Page 82 of Paladin's Hope

“Outside the city,” said Tamsin softly.

This man hates us, realized Galen. Oh god. We should not have come. We should have sent someone from the Dreaming God or the Forge God to back him up. Stephen told me that the guard was irritated at us, but he genuinely despises us.

“Indeed,” said Stephen. “But we were speaking of outside the city, were we not?”

Tamsin was undoubtedly a good poker player. “That we were,” he said, quite pleasantly. “Now, gentlemen, if there is nothing more…”

“I fear,” said Piper tranquilly, “that there is rather more that I must bring to your attention. Your report has omitted several key facts. Earstripe did not, in fact, give an order for the suspect to be killed. He was unconscious at the time, and could not have done so.”

Tamsin’s eyebrows snapped together. “How do you know this?”

“Because I was present at the time,” said Piper. “Is that not in the report?”

Tamsin glanced down, then checked several pages. “It may be in an addendum,” he said, somewhat stiffly.

“Indeed. In fact, at the time of Thomas’s death, I was attempting to staunch the bleeding from a crossbow bolt that Thomas had fired at Earstripe. It was perilously near the femoral artery. Earstripe lost consciousness almost immediately. I believe you will find, based on the time of death, that Paladin Galen was acting in defense of himself and a local woman, who was being held against her will.”

“We have only your word for this,” said Tamsin.

“On time and cause of death?” Piper ran his gloved fingers down the long black stole draped across his shoulders. “I am one of five lich-doctors certified by the courts of Archenhold. My word is accepted as fact by the court. Are you challenging the word of my colleagues and I on such matters?”

There was a kind of silky menace in his voice that Galen had not known Piper was capable of. He wanted to stand on the chair and applaud.

Commander Tamsin had been threatened by murderers and professionals and on several occasions, professional murderers. He did not crack visibly, but Galen could practically hear the wheels turning in the man’s head. Piper had just upped the stakes considerably. The guard could bring a man in and claim that they’d seen him stab another man, but if the lich-doctor said the victim had died of food poisoning, the court listened. You couldn’t even refuse to use a certain lich-doctor because they were assigned by city district. Piper, who did his work practically in the Archon’s basement, had been called in on several high-profile cases, including the smooth men. Discrediting him would be difficult.

No, there was absolutely no benefit to the guard in making an enemy of Piper, and a great deal of potential embarrassment.

Tamsin made one last stab at turning Piper aside. He tapped the papers in front of him. “I’m sure you can see why the guard must police itself in matters that smack of vigilantism, Doctor.”

“Naturally,” said Piper, still in that silken voice. “However, as has been made very clear, Earstripe was no longer a constable. Nor was he responsible for the death of the criminal involved. It was a clear case of self-defense, occurring after Earstripe was injured while saving my life.” He ran his fingers down the stole again, as if he was the priest of some peculiar god of morgues. “I am certain that if you have preserved the body, my colleagues would be happy to provide corroboration as to the cause of his death, and to the nature of the injuries sustained by Earstripe in my defense. We are always…most concerned…for the health of one of our own.”

That was definitely a threat. Angering the lich-doctors as a whole would be career suicide and Tamsin knew it. His gaze flicked to Galen.

Galen actually waited until Piper nodded to him before speaking. The last thing he wanted to do was undo the doctor’s good work. “I killed Thomas,” he said. “I’ve testified to that repeatedly. I strangled him, in fact. If you’ve got the body, you can easily see by the marks that it was human hands on his neck and not a gnole’s.”

“I would imagine that your men would have recovered the crossbow and the bloody bolt along with the body,” Piper said. “The lich-doctors will be more than happy to compare the two.”

Tamsin looked down at the papers and Galen knew that he didn’t have the crossbow and he likely didn’t have the body either. And after all this time, what kind of shape would it be in, anyway? No, somebody made a report and left him holding the bag, and he’s not very happy about it.

“Furthermore,” said Piper, “a paladin of the Dreaming God can provide testimony as to my presence, Earstripe’s injuries, and the nature of the local woman’s imprisonment. I am certain that he would be happy to do so. The Temple of the Dreaming God, as you know, are deeply committed to serving the community.”

Galen had almost forgotten Jorge and kicked himself. Sure, the paladin had arrived long after the fact, but that didn’t matter. You did not mess with the Temple of the Dreaming God, not unless you wanted to find yourself ass-deep in demons. Not that they would ever stop capturing demons just because the guard was rude to them, but their political power is up there with the Rat and everybody’s scared to cross them, just in case they do stop.

What must have seemed like a straightforward enough way to tweak the Rat’s whiskers and remove a minor embarrassment was rapidly ballooning out of control. Galen watched the commander weighing the options. “You say that this gnole had left the guard?”

“Indeed. Captain Mallory has indicated his willingness to correct the record.”

“And he will not be rejoining?”

“I think,” said Piper, with absolute truth, “that he has no interest whatsoever in doing so.”

Tamsin leaned back in his chair. “I can see that mistakes have been made with this report, Doctor Piper. It is possible that in our zeal for self-policing, several critical facts were overlooked. I thank you, doctor, for bringing this to my attention.”

Piper inclined his head graciously. “It is upon all of us within the court system to make certain that justice is done.”

“In light of this information, I suspect that the former constable can be released until such time as the report can be amended to include these new facts. Of course, he will need to be available to answer our inquiries.”

“We stand ready to answer any inquiries that your investigation may have,” said Piper. “All of us. Meanwhile, I am empowered by my counterpart among the gnoles to effect his patient’s release, if you would be so kind as to write the release order?”

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