The man gazed at the clerk blankly.
‘Serious charges,’ the Gevethen said, their voices even more acid than normal. The sound seemed to bring the man to his senses. ‘Who is Pleading Voice for this man?’
‘I am, your Excellencies.’
It was another of the clerks. He stood up, turned to face the Gevethen and bowed. Jeyan noted that his robes were of a different style to those worn by the others and of a conspicuously better quality. Further, his voice indicated a superior education. Anger began to curl inside her. A lawyer of some kind, she surmised. Are you one of those on whom my father leaned for support only to be abandoned? she thought viciously, memories flooding back to her.
‘Have you anything to say that will prove your innocence...?’
‘...your innocence?’
The voices, addressed dire
