Free Iorich by Steven Brust

history. She’s never seemed to care much about public opinion.”
    “Can you be more specific?”
    “Not very. Not yet.”
    “You think it might be Tirma?”
    “Maybe. Hard to say, since this is the first I’ve ever heard of Tirma.”
    “Oh. That’s right, you’ve been out of the city, haven’t you?”
    “Yes. I only heard about Aliera’s arrest by a fluke.”
    “Tirma is a village in the far northwest. There was some unrest there, and a request for Imperial troops. No one knows what happened, but some peasants were slaughtered.”
    “Innocent ones?”
    “Some say.”
    “I’ll bet Kelly has a lot to say on the subject.”
    “Who?”
    “Never mind. How does arresting Aliera help? A distraction?”
    “Maybe.”
    He looked like he was thinking, so I let him alone. After a minute or two he said, “The bigger question is, how does Aliera think it helps?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “Assuming all our speculations are right.”
    “We have to find out for sure.”
    “You’re telling me that’s my job.”
    “I’m saying I expect your help.”
    I grunted. “I guess that’s fair.”
    He nodded.
    I suppose I could have told him that the Jhereg already knew I was back in town, and it wouldn’t be safe for me to go sniffing around places. But then what? I mean, it had to be done.
    “Sure, Boss. But do you have to be the one to do it?”
    “Seems like.”
    “Why?”
    “No one else is.”
    “Right, Boss. Why?”
    “Oh.”
    “. . .and until then, I’m not going to be able to—”
    “Sorry, I was distracted. Start over?”
    He gave me an odd look. “I was saying that I need something I can take to a Justicer.”
    “What do you mean, take to a Justicer?”
    “I mean sending a Petition of Release, or make a case for Dishonorable Prosecution.”
    “Dishonorable Prosecution? They have that?”
    “It’s in the books.”
    “How many times has it been brought?”
    “Successfully?”
    “At all.”
    “Twenty-seven.”
    “Successfully?”
    “Never.”
    “You’d bring that against the Empress?”
    “Against the Empire, but, in effect, yes.”
    “Forget it. Aliera will never permit it.”
    He nodded as if he’d come to the same conclusion. “Probably true, but I want to have it there anyway.”
    “Whatever you think,” I said.
    “What I think is that this is very odd.”
    “Seems like it to me, too. The Empress prosecuting a friend isn’t—”
    “No, that’s not what’s odd; Emperors do what they have to do, and being a friend to an Emperor sometimes means losing your head. It’s always been like that.”
    “All right, then. What’s odd?”
    “The law they’re prosecuting her with. It isn’t intended to be used against high nobles whose House is near the top of the Cycle.”
    “Ah, you’ll have to explain that.”
    “What’s to explain?”
    “Some laws apply to high nobles, and some not?”
    “How else?”
    “Um. I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
    “To prosecute a noble under the Code, you have to get a majority vote of the princes. The princes aren’t going to vote against a noble when the House is powerful without a more compelling case than this is.”
    “So this is a waste of time?”
    “No, no—you misunderstand. That’s under the Code. This is an Imperial Edict, which means the Empress and the High Justicer make the decision. That’s why they can get a conviction.”
    “Well then, what’s—”
    “But using the Edicts against a noble, at a time when you couldn’t get a conviction, is going to raise quite a stink amongthe princes. The High Justicer has to know that, and so does the Empress.”
    “Would they let that interfere with justice?”
    “Are you being funny?”
    “Yes.”
    “Eh. I guess it was a little funny at that. But, you know, there is making the law, and enforcing the law, and interpreting the law, and they all mix up together, and it’s people who do those things, and the people all mix up together. You can’t separate