The Mask of Mirrors by M. Carrick; (different e readers txt) 📕

claim Scaperto Quientis was only too happy to back—and so Indestor sent his minion Gammer Lindworm to kidnap her before she could warn anyone else. “The Rook freed me,” she told Ghiscolo Acrenix, Sibiliat’s father, who’d been appointed by the Cinquerat as a neutral party to investigate the affair. “I know he’s an outlaw, but I must say I’m grateful; without him, I might still be trapped.”

When Gammer Lindworm’s body resurfaced in the amphitheatre, spat out by the dream, Mezzan tried to blame her for everything. To hear him tell it, Ondrakja had been the lead conspirator, controlling his father with her ability to step in and out of the dream. But if Nadežra’s elite were reluctant to admit one of their own had engaged in such flagrant crimes, they were even less willing to admit he might have been the pawn of a Lacewater criminal known for running a knot of child thieves. Especially once Tanaquis corroborated Renata’s testimony, along with Grey Serrado—and, unexpectedly, someone Ren recognized. The fair-haired woman she’d seen working for Mettore was delivered to the front step of Acrenix Manor, bound and gagged and eager to confess to whatever the authorities wanted. Ren thought at first that was the Rook’s doing, but when she mentioned it to Sedge, he simply said, “Vargo.”

And that was all he said, beyond assuring her that Vargo would live, when he showed up at the kitchen door with a rucksack and no Fog Spider charm knotted around his wrist.

Almost all. “It’s like you said,” he muttered, touching the inside of his bare wrist. “Make me choose my sister or my knot, and I’m gonna choose my sister. Every time.”

The fresh bruises on his face told Ren there was more to the story. She’d fled after betraying the Fingers, but Sedge had gone back to the Fog Spiders after abandoning Vargo in order to defend Ren at the amphitheatre. They would have punished him before letting him go—and she suspected it was only Sedge’s long service that kept it to mere bruises.

But he didn’t want to say more, not yet, so she didn’t push.

They retrieved Tess from Little Alwydd, and then Ren had to go to Traementis Manor to explain to Donaia and Giuna what had happened—and to be wept over in their relief.

Despite all the testimony against him, when word came that the Vraszenian leaders had executed Mettore, the tension almost erupted into war once again. Ren suspected the only reason the Cinquerat didn’t retaliate was because they too had been poisoned on the Night of Hells. Nadežra’s leaders might be willing to overlook Mettore’s crimes against everyone else, but his conspiracy had made them suffer, too. Much easier to make a show of rapport, and turn House Indestor into a very public scapegoat.

When they put their minds to it, the Cinquerat were astonishingly efficient. A bare eight days after the near-destruction of the amphitheatre and the wellspring, they gathered in the Charterhouse to deliver their verdicts.

It was natural irony that this happened in the same audience chamber where they’d held the Ceremony of the Accords. But this time there was no pageant, no Vraszenian presence, no wagon bringing tribute; instead the benches were filled with nearly every noble and delta scion in the city. Renata sat with Donaia and Giuna and Tanaquis, all dressed in their sober finest, to hear how the Cinquerat would address Mettore Indestor’s crimes.

The first part surprised no one. By unanimous decision, the Cinquerat posthumously stripped him of the title of Caerulet. They couldn’t address crimes of this magnitude without a full set of members. In theory, the seats were supposed to be filled by vote of the current members; in practice, they were almost always hereditary. So when they announced Eret Ghiscolo Acrenix as the new Caerulet in place of Mezzan, it was a harbinger of the fate to come.

From there, each seat addressed Indestor’s crimes. Argentet went first, and Sostira Novrus was only too happy to set the tone with vicious aplomb.

“For the crimes of spreading seditious literature and lies that resulted in inciting the populace to riot, and conspiring to destroy two of the city’s cultural treasures—the Great Amphitheatre and the Wellspring of Ažerais—Argentet affirms the guilt of Mettore Indestor, Eret Mezzan Indestor, House Indestor, and all those inscribed in that register.”

She was performer enough to wait through the astonished murmurs that followed. An individual could commit a crime and not have it touch their house. To condemn an entire register was shocking.

And devastating for the house, as became clear when Sostira continued. “All charters granted to House Indestor by Argentet are revoked; all administration contracts are suspended until those charters can be transferred to other parties. Let this be a lesson to those who threaten the stability of rule in this city: Such treason will not be tolerated.” She resumed her seat with a satisfied smile.

Scaperto Quientis had been listening to her verdict with a stoic frown. As he took his place at the podium, that frown deepened. “Argentet’s sentence is harsh, but just.” His arched brow added surprisingly so. “Fulvet concurs. For the crimes of inciting the populace to riot, damaging civic properties and institutions, and endangering the citizenry during the Night of Bells and Veiled Waters, Fulvet affirms the guilt of Mettore Indestor, Eret Mezzan Indestor, House Indestor, and all those inscribed in that register.”

His sentence was the same: the loss of all charters. Prasinet, Caerulet, and Iridet delivered their verdicts with less relish, but by the end of the litany, House Indestor had less to call their own than a Lacewater beggar.

With one exception: their charter of ennoblement.

Quientis stood once more, his face grave. “These are extraordinary measures—but so, too, are the crimes of House Indestor. The members of the Cinquerat have conferred, and our agreement is unanimous. By our conjoined authority, we revoke the ennoblement of House Indestor.”

The audience chamber erupted into noise, almost drowning out Quientis’s words as he went on to say, “The name Indestor