Page 9 of Fate's Bane
Pedhri Clan Aradoc called for silence, though, and the world stilled.
“Clan Aradoc,” he said, stepping before the chieftain’s chair, where tomorrow he would hear the plights of clan members and receive visitors from other clans or beyond.
We all raised our mugs and howled for him. This wasthe joy of the day. The wildness of year’s end. My blood sang with the noise, and when Hadhnri grinned at me from her sprawl-legged spot on the bench at my side, the song grew louder.
Pedhri Clan Aradoc spoke: “A true member of the clan is a shoulder for their fellow. They help us pull the weight of our burdens and raise us in our glories.” He spread one arm to gesture at the youths standing off to the side of the roundhouse. Gunni and his age-mates waited gawk-eyed, trying their hardest to look strong enough for the burdens Pedhri Clan Aradoc spoke of.
“Today, another band of Aradoc children crosses into the clan fully, children no more. Who will welcome them?”
We howled again as the parents and guardians of the youths gathered opposite them, all of them bearing gifts in their arms.
One by one—except for the twins, Nocrin and Hagnor, who approached together, moving in step, as inseparable as Hadhnri and me—the youths came before the chieftain’s chair, where their guardians gave them their welcome gifts. Then, the youths knelt before Pedhri Clan Aradoc and their guardians, made their oaths, and received their cuts. Last of them was Gunni.
Gunni knelt on both knees before his father, as the others had done, but there was a special quiet as he made the oaths.
“By my name and my clan, I swear to protect this clan.With my wits and my body, I will strengthen it. In the darkness and the light, I will guide it, linked arm in arm with those who rose before me and those who shall come after.”
With his keen knife, Aradoc-Father cut the crossing pairs of parallel lines beneath Gunni’s left eye. Gunni accepted the pain silently. Then Aradoc-Father anointed him with water from the fens, and it dripped down Gunni’s forehead, mingling with the blood down his cheek.
“Rise, then, Gunni Clan Aradoc, First-Born Pedhri Clan Aradoc, and join your clan.” Aradoc-Father helped Gunni to his feet and handed him the sword in its tooled scabbard.
Gunni took the sword with reverence and admired the art of the scabbard, but he lingered longest over the hilt. Pride swelled in me. Though we had tooled the scabbard, too, it was not a Making; nothing had overcome us that day. Hadhnri and I shared a secret smile.
But Aradoc-Father was not done. “Next, we will celebrate the heroes of Clan Aradoc. Come, Hadhnri Second-Born. Come, Agnir Ward-Aradoc.” He beckoned us, proud dignity.
The clan whooped as they turned to us, but we were both bewildered. It was not our aging year, and we had performed no heroic feats. While we untangled ourselves from the crowded bench and walked toward the chieftain’s chair amid the staring, Aradoc-Father turned to collect two gifts from the basket behind him.
I had never expected to be brought before Pedhri Clan Aradoc’s seat, especially not in honor. My eyes grew wet.
When we stood before him, he bowed his head at each of us before speaking to the clan.
“Hadhnri’s and Agnir’s talent has made us even more prosperous in the last ha’year. With their help, we have snared the attention of the Queen-Beyond-the-Fens, and all other clans know us as first among them. Their work is like the best of Clan Aradoc—we are strong, and we are beautiful.” His solemn mien split, broken by a wolf-tongue grin and a wink, and the rest of the clan laughed. Then he sobered.
He raised one of the items in his hand. A seax with a silver hilt in a smooth leather sheath. “Strength,” he said as he handed it to Hadhnri.
I looked to his hands eagerly, hoping for a blade of my own.
Instead, he held up a bright woven belt. “Beauty.” He draped the belt over my outstretched hands.
Then, with a fierce hug, he crushed us both against his thick chest and thicker belly. I was grateful; it gave me time to hide the disappointment that surely showed on my face.
I mastered myself by the time he released us and offered him, and then the clan, a tremulous smile that could be blamed on my gratitude and not the falcon-swoop of my stomach.
The gifts and honors continued, but the words andthe cheering all blurred in my ears. When it was finished and time for us to eat and drink and dance the new year into being, I no longer had the heart for it.
I stepped out of the great roundhouse and stood before the bonfire. It had grown while we sat the ceremony inside. The sky above was black as pitch as the fire devoured the light of every star. It was the brightness of a new year. A new future. And the shadows that danced around that brightest of hopes? That was where I told myself I belonged. So I settled in the darkness on the far side of the roundhouse, away from the celebrants and the new adults of the clan and the newly troth-locked. I wrapped my new belt around my fist and drew my loneliness over me like a blanket.
I was not so drawn into myself that I didn’t recognize the deer-step of Hadhnri’s boots as she came to find me. No matter what, I could not hide from her. I did not want to, not truly, but I was embarrassed as she sat beside me. I drew my knees to my chest and laid my cheek upon my thighs.
She crossed her legs and held her new knife in her lap. Not carelessly, but not as if it were precious. Not like I would have held it. She held it as if it were already hers, had been for years. Hadhnri followed my eyes and then looked to my new belt, which I clutched in my hands.
“Your gift does not please you?”
“It is not a blade. Not like yours or Gunni’s. It’s not a gift for a child of Pedhri Clan Aradoc.”
Hadhnri’s brow knit, and I saw the words stop behind her mouth as she weighed them.But you are not a child of Pedhri Clan Aradoc. You are just his ward. Trueborn child of his enemy.
Hadhnri stroked the belt, tracing its intricate weave. “He cares for you, Agnir. He chose this belt because he knows how skilled you are, and because you of all people would appreciate its beauty. He must have gotten this at great cost from the Queen-Beyond-the-Fens.”
