"I would be free to speak then, Mysire Rechtor?"

"This I have said, mysire. If guilty you plead, almost the same it is. By your speech and witnesses for a light sentence you argue."

"I believe I understand, Mysire Rechtor."

"Not pleading also you may choose. If so you choose, a friend for you I shall appoint. Then your guilt we must show, and he our witnesses may question. For children and those who cannot speak this is done."

"You said that you would have to prove my guilt, Mysire Rechtor. I thought you were to be my judge."

"Your judge I am. If guilty you are, show it so I must. How pleading you are?"

I looked to Beroep for a hint, but he would not meet my eye. I said, "I won't plead until my trial, Mysire Rechtor."

"Now plead you must, so we for your trial can prepare."

I shook my head again.

"To me aloud you must speak!"

I was badly frightened, but I thought of Silk in the inn in Limna, and how he had longed for a public trial, though he had known that at the conclusion of any such trial he would be convicted and sentenced to die. Gathering what courage I have, I said, "You are my prosecutor, mysire. Take me before a just judge, and I will speak to him."

"Your judge I am!" He pounded the table with his stick.

"You claim the right to prosecute me in accordance with your laws, the laws of Dorp, about which I know nothing. I claim the right to defend myself by the only law I know, the law of reason. Reason demands an impartial judge, and that I be given the advice of someone who knows your law." I wanted to swallow and tried to, as I recall vividly. "Someone friendly to my cause."

Silence descended on the sellaria, save for the shuffling of the leg- ermen's boots.

"Is that all you have to say, Mysire Horn?"

I nodded my head.

"To me aloud speak!"

I shook it and waited for the blow from behind I expected.

"Mysire Beroep!"

He stepped forward and said, "Yes, Mysire Rechtor," with a slight tremor.

"In your house Mysire Horn is staying how many days?"

There was a pause, and I saw Beroep's fingers twitch as he endeavored to count on them without making it obvious that he was doing so. I said, "For eight days, Judge Hamer."

"Me, Mysire Rechtor calling you are."

"No, Hamer."

"Him you silence," Hamer told one of the legermen, who positioned himself behind me with his hand over my mouth.

Beroep said, "Six days, Mysire Rechtor."

"Not eight it is?"

Beroep cleared his throat. "Only six counting I am, Mysire Rechtor."

There was an interruption as Hide was hustled in, followed by Vadsig and a middle-aged couple.

"This Mysire Hide it is?" Judge Hamer asked.

I jerked the legerman's hand down and said as loudly as I could, "No!"

"What this is you saying are, mysire?"

The legerman had his hand over my mouth and an arm around my neck; I could not speak.

"Mysire," Hamer pointed to Hide, "your name we must have."

"My name is Hoof," Hide told him.

"To me Mysire Rechtor you say, mysire. Again you answer."

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

Hamer's eyes rolled upward; I felt sure that like me, he was silently imploring the mercy of the immortal gods. "To this court your name you must give. It what is?"

The middle-aged man said, "Hide it is, Mysire Rechtor. In my house quartered he is. If removing-"

Hamer cut him off. "Him asking I am, mysire!"

Hide said, "My name is Hoof."

"Hide not it is?"

I saw Hide's eyes steal toward me, although I doubt that Judge Hamer did. "No," Hide said.

The woman interrupted, saying rather shrilly, "Hide always we calling him are, Mysire Rechtor."

Her husband snapped, "Silent you be, Versregal!"

"To your house confined he is, Mysire Strik?"

Hide said, "I am, but my brother isn't."

"Mysire Hide your brother is?"

Hide nodded, and one of the troopers stepped up behind him and cuffed the side of his head.

"To Judge Hamer loudly you must speak," Strik explained in a whisper.

Vadsig stepped forward, eyes blazing. "Not knowing he is! No crime he does! Why him you abuse? What justice this is?" And much more of the same-too much for me to record here even if I recalled it. When Hamer found out she was only a servant in Aanvagen's house, he had her gagged and tied to a chair.

"Mysire Hide. This Mysire Horn's son you are?"

"My name isn't Hide," Hide explained. "My name's Hoof. Hide's my brother. We're twins, and we changed places. We used to do it all the time when we were smaller to fool our father. He couldn't tell us apart."

"Mysire-"

"Hoof. We look exactly alike."

Aanvagen put in, "Mysire Horn three sons and a daughter having is."

Hamer silenced her with a glance.

Hide said, "I'd heard my brother was in trouble here, so I came to see if I couldn't help him, and we changed placed. He's on his way back home by now, I guess."

Hamer told the trooper to release me, and asked whether Hide was my son. I said he was.

"Three having you are, mysire? Saying this the woman is."

I nodded, and was knocked to my knees.

"Three sons you are having?"

I must have nodded again. (At another time I will write about Green.) When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the floor beside Hamer's desk, and he was questioning Azijin. "With Mysire Horn talking while snowbound you are. Of twin sons he spoke?"

Azijin stood at attention. "Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"More than a yes from you I ask."

Azijin gulped; the sound was soft, but the sellaria was so still, and I lay so near him, that I was able to hear it. "Of his family to me speaking often he is, Mysire Rechtor. Of his sons who twins are, of his wife and older son, of his daughter, who asleep fell and could not we wake-"

"Not permitting it he is?"

Another gulp. "No, Mysire Rechtor. Permitting he is, but not waking she is."

Hamer grunted. "Of twins he speaks? Sons that twins are?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

I suppose he must have beckoned to Hide, because Hide came forward.

"This son with him then is, Sergeant?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"Not the other it is?" (I held my breath and shut my eyes.)

"The other, Mysire Rechtor…"

"The other it is?" I did not have to see Hamer to know that his face was crimson with rage. "This you saying are?"

"No, Mysire Rechtor."

"This son it is?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

Hide burst out, "Who is this, and why's he lying about me?"

There was a lengthy silence. At last Hamer said smoothly, "Mysire Strik, charged with the prisoner Hide you were."

"Here he is!" Strik protested. "Before you he stands, Mysire Rechtor."

"No, mysire. Escaped he has. His brother his place has taken while you slept."

"But-but-"

"To me plain this is. Mysire, your name Hoof it is?"

Hide nodded. "Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"Mysire Hide your brother is?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"When your father Mysire Nat confined, you in your own town were?"

Hide coughed nervously. "Can I say something, Mysire Rechtor? It's about something that's been bothering me a long time."

"Speak. Of you what I ask it is."

"That man there isn't really my father at all. He says he is, and he must've talked to my real father a lot, because he knows a lot about me and my brothers and our whole family. But that's not him."

"Not your father he is? Lying he is?"

"I don't know if he's lying, Mysire Rechtor. Sometimes it's like he believes it himself."

Judge Hamer rapped his desk. "Nearly finished we are. Sergeant, Mysire Hide who with you in the inn was, this man his father calling he was?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor!"

"Good." Judge Hamer sighed with relief; I heard his walking stick rattle as he laid it down. "Good! From Mysire Nat a disposition I have. By Mysire Horn and Mysire Hide he was bound and beaten. Mysire Horn we have."