This is the ongoing sequel to Dark Wishes, both copyrighted under Nifty and International Common Law.
Unspoken Wishes
M.C. Gordon
Part One: Markel
Chapter Twelve
Usan and Hanrad were both large men, dark-haired and muscular. Usan, the oldest of Erok's eight children, had been left in his mother's village when she died giving birth to her fourth child. Usan's grandfather was the village elder and a well known herder. Usan took up the family trade and built a reputation as being a fine man with a sling or knife if a wild beast attacked his herd. The goats' fine wool was highly prized and traded with nearby farmers for grain. His village was isolated in the rocky foothills of Elanen's northern mountain range.
Hanrad was the second youngest of the children, born to Erok's second wife. Even as a child Hanrad had a perception for how a building should be composed and was apprenticed to the village mason. He spent the early years of his apprenticeship swinging a pick and learning to quarry and carry large sections of stone. Before he reached the age of majority, the muscles in his arms, back, and chest bulged from hours of strenuous labor. The most loved person in his life was his younger sister, Trilli.
Life was hard, survival minimal. Food was scarce, birth control unknown. Erok had wept when he left his four oldest children with their mother's family, but he knew he could not provide for them on his own. His own mother had died in childbirth and he knew how difficult it had been for his father to raise him alone. Barely eking out an existence as a woodcutter, Bern was killed by a bear leaving Erok alone at age thirteen. Erok bore no malice for the bear for it was a female who probably had cubs she was protecting. Bern had thrown himself between the bear and his child, a sacrifice Erok never forgot. Leaving Usan and his brothers in the loving care of their grandparents was as close as he could come to his father's sacrifice. But he was struck with wanderlust, and looking at the children of his dear wife was more than his heart could bear. He had not expected to find love again until he met the woman who bore his last four children.
. . .
Usan and Hanrad walked through the bustling activity that encompassed Aolane of late ... the rush to build cottages, barns, warehouses, and fortress walls before winter. They were remembering how they met when Usan heard the call of the forest grandmothers and went in search of a brother he had never known.
"Surprised I were, that Trilli would let young Efren wi' us. He be a small mite," Usan told his brother as they passed Tynan lifting blocks of stone to the growing wall of a cottage.
"She hated to let him go," Hanrad replied. "He was always ill as a child and she believed his life would be short. She could not deny him the chance for adventure, and perhaps love."
"Seems he foun' that love right well enough," Usan returned, and was about to say more when he spotted a scuffle several yards away. Touching Hanrad on the shoulder he bolted across the pebbled road, Hanrad in pursuit.
"Let go that chil'!" Usan shouted to a scruffy man who was yanking a skinny boy by one arm.
The man, unshaven and with spittle staining his beard, faced Usan. "He mine!" he shouted back. "Do what I wants wi' m' blood."
"Not in Aolane," Hanrad said as he reached for the man, but not before the child was jerked again and the air was split with the sound of breaking bones.
For all his size, Hanrad was swift and a quick kick to the groin brought the man to his knees giving Usan time to wrap his right arm around his neck. Hanrad tried to approach the boy but the child whimpered and drew away from him. Spotting Frina and Yashidra walking nearby, Hanrad called to them.
Recognizing the trauma to the child, the two women approached him carefully with soft voices and he reluctantly let Yashidra look at his arm.
"I can fix this for you," she said, and relayed with her eyes that no one should mention the other marks on the boy's body.
"My sis," the child said through his pain, "my sis be in a thicket where Pa said she stay. She hurt." And the pain overcame him and the boy fainted.
Markel found her when Frina raised the alarm and a search party was formed. She was so small that he could lift her easily and carry her to the cottage already built for Yashidra to treat the sick and injured in Aolane.
Yashidra cried at the condition of the two children. Starvation was not unknown, but these children were deliberately malnourished and they had been beaten many times. The girl, whose name they learned from her brother was Jameaka, had bruises that were still turning yellow and a left arm that clearly showed the signs of being broken and never set. The boy, Daen, had welts on his back and buttocks, and the scars on his back told of many beatings.
Hanrad sent a passing child to a cottage being built with a message that the largest and strongest of the men were needed. He kept the children's father from bolting by keeping one of the man's arms twisted behind his back and held in a painful position until the men could arrive and hold the stranger in temporary custody.
. . .
