He was ushered into another chamber, and his chains were fastened to a post or rail nearby. A soft murmur of voices sounded anxiously in the middle distance, the muted buzz of a hushed crowd or gathering.
"If the prisoner is secured, remove his hood," commanded a strong voice nearby.
"The shackles prevent the working of magic, my lord," responded someone very close to him. "He is helpless."
"Good. Unhood him, but maintain a careful watch. He is known to be quite elusive."
Jack was roughly handled for a moment as unseen hands worked at the bindings of his hood, and then the heavy leather mask was pulled away from his face. He stood in a prisoner's pulpit, his hands chained together, with the chain anchored to two heavy stone columns. Shafts of dim sunlight slanted across a small, high chamber of stone. Blinking to accustom himself to the light, he twisted around to look behind him. He was in a courtroom, the gallery filled with several dozen people, and in front of him behind a tall stand stood a very stern-looking man with a dour face and large, powerful hands clasping a rod of office. The judge looked over at a mailed guardsman standing by the prisoner's rail and nodded.
"Jack Ravenwild, you stand accused of high treason, murder, arson, assault, burglary, swindling, the malicious use of magic for sinister designs, and conspiracy to overthrow the rightful rulers of the city of Raven's Bluff," intoned the bailiff. "You stand before Lord High Magistrate Tordon Sureblade. What say you to these charges?"
"I believe there has been a terrible misunderstanding-" Jack began.
The bailiff cut him off. "You may plead guilty, not guilty, or no contest to the charges," the officer said.
"Not guilty then. I am innocent of every charge brought against me, and I warmly greet this opportunity to answer each one in due course." Jack cleared his throat and added, "If it please the court, may I be set free of these bonds? I confess that they distract me terribly from the grave matters at hand, and I fear that simply appearing in irons may unconsciously sway the court to view me in an unfavorable and undeservedly criminal light."
"Note the accused's plea as not guilty," said the Lord High Magistrate from his lofty vantage, "and leave him in his shackles." In another corner of the chamber, a court clerk hastily scribbled into a large leather-bound book, evidently recording the proceedings. Then the Magistrate turned his attention to Jack. "Understand, sir, that I am vested with the full and solitary power to hear your case, adjudicate your guilt or innocence, and pronounce sentence. As the High Magistrate for this city, I am the only appellate authority and the final arbiter of all matters of justice and order. You stand before me instead of a lesser magistrate because the charges laid against you are extraordinary in nature and capital in punishment. Do you understand?"
Jack managed a feeble nod. What little confidence he might have felt at regaining his sight and powers of speech was rapidly dwindling. He suspected he would have a hard time baffling Tordon Sureblade with a convoluted fabrication or warming his heart with charm and earnestness. In fact, he suspected that he would do very well to treat the Lord High Magistrate with the same caution he might give to an angry dragon.
"I do, my lord."
"Very well. Officers of the Watch, you may present the evidence against this man."
One by one, the city authorities paraded through the court the Brothers Kuldath, Iphegor the Black, Marcus and Ashwillow, Zandria and those who survived in her band, several shopkeepers and ferrymen from the Ladyrock, the Master Crafter Randall Morran, a woman by the name of Lady Milyth Leorduin (Jack identified her as Lady Mantis by her voice and virulence), Briesa and other waiting-staff from the Cracked Tankard, and even Ontrodes the sage.
"That is the man we saw in our house!" cried the Kuldaths, pointing their bony fingers at Jack and quavering with mercantile rage. "He stole our ruby!"
"I deny any such doings," Jack replied in turn. "At the hour stated by the Kuldaths, I was engaged in charitable work among the poor. It's not much, but I do what I can."
Iphegor the Black came next. "There stands he who burglarized my tower and murdered my familiar," snarled the wizard. "If you do not execute him, my lord, I beg you to remand him into my custody. I would be only too happy to take care of the matter for you!"
"I heard of the incident of which Master Iphegor speaks," Jack said with a frown of true concern. "While I grieve for his loss, I believe that the man seen to exit his tower answered to a description not unlike that of Sir Marcus of the Knights of the Hawk, or so I heard, anyway. Might I ask if any investigation has been made into his involvement in this sordid affair?"
Meritheus, the agent of the Wizard's Guild, followed. "He represented himself as the Dread Delgath and joined the Guild under a false name," reported the stout mage. "As he is an accused felon, we revoke his membership immediately and disavow any association with his actions."
"I have no idea what he is talking about," Jack replied. "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Wizard's Guild. Given the spectacular destruction visited upon the city's theatre quite recently by the archmage of that villainous collection of necromancers and ill-doers, I should hope never to become a member in the future!"
Marcus and Ashwillow took the stand after that, each in turn. "Our sources observed the accused's meetings with a swordswoman calling herself Elana on several occasions," stated the Hawk Knights, each telling the same tale. "As we privately stated to the Lord High Magistrate earlier, we have conclusive proof that Elana is an agent of the Warlord Myrkyssa Jelan, which means that the accused is very likely to be engaged in Jelan's plots against the city. He also resisted arrest and questioning on two occasions."
"Elana did, in fact, contact me about a very mysterious matter of employment," Jack admitted ruefully. "I turned her down at once, of course, and immediately commenced a thorough investigation of all her affairs. In fact, I had amassed a fair body of evidence indicating that she might have something to do with the Warlord and was engaged in preparing to turn over my findings to the proper authorities when the Hawk Knights evidently mistook my activities for collusion in her sinister schemes. Well, I am glad I had a chance to clear that up!"
The Knights of the Hawk were followed by Zandria the Red. "He interfered with my legitimate efforts to salvage treasure from Sarbreen's depths and was directly responsible for bringing my company into contact with a deep dragon, which led to the deaths of two of my partners," Zandria said. "He also pilfered my notebooks, stole treasure I was engaged in legally recovering, and spied on my preparations in order to prepare an ambush for me below the city."
"The Lady Zandria unfortunately suffered a serious blow to the head during the very expedition she refers to," said Jack. "She has entertained paranoid delusions ever since. In truth, I am her chartered partner in these operations and sought only to fulfill the terms of our contract. Regardless of what you do with me, please arrange medical assistance for her, before her delusions result in a true catastrophe."
"Six days ago, a cartload of fresh thatch disappeared from my workshed early in the afternoon," said one roofer Jack didn't recognize. "At the end of the day, I noticed that an abandoned house on the east end of the Ladyrock sported a brand new roof."