Righteous Anger (Okal Rel Saga #2)

2.6: Politics

It was hours before the family had dragged the whole story out of Horth, working mostly through Branst, who had a knack for putting questions in a way that Horth understood.

Zrenyl led a couple of Nesak retainers on a hunt for Nanns Thris, to find out what she knew, while Hara's supporters sought out Vrellish witnesses to hear their versions of the fatal duel.

Hangst convinced enraged Nersallians who called for Horth's blood to wait until he had gathered all the facts, and with Bryllit's help, he organized a trial of honor.

Horth's failure to voice his challenge weighed against him, but poisoners were never popular. If Hara was guilty, Horth would have been justified in killing her even if he had done it at a distance with a hand gun — except that mere possession of that kind of weapon would itself have been cause for summary execution under Sword Law.

Hara's friends insisted she could never have done anything as dishonorable as poisoning a pregnant woman, even if the woman was a Nesak.

By the end of the first day of investigations, one Black Hearth errant died on the sword of another in a lawfully declared duel that played out, on the Octagon, too fast for Hangst to intervene and postpone. The winner upheld Hara's honor.

Six hours later, both Zer Sarn and Di Mon independently reported that soil samples from Beryl's garden contained childbane, the contraband drug that could induce miscarriage even in a highborn. The Monatese had a longer and more complex name for it than childbane, of course, but anything Green Heath and Zer Sarn could agree upon was generally accepted to be true.

"It was losing its potency with time," Di Mon explained at Horth's trial of honor. "Which is why Beryl's pregnancies were lasting longer. She also spent more time in the bedroom and less in the nursery this last time."

Hangst was devastated. And all the kinf'stan in attendance shared the depths of his shock.

Mother's Nesaks looked grim, but their eyes glittered with triumph because Hara's act had proved them right about the untrustworthiness of non-eternals.

Horth sat through his trial feeling too numb to react.

Mother locked herself away in the master bedroom of Black Hearth, where she could insulate herself from non-eternals. Horth did not see Zrenyl, either. His oldest brother seemed to have disappeared. Branst came, but Horth did not want to look at Branst too much. He made a point of avoiding eye contact with people he loved.

It was Father, as liege of both parties, who declared Horth's actions honorable.

Three Black Hearth errants immediately resigned their posts.

Horth knew he had been vindicated of wrongdoing by his liege-father. He also knew a trial of honor touching so closely on Black Hearth's honor was important enough to be a vote of confidence over Hangst's leadership. Hangst would have been challenged if the errants who resigned had been kinf'stan. But Horth lacked the will to care as much as he should.

He had killed Hara.

Whatever came next, the world of his childhood was shattered.

The trial broke up in silence, groups disappearing into their respective hearths to discuss the aftermath within their own circles of influence.

"Your mother wants to see you," Hangst told Horth.

Rock steady and coolly indifferent throughout the trial of honor, Horth's hands suddenly started shaking now that it was done. He stopped at the top of the spiral stairs to stare at them in astonishment. But after a moment it became clear he could do nothing to stop the reaction, and he continued down the Throat to his parents' room.