Page 65 of I Am the Wild
"Why?"
"Because the prosecution isn't objective when it comes to him. They have a long vendetta against him. I don't believe he'll get a fair trial in this world, and I believe he deserves one, regardless of who he is."
The door bursts open and Liam is there looking smoking hot in a scarlet cloak and golden vest. "Time to go. Can't be late. We've been assigned Judge Dath’Racul."
"Shit," Derek says, under his breath.
"What's wrong with this judge?" I ask.
"He's the fire dragon. If you think Liam is hot-headed, wait until you meet Dath’Racul."
Liam scowls at Derek at that, but I just smirk. "He's not wrong," I tell the auburn-haired fire Druid.
"Let's just go. We're already on bad footing with him from that Leprechaun case."
"Leprechaun? I'll have to get more details about that later."
The four brothers and I, carrying leather satchels with legal briefs and papers, squeeze into the carriage and Lily drives us to the courthouse. "Where's Dracula?" I ask.
"He's meeting us there," Sebastian says.
This is my first time in this part of the town, but I know the courthouse the moment I see it. It's the tallest building I have ever seen, dome-shaped, made of gray stone, stained glass windows throughout. You could fit several baseball stadiums and a couple of high-rise buildings into the structure and still have room to spare.
"It's huge!" I say, gasping.
"That's what she said," Derek quips, and I nearly choke on my tongue.
"That's some serious teenage boy humor for an immortal and wise vampire," I say.
He shrugs. "We have to stay relevant and current with the times." He winks at me, and I flush.
Elijah speaks without looking up from the book he's reading. "It has to be this large to accommodate not only the judges, but also all manner of creature who may need to come to court. About 100 years ago the giants petitioned the doors be made larger, because though the dragons can fly in from the top, the giants had a hard time getting in through the regular entrance. It was a whole drama that eventually resulted in the building being remodeled. Now everyone is more or less happy, though some of the flower fairies complain it's too big and they get tired trying to find their way. You can't please everyone it seems."
The carriage is silent as we pull up to the front. The doors are made of stone. Everything is stone. No wood. I assume because of creatures who breathe fire or burst into flames.
Elijah finally looks up and smiles. "It’s time.”
We pile out and make our way in. I idly wonder who opens and closes these doors each day, but then I see that one of the guards is a an actual giant and my question is answered. He towers over us, easily the size of a tall tree, and I can barely make out the features of his face. "Are you carrying any weapons, magicks or forbidden items?" the giant booms at us.
"No. We are here for the defense," Derek says.
"You may enter."
The space within is just as huge as it seems from without, and has benches of varying sizes, presumably to accommodate all manner of creature.
I try to take it all in as the brothers rush us to our courtroom. We travel through long hallways with impossibly high ceilings until we reach our destination. It's set up more like a throne room than a courthouse, though there are nods to the latter with the defendant's box and jury box.
I already know from my reading that the jury selection is different here. The judge chooses the jury based on a pool of interspecies candidates who have been given legal training and have been vetted for impartiality. The lawyers are stuck with who they get, unless there are no jurors from the defendant's race.
The courtroom is packed already with bystanders who want to see Dracula. It's more of a celebrity spotting than a court of law. The judge's seat is a huge stone platform big enough for a dragon. There is no ceiling, and yet the snow that is starting to fall more heavily outside doesn't enter the chamber. There's some kind of magical field that keeps out the weather but allows a view of the sky and the swirling colors of the Dragon's Breath. We take our place at stone tables and super uncomfortable stone benches. Derek explained to me that court cases here are different than in the mundane world. Here, there are breaks, but court isn't dismissed until the case is complete. Which means we could be here for days. And the accommodations are less than comfortable.
And I'm a human who actually needs a reasonable amount of sleep.
I glance at the prosecution and see two women and a man conferring with each other, their backs to me. One of them is familiar. She came to the house offering the plea. The Van Helsings.
I glance at the jury box and study the thirteen chosen to hear the case. Elijah explains that the three dwarvish-looking fellows with the craggy faces and long beards are druegar, from the diamond mines in the far north. The naga has the upper body of a woman – and a beautiful one at that – but the lower body of a monstrous python, and next to her, in a special tank to accommodate their aquatic nature, are a pair of selkies that the average person would have a hard time differentiating from a couple of seals. I ignore the others and ask the question that's been on my mind since entering the room. "How many vampires do we have?" I ask.
Derek glances over. "Three. That could be to our favor, or not. Dracula has a mixed reputation amongst our kind."