The trust’s witness list was one sheet, and the clerk laid it on the gallery desk at the first hour of the evening shift.
Mara looked at it before anyone else arrived.
Heavy paper. The Board’s mark at the top. Below it, a clause, set apart in a box. Then six lines, ruled, each with space for a name and, beside it, a narrow column for something else. At the foot, the clerk’s own line, for her signature as recorder.
The clause in the box read:
A name on this list marks responsibility for the design’s record, not possession of the design. A signer may be asked, by any person, to explain or check any part of the record. A signer holds nothing.
Mara read it twice.
Six lines. Six people who could be asked.
She thought about who would be on it. Not the Board; the Board had made the trust, and the Board’s names were on the decision. Not Caldris, who had walked out. Not the Custodian, which could not hold a pen and would not have understood why anyone wanted it to.
