"They'll add on charges of resisting arrest and assaulting an agent of the crown and make it significantly more expensive for your countrymen to buy your release?"

"Pretty sure we haven't assaulted any agents of the crown," says Cat, smirking. "Your Majesty. Haven't you got anything better to do with your time? A sleepy commoner with the decree would've been plenty of reason to leave off, if it's legitimate."

       "Sorry, what?"

              "She's got a mind blank up and is good in a fight."

"Oh, good job, most people don't put that together that fast.

A sleepy commoner with a decree wouldn't successfully arrest the lot of you. And then people might think they can get away with attempted arson."

"Personally if I were the Queen of Cheliax I'd be a lot more concerned with how they are, millions of them, getting away with enslaving and raping and beating and murdering other people because it's legal."

"For three more days, after which the institution will be abolished not by the arbitrary decree of a conquering monarch but by the vote of an assembly of the Chelish people. Assuming that the vote doesn't go the other way due to anti-abolitionist sentiment stirred up by random acts of arson, which it very well could have done if we hadn't learned you were coming in advance."

"I was honest-to-gods super excited when I heard that the convention was gonna vote on it, last week, and then way less excited when I heard that actually the convention had been unfortunately suspended indefinitely by complete coincidence the day it decided that, and then a bit more excited when I heard they were gonna get back to it, and then a bit less excited when I heard that every merchant in Westcrown was working diligently to ship their slaves out before the deadline, and if the decree's for real then you deserve the same commendation as every other citizen who played a role in bringing that about but you'll forgive the rest of us for waiting to congratulate you until it actually happens, yeah? It's been eighteen months. That's a long time for hundreds of thousands of people to be enslaved while you're getting around to it."

"Actually," says one of the other men who hasn't spoken, "I think that we were motivated by a desire to raise the prices of whatsit cod and this had nothing to do with slavery, yeah?"

"If they really are closing the ports, and the vote doesn't get tragically cancelled again - tell me about the whatsit cod."

"Easy peasy. We're mercs, we work for a cod competitor. You've bested us, your Majesty, take us away."

Sure, the lot of them can be escorted to an appropriately-secure prison and held on charges of salt-cod-related industrial sabotage until the slavery vote is over and Andira Marusek makes a sufficiently elaborate show of contrition.