Page 18 of Fate’s Bane
T HE A TTACK
“Did it not go well with your Aradoc girl?” Onsgar whispered when I rejoined the moot alone.
I glared balefully up at him, and the kicked-dog look of me hushed any jokes at my expense. I was glad it was just him to contend with and not Biudir as well. Biudir was clever for his age but lacked the wisdom of silence.
When Hadhnri rejoined her clan, I tried not to look at her. I felt rotted through, and I watched Pedhri Clan Aradoc with a new hatred that grew out of that rotten center.
The sun had begun its descent when Lidwul Clan Pall, host of the moot, called a stop to the discussions.
The smell of roasting meat and baking bread had grown strong as the day stretched on; it was a relief to mask the tensions in food and drink, to trade boasting over clan lineage to the simple boasting of strength and skill.
I cheered on Laudir-father-sister as she wrestled Soli Clan Elyin’s wife, and Modin-father-sister as she drank Erci Clan Hanarin to the ground.
There was music and dancing in the thick green grass.
There was Aradoc mutton, steamed fish, and baked fowl, and I ate to bursting.
I could almost ignore the way Hadhnri and the rest of Clan Aradoc avoided me.
Then, with the sun low enough to bleed the sky, came the most important part of the moot: the exchanging of gifts between the clans. Fine weapons and leather goods, worked pelts and beautiful weaves, torcs and bands and buckles of gold and silver.
It all felt as hollow as my own chest. I went to bed early and let others keep the pretense of peace.
I woke on my pallet on the warm ground to an inhuman scream, my heart pounding in my ears. I waited for the fox-cry to come again, but the next sound was all-too-human: a roar of outrage that I recognized.
“Garadin Fein!” That familiar fury echoed through the starry night. “Come and face me, Garadin Clan Fein!”
Clan Fein roused around me and I heard in the distance the other clans rising to investigate the sounds coming from the area where Clan Aradoc had made their beds.
My eyes adjusted as I followed my father to where Pedhri Clan Aradoc stood, flanked by Gunni and Lughir the weaponmaster.
Hadhnri stood behind her brother, arms crossed just like his.
They were a thick, broad family, standing like bears before my father, and I could see why they had claimed so much of the Fens.
“You slink like a coward in the night, Garadin Fein, yet you’ve nerve to claim Bannos the Bold as your line?” Pedhri Clan Aradoc spat at my father’s bare feet.
Laudir-father-sister bristled, but my father held her back with an open hand.
“What happened here?” Garadin Clan Fein asked, his voice low and calm. He crossed his arms over his own bare chest.
“You claim ignorance?” Pedhri Clan Aradoc stepped forward. “When this was found by my own son’s head?”
I checked my gasp as he held out a dagger in a beautiful sheath.
I recognized it from the day’s gift-giving.
It had been a gift to Clan Fein from Clan Aradoc, and I’d known the work immediately for Hadhnri’s.
A deepening in the crease between his brows was the only sign my father gave.
A silent look passed between him and Modin-father-sister as he took it.
“You claim an attempt on your son’s life, but where is the would-be murderer?” Fein-Father asked.
“Run away like a coward when I woke,” Gunni Clan Aradoc said. He spoke with a man’s voice now.
“Then you cannot insist it was Clan Fein to break the moot peace.”
“Only Clan Fein was given this blade, this sheath.” Pedhri Clan Aradoc looked to the clan leaders gathered about them. “Clan Aradoc demands payment for this offense.”
Suspicion tickled the back of my neck and I looked to Hadhnri, who would not meet my gaze.
Fein-Father scoffed. “I will not forfeit one of mine for an Aradoc trick.”
“You have forfeited your own before,” Aradoc-Father said. His regard swallowed me whole. “Left her like a snake at my breast, to poison my own heart against me.”
“You will watch your tongue, Aradoc, or I will cut it out!” Garadin Clan Fein snarled, unsheathing that fatal gift-dagger.
That same shriek echoed through the night, this time with all in witness.
My father stared at the blade as if it were adder-fanged.
Then I understood. I shoved between my father and father-sisters and took the blade from his hand, slamming it home into the sheath.
The monstrous noise went silent. In my hand, I felt a certainty that I hadn’t felt in years.
This time, I found Hadhnri’s eyes and held them.
Lidwul Clan Pall came to stand between the leaders of Aradoc and Fein. He looked apologetically at my father before saying, “It is my clan’s honor to maintain the peace on our lands during the moot. Were any hurt?”
Pedhri Clan Aradoc shook his head.
“Did you order your clan to attack in the night?” Lidwul Clan Pall asked my father.
Garadin Clan Fein shook his head.
“Then all is well. For the sake of the peace, though, we will have a duel tomorrow. Let strength and wit decide this matter.” Lidwul Clan Pall pulled Garadin Clan Fein and Pedhri Clan Aradoc each by the hand and bade them clasp arms.
I did not see what disdain or hatred was stoked between my father and my foster as they gripped each other, for I was yet gripped by Hadhnri’s stare and the accusation graven there.