Before Lady Signe Lorr called for the closing pleas of the Crown’s officers, Jon Hale reached for the fifth and heaviest volume on the evidence table (#15 Bound Town Ledger).
It was a tall, broad-spined ledger bound in brown calfskin that Marris Gault and Corve Penner had stitched together from the surviving parish tax sheets, the water-bailiff’s rate books, and the household tallies of the River Lantern. Jon carried the open book up the four walnut steps of the dais and laid it across the center of the bench between Lady Signe and the four guild trustees.
“Warden Brecht claimed in his preliminary deposition three days ago that the Chancellery’s anchor-engine consumed only ‘ambient geothermal heat and unallocated chronological variance,’” Jon said, turning his head so that both the bench above him and the crowded rows of citizens and soldiers below could hear every word. “He maintained that no subjects of the Crown were harmed or diminished by the operation of the Re-Claim Chamber prior to yesterday’s siege. I ask the court to examine folio nineteen of the Bound Town Ledger—the property and hearth-tax roll for South Lane, dated and stamped by the provincial assessor in the autumn prior to the Host’s arrival.”
