Читать книгу Blindfold - Kevin J. Anderson, Брайан Герберт - Страница 31

“Sit next to me,” Tharion said, gesturing for Qrista to take a place on one of the flecked granite benches at the center of the plaza. “I won’t be performing for this one. A Guild chanter is announcing the crime.”

Most of the audience stood on the open flagstones, waiting for the show. The crowd was smaller than it had been for Strone’s trial. This single murder was not as titillating.

Qrista flashed a hurriedly covered frown and fixed him with her ice-blue eyes. Her pale hair was braided again and wound around the top of her head. Angular bones gave her face a finely chiseled beauty that her smile enhanced … but now, troubled, Qrista appeared harsh and sharp. Tharion didn’t have to ask why.

“This is a sham, and you shouldn’t have allowed it,” she said quietly, but sat down beside him with a rustle of her white robes, tightening her crimson sash. Because they had shared their thoughts completely, she knew her husband’s reasoning, but that didn’t mean she came to the same conclusions.

“I know,” he answered. “But it’s my decision as Guild Master and I have to live with it. We can’t announce that we know what the outcome will be, because that would open up a thousand new questions. We must proceed and get this behind us. Let him be declared innocent in open court.”

Qrista looked at him uncertainly. “So the damage to our ethics can heal? What if it leaves scars?”

Tharion knew she was right, but he had determined that this path was the best resolution to the complex and uncomfortable situation the Truthsayers Guild had stumbled into.

For a moment he wished that Troy Boren were guilty, so they could drain more information about the black market Veritas from him. But since the young man was simply a clumsy bystander, Tharion knew they could get nothing else from him.

He reached out to hold Qrista’s cold, pale hand as they sat looking up at the empty podium. “Nothing is ever certain,” Tharion said. “We’ll need to ride this out, and I need your help and support.”

She pressed her lips together. “Of course you have my support,” she said. “I don’t make your decisions for you. I just abide by them.”

“This will all turn out all right,” he said.

Qrista raised her white eyebrows, allowing him a small smile. “Oh? You can see into the future now as well as reading minds?”

“I wish that were so,” he said with a forced smile. “A new kind of drug developed up on the Platform.”

He looked up to see the great ship doors opening in the Headquarters building. The Truthsayer Kalliana and the prisoner would be brought forward momentarily.