Chapter 29
The morning of Noria’s hearing dawned bright and cold, hinting at the coming fall.
I stood on my veranda, sipping coffee while I watched the sun rise, and prayed to Magorah and Resinah and the Creator and whoever the hell else was listening, to make Noria wake up with a clear head rather than anger in her heart.
I knew now that if I’d shown up at the Palace for my own hearing with a reasonable attitude, things might have gone easier for me.
I was lucky Iannis had shown me compassion despite his stony exterior, and also that he was presiding over Noria’s case.
With any luck, he would show her similar compassion, and she would have the sense to take whatever deal he offered her.
I bathed and dressed, then made my way down to the audience chamber, where Iannis and Fenris already waited.
This was the room where Iannis heard complaints and conducted hearings, where I had experienced my first encounter with the fearsome and mysterious Chief Mage.
I stepped into the spacious chamber, which was more like a hall than a room.
A long blue-and-gold carpet carved a path through the center of the parquet floor, and tall, gleaming mahogany columns held up the soaring ceiling as I walked up the path.
The walls were pale pink granite, as was the huge desk Iannis and Fenris stood behind.
A thick, leather-bound logbook stood open on the desk, as well as a file, and there were legal texts on hand as well, should they prove to be necessary.
“Good morning,” I murmured, twining my fingers briefly with Iannis’s as I took my place to his right. We hadn’t slept together last night, and I strongly suspected Iannis hadn’t slept at all, though he looked the same as ever.
“Good morning.” He squeezed my hand briefly, then let it go as the double doors opened.
My heart skipped a beat as Annia and two guards brought Noria in.
They were both wearing conservative dresses, Annia’s a pale green and Noria’s a dark red—probably their mother’s idea, as I doubted Noria would have dressed up for the occasion.
I was glad her mother, a rather difficult woman, had elected to stay away from the hearing.
Perhaps Annia had persuaded her to stay behind.
Noria held her head high as she was escorted down the aisle to stand before the Chief Mage with Annia at her side.
Comenius and Elnos were also there, trailing behind the guards—they had agreed to come as character witnesses and to provide moral support.
Comenius gave me a small smile as he and Elnos stood off to the side, and I nodded.
I was glad they were here, not just for Noria, but for me as well, selfish though that was.
“Good morning, Lord Iannis,” Annia said, bowing. Everyone but Noria did the same. “We are ready for the hearing.”
“Are you?” Iannis asked sternly, addressing Noria directly. She locked eyes with him, and I was both proud and apprehensive at the defiance blazing in her dark eyes. “Are you ready to proceed with this hearing, Miss Melcott?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Noria said, straightening her shoulders.
“Very well.” Iannis pulled a piece of paper from the file on the desk, then briefly scanned it. “Noria Melcott, are you aware that you have been charged with treason against the Federation, and for attempting to commit genocide?”
“I am,” Noria said stiffly.
“And do you have anything to add to the testimony you have already given, which is on record?” Iannis asked.
“No.” Noria hesitated. “Actually, yes.”
Annia glared at her, but Noria refused to look at her sister. My stomach sank, and I had a feeling that whatever she was about to say wouldn’t help her case.
“Very well. What do you wish to tell us?”
“I want to make it clear that even though I don’t support the Resistance any more, I still don’t recognize your authority over me.
” Elnos sucked in a sharp breath, and pain flashed in Annia’s eyes.
“You have no empathy for the human race, and do not attempt to understand our troubles or needs. Whatever you decide to do with me, you’re still a tyrant. Nothing is going to change that.”
I clenched my hands at my sides, thankful the desk shielded them.
Where the hell did Noria get off saying any of that shit?
There was a kernel of truth there, but after everything I’d told her, and all that had transpired, she should know better than that by now.
And unlike me when I’d arrived here for my hearing, Noria had actually committed crimes against the Federation.
“Noted,” Iannis said, without a hint of emotion. “Now, do you admit that it was wrong to aid the Resistance in producing the kind of weapons they were asking you to make?”
“I do now,” Noria admitted. “I didn’t realize the real purpose they intended to use my device for when I started working on it, or I never would have agreed. That’s why I tried to stop them,” she added, glaring at Iannis.
