I looked across at the closed doors. There was something vaguely disturbing about the idea that someone—maybe a lot of someones—was having their life decided by others right now. What would happen if an indictment like that was brought against me? “Are we supposed to be there?”

“We’re on the witness list,” Haken said. “They might call us up to give evidence, so we have to make ourselves available as long as the case is still going.” He shrugged and pulled out a folder and a pen. “You might want to get comfortable.”

I looked back at him, raised my eyebrows, then took a look around the Belfry. The place was still busy; it didn’t seem as though nothing was happening. I settled down to wait.

| | | | | | | | |

It was three hours later.

“Okay, this is ridiculous,” I said. “How long are they going to take?”

Haken shrugged. He had his folder open on the table and was reading through a thick report, making notes in the margins. “You’re the diviner.”

Watching the people walking back and forth over the floor of the Belfry had been interesting, for a while. After the first hour, I’d started checking everybody walking in our direction, looking to see if they were approaching us. I’d spent the second and part of the third hour writing e-mails on my phone. Now we were getting into the fourth hour and I still hadn’t spotted any future in which we’d be called for. “You know, I used to have all kinds of ideas about what working for the Council would be like. Never occurred to me that it mostly came down to sitting around waiting.”

“Haven’t worked with many bureaucracies, have you?”

“Not so much.” I looked around. “Does this place have a sandwich shop or something?”

Haken looked at me. “You’re asking whether the centre of government of the Light Council of Britain has a sandwich shop.”

“Well, it’d be useful.”

Haken shook his head.

“Does it usually take them this long?”

“No. Most indictments are open-and-shut. Five or ten minutes, once the formalities are done. Maybe an hour, if it’s a breach of the Concord or they’re authorising deadly force.”

“So what does it mean if they’ve taken three hours?”

Haken leant back, resting his head against the padded bench, and tapped the table. His fingers rapped against the wood as he stared past my shoulder. “I heard there were going to be Council members at this one.”

“I’m guessing that’s not a good thing.”

“Yeah. If they issue an indictment against all of White Rose, it’s going to get ugly.”

“Is that what they’re arguing about? How seriously they’re going to take this?”

“The ones who’ve really been on our case over Rayfield are the Guardians and the Unitarians,” Haken said. “Probably the Guardians are going to be pushing for a full indictment and the Unitarians are going to want the whole thing dropped. Usually the Centrists are with the Unitarians on this one, but Rayfield was Nirvathis’s apprentice, so . . .” He shrugged.