Curse Of Blood: Gods & Monsters

Chapter XXIV - Heida

Wergild — the value set in Germanic law upon human life in accordance with rank, and paid as compensation to the kindred or lord of a slain person.

Although the weapons of every man were still tethered by the peace straps, there was not a single peaceful eye in the crowd that attended the law-speaker's words as the elder examined the witnesses at Roth's trial.

But no eye was filled with more hatred than Thorgny himself. "What is there to deliberate over! He," said the chieftain of the Redtooth Clan acidly, pointing at Roth, "murdered my son!"

It was strange how the Norns weaved each person's destiny, for had not Søren fetched the twins, she would now be standing trial for the murder of Arnar; and Thorgny's finger would now be aimed at her. But no matter the how of it, Arnar was always fated to die, and had it not been by Roth's hand it would have certainly been Heida's that drove the cur's own knife into his belly. If only she had not hesitated when he'd been leaning over her; if only she'd acted swiftly!

"And your sons," Knut replied calmly, "nearly killed Aila's daughter." There was another whelm of murmuring that rose after the law-speaker's grave assertion.

"I want justice!"

"You shall have it, but first I will hear all the evidence." Knut raised a heavy, white eyebrow that was disapproving enough to squelch whatever impugning Thorgny had yet to utter. "Proceed, Aila."

Roth's mother stood watching Thorgny like hawk, whatever lay boiling beneath her surface was hidden to the world, but those that knew her best, like Heida did, were well aware of the ferocity she was capable of — like a bear, she would easily dispatch any that thought to harm her cubs. Not even Thorgny's wife, keening hysterically over her son's lacerated corpse, could soften the harrowing glare she rested on Thorgny's reddened face.

"The Blackmanes are indeed sorry for your loss, Thorgny, but had your sons proceeded in harming my daughter more than they already had-"

"Your daughter?! She is not your daughter! She belongs to nobody!"

"Are you quite finished?" Her gaze narrowed to hard tips, contrary to his eyes that were practically bulging with madness. "Let me be clear, lest any other pig wish to defile a child of my clan, Heida is every bit as much my daughter as Arnar was your son."

"And now I have no sons!" he thundered, inciting his brethren to furor.

The uproar that thence rose from the crowd was as much in contradiction of this statement as it was in support — the Redtooth Clan being the only ones that seemed to share their chieftain's opinion.

However, Knut did not. "Is Gisli no longer your son?"

Thorgny countered the question with one of his own. "Am I to claim an heir that is useless to me now?! He can never be chief...because he will never wield a sword with those worthless hands!" This statement was followed by Gisli's appalled mortification and his fellow clansmen's vociferous accord. "His fingers have been crushed by that one." He pointed a withering digit at Renic. "Aila still has two heirs and I have but a crippled son and a daughter past her blush of youth!"

That was the crux of it. The legitimate heart of Thorgny's outrage was not wholly because he had one less son — while the remaining heir had retrograded to the most abhorrent condition of invalidity — but that his older, larger progeny had been overpowered and utterly vanquished by Aila's younger, and therefore weaker, boys. He had lost face; and seemed to be mourning that above even his son's death. There was naught that destroyed a man's pride quicker than having the fruits of his loins, his brutish sons, outmaneuvered and overcome by mere children.