“That, too, has been noted, and it is the only reason why you haven’t already been sentenced to death,” Iannis said.
Noria’s face paled at that, making her freckles stand out, but she did not react otherwise.
“Even so, I cannot let you off without any punishment at all. You must either face three years in the mines, or take a legally and magically binding oath not to engage in any sedition or revolutionary activities for the next twenty years.”
I stifled a huge sigh of relief, and did not miss the expressions of relief on the others’ faces. Noria was getting a huge break, and we all knew it.
“Are those my only choices?” Noria demanded.
“Yes.”
“Fine. Then I choose the mines.”
“What!” I shouted, slapping my hands on the table. “Noria, you can’t be serious!” I couldn’t contain myself anymore—this was ridiculous. “Quit being so stubborn and just take the deal!”
“I am taking the deal,” Noria said, her eyes still on Iannis—she refused to look at me. “Lord Iannis’s three-year sentence is much lighter than what I expected from him, and I’m taking it. I won’t agree to the oath.”
“Noria, please.” Annia took her sister’s arm and turned her, her dark eyes pleading. “You know Mom will be devastated.”
A look of sadness briefly crossed Noria’s face before it hardened again.
“I’d rather die before I make a promise I can’t keep,” she said.
“And I have a feeling that I literally would die if I took that oath and broke it,” she added with a bitter smile, turning back to Iannis. “No, it’s better this way.”
“Noria—” Elnos tried, his voice filled with pain, but Iannis cut him off.
“Very well,” Iannis said, his voice ringing with authority. “It has been decided. Noria Melcott, you will serve three years’ hard labor in the mines as punishment for your crimes against the Federation. You are dismissed.”
Tears stung my eyes as I watched the guards march Noria from the room.
She left with her head held just as high as it was when she entered, pride and anger emanating from her every step of the way.
Annia gave me one last stricken look, then followed her sister out to escort her back to the Enforcers Guild.
“Zum Donnerwetter,” Comenius muttered darkly as the doors closed behind them. He shook his head. “How did it come to this?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, and, to my horror, the tears started streaming down my face.
I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Noria had refused to look at me, or the way Elnos was still standing there looking defeated, but something inside me broke.
“It’s just that it’s such a fucking waste,” I choked, swiping at my tears with the back of my hand.
“It is indeed.” Iannis took me into his arms, his voice low and soothing. “But you are not to blame for Miss Melcott’s life choices, Sunaya. They are hers to make, just as your choices and mistakes were yours to make.”
I clung to Iannis as he held me for a long moment, doing my best to get my tears under control. The fact that I hadn’t been able to stop this from happening, despite all the effort I’d gone through, was crushing. What good did all my work do, if I couldn’t even save my friends?
“Sunaya,” Elnos said, and I lifted my face to meet his gaze. His eyes were sad, but they held no anger as he looked at me. He had to be feeling even worse than I was. “I want you to know that I appreciate all you’ve done to help Noria.”
“Thanks.” I cleared my throat, then wiped at my tears again as I remembered everyone was still looking at me.
As I turned to look at them, I was comforted by the fact that I wasn’t alone, and I hadn’t let down all my friends.
Most of them were here with me, alive and well, in part because of my struggle to stop the Resistance and help keep our city safe.
“This is not the end for Noria,” Fenris said gently as I stepped out of Iannis’s comforting embrace. “She will pay her penance, and at the end of the three years, she will be older and wiser.”
“Or, she might come out even more bitter than when she went in,” I pointed out, though I knew dwelling on that possibility wasn’t productive.
“Perhaps,” Comenius said, “but at least she will be safer in prison than in the hands of the Resistance. With any luck, within three years, the Resistance will be eradicated. Noria will have to find a more constructive use for her talents at that time.”
“That’s true,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if I believed the words.
Noria was far too clever and inventive not to find a way to escape the mines within those three years.
Nor would she put her revolutionary ideas aside just because the movement she had joined was no longer active.
I only hoped that when she eventually fled, she would end up in a safe place, and not in another dangerous hellhole far away, where none of us would be able to rescue her again.