Don't Mess with Mr. Iron Judge!

Zain Blake wants the son of Geeland's leading family tried in open court for the attack on his mother and his pregnant wife, and he wants to carry out the sentence himself. He came to Geeland as the emperor's inspector carrying the Imperial Sword, which lets him hear any case in the district and pass judgment on it. The first man to come to him was the head of that family, pleading for a son already convicted of murder. Zain believed him and agreed to reopen the case. While he was at the county office going through the file, a crowd set on his mother and his wife in the street. The man leading it was the son whose case he had just agreed to look at again. Against him are the son's father, who has money and connections, a former clerk of the court who holds a grievance against Zain and is coaching the son through a false account of the night, and the Chancellor, who backs the family. At the hearing Zain works through the coroner's report and the order of events until the son's story gives way, and the court records a conviction. The father and the Chancellor press him to hold off on the sentence. He passes it under the Sword and refuses to wait. The father, the clerk and the Chancellor then bring a charge of their own against Zain. He is stripped of his post and put in a cell. A relative of one of the victims comes forward with an account of what happened, and people in Geeland begin putting their names to a petition on his behalf.