Janrae Frank - [Lycan Blood 02] - Fireborn Law

by Fireborn Law [lit]

"I'll kill him." Gorgarty snarled. "I swear I'll kill him."

  Erskine regarded Gorgarty, his mouth set in a line of contempt. "Don't press your luck. He rode with Tarrant Redhand."

  "He's old."

  "And you're stupid." Erskine closed his fist and hit Gorgarty in the face, decking him.

  Gorgarty lay on his back, rubbing his chin. 'Why'd ya do that?"

  "Because you're stupid. It's going to get you killed."

  "What do ya mean?"

  "Assuming you did get lucky with Todd Kynyr's got a lot of friends who won't take kindly to something happening to his grampa. That includes me. Touch his family and we'll give you the Weems' Cure."

  "Ya wouldn't dare."

  "Try me."

  * * * *

  Caimbeul surveyed the broken, over-turned wagon and the bodies littering the street around it. The only mon he knew who could have Jumped an entire scene of carnage and its debris to a street in Wolffgard was Pandeena. He had been having a drink at the Difficult Horse when word of this had reached the place and the tavern's patrons and others had rushed out.

  He arrived too late to see the wounded carried into the shop. Twenty-odd dead bodies had been lined up along one end of the block. Caimbeul pulled his lawgiver runes from beneath his shirt and let them dangle from the golden chain in plain sight. He had only been in Wolffgard for two days, and had not yet had time to make his presence well enough known to be recognized on sight. He sauntered over to them and noticed that at least three of them were sa'necari.

  "Don't leave them here." His voice broke across the silent myn carrying the bodies. "Take them to the commons. One of you get an axe and chop their heads off. We don't need any unpleasant surprises. Get a bonfire built to burn them."

  "Who are you to be giving orders?" A lycan snarled at him.

  Caimbeul flicked his runes. "Your new lawgiver."

  A slender fellow nudged the one who had challenged Caimbeul. "That's Fireborn Law Padruig Caimbeul."

  They all stopped work to stare at him.

  "Get some wagons over here. It'll be easier to get them moved." Caimbeul headed for the door to Cahira's shop just in time to see Erskine deck Gorgarty. "What's going on here?"

  Gorgarty scrambled to his feet, rubbing his jaw. His eyes fell upon Caimbeul's lawgiver runes. "Slipped my bone into a slut what was begging for it. That arsehole Sinclair's saying I raped her. Ya can't rape a slut."

  Caimbeul favored him with a skeptical glance. "What's your name?"

  "Gorgarty Burr and I ain't never put my bone into a bitch that didn't want me."

  The lawgiver scratched the side of his nose as he glanced at Erskine. "Who owns this shop?"

  "Cahira and Todd Sinclair," responded Erskine. "Same Todd Sinclair that rode with Tarrant Redhand. They're Kynyr Maguire's grandparents."

  Caimbeul snorted and a wicked grin bloomed on his lips. "Todd's the one put a silver spike through Alistar Weems' belly and Weems' crime was rape. Don't push him, Burr, and don't push me. If the bitch wants to press charges I'll have you in a cell like that." He snapped his fingers.

  * * * *

  Todd returned to the backroom and found Kady huddled on a sofa crying.

  He walked over to a cabinet, took out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Todd set them on the table and settled himself, gesturing at the other chair as he filled the glasses. "Come here. You need a drink."

  "Don't tell Cahira. Please don't tell her." Kady sank into a chair and grasped her whiskey with shaking hands.

  "Why?" Todd knocked his whiskey down and poured a second one.

  Kady took a swallow of whiskey and felt the warmth of the liquor spread through her. "Because She told me to keep my legs crossed or she'd throw me out. I'm barely here and now I'll be out on the street."

  Todd stared into his glass, rubbing his forefinger across his lower lip, and thinking. "Why'd you let him do it? Why didn't you fight him?"

  "What good would it have done?" Bitterness laced Kady's words. "Every time I've fought, they've just hurt me worse and still gotten their bone into me."

  "You could have screamed."

  "Who would have believed me? My reputation"

  "Is unearned." Todd stroked Kady's head in a calming gesture. "One love affair does not a slut make, Kady. If one of those hot-tailed dogs bothers you, come to me."

  "Todd..."

  Sinclair pulled a silver from his pocket and put it into Kady's hands. "Get yourself some trousers. Loose enough that you can move freely. Same with the shirt. Claw's guardsmyn have only the most basic of training. They're little more than brawlers except for Finn and Kynyr. Work hard and I'll show you how to knock them on their faces. Starting with Gorgarty."

  "But I'm not a dog."

  "I've taught bitches as well as dogs. You'll learn."

  "Okay." Kady drank her whiskey and poured a second. By then her shaking had begun to ease.

  "And don't brood about it. Think of yourself as a wounded soldier and get on with your life."

  Kady could not think of what to say to that, so she simply nodded.

  "For the time being, don't go anywhere in town alone. Take one of the cubs with you. I'm sure that Rory and Cooley will be happy to walk you places. I'll explain what happened to Cahira. Then she'll Read you. If that asshole left a present in your belly, it's easily gotten rid of."

