Page 38 of The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
Second Augur Lawson regarded me with an expression that could have been anything from admiration to incredulity. “It’s not looking good for you, is it, son?”
“It does not seem so.”
“What is the nature of your relationship with the sorceress Shaharazad Haas?”
“She is my co-tenant.”
“And”—he scratched the side of his jaw thoughtfully with his metal hand—“do you always go around committing crimes with your co-tenants?”
“I’m afraid I must admit that during my university days my roommate and I once broke into the Hall of the Learned and decorated each of the statues with a comical hat. The university never got to the bottom of the matter, and it has sat ill with me ever since.”
“To your great good fortune, we do not have authority on varsity grounds, so this most heinous crime will forever go unpunished.”
At last I directed my gaze to his. “Are you making sport of me, sir?”
“Certainly not.” His mouth twitched in a fashion that belied the gravity of his tone. “That would be most inappropriate. Now, at the time you agreed to accompany the sorceress Shaharazad Haas on this escapade were you aware that you were under any manner of enchantment, ensorcellment, bewitchment, or hex?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“Is it possible?”
“Where witchcraft is concerned, I would have thought anything is possible.”
At this, he turned off the recording device abruptly. “You’re not helping yourself, Mr. Wyndham.”
“I was not aware that I was supposed to be.”
“You’ve been arrested. Who else are you supposed to be helping?”
“I rather thought I was supposed to be helping you.” I straightened my cuffs. “The law, as I understand it, is meant to be applied to everybody equally. It is your job to decide which persons should progress to the next stage of the judicial system and, in order to dothat effectively, it is helpful if you have the most accurate and correct information available. If, once I have told you what happened to the best of my recollection, it is your judgement that I should be tried in the temple-courts before a hierophant-judge then I am willing to accept that. I trust you to do your duty with honour.”
Second Augur Lawson stared at me for a long moment and then covered his face with his palm. “How are you not dead yet?”
“It is a question I often ask myself. I sometimes take it as a sign of the Creator’s mercy, but since He allowed so many of my friends and comrades to perish beyond the Unending Gate the explanation has never wholly satisfied me.”
“Oh, for— Look.” He returned his hand to the table and subjected me, once again, to his scrutiny. “You’ve confessed on record to aiding and abetting housebreaking with sorcery. If you’d said you were under a spell, or you didn’t know what was going on, I might have been able to let you go. But you didn’t, so I can’t.”
“Well, of course I didn’t. Not only would it be a lie, it would be deeply unfair to Ms. Haas, who has always been most kind to me.”
Seemingly without conscious volition, his arm came up once again, and he briefly made the gesture I have come to associate with the response of Khelathrans to my Eyan idiosyncrasies. “All right, I can’t stop this going to court, but I’ll tell you this for free. Stay the ——” And here he used a word most unbecoming of his rank, position, and uniform. “... away from Shaharazad Haas.”
“I am not sure it is your place to advise me on such matters.”
“Clearly somebody’s got to.” He leaned back in his chair. “She already nearly got you killed. Now she’s got you arrested. This will keep happening until you sharpen up and realise she is a bad person.”
On one level I could appreciate that Second Augur Lawson’s intentions in giving me this warning were kind, a facet of his personality I would recognise on several occasions, although he would always do his best to hide it. On another, however, I felt something that Iwould almost describe as being close to insulted by his insinuation that my judgement was not to be trusted and I could not look after myself. This aspect of the Second Augur’s temperament I would also observe on future occasions, although he would eventually learn to curtail it and I to forgive it. “My thanks,” I said. “That is most solicitous of you.”
He gave me a look that suggested he did not like my response any more than I had liked his initial comment. Moving his chair forward, he turned the recording device back on. “Thank you, Mr. Wyndham. Interview concluded at—”
As it transpired, the interview could not be officially concluded, interrupted as we were by the crash of the interview room door being flung open behind me. So intemperate was the entrance that I fleetingly entertained the notion that it could be none other than Ms. Haas engaged in some well-intentioned but perhaps ill-advised jailbreak.
This did not prove to be the case.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Augur Extraordinary
Joy-in-Sorrow Standfast
