer!" Her voice was exultant with triumph. Me? I'm sweating bullets. She's found Skeici Gianwen. She's connected the class transfers. She has discovered the association between Nathan's obvious cheating of his test scores with the exact same method used to transfer Skeici's classes.

The royal guard really does have a lot of very competent investigators who normally get tasked with finding murderers with real experience and proven methods. This was probably a very easy case by comparison, now that they finally have access to the campus and its administration buildings. I lock it down with a poker face, glad that I don't have to talk any further. After all, it's still the plaintiff's witness, and I am not supposed to talk as much as I have anyway.

Instead, I picked up the Gyre and started spinning it again. Should have done this before she started talking. I got distracted, got caught up in the moment, forgot my own advantage. But I need to get control again. After all, she did not name any names. She could still be fishing for a clue, trying to get me to give away a lead for her people. After all, there's no such thing as an investigator who is expert in solving crimes committed by future-seeing prophets.

And I know how damn high the ability checks to find even the smallest clue about Skeici really are. She could be lying about why the guards are even there. If she says a name, I'll object because it's impossible. If she doesn't say a name, then I just sit back and let her hurl accusations. I'll have plenty of time to refute them, she's not going to convince any of these people here today. Nuur tried to give the queen some chances to name names, clearly eager to turn this into my murder trial.

If Nuur could get this shifted from a contract violation to a succession challenge to a homicide trial, she would have a much better chance of winning. And also she would instantly become famous enough to sell a guaranteed best-seller to a ghost-writer. She spends a few minutes prodding Czoverenne to drop something concrete, but instead the bitch just keep slinging needles and barbs at me without confirming anything. And the more she tried to get into my head, the more I relaxed.

I had freaked for a bit there, under her accusations. But it was becoming increasingly obvious that mind games were all she had. She was playing to the audience even more than I was. Months ago, she and I had finally come face to face and clashed in person for the first time. Far from the last time. And if everything bears out the way it's supposed to, she and I are going to be escalating our confrontations. This one was verbal only, and while we're being nasty there's not a real consequence to it.

It's much more public than last time we sparred with words, but that's all. The next time will be bigger, and more dangerous. But, months ago, I dealt with her and her husband and I learned the secret to how to beat them. I was smiling broadly when Nuur finally gave up on getting the queen to commit to a stance that could really hurt me, and released her from her witness duties with as much gracious apology and appreciation as she could muster.

I shot her a pair of finger-guns and picked up my coin, its slow ringing singing halted by my hands.

"When the king lies," I said, and started it again, seconds before the trumpeters started with his theme. He marched in and there was the expected excitement for having the king arrive in public here where anyone could see, not just a curated crowd of supporters. The judge had a speech, Nuur had a speech, everyone was so honored, grateful for his opportunity, all that jazz. I get tired of that sort of stuff when it's all about me, I am barely showing my patience for this butthead's ceremonial peans.

And then it was finally my turn. I called the witness, I get first crack at 'em.

"Could you state just your name for the record?" I asked, stepping in close with my hands folded down in front of me, an exaggerated pose of harmlessness. He rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Lady Harigold, I could." I chuckled. I love that he's petty and ridiculous like that.

"Thank you your Majesty. Please state just your name for the record?"

"I am King Vobel Iristo Loed Freckentop," he said, cutting off all the other titles and honors.

"Thank you your Majesty," I said, turning to check the spinning Gyre, calling everyone's attention to it.

"Next question: do you have any proof at all that I had your daughter killed?"