Part 3 (2/2)
”Many saw your s.h.i.+p fall from the sky, so there's little reason to doubt you. But why did it come here at all? From what Soren told me, it was no gentle landing.”
”No. My son and I journeyed for so many years that we had to go into a deep sleep. Otherwise we would have aged and died much before we found a place to live. The devices on my s.h.i.+p were supposed to take us to another destination, and wake us when we arrived. For some reason they failed, and we crashed here in Ada.”
”Yes. My daughter relayed your story about how your sleeping devices injured your son. She also told me where you came from-though the name escapes me right now.”
”It's called Earth. It's not the same world as yours.”
One of the judges, a heavyset woman similar in age to Garda, said, ”How can there be two worlds-any more than there can be two skies?”
”There are many,” was the answer.
”Ridiculous!”
The Overseer glared at the speaker. ”Tenra! Our Loremasters have already suggested that worlds exist other than our own. Besides, how else would you explain his arrival?” She faced the stranger again. ”Why did you leave this Earth?”
His words were forced, his face an unreadable mask. ”It was destroyed.”
”All of it? By whom?”
”I don't know.”
Garda paused to study his response, thinking, he just slammed the door on the mystery.
”Caleb Stenger, I know little more about you now than when you entered this room-only that some great power or catastrophe destroyed your home, and you journeyed with your son to find a new one. There's more you're not telling us, and we must have an answer before allowing your entrance into Adan society.”
He paused, glancing from face to face. ”I ask that my answer be kept confidential.”
”Perhaps. Why?”
”Please, Overseer, grant me this request. Once the Judgment is made, for better or worse, it won't matter.”
”That remains to be seen. But I don't understand. What harm can such knowledge do to you-unless it's of a personal nature?”
He glanced at the others. ”It is.”
”Very well. I charge the Council of Nine never to repeat any of the words spoken in this chamber today-provisional on your reply meeting the condition, of course.”
A brief flash of doubt suggested it wasn't quite the solid promise he was hoping for, but he thanked her, and bowed his head for a moment.
”Earth was not destroyed. But it might as well have been. I'm an exile, a permanent one.”
Murmurs ran up and down the table. ”Only criminals are exiled, Caleb Stenger,” Garda said. ”For what offense were you banished?”
”Criminals and those falsely accused, my lady. But my exile is self-imposed.”
”Then I will rephrase my question. What crime were you accused of?”
He shrugged. ”Some might not view it as such. There were many laws-”
”Enough! We will form our own opinions. State the crime, without oratory.”
He stiffened. ”All right, then-my crime is murder. I killed my wife!”
Garda laced her fingers together on the table. ”Why?”
He wiped his gathering tears. ”The doctors said there was no hope.”
”She was ill?”
”Yes. I don't know your word for it, but we call it a coma. It's a sickness where the victim lies in such a deep sleep that after a time there can be no awakening.”
”We call it lentanre, the long sleep. These doctors told you she would never recover?”
”Not exactly. They kept talking about this new technique or that new medicine. In time I interpreted their answers for myself.”
”I see. You acted out of mercy.”
”As I was about to explain, it depends on who you talk to. Even a husband has no legal right to make that kind of decision.”
She shook her head slightly. ”I don't understand. Do you mean to say your laws condemn you for an act of mercy?”
He trembled with suppressed fury, every word a painful confession. ”They said I had to wait for a judge's approval!”
A sudden pity for this man bloomed in her heart, but she struggled to contain it. ”So instead of waiting for that approval, you took action and escaped.”
”Yes.”
”Did you have so little faith in this judge?”
”None. And I couldn't bear to watch her suffer any longer while clever tactics kept delaying his decision!”
”What of us, stranger from the sky?” asked one of the older members, his rheumy eyes fixed upon him. ”Do you trust our judgment?”
Caleb Stenger took a deep breath. ”Perhaps not, at least not completely. You deserve that answer. But there's a difference.”
”How so?”
”No matter what happens here today, my son and I will share the same fate. On Earth, we would have been separated, and Warren left an orphan. As a father, my trust cannot go that far.”
”Yes,” said Garda. ”You misinterpret the difference, however. You seem to think this is a matter of one court being more just than the other. But how can we convict you of a crime for which there are no witnesses? You said Ada was not your original destination. I can't imagine what your true one is like, but I a.s.sume you would have enjoyed the same advantage. Is that not so?”
He locked stares with her again. ”You're interpreting my escape as a quest for a selfish advantage. I see it as an escape from an unfair one. Do you think I would risk depriving Warren of his surviving parent so soon after the loss of the other? If we must speak of justice let us speak of that, and not some cold-hearted judge or impartial law!”
Garda slowly nodded in understanding. ”So you escaped. I a.s.sume someone tried to stop you.”
”Yes. With help from a few friends I stole the s.h.i.+p I used in my profession, and-well, you know the rest. I think my government was angrier at the loss of one of their s.h.i.+ps than anything else.”
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