The Thief's Tale Read Online Free PDF

disinherits Paul?” said Hilder. “What will happen to us? What will become of the servants? Do you think whoever claims the benefice will keep us on? We shall starve, or toil in the fields for the freeholders. I…”
    “I don’t care!” said Jager. “When the Comes holds court tomorrow, I am going to tell the truth. The rest is in his hands, and the hands of God.”
    Jager left without another word.
     
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    The next morning Rilmar Cavilius, Comes of Westhold, arrived at Caudea, claimed Sir Alan’s seat in the great hall for his own, and began an inquest into the death of Thomas, freeholder of Caudea. Rilmar looked like the pictures Jager had seen in the chapel’s books of the Romans of Old Earth, tall, hook-nosed, lean, and stern. His men-at-arms took Jager, holding him under guard in the atrium. Then the Comes would summon the witnesses one by one to question them under oath.
    Jager waited in the atrium, shivering in the chill air, the guards standing indifferent over him. At last the door to the great hall opened, and the men-at-arms took Jager inside. Comes Rilmar sat upon the high seat, scowling down at Jager. Sir Alan stood with Sir Paul, Hilder hovering behind them. The widow and her children stood against the other wall, and a dozen of the Comes’s men-at-arms kept a stern watch over the proceedings. 
    “You are Jager of Caudea,” said the Comes, “a servant in the household of Sir Alan Tallmane.”
    “I am, my lord,” said Jager, keeping his voice firm. He would not show weakness, not now. 
    “Do you swear,” said Rilmar, “before the sight of God, the Dominus Christus, and the assembled saints of heaven, under peril of your immortal soul, to speak the entirety of the truth before this court?”
    “I do,” said Jager, glancing at his father. 
    “Then,” said Rilmar, “you will tell this court what you witnessed four days past concerning the death of Thomas of Caudea.” 
    So Jager told the Comes everything, holding nothing back. From time to time Rilmar asked another question, or for clarification of a certain point, and Jager explained. He felt both Sir Alan and Sir Paul glaring at him, felt their eyes digging into him like daggers. There was a very real chance that they would try to kill him for what he had said today. But he did not care. He was tired of lies. Of pretending that Sir Alan and Sir Paul were noble lords and valiant knights when they were not. 
    “So be it,” said Rilmar once Jager had finished. He scowled at Paul. “It seems, based upon the testimony I have heard and the evidence I have seen, that only one judgment is possible. Sir Paul, knight of the House of Tallmane, I…”
    “My lord,” shouted Hilder, shoving between his master and his heir. “My lord, hear me!” 
    Rilmar frowned. “You will not interrupt these proceedings, halfling. I…”
    “My lord, I did it,” said Hilder. “I confess. I murdered Thomas. I slew him in front of his wife and children.”
    “No!” said the widow. “He did not. He is…”
    “I did,” said Hilder. “I killed Thomas. I confess it freely, without coercion, and before these witnesses. I regret it deeply, and repent of my crimes.”
    The widow began screaming, and ran across the hall, reaching for Paul. The men-at-arms restrained her, pulling her away from the Tallmanes. Paul stared at her with a smirk, while Hilder stood impassive before the dais.
    “Clear the hall!” said the Comes. “I shall consider this confession. Clear the hall!” 
    The men-at-arms herded the incoherent widow, the children, the Tallmanes, and Jager and his father from the hall.
     
    ###
     
    The domus had no cells, so the guards secured Hilder in the cellar below the kitchen. Given the famed nimbleness of halflings, holding him in a room with windows would have been folly. 
    “Please,” said Jager to the Comes’s men-at-arms, “please, let me speak to my father. He has gone mad. He did not do it. I swear it. I swear it!”
    The