Dragon and Judge

"I also said there weren't enough of them," Jack reminded him. "Actually, this whole planet probably qualifies as a less populated area. My guess is that any Judge-Paladin who's touched down on Semaline has stuck to the cities and towns. I doubt most of them even know this canyon is out here."

"I wonder how your parents found it."

"I don't know," Jack said. "Maybe we'll find out when we get a chance to go up to that mining area. I wonder if there are any cases that'll give us an excuse to do that."

"You believe that's where your parents died?"

"Look around," Jack said, turning around and leaning his back against the wall. "Well, no, I guess you can't. But this seems to be where Jupas judge, and there's no sign anywhere of any kind of explosion."

"It has been eleven years," Draycos reminded him. "They would surely have repaired any damage."

"If they did, they did a really good job of it," Jack said. "Don't forget, I've had a pretty good look at the building. It's all the same type of stone, and all the stone shows the same wear pattern. The floor stones in particular fit perfectly together."

"I'll accept your analysis," Draycos said, though Jack thought he could hear an unspoken for now. "But that brings up another possibility. If they were visiting the mine, could the explosion that killed them have been an accident after all?"

Jack chewed the inside of his cheek. That was a good point. Maybe there was no real mystery here, no hidden crime to be uncovered and avenged. "We won't know until we get up there," he decided. "Let's put our heads together and come up with some reason to go topside."

Finishing off the sweet stalk, he turned back toward his Seat of Judgment. "In the meantime, I've got more justice to dispense."

The afternoon's cases were pretty much a repeat of the morning's stack. Most of them involved water and crop problems, with a few apartment and neighbor troubles thrown in.

Most of the cases struck Jack as rather feeble, with the appeal to a higher authority in each case probably having been made by whichever side had been the loser under the One's original decision. Close to half the canyon, he reflected, had probably been rather annoyed when a new Judge-Paladin had actually shown up.

It was on the last case of the day, as the sky was beginning to darken overhead, that the pattern suddenly changed.

"This is Four-Eight-Naught-Two," Thonsifi said as a slightly bedraggled Golvin was brought forward. "He was discovered this morning sleeping in the flying transport of the Many."

"Really," Jack said, noting the bruising along the right side of Foeinatw's neck where Draycos had knocked him out. "Why didn't you simply sleep in your apartment, Foeinatw?"

The other didn't answer, his eyes focused on the floor in front of Jack's feet. "He claims to have been set upon by others," Thonsifi said. "At least one, possibly more. He further claims that these others damaged the flying transport's interior."

"I see," Jack said. Thonsifi's voice was steady and professional enough, but he could sense contempt lurking beneath the words. From some of the other neighbor-conflict cases he'd heard that afternoon he gathered that accusing someone of assault was a very serious charge among the Golvins. Doing so without proof was apparently even more so. "Can you name these assailants?" he asked.

"I cannot," Foeinatw said, his voice low.

Jack pursed his lips. Without proof of the assault, his logical legal course would be to assume Foeinatw was lying and come up with some punishment for sleeping in the shuttle and some compensation for damaging it.

But on the other hand, maybe this was exactly the right time for a little creativity. "Step forward," he ordered the Golvin.

Foeinatw hesitated, then shuffled a few steps closer. Jack leaned forward, peering closely at him. "Did these assailants strike you or merely lock your arms?" he asked.

"They struck me." Gingerly, Foeinatw touched his neck. "Here."

"Yes, I see." Jack leaned back again in his chair. "I will make inquiries among the Many," he said. "You are released for the moment without punishment."

Thonsifi turned to Jack, her skin wrinkling in surprise. "Jupa?"

"Clearly, he's been hit," Jack said, pointing out the bruise. "If he was assaulted and others did the damage to the flying transport, he cannot be held accountable."

"No, of course not," Thonsifi murmured. "Foeinatw, you may go."

"I thank the Jupa," Foeinatw said, his face as wrinkled with surprise as Thonsifi's. But along with the surprise, Jack could see a hint of puzzlement as well.

Small wonder. The Golvin had probably concluded that his attacker was Jack himself, or someone in league with him, and that his trial would thus be a complete sham.

Except that the Jupa had not only accepted his explanation, but had even let him off.

He would, Jack suspected, be doing a lot of rethinking tonight.