Chapter 32: Mary and Linda

The hearing against Mary opened at the ninth bell, and every bench in the Hall was full.

Mary stood alone in the well of the floor.

She wore her good grey dress and her ring of keys.

Her face was calm, and her hands were folded.

Linda stood behind her in the plain blue dress.

She had not slept, and she kept her hands hidden in the folds of the skirt.

The registrar of Hollowbrook sat at the elders' table with the Charter open in front of her.

"Lady Mary," she said. "You are charged with a false notice of death, a forged page and a forged codicil.

"You are also charged with bribing two officers of the Registry and a physician. How do you answer?"

"I am innocent," said Mary.

"Then call your witnesses."

"I have none. I have only a mother's word."

"Then we will hear the others."

The clerk came up first.

He stood with his satchel clutched to his chest, and he did not look at Mary.

"Twenty silver a night," he said. "She paid it in coin from the strongbox.

"She told me which window to stand at. She told me which night."

"Which night, clerk?"

"Each one. She knew the order before the men did."

A growl went along the Helix benches.

The healer came next.

He had been sweating for two days and he did not try to hide it.

"A hundred silver," he said. "For a certificate I wrote without examining him.

"And there was a sedative in the spiced wine on the first night. I mixed it myself."

"Why?" asked the elder.

"She said the boy was a danger to himself," he whispered. "I was a coward."

Max sat at the front of the bench, between Joel and James, with Raven standing behind them.

He kept very still.

"One more," said the registrar. "Call the foreman."

The Rydes guards brought him in.

He was old and crooked, with a face weathered brown by the river.

He walked in with his cap in his hands.

He did not look at the elders.

He looked at the benches, and found Max, and stopped.

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