Adra Kett carried her captain’s coat into the hearing room over one arm.
She had put on a plain grey jacket. The pale strip at her throat showed where the uniform collar usually protected her from the sun. When the usher offered to take the coat, she kept it until she reached the witness bench. Then she laid it beside her, folded once, with the house badge facing down.
Iven saw her from the passage outside. He had been asked to attend for the portion he had witnessed, and had arrived early enough to hear the chairs being moved. Someone had fetched extra chairs from a school. They were low and narrow, their undersides marked with children’s names.
Governor Ordan Veyr sat in an ordinary full-sized chair between two guards.
There was no platform beneath it.
He had dressed carefully. His cuffs were clean, his hair cut, and the coat Elian had brought him was hung behind his seat. His advocate leaned close to say something. Veyr listened without looking away from Kett.
Elian stood at the window with his hands on the sill.
“Do you want company?” Iven asked.
