The way that the
men who came searching had looked for Si'Wren, describing her so
accurately, and the way her fellow slaves had named her so freely as
she listened in the bushes nearby, had chilled her blood.
While the searchers ran off to look elsewhere, she had helped a
crippled Habrunt to escape, fearful of being spotted at any moment. It
was a relief to rest now, as she and Habrunt cowered together in the
bulrushes by the stream.
Then, Habrunt said under his breath, as much an agonized groan as any
recognizably human utterance, "The Emperor's Law is broken. If
judgements are to be determined, we must go to the Emperor!"
He levered himself laboriously to his feet, and Si'Wren ducked under
his shoulder to prop him up. As he indicated the direction of their
flight, she helped him to get on his way with surprising strength for a
girl her size.
Si'Wren refused to give up so easily. Yea, she only feared the others,
but reverenced Habrunt, and whither he led she would surely follow.
* * *
"All bow!"
There was a general sound of the physical movements of many attendants
and lawful petitioners as the masses bowed low to virtually scrape the
floor with their noses. In addition to the Court Officers representing
various royal functions, the riff-raff of the spectators' galleries
looked on in gleeful anticipation, as sometimes the judgements could be
quite severe.
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