Page 25 of Fate's Bane
“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 ClanFein 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.
THEDUEL
“Let me take this duel, brother,” murmured Modin-father-sister as Garadin Clan Fein stormed back to our pallets. “I will right this.”
I stopped in my tracks and my middle father-sister bumped into me in the darkness. Laudir-father-sister caught herself, and then gave my shoulders a rough squeeze.
“Did you order this, Father?”
My father half turned to look at me over his shoulder. His eyes rose to Laudir, behind me. She squeezed my shoulders tighter, fingernails digging into my naked skin, then shoved me forward. I followed like a gosling behind them, clutching the dagger in my hand, tingling from Hadhnri’s presence in the Making.
“Who will he send to fight for Clan Aradoc?” Laudir asked.
“Gunni First-Born Pedhri Clan Aradoc,” I spoke up without thinking. If Pedhri did not suggest it, Gunni would demand the chance to prove himself before all the clans. The next words—what I knew of Gunni’sstrengths and weaknesses, his fighting style—burned away like mist under the blaze of a memory:
Is there no loyalty in you at all? To me, if not to my clan?
There I stood, caught between Hadhnri’s scorn and my father’s reservation, his dark eyes gleaming in the starlight. As he weighed me, I held my chin up. I had learned that much, in the years since I stopped wearing a collar.
“Then I must send one of my own children.”
Now, I bowed my head. I was no match for Gunni, but he was First-Born Clan Aradoc, and I was First-Born Clan Fein.
“I will stand for Clan Fein.”
Garadin Clan Fein continued to stare at me, and when he spoke, it was not without affection. “I will send Onsgar.”
Relief and disappointment split me in half. Perhaps Onsgar had told our father about Hadhnri. I did not want to duel Gunni and was glad to have the choice taken from me, but I could not bear to be deemed unfaithful by someone else I thought I loved. To be pushed beyond the borders of the light and warmth of a clan every time I came too close.
“Do you not trust me, Father? I will fight him for you.”
My father draped a wiry arm around my shoulder and steered us onward to our pallets while my father-sisters trailed alongside.
“Fear not, my child. I know you are mine. The adderat his breast.” He snorted. “Come. You will tell Onsgar what you know of Gunni First-Born Pedhri Clan Aradoc.”
So I told him all that I knew, and the next morning, the clans circled about Onsgar and Gunni, one my trueborn brother whom I’d known only a few years, and one my foster brother, whom I’d known as long as I could remember. They were of a height, though Gunni was older by a handspan and clearly had strength on his side. Onsgar had speed, though, and he was clever as Bannos. The steel of their swords shone bright as the Sunstead sun. Our fathers stood on the edge of the circle behind each son, pretending they did not fear.
But I feared, and I stood beside Hadhnri, halfway along the circle between our fathers.
“This is your fault,” I whispered to her. “That sheath was a Making. Youpromised me—”
“Idid not pull that dagger, Agnir,” Hadhnri said. “If you Fein weren’t planning betrayal all along, how did this happen?”