The reaction of the Qell when they saw Jameaka and Daen frightened even those who had come to know them well. Their anger at the way the children had been abused showed a part of them that was only dark legend to the people of Elanen. Hanrad and his masons had taken Bok to a vacant cottage until someone determined what to do with him and it was just as well for even Markel and Efren hesitated to approach their lovers, whose eyes had gone from tranquil silver to fiery red.
Tynan, the more emotional of the two Qell, demanded the presence of Bok, stating it was his intention to punish him with a magic that would cause his blood to boil in his veins for a thousand years. Markel alone finally dared to approach him.
"There were laws, laid down by Trelaine," he told the King. "This is one of the memories my grandmother gave me. No one, not even a King or a Qell, can pass judgment on any man in the heat of passion. Miralen did and destroyed the first of the Qell."
Tynan and Iashain, bearing in mind Markel's words, summoned the most respected men in Aolane to be a quickly assembled council.
"Remembering that we cannot act as judges, we have summoned you to hear testimony," Tynan told the ten assembled men who had no idea what was expected of them. In his heart he wanted to inflict as much torment on Bok as possible but realized that Markel had been correct, he could not be judge or jury ... only executioner.
"Hear what is told you from the children," Iashain said. "What is in question here is whether or not this man is guilty of abusing his children."
It was difficult for the men, made up of illiterate herders and farmers, to imagine what was required of them. Daen spoke for himself and Jameaka since the girl had lost the ability to speak. His words were simple but eloquent.
"Mam went dead wi' t' last sickness," he said. "Da were lookin' for food an' she were dead w'en he got home. He were a good Da then an' scratched her a grave in t' forest. Some time later, w'en trees turn't color, came a storm an' a tree felled on his head. He be mean after. Took to beatin' me and Sis."
Tynan, whose first instinct had been to cause Bok the most painful torture possible, listened carefully to Daen. Putting aside all the questions he was supposed to ask he wiped a tear from his eye and looked at Iashain.
"Daen," Iashain took over, realizing that Tynan was caught between the desire for retribution and understanding, "do you bear malice toward your father?"
"What be that?" the boy asked.
"Bok beat you and your sister. He starved you and broke your bones. Jameaka can no longer speak. Does it make you angry toward him?"
"Be times I wisht he went dead with Mam," Daen replied. "But he were a good Da afore Mam, and afore t' tree felled on his head."
"I put it before those summoned," Iashain told the hastily assembled judges, "prior to the death of his wife and the accident in the forest Bok was a good man and father. Is he guilty of deliberately harming his children? Is he not guilty because of circumstances over which he had no control?"
The ten assembled men talked among themselves and finally decided that Bok was guilty under special circumstances.
"Next I ask what should be done with Bok and the children," Iashain told them.
Usan, one of the judges, spoke for all of them. "T' children needs a loving home an' Bok a place to live ... an' some compassion."
A tall, slender woman, whose dark hair was pulled back from her face, stood and said, "Nanna and I ask permission to take Jameaka and Daen. We swear before the Qell that we will be good parents, granting them communication with their father when his mind is more settled."
"And I will offer Bok a home," a burly man said. His name was Dentin and his own brother had lost his mind after being kicked in the head by a horse. He was a blacksmith, as was his lover Absel, and they were strong enough to contain any man except the Qell.
"Does this council accept?" Iashain asked. When the council nodded their acceptance, he motioned for the prisoner to be brought into the makeshift court.
Bok's fear was noticeable. He had moments of rational thought and knew he was about to die for the way he had treated his children. His body betrayed his fear when Tynan approached him and dark spot appeared in his breeches. Determined that Daen and Jameaka would not live with the humiliation of seeing their father beg for life, he raised his head and took a deep breath. He was prepared to die and extremely confused when Tynan took him gently by his left arm and led him to Dentin.
"This man and his partner have offered their home to you," Tynan said, his silver eyes searching for and finding a spark of sanity in Bok's face. Releasing a little of his magic, Tynan granted peace and release from the rage that gripped the frightened man when his damaged mind went askew.
Before Audan and Nanna left with Jameaka and Daen, Tynan took them in his arms and whispered softly to them. When they woke the next morning the children had no memory of the harm their father had caused them. They knew only that his mind was damaged and he was being cared for, as were they. And Jameaka asked if she could have cooked oats with milk for her morning meal.
To be continued.
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