The Golem's Eye

on paper headed with complex stars and signs. They did their best to avoid one another's eyes.
    The door to Courtroom 27 opened. A young man wearing a smart green cap and an eager expression poked his head around it.
    "Kathleen Jones!" he said. "Is she here? She's next up."
    "That's me." Kitty's heart was pounding; her wrists tingled with fear.
    "Right. Julius Tallow. Is he here? We need him, too."
    Silence in the corridor. Mr. Tallow had not arrived.
    The young man made a face. "Well, we can't hang around. If he isn't here, he isn't. Miss Jones, if you would be so kind..."
    He ushered Kitty ahead of him through the door and closed it softly behind them.
    "That's your seat over there, Miss Jones. The court's ready to begin."
    The courtroom was of intimate size, square, and filled with a stained, melancholy light that filtered in through two giant arched windows of colored glass. The pictures in the windows both depicted heroic knight-magicians. One, encased in armor, was in the process of running a sword through the belly of a great demonic beast, all claws and knobbly teeth. The other, wearing a helmet and what looked like a long white shift, was exorcising a hideous goblin, which was falling through a square black hole that had opened in the ground. The other walls in the room were lined with dark wooden panels. The ceiling was wood, too, carved to resemble the stone vaults of a church. The room was fearsomely old-fashioned. As was perhaps the intention, Kitty felt awed and terribly out of place.
    Against one wall ran a high platform, upon which was a huge wooden throne resting behind a long table. At one end of the table was a small desk, where three black-suited clerks sat, busily tapping at computers and leafing through piles of paper. Kitty passed in front of this platform, following the direction of the young man's outstretched arm, toward a solitary high-backed chair silhouetted in front of the windows. Here, she sat. Another similar chair faced her from the opposite wall.
    Across from the platform, a couple of public benches were separated from the court by a brass railing. To Kitty's surprise, a few spectators were already gathering there.
    The young man consulted his watch, took a deep breath, then yelled so loudly that Kitty jumped where she sat. "All rise!" he roared. "All rise for Ms. Fitzwilliam, Magician Fourth Level and Judge of this Court! All rise!"
    A grinding of chairs, a scuffling of shoes. Kitty, clerks, and spectators got to their feet. As they did so, a door opened in the paneling behind the throne and a woman entered, black-robed and hooded. She sat herself on the throne and threw back her hood, revealing herself to be young, with brown bobbed hair and too much lipstick.
    "Thangyoo, ladies and gennlemen, thangyoo! All sit, please!" The young man saluted toward the throne and marched off to sit in a discreet corner.
    The judge presented a small cold smile to the assembled court. "Good morning, everyone. We start, I believe, with the case of Julius Tallow, Magician Third Level, and Kathleen Jones, a commoner from Balham. Miss Jones has chosen to attend, I see; where is Mr. Tallow?"
    The young man leaped to his feet like a jack-in-the-box. "He's not here, ma'am!" He saluted smartly and sat down.
    "I can see that. Where is he?"
    The young man leaped to his feet. "Haven't the foggiest idea, ma'am!"
    "Well, too bad. Clerks, put Mr. Tallow down for contempt of court, pending. We shall begin..." The judge put on a pair of spectacles and studied her papers for a few moments. Kitty sat straight-backed, rigid with nerves.
    The judge removed her spectacles and looked across at her. "Kathleen Jones?"
    Kitty leaped up. "Yes, ma'am."
    "Sit down, sit down. We like to keep it as informal as we can. Now, being young—how old are you, Miss Jones?"
    "Thirteen, ma'am."
    "I see. Being young, and of common stock as you undoubtedly are—I see here your father is a sales assistant and your mother a cleaner"—she spoke these words with slight distaste—"you might very well be overawed by these august surroundings." The judge gestured at the court. "But I must tell you not to fear. This is a house of justice, where even the less equal among us are welcome, provided they speak truthfully. Do you understand?"
    Kitty had a frog in her throat; she found it hard to answer clearly. "Yes, ma'am."
    "Very well. Then we shall hear your side of the case. Please proceed."
    For the next few minutes, in a rather raspy voice,