"I do, my lord."

"Very well. Officers of the Watch, you may present the evidence against this man."

One by one, the city authorities paraded through the court the Brothers Kuldath, Iphegor the Black, Marcus and Ashwillow, Zandria and those who survived in her band, several shopkeepers and ferrymen from the Ladyrock, the Master Crafter Randall Morran, a woman by the name of Lady Milyth Leorduin (Jack identified her as Lady Mantis by her voice and virulence), Briesa and other waiting-staff from the Cracked Tankard, and even Ontrodes the sage.

"That is the man we saw in our house!" cried the Kuldaths, pointing their bony fingers at Jack and quavering with mercantile rage. "He stole our ruby!"

"I deny any such doings," Jack replied in turn. "At the hour stated by the Kuldaths, I was engaged in charitable work among the poor. It's not much, but I do what I can."

Iphegor the Black came next. "There stands he who burglarized my tower and murdered my familiar," snarled the wizard. "If you do not execute him, my lord, I beg you to remand him into my custody. I would be only too happy to take care of the matter for you!"

"I heard of the incident of which Master Iphegor speaks," Jack said with a frown of true concern. "While I grieve for his loss, I believe that the man seen to exit his tower answered to a description not unlike that of Sir Marcus of the Knights of the Hawk, or so I heard, anyway. Might I ask if any investigation has been made into his involvement in this sordid affair?"

Meritheus, the agent of the Wizard's Guild, followed. "He represented himself as the Dread Delgath and joined the Guild under a false name," reported the stout mage. "As he is an accused felon, we revoke his membership immediately and disavow any association with his actions."

"I have no idea what he is talking about," Jack replied. "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Wizard's Guild. Given the spectacular destruction visited upon the city's theatre quite recently by the archmage of that villainous collection of necromancers and ill-doers, I should hope never to become a member in the future!"

Marcus and Ashwillow took the stand after that, each in turn. "Our sources observed the accused's meetings with a swordswoman calling herself Elana on several occasions," stated the Hawk Knights, each telling the same tale. "As we privately stated to the Lord High Magistrate earlier, we have conclusive proof that Elana is an agent of the Warlord Myrkyssa Jelan, which means that the accused is very likely to be engaged in Jelan's plots against the city. He also resisted arrest and questioning on two occasions."

"Elana did, in fact, contact me about a very mysterious matter of employment," Jack admitted ruefully. "I turned her down at once, of course, and immediately commenced a thorough investigation of all her affairs. In fact, I had amassed a fair body of evidence indicating that she might have something to do with the Warlord and was engaged in preparing to turn over my findings to the proper authorities when the Hawk Knights evidently mistook my activities for collusion in her sinister schemes. Well, I am glad I had a chance to clear that up!"

The Knights of the Hawk were followed by Zandria the Red. "He interfered with my legitimate efforts to salvage treasure from Sarbreen's depths and was directly responsible for bringing my company into contact with a deep dragon, which led to the deaths of two of my partners," Zandria said. "He also pilfered my notebooks, stole treasure I was engaged in legally recovering, and spied on my preparations in order to prepare an ambush for me below the city."

"The Lady Zandria unfortunately suffered a serious blow to the head during the very expedition she refers to," said Jack. "She has entertained paranoid delusions ever since. In truth, I am her chartered partner in these operations and sought only to fulfill the terms of our contract. Regardless of what you do with me, please arrange medical assistance for her, before her delusions result in a true catastrophe."

"Six days ago, a cartload of fresh thatch disappeared from my workshed early in the afternoon," said one roofer Jack didn't recognize. "At the end of the day, I noticed that an abandoned house on the east end of the Ladyrock sported a brand new roof."

The thatcher's story was amplified by that of two carpenters and a bricklayer, who reported missing tools and materials they later discovered in and around the same house, while the tavernkeep of the Red Sail identified Jack as the very same man who'd suddenly taken up residence in the abandoned cottage.

"I visited the Red Sail, yes," Jack admitted, "but I do not maintain a residence upon the Ladyrock. And I certainly cannot be held accountable if its mysterious owner finally decided to fix the place up. Why do I stand accused of repairing his roof?"

Randall Morran, the Master Crafter of the city's bardic guild, climbed to the stand with a serious and weighty expression on his face. "The accused took part in the Game of Masks under the guise of Lord Fox," reported the Master Crafter. "I was present in the robing room on several occasions when he was given his mask for the game or removing it at the end of the evening. He was suspected of cheating by several other players, although I cannot honestly say that I witnessed it."

"Of course I participated in the Game," Jack said cordially. "I was given to understand that, within the Game, players were expected to make full use of all the resources at their disposal to solve the riddle. I would never condone any such behavior had the Game not required that sort of thing to begin with. That was part of the fun!"

Lady Mantis spoke next, although she wore no mask in the courtroom. "I happened to overhear a conversation between Lord Fox and Lord Tiger, whom we now know was Toseiyn Dulkrauth," Milyth Leorduin reported. "They were planning some kind of attack or ambush within the Game, something about arming the Faceless Lords with magical wands and striking during the Blue Lord's Revel. I regret to say that I deemed their conversation to be nothing more than a game within the Game. If only I'd known that they plotted a real murder!" She wiped real tears from her eyes and sobbed delicately. "I cannot imagine what kind of fiend would plan such a thing as the attack at the theater the other night!"

"Ah-ha!" said Jack. "The Lady Mantis seeks to reverse her guilt upon me! She reports the very evidence I would have given against her. I require her immediate arrest upon the charges you have mistakenly assigned to me!"

"The fiend burned down my skewer stand and made off with the receipts of a full day's business," complained a vendor in sausages from the Anvil, "and he fondled my wife as well!"

Jack squinted at the fellow and shifted nervously. He didn't remember doing anything like that. "Perhaps the gentleman has confused me with somebody else," he offered timidly.

"I found him spying upon my girls in their dressing rooms, lurking about invisibly while they bathed after a performance," stated the proprietor of a festhall and dance revue. "When I cornered him, he worked an enchantment upon me that led me to distribute all the money in my coffers and crawl to the Temple of Loviatar on my hands and knees, groveling for forgiveness!"

"I am certain I had nothing to do with that!" Jack cried. "Besides, if I was invisible, how in the world does he know it was me?"

"Because you threw off your spell in order to ride upon my back, lashing me with a cat-o-nine-tails and composing shameful limericks the whole way!" the man stated. "What did I ever do to you, you villain?"

An awful suspicion began to dawn in Jack's heart. He hadn't burned down the sausage-vendor's shack or harried the whoremaster all the way to the temple of the bitch goddess, but it was not inconceivable that his shadow-self might have done these things during the days it was free to make use of his appearance and abilities. He looked over to the gallery where witnesses waited, observing the trial. Dozens of sullen, angry stares weighed upon him like leaden chains.