Read Online Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier - Free Book Online

the binding word into his work, a contract might unroll its meaning in unexpected directions—and be very difficult to rewrite. Iaor would not want to give the old Fox of Linularinum any opening to claim that legal impropriety had been done. Dismissing a justified charge of murder done upon a Linularinan merchant, for example, might very well provide such an opening.
    “So I appeal to your majesty,” said Ferris, opening his hands. He inclined his head.
    “Yes,” said the king again. He surveyed the young man. Enned son of Lakas looked back steadily. He was rather pale. But he had too much pride to flinch from the king’s searching gaze. Looking at him, Bertaud was not surprised that this young man had been willing to risk his own life to retrieve his father’s pride and punish the man who had ruined him. And what would the father think of that? Surely any normal father would be appalled? If not at the murder, than at this aftermath?
    “Have you anything to add?” the king asked him. “Do you concur with what the esteemed Ferris has recounted?”
    Enned bowed his head over his bound hands. “No, your majesty. That is, yes. Everything he said is true.”
    “You understand that the penalty for murder is death?”
    “Yes, your majesty,” the young man answered. He was afraid, Bertaud saw, but not defiant; he looked back at the king frankly and honestly. His voice was not, however, quite as calm as his face.
    “Do you think your father would regard the trade of your life for the death of his business rival as a fair and good trade?”
    The young man shook his head, stiffly. “His grief will be hard. I didn’t mean to get caught. I’m sorry I was. And I’m sorry if you think I was wrong. But I can’t be sorry I killed the Linularinan. My family was not wealthy, your majesty, but we were not poor, and my father worked hard to build our business. And he is a good man, and no one to cast aside like a beggar!”
    “As you cast aside my law?”
    Enned looked startled. Color rose in his face. “I… confess I didn’t think of it that way, your majesty.”
    The king tapped his fingers thoughtfully against the arm of his chair. “My law exists for a reason. My courts exist to give legal recourse to wronged men.
I
am here to hear appeals, where the courts cannot give satisfaction. And yet you did murder on your own account, on account of your own pride.”
    The young man could not, evidently, think of anything to say.
    The king leaned forward. “I conclude you are a fool.” He looked, and sounded, more and more severe. “If every man whose business associates bested or offended him drew a knife, if the law were disregarded every time a rash young man felt his pride touched, how would we all live? And in what disorder? Enned son of Lakas, the esteemed Ferris brought you to me because he felt you deserved mercy he could not give you. I don’t know that I feel so. If the Linularinan merchant offended your father’s pride and your family’s well-being, how much more have you offended my pride, and the well-being of my kingdom?”
    The young man swallowed, bowing his head.
    Straightening, the king looked thoughtfully at the judge.
    Ferris shrugged, opening his hands. “If every man who did business was upright in his dealings with his business associates, then their business associates would not suffer through their actions and young men would not be offended, however proud they might be. Though I grant you, this one is proud. He is also the only son of his father. His father came to me and begged for the life of his son, which I, of course, have no authority to grant.”
    “But you would have
me
grant it.”
    “The law is stern, your majesty, but I serve it gladly. Except when it is flouted by men who use sly cunning to slip its proper bounds. Then I am unable to be glad in its service. Still, at such moments, as I am not the final authority, I have recourse. Your majesty, of course, does not. Forgive me if I