The two draymen set the barrow down before the Senate bar with a heavy, hollow thud that shook the flat stone slabs. The snapped iron gudgeon sat in the center of the hall, cold, massive, and undeniable. Pella stepped to the bar. She opened the pine case, and laid the two halves of the broken bronze quarry collar beside the fractured iron.
‘We present four physical exhibits to the Senate,’ Korr Var declared. His voice carried the power of forty years of town service. ‘Exhibit One: the main bearing gudgeon of Miller Tom’s pit wheel, ripped apart by forty-eight thousand foot-pounds of backing-up pressure generated when Gate Three was choked. Exhibit Two: the cut holding token from the quarry incline, proving that elemental forces can be discharged safely without violent recoil. Exhibit Three: the academy heat ledger, showing the spirit Senn running at forty-four degrees. Exhibit Four: the sworn depositions of Senior Apprentice Kel Dorr and Scribe Corvin.’
A murmur of outrage rippled through the academy benches. Master Davin Sorell stepped to the lectern. His head was held high, his pale hands resting lightly on the brass rail. He didn’t look at the snapped iron. He looked at Councilman Vesk with an expression of pained high-born patience.
