Pariah

Chapter Nine

A historic crime such as that would definitely have been archived. The thought of this made Damian take a trip to the archive of Amaden after his training the next day.
He stole away all the attention of the old archivist, Sir Martin, as he arrived.
"Your Majesty?" Martin said with a shot of surprise on his face. "I hardly see you at the archive. What brings you here today?"
The prince placed his hands on the desk and looked up with attention. "Sir Martin, do you remember the case of the palace official who almost sold out the kingdom about fifteen years ago?"
"Do I remember?" the archivist's eyes opened wide. "How can anyone ever forget such a betrayal?" His eyes came back to size now. "Is that what you're here for, Your Majesty?"
"Yes," Damian nodded."Could you tell me where I can find the records on the case?"
"Oh, I'll just take you there," Martin said coming out of the counter. "People don't read it so we've had to put it at the end of the archive."
Martin and the prince climbed up the stairs with the archivist leading the way, and soon, they were passing by the endless archive shelves, their footsteps echoing past the quiet aisles of the top floor.
The archive was the oldest building in the kingdom after the king's palace. It was made entirely out of grey stone, and its walls bore the symbol of the stonemasons of Amaden. Its air was thick with history, the kind that threw the prince back years before he was born. Every inch of it held a fragment of the past, from the time of the first king down to the sixth's.
After what seemed a lifetime, they finally got where they were going.
"Here we are, Your Majesty," Martin said as he pointed to the records the future king had asked.
Damian followed his hand until he was now standing in front of the LeClark records. There was a lot of them, filling the shelf to capacity.
"Your Majesty, may I ask why the sudden interest in Kendrick LeClark's case?" Martin seemed curious.
"A friend wants to know," Damian replied smiling briefly. Then, he turned around to face the archivist. "By the way, Sir Martin, there are way more records here than I imagined. How long did the case last?"
"It only took a fortnight before he was proven guilty," Martin recalled effortlessly.
The prince curiously crossed his arms, "Only two weeks, and there are this many records on it?"
"A palace official's loyalty was in question, Prince," Martin seemed to smother a sigh. "Your father had to be certain he was truly guilty so he had five different teams keep an eye on him. And all five teams found him guilty."
The prince smothered a sigh too. Then, he waved his fingers through the record books and asked the archivist in a low tone, "Sir Martin, what are the chances that Kendrick LeClark was actually innocent?"
"None, of course!" Martin answered immediately. "His treason was proven crystal-clear in court."
"I know, but what if he didn't really trade those secrets?"
"What are these questions you're asking, Your Majesty?" Martin felt dizzied.
But the prince pressed on keenly, "Sometimes you just never know, Sir Martin. What if he didn't do it?"
The archivist blinked at him in confusion. "Your Majesty, I don't understand what you're saying. Are you suggesting that the infamous Kendrick LeClark had a chance of being innocent, that too after the case has been closed for fifteen years?" Then, he pointed back to the records. "Maybe you should open the books and see for yourself how glaring it is that Kendrick was guilty."
Damian budged now, deciding to let the records do the debate. That was the aim of the visit anyway. He took the first book and asked Martin, "Could you allow me to borrow these records out? I know the archive doesn't lend its copies out, but this is important."
The archivist chuckled. "Don't be so modest, Your Majesty. You're the next king of Amaden; I don't dare stop you."
"Don't flatter me, Sir Martin," Damian laughed. "Forget I'm Your Majesty for once and tell me if this curious young man can get the favour."
The prince's humility amazed Martin. He smiled proudly and agreed to the curious young man, not the king this time.
"How soon can you return them?" the archivist asked the next moment.
"By this time tomorrow," Damian replied. "Is that all right?"
"Tomorrow's fine," Martin nodded. Then, with a salute to the prince, he returned to his duty post downstairs.
Damian found himself a chair and started to go through the records. From the first, he skimmed as far on as he could.
He hadn't found any loopholes in the judgement yet, but it was a good start. They now had a lot of legal details they didn't know before. And that was enough progress for their first day.
Later in the day, Damian took an unofficial carriage out of Amaden and met Autumn outside the kingdom gates, close to Pariahland. He gave everything he collected from the archive to her and told her when they had to return it.
They went on the same way the next day and the day after that.