“And as the governor-general of the southern colonies, I’m also responsible for crimes committed in my jurisdiction, correct?”
She’s the governor-general now? Touraine thought with surprise.
Cantic nodded again.
Princess Luca limped to stand in front of Touraine, slouching to favor her right leg. If Pruett’s eyes were the sea in a storm, Princess Luca’s were the middle of the ocean on a cloudless day, clear and blue green with nothing friendly in their depths. She was a slight woman, wearing simple but elegant clothing tailored close to her narrow frame. A golden horse head gleamed on her black cane. Her lips were pink and parted as she studied Touraine. Touraine’s heartbeat sped up under her gaze.
“Lieutenant Touraine. Did you receive any letters of seduction from the rebels? A message to convince other conscripts to join them?”
“No, Your Highness.”
“Have you attempted to coerce your fellow soldiers to join the Qazāli rebellion?”
“No, Your Highness.”
“Have you passed sensitive information or military knowledge or weapons to the rebels?”
“I would never, Your Highness.”
The princess weighed Touraine’s answers with pursed lips and narrow eyes. Her tight bun made her even more severe. She had the same clipped accent as Rogan but without the condescension. To condescend, you had to be close enough to have an opinion. The princess held herself apart from everyone.
“Did you know or were you alerted to the attempt on my life in advance?”
“No, Your Highness.”
“Then how did you know the attack was coming?”
“I saw a man, the old man…” Touraine trailed off. You look familiar, he’d said. “He kept trying to pull me into a conversation, but I caught him looking toward the girl who attacked you.” The girl who had prayed on the scaffold before Touraine hanged her. “That’s when I sounded the alert.”
“Why would the rebels frame you for murdering a Balladairan soldier?”
Touraine looked at the princess’s boots for a long moment before finally shrugging helplessly. “I don’t know. I wasn’t cooperative? To move suspicion somewhere else? To make a rift between the Sands and the blackcoats? They might not have been trying to frame me at all.”
The princess’s face was solemn. “General, other than the baton, is there evidence to prove this soldier is lying?”
The princess cocked her head at the general like an owl. Cantic bounced the gaze to Rogan, whose lips tightened.
“I have no more questions.” The princess sat back down.
The silence of the room weighed on Touraine’s shoulders. She kept her eyes on Cantic, who stared her down.
“We’ll have a brief recess to discuss sentencing—”
“Hang her and let’s be done with it,” Colonel Taurvide said, already standing up. “We’ve all got more important things to do.”
“We’ll discuss sentencing.” Cantic glared at Taurvide until he sat down again. Then she nodded to the waiting sergeants. “Take her back.”
“Guilty!” The colonel called Taurvide yelled so adamantly that his saliva splashed Luca’s face. She pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed it away.
Luca had been focused on the soldier’s retreating broad, straight back, even after the door had closed. The other woman was frightened—that much was clear—but she was also bold in a rather intriguing way. It took a certain kind of strength to fight for your life when everyone around you had already decided you should die.
“I know you trained half of those sand fleas, but even you can’t be thinking of keeping her in with the others. That talk will spread, and soon we’ll have a whole other revolt on our hands, this time from the inside.” Taurvide tried to loom over Cantic and, by all accounts, should have done a good job at it. He was a slab of muscle who hadn’t formed the same administrative paunch as the other high officers had. He was bluster and heat, but she was the chill stone of a mountain face.
Other officers protested on top of each other.
“You can’t possibly think she deserves anything but the noose. She’s no better than a common criminal.”
“The screws first, so we can get the truth out of her. Then shoot her and clean our hands of the whole business.”
With separate looks, the general bade each of the officers to speak their piece on the verdict and sentencing, while she said nothing. It was a strange place for the general to have a tender spot, if Luca read the drag at the corners of Cantic’s eyes correctly.