Free Missing Elements (The Lament Book 3) by P.S. Power Page B

after the fact."
    The woman... Blinked.
    "I... Well." Then she
turned to look at Brown again. " All of that was true. Even the
contradictory parts. It doesn't make sense. Do you have insight, Brown?"
    The man stood in place, so Pran
got a large and soft looking padded chair, and moved it for him. It was heavy
enough that she feared for the floor at first, but it clearly had cloth pads
underneath to prevent scratching. Once he sat, he leaned forward, and nodded.
    "I might. Apprentice Bard
Pran, was formerly Pran Grange. She's the one that has been involved in all of
the recent happenings of note? The large attack on The Lament, and uncovering
spies there. She was also present when my vision was damaged, and managed to
capture the prisoner before she could kill us all with a kinetic pistol."
Then, he sat back, not saying anything else.
    Sims looked back at Pran then and
tilted her head oddly. Most of the other Judges had always seemed too subdued
for things like that. It made the move seem pretty contrived, but not
unwelcome. It made her feel a bit more human than the rest.
    "How would you be using
Judge Brown for this project?"
    That got Pran to scramble
mentally, since she didn't have much of a plan, honestly. Just an idea. It left
her silent for a minute while her brain came up with things, and finally she
started nodding, since that would leave people a bit more agreeable. Real ones
that weren't totally controlled all the time, at least.
    "He's a friend of mine, and
has time off, so is convalescing with us. Plus I can use a model for a
sculpture. You work nude, don't you Brown? Anyway, he can do that and we'll
casually leave the door open when Clarice or I have people in. If anyone makes
too big of a deal out of it, we'll claim to be lovers. I mean, if your wife
won't mind that?" She looked at the man, who smiled.
    "Judges aren't allowed to
marry, to prevent conflicts of interest. We can have friends, however, so that
might work. I'm a bit old for you though, don't you believe? No one would
credit it. Especially the other Judges."
    That was a point. They'd know if
a lie was told, wouldn't they?
    "So we have sex, if it comes
up? If they aren't questioning us for a trial that should be enough. If the convalescing thing doesn't do it. Plus, I wasn't kidding about the modeling
thing either. I need to show Clarice that I'm good at sculpting. You can keep
your clothing on however, since that will be warmer. Now, I don't know if it
will really help me find anything, but it probably won't hurt. I don't think
that you Judges can really be taken over by the downloads. The people
stealing others' lives? The Guardians either, most likely. Your brains are too
different. That's only a guess, so don't try it out, but it might mean we can
actually trust you in this. No one else though. Really, right now... I need you
to check me out and make certain that I'm not one of those others, or spying
for them. Which I am, but not really. Unless they're winning, then I was always
on their side. Naturally."
    That got a long, and slightly
annoyed, sigh from the High Judge, who ran Pran through a rather rigorous test
then. Or rather, asked questions and had Brown try to tell if she were lying or
not. She didn't, which got them both past things pretty well.
    Finally the short woman made a
tight face, a thing that she should never have done, since it accentuated the
worse parts of what warped her.
    "Very well. Judge Brown, you're
assigned to the High Bard, for the next three months. So that you can rest and
aid there as you might. If you need anything, please come to me, directly.
Apprentice Bard Pran... I do see need for three Judges to be moved around that
might work along that route, with only a bit of extra travel. Do I come to you
directly with what's needed?"
    "That works. I'll be in the
High Bard's offices, early each day."
    The woman perked up a bit then,
and gave a friendly smile, "Oh? You aren't going to make us all try to
have meetings in the