Chapter Seven
"Evidence has been presented against you for the crimes of violating orders, falsifying orders, fraternizing with mages, causing the death of a member of our Order, and conduct unbecoming your station by fraternizing with a disgraced former member. Do you defend yourself from these charges?"
"I do," Kevik told the assembled tribunal.
Priest Tibon's lip twitched, as if he hadn't expected Kevik to speak in his own defense. Sir Jesson had coached him on how to respond.
"Then say what you want to say," the priest replied.
Kevik stood. "I admit to the charge of falsifying orders. I reject the charge of violating orders--I never received any messages ordering our return to Larso, and the tribunal hasn't presented any evidence showing that I did. On the charge of fraternizing with mages, it was those mages who spearheaded the assault against the dragon. We had no army, so we had to make do with whoever was willing to help. I'll remind you, the expedition was assembled by the town of Four Roads. I had no say in its composition."
"You shouldn't have been involved at all," Tibon said. "Field Marshal Tregood himself turned down Four Roads' request for aid, under the king's seal and with Knight Commander Sir Noris's agreement."
Kevik shrugged. "I never received any orders to that effect. On the charge of fraternizing with Corec
Tarwen
--" he emphasized the family name to remind the tribunal that Corec was the son of a member of the peerage, "--he commanded the expedition and paid for it. I was hardly in a position to do so myself."
"Corec Tarwen is a mage and a failed knight. You know very well it goes against our precepts to associate with him."
Every knight was aware of the strictures against fraternizing with mages, but the lesser charge of unbecoming conduct had been a surprise. Though each knight spoke the oaths, those oaths represented only a tiny fraction of the rules they were expected to obey. The more esoteric were located in musty tomes no one had bothered to read in years, except when the priests wanted to punish someone.
But the conduct charge carried a lesser penalty than the others, and Sir Jesson had warned Kevik that pleading ignorance wouldn't help his case.
"I did what I did to save lives," he said. "Without Corec's help, a lot more innocent people would have died. As for Sir Willem's death, I will always regret that, but it was the dragon that killed him. I reject the charge."
"We will take your defense under advisement," Tibon said, then huddled together with the other three priests, excluding the only knight on the tribunal, Sir Loris. Loris sat back with his arms crossed, glaring at the group.
After a whispered conversation, the priests returned to their seats.
"Well, Sir Loris?" Tibon asked. "Your judgement?"
"I find Sir Kevik responsible in the charge of falsifying orders. He's admitted that himself. For all other charges, I find him without fault. Circumstances dictated his actions."
"Of course you would say that," the priest replied.
Sir Loris pushed his chair back and climbed to his feet, looming over the others at the table. "What are you insinuating, Tibon?"
"Sit
down
, Loris, unless you want us to hold a second tribunal today."
Loris returned to his seat, his fingers flexing near where his sword hilt would be if he'd been wearing the blade. But regardless of the circumstances, a Knight of Pallisur couldn't challenge a Priest of Pallisur to a duel of honor.
Tibon didn't bother to hold back his smirk as the knight obeyed the command. Turning back to Kevik, the priest said, "In the absence of evidence, the tribunal is willing to drop the charge of violating orders. As for the rest, it seems Sir Loris has been outvoted. In the charge of causing Sir Willem's death, we find you at fault. In the charges of unbecoming conduct, fraternizing with mages, and falsifying orders, we find you responsible. You are hereby stripped of your knighthood and ordered to depart Fort Hightower immediately."
Sir Jesson, sitting in the small audience, gave a quick twitch of his head to remind Kevik of the next step.
"I'll appeal to Telfort," Kevik said.
"Your appeal will be denied,
Mister
Kevik. Sir Noris has already approved your expulsion. You have two hours to leave the fortress, and you have until tomorrow at sundown to leave town."
If Noris was already aware of the outcome, then the tribunal's vote had been a sham. It would have taken several days to get a pigeon message to Telfort and back. The decision had been made before Kevik had presented his defense--what little defense he could muster.
He held still, standing tall as the others filed out of the room. The Order had been his life since he'd become a page at the age of seven, working his way up to become a squire two years later. He didn't come from the peerage like Corec, or have a shopkeeper father like Trentin's who could afford to buy his son a knighthood. This was the only life he could remember. What was he supposed to do with himself now?
Only Sir Jesson remained behind. With Kevik expelled from the Order, nobody wanted to be seen talking to him. Even Sir Loris had disappeared.
"I'm sorry," Jesson said. "Tibon and his cronies are free to do whatever they want now that the unblessed have taken over the Order. It wouldn't have happened this way twenty years ago."
"Noris backed them," Kevik said.
"He only heard their side of the story. You could try going to Telfort yourself."
"Do you think it's worth it?"
Jesson hesitated. "Honestly, no. Even if Noris agreed to a new tribunal, it would still be made up of the unblessed. I've never understood why the true priests left the city. I suppose they figured they could do more good in the smaller towns, and could leave the administrative work to the unblessed, but something's got to be done about it."
"Would the blessed priests have reacted any differently to a knight fighting alongside a mage?" Kevik asked. The earliest texts in the scripture decried only dark magic, but the priests of Pallisur had always interpreted that to mean any magic used by someone other than a priest of Pallisur. In the later texts,
magic
and
dark magic
had come to mean the same thing.
"I don't know. We worked with priests of other orders during the North Border War, but wizards? I just don't know. Do you have family to go to?"
"None worth speaking of."
Jesson nodded. "I feel like I had this same conversation with Corec. He went off and became a caravan guard. He must have done well for himself, given what you've told me. Your skills would certainly be in demand, whether you stay in Larso or not."
Kevik hadn't thought that far ahead. Yes, he could find work even in Larso, but the rumors would follow him. His knighthood had been stripped away, and people would learn of it eventually.
Perhaps he
should
follow Corec's example and leave the kingdom entirely. Without the Order, what else was holding him here?
"I should get going," he said, not wanting to prolong the painful conversation. "They only gave me two hours."
Jesson clasped his forearm. "Thank you for bringing the news about Corec. He doesn't write much. Is he still at his old boarding house?"
"I don't know about that, but he said he was planning to stay at the keep and fix up the roads. You could send a courier to him there. Or a pigeon message to Sister Treya at the Three Orders chapter house in Four Roads."
