Challenges by Sharon Green

her back, she’ll make my fortune even larger than it already is.”
    “I think that’s clear enough,” the presiding judge said while Jovvi’s insides twisted and knotted. Allestine really did consider her a slave, and would not have hesitated to keep her a prisoner if she’d gotten her back to the residence. “I now direct the senior court clerk to bring the defendant out of it, so that she’ll be fully aware when sentence is pronounced.”
    As the clerk approached Allestine again, the three judges began to speak softly among themselves. The prosecuting and defending judges seemed to be making suggestions, and the presiding judge listened and asked an occasional question. Jovvi could feel his effort to keep an open mind, but it wasn’t possible to deny completely that he’d already made a decision. In the interim the clerk had been speaking to Allestine, and now her thoughts had returned as quickly as they’d previously disappeared. When the clerk walked away from her, she looked up at the three judges with faint puzzlement.
    “Does the defendant have anything she’d like to add?” the presiding judge asked, sounding downright solemn. “This, Dama, will be your last opportunity to do so.”
    “How many times can I repeat that the silly little chit is lying?” Allestine asked sleekly, as though she had no idea about what she’d said only a few moments ago. “I’m completely innocent, and I think I’ve shown that no one can prove differently.”
    Once again she didn’t quite smirk, but that was only on the outside. The presiding judge saw the same thing Jovvi did, but wasn’t nearly as upset by it.
    “But the opposite of your claims
has
been proven, and in a way no one can doubt or discredit,” the presiding judge said in a ponderous voice. “Allestine Tromin, stand forward and hear the penalty for your crimes.”
    “What are you talking about?” Allestine tried to shrill, suddenly frightened by what she’d heard. “Who could have—”
    “Allestine Tromin, you have been found guilty of a terrible crime through the testimony of your own words,” the judge plowed on, overriding Allestine’s protests. “Kidnapping with the intent to enslave is vile enough, but to take as your victim a rare resource of the empire is unforgivable.”
    Allestine now stood with her mouth opening and closing, but no sound emerged. Her face had gone completely pale, and her mind clanged with shock. No one had ever challenged her word before, and not only challenged it but declared it a lie. Jovvi could see that she began to believe the scene unreal, as though it were nothing but a nightmare.
    “For those reasons I shall pronounce an equally monstrous sentence,” the presiding judge continued, his talent closed down to separate him from the woman he spoke to. “You are hereby remanded to the department of justice, which will transport you to one of the empire’s deep mines. There you will remain, performing hard labor, for five full years. And those two men, who accompanied you in perfidy, will also accompany you in your sentence. They will suffer the same fate, but at two other mines, to exclude the possibility of continuing your mutual support. Take them all away.”
    The final ritual words seemed to release everyone, meaning Ark and Bar began to fight being taken out. A guardsman went and wrapped a big hand around Allestine’s arm, but she refused his urging to go with him. She simply stood there and shook her head, denying everything she couldn’t accept, and the guardsman had to call someone to help him with her. When the two men began to drag her out she started to scream and struggle, and the screaming didn’t stop until a door closed to cut off the sound.
    “Jovvi, are you all right?” Vallant asked, somehow from a long distance off. “Just hold on, it’s all over with now. Would you mind fetchin’ her some water?”
    The last was to the bailiff, Jovvi knew in a dreamy, distant way, and then she