  Kady's fear, shame, and humiliation began to ease under Todd's kind words. She remembered Kynyr rescuing her in the alley that night, trying to comfort her afterwards, and she knew where he had gotten that attitude now. "Thank you, Todd. Thank you so much."

  "Excuse me?"

  They both turned and saw Caimbeul standing in the doorway.

  "Caimbeul! It's been years!" Todd's eyes lit up and he gestured at the table. "Sit. I'll get you a glass."

  Kady's eyes settled on the runes. "Lawgiver"

  Caimbeul accepted the glass of whiskey that Todd pushed toward him on returning to the table. "Do you want to press charges against Gorgarty?"

  She glanced at Todd, who refused to indicate his feelings on the matter. Kady dropped her gaze. "No."

  "Why not?" Caimbeul asked in a neutral tone.

  Kady tossed her hair back. "With my reputation? No one would ever convict him."

  "If you change your mind, the law says you must do this before sundown tomorrow."

  "I know. I won't."

  * * * *

  Their home had finally emptied of concerned neighbors trying to help. Cooley had been tucked into bed with a mild sedative following a crying jag. Once the quiet of the night set in, Cooley had had a delayed reaction to what had happened to the myn he idolized. Kady had sat with him, telling him stories until the cub fell asleep. Something had happened to Kady, and Cahira had caught the haunted look that lay behind the mask the girl had put on while helping with the wounded and Cooley.

  She sat at her kitchen table, staring into a cup of tea, her eyes distant and unfocused following Todd's account of what Gorgarty had done to Kady. An untouched plate of food sat on the table in front of her. She picked at it with her fork, moving the food around, yet not putting a single bite to her lips.

  Todd sat across from her, his eyes filled with gentle concern. "You must eat, Cahira."

  She shifted her head in a listless motion. "I can't chew. It feels like I'm swallowing rocks."

  "You're just tired. It's been a hard day."

  "No. It's more than that, Todd." She clenched her eyes shut and turned her head away as Todd proffered a slice of beef on a fork at her. A sob broke from her throat. "Gahds, the curse is killing Kynyr."

  "He took his chances. The curse isn't killing him."

  "Yes, it is. It is. Claw knows. He's threatened to have Kynyr Read."

  Todd laid the fork down, went around the table, and held his wife. "Kynyr must have made a mistake somewhere. That's all. It could have happened to anyone."

  "It nearly killed Branduff many times. Now it's after Kynyr. He should never have come here."

&
nbsp; Todd propped his chin on her head. "I love you, Cahira. I love Kynyr as if he were my own. If I must place my life between Kynyr and Weems' Curse, I will."

  "Then I'd lose you too."

  "I'm one hundred and seven years old. I don't have a lot of years left. I can feel the age in my body."

  "Todd" Cahira turned into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  Todd smiled. "If I weren't so tired, I'd ravish you right here on the floor."

  "Another time?"

  "Remember how we used to make love in the deep grass by the river?"

  "How could I not? That's how we got Trevor and I decided I had better marry you."

  Todd chuckled. "I planned it that way."

  "You what?"

  "Confession time?"

  Cahira pulled away from him. "I should think so! Trevor's nearly seventy years old."

  A guilty smile, full of little boy naughtiness, came on Todd's lips. "I switched your herbs. I knew if I landed you one in the belly, you'd have to stop turning me down."

  "Todd, you're incorrigible."

  His smile turned into a grin. "Only when it comes to you. We've had a good marriage? Haven't we?"

  She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. "Yes, Todd. We have. I have never once regretted it."

  "And you'll take care of Kady?"

  "I think what happened is partly my fault. If I hadn't been so hard on her, she probably would have screamed instead of submitting to him." Cahira's mouth tightened. "Todd, listen. If you must fight Gorgarty? Kill him."

  "I will."

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  KADY

  Kady Wiggins woke with a flinch and sat up shivering in the fading clutches of a nightmare. She had dreamed that Gorgarty had come back, dragged her off to the Striped Dog and passed her around to be used by all of the males in the common room there. The males surrounding her kept chanting "You can't rape a slut."

  Her shivering stopped as the images faded from her waking mind. The cot shifted under her as Kady drew her feet up and tucked them under her to sit cross-legged. Pulling at her simple white slip, which she had worn under her dress and then slept in, Kady stared at all the cabinets, chests, and shelves in momentary confusion as to where she was. It slowly returned to her that she had spent the night in one of the storerooms of Cahira's shop.

  Sunlight from a high window made a patch of brightness in the center of the floor. The dress she had worn yesterday draped a chair at the edge of the light. Kady reached for it and froze, seeing the spatters of blood down the front from working with the wounded.

  "Kynyr." The image of him being carried torn and bloody from the street flashed through her mind and banished all thoughts of her own suffering. Kady threw back the light coverlet and swung her feet over the side of the cot, spied her chest of clothing, and peeled the slip over her head.

  Sifting through her folded dresses, Kady rejected each one that she picked out. They were more suited to waiting tables in the tavern and serving drinks than working in a healer's shop, and entirely too revealing in the cleavage department so much so that Kady fully expected Cahