The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(38)

“When will they be ready?”

“I’m going to tell Admiral Emblad I want them ready in a week. Five days if he can manage it.”

“That’s fast.”

“Yes it is.” Cardenia hauled herself on top of Marce. “And that’s because you have to go on this expedition, and I want you back as quickly as you can get back. Because whatever this is, I want to get back to it as soon as possible.”





BOOK TWO





Chapter

9

Cal Dorick had managed to spring Nadashe Nohamapetan from prison, for exactly eight hours.

“The judge finally agreed to give us a hearing on your mental state,” Dorick told her, at their weekly meeting. “I’m making the argument that your time here is an assault on your already fragile mental state, and that you need to be placed in a secure mental facility instead. The prosecution is fighting this, obviously, so the judge has asked for you to be present so he can evaluate you himself, because who needs an actual medical degree in psychiatry when you have a law degree and an oversized opinion of your own importance.”

“And we think that being in a mental institution is going to be better than being here?” Nadashe asked.

“It’s not optimal, no. But it beats being somewhere people are trying to stab you with spoons.”

“I thought we were sticking to the story that the lady with the spoon and the lady with the toothbrush just happened to be stabbing each other as I was innocently walking by.”

Nadashe could see how heroic Dorick was in his effort not to roll his eyes. “Fine. It beats being somewhere people are spontaneously trying to shiv each other whenever you just happen to be walking by. What became of the toothbrush lady, anyway?”

“I believe she’s still in solitary. Apparently it was not her first toothbrushing.”

“You meet such interesting people, Lady Nadashe.”

“And yet here I am with you.”

Dorick raised a finger as if to say, A touch, I do admit it. “To get back to business, we’re up in front of the judge in two days, so you know the drill. They’ll come and shackle you up, take you up the elevator to the surface level and chain you up in the overland wagon. I made noise about your security, so you’ll be happy to know you’ll be solo in your chariot, and by ‘solo’ I mean you’ll only have three armed guards with nonlethal but, I am promised, nevertheless extraordinarily painful stun sticks and shock guns. This is apparently a precaution for if you have a burst of adrenaline and burst your chains, or smuggle a lockpick into the wagon by some method I am not paid enough to imagine. Which reminds me that you’ll be searched on both ends of your journey, on both ends of your body. Sorry, that was a nonnegotiable.”

Nadashe shrugged. “I was groped worse in college.”

“I don’t know what to do with that information. I will say that if you do actually wish for the judge to seriously consider that your staying here is detrimental to your fragile mental state, it might help to evince a look of, say, detriment.”

“You’re saying I don’t look sufficiently fragile.”

“I’m saying that while I think your flat affect is generally a great look for you, for this particular audience this one particular time you might want to try a different tactic. Or don’t, it’s fine, you be you.”

Nadashe considered her lawyer. “Remind me again why I hired you.”

“I honestly don’t know, Lady Nadashe. But inasmuch as you’ve already paid me, in advance, for roughly the next forty years—thank you for that, by the way, my wife loves the new dining room set probably more than she loves me—you might as well keep me.”

“We’ll see.”

“Moving right along, assuming the hearing about your mental state does not take up the entire day, and it won’t, as your judge rarely spends more than fifteen minutes on anything if he can avoid it, I’ve arranged for you, along with your honor guards, to have use of my office conference room. I’ve arranged several meetings for you, including one with your mother, the Countess Nohamapetan.”

Nadashe winced at this.

“Is this not to your liking?” Dorick said. “I can have her moved off the schedule. I live in fear of her righteous fury when I do that, but you are my client, not her.”

“No,” Nadashe said. “I’d rather meet her on what’s nominally my turf than on hers.”

“If I don’t schedule you, you wouldn’t be meeting her at all.”

“I think it’s nice that you believe that.”

“Do you have any particular requests for when you’re meeting her?”

“Have her searched for spoons and toothbrushes before she enters the room.”

“I have no idea if you are actually joking, so I’m just going to make a note of that.” Dorick made a note.

“If you actually try to have her searched you’ll probably be thrown out a window by her bodyguard.”

“Good to know.” Dorick erased the note.

“What about the other thing?”

“What other thing?”

“The other thing.”

Dorick stared at Nadashe blankly for several seconds before realizing what she was saying. “Oh, that. Well, I regret to say that those endorsements you’ve asked for from your friends, relating to your character, have been hard to come by, and I think a few of your friends are actively avoiding me. So I’m still working on that. Unrelatedly, you may be interested to know that several news sources have been coming up with very intriguing information regarding your late and beloved brother Amit.”