Free The Blue World by Jack Vance

Voiderveg.
“He will assure you that the facts are as I have stated.”
    Phyral Berwick
nodded to Sklar Hast. “Proceed: prove slander, if you can.”
    Sklar Hast pointed
to Second Assistant Hoodwink Vick Caverbee. “Please stand
forth.”
    Caverbee, a small
sandy-haired man with a wry face, his nose slanted in one direction,
mouth in another, stepped somewhat reluctantly forward. Sklar Hast
said, “Voiderveg claims that I outwinked Master Hoodwink Rohan
by means of diligent practice of the test exercises. Is this true?”
    “No. It’s not
true. It can’t possibly be true. The apprentices have been training
on Exercises one through fifty. When Arbiter Myrex asked for
exercises to be used for the contest, I brought the advanced
exercises from the locker. He, and Intercessor Voiderveg made the
selection themselves.”
    Sklar Hast pointed
to Arbiter Myrex. “True or false?”
    Arbiter Myrex drew
a deep breath. “True, in a technical sense. Still, you had an
opportunity to practice the exercises.”
    ` “So did
Master Hoodwink Rohan,” said Sklar Hast with a grim smile.
“Needless to say, I did nothing of the sort.”
    “So much is
clear,” said Phyral Berwick curtly. “But as for slander—“
    Sklar Hast nodded
toward Caverbee. “He has the answer for that also.”
    Caverbee spoke even
more reluctantly than before. “Intercessor Voiderveg wished to
espouse the Master Hoodwink’s daughter. He spoke of the matter first
to the Master Hoodwink, then to Meril Rohan. I could not help but
overhear the matter. She gave him a flat refusal. The Intercessor
asked the reason, and Meril Rohan said that she planned to espouse
the Assistant Hoodwink Sklar Hast, it ever he approached her as if
she were something other than a kick-release on a wink machine.
Intercessor Voiderveg seemed very much annoyed.”
    “Bah!”
called Voiderveg, his face flaming pink. “What of slander now?”
    Sklar Hast looked
through the crowd. His eyes met those of Meril Rohan,. She did not
wait to be requested to speak. She rose to her feet. “I am,Meril
Rohan. The evidence of the Second Assistant Hoodwink is by and large
accurate. At that time I planned to espouse Sklar Hast.”
    Sklar Hast turned
back to Phyral Berwick. “There is the evidence.”
    “You have made
a reasonable case. I adjudicate that Intercessor Semm Voiderveg is
guilty of slander. What penalty do you demand?”
    “None. It is a
trivial matter. I merely want the issues judged on the merits,
without the extraneous factors brought forward by Intercessor
Voiderveg.”
    Phyral Berwick
turned to Voiderveg. “You may continue speaking, but you must
refrain from further slander.”
    “I will say no
more,” said Voiderveg in a thick
voice. “Eventually I will be vindicated.” He stepped down
from the rostrum, marched over to sit beside Arbiter Myrex, who
somewhat pointedly ignored him.
    A tall dark-haired
man wearing a richly detailed gown of white, scarlet, and black,
asked for the rostrum. This was Barquan Blasdel, Apprise Intercessor.
He had a sobriety, an ease, a dignity of manner that lent him vastly
more conviction than that exercised by the somewhat over-fervid Semm
Voiderveg.
    “As the
accused admits; the matter of slander is remote to the case, and I
suggest that we dismiss it utterly whom our minds. Aside from this
particular uncertainty none other exists. The issues are stark—almost embarrassingly clear. The Covenant requires that King Kragen
be accorded the justice of the sea. Sklar Hast wantonly,
deliberately, and knowingly violated the Covenant and brought about
the death of forty-three men and women. There can be no argument.”
Barquan Blasdel shrugged in a deprecatory manner. “Much as I
dislike to ask the death penalty, I must. So fists high then! Death
to Sklar Hast!”
    “Death!”
roared the intercessors once again, holding high their fists, turning
around and gesturing to others in the throng to join them. Barquan
Blasdel’s temperate exposition