Korrin wanted the cupboard opened by the Chamber’s order.
He said it at the Chamber’s morning sitting, standing at the foot of the second bench with his arms folded across his chest and his jaw set like a gate, and he said it in the flattest voice he had, which made Gaunt sit up on his stool in the corner as if someone had stuck a hot poker under him.
“Open the cook’s drawer. By order. The Watch has counted the passage and the line is in the cupboard. A foreign voice in the stable needs a foreign drawer to be found in, and a clause has to be read where it is written.”
“I object,” said Gaunt.
He said it at once. It came out of him in a rush, before the Lash had finished his clause, and it came out loud enough to rattle the casks. He was on his feet before he knew he had risen. He stood with one fist on the table and the other hand gripping the back of his stool, and he looked round the Chamber with the wild defiant eyes of a man who has just been caught in his own argument and does not intend to let it go.
