Read Online Wellspring of Chaos by L. E. Modesitt - Free Book Online Page A

It was fourday when Kharl found her, and sixday when… when the fire happened.”
    “Tell us what happened that morning.”
    “I brought down some bread and cider, and the blackstaffer’s clothes. I’d mended them. I helped her dress. See… we were going to take her to Father Jorum so she wouldn’t be in the shop once she could walk and get around. Then I went upstairs to get the morning meal for Kharl and the boys. Kharl ate and came down to the shop. A while later, I heard a boom, and people yelling, and then there was smoke. I came down and… I thought she was lying down… except there was blood… and she wasn’t moving, and I ran out front and told everyone.”
    “What did you say? Do you recall the exact words?”
    “I… I said… I think I said… ‘No! She’s dead. Someone cut her throat.’”
    “You didn’t say that your consort cut her throat?”
    “No, ser.” Charee straightened.
    “Are you certain? Why didn’t you?”
    “It… well, ser… didn’t seem hardly likely. He could have just left her. No reason for him to bring her home, then cut her throat. ‘Sides, he was out front fighting the fire.”
    After a moment, Reynol nodded. “You may return to the bench. I must ask you to remain.”
    “The cooper Mallamet, step forward.”
    The stoop-shouldered older cooper stepped toward the dais with a gait that was not quite a shuffle.
    “Your name?”
    “Mallamet. I’m a cooper, honored justicer.”
    “You know you must tell the truth or face punishment?”
    “Yes, ser.”
    “What do you know of the prisoner Kharl?”
    “He’s a cooper, ser.” Mallamet looked at the smooth stone floor tiles.
    “He’s accused of killing a blackstaffer from Recluce. What do you know of this?”
    “He had her in his shop. I knew that, ser. And he was making black
    oak barrels. He was using her to use order to make his barrels better than he could hisself.“
    “How did you know that?”
    “Everyone knew that.”
    “How did you know that?”
    “Folks at the Tankard were talking about it, how he was workin‘ late, no one around, and they heard her chanting stuff.”
    “Lord West’s wizard has inspected those barrels, and there is no additional order infused in them.”
    “I was just tellin‘ what I knew.”
    “Did you tell everyone this so that you could take business from the cooper Kharl?”
    “Ser?”
    “You heard the question, cooper.”
    “Ser… I was just tellin‘ what I heard…”
    “Bailiff!”
    “Lord Justicer.” The bailiff stepped forward.
    “Have the cooper Mallamet taken into custody for false witness. Ten lashes.”
    “Armsmen! To the fore!”
    “Ser… no, ser. I was just tellin‘.”
    “Silence!”
    Kharl just watched, totally puzzled, as two armsmen escorted Mallamet out of the Hall of Justice. If the justicer and Lord West wanted to hang Kharl, why were they arresting Mallamet? But why had the justicer not asked more questions about what had happened?
    “The cooper Kharl.”
    “Stand,” hissed one of the armsmen behind Kharl.
    Kharl lurched to his feet, unsteadily. “Lord Justicer.” He bowed his head, then looked up, straight at the justicer.
    “Earlier, cooper, you had objected to the testimony of Captain Egen. Now, you have a chance to tell what happened.”
    “Honored justicer,” Kharl began carefully, “it all started when I was carrying sealant back from Hyesal the apothecary’s shop…” He told the entire story as it had happened, ending with, “… and when the captain said I’d killed her, I tried to explain that I hadn’t done anything. I didn’t run. I didn’t do anything except I said I didn’t do it, and then someone hit me over the head, and I woke up in gaol.”
    “How do you explain that the blackstaffer was killed with one of your drawing knives?”
    “There were lots of people around the front of the shop, ser. Anyone could have walked in. Also, I’m not a killer. I mean, I don’t know how to use a knife that way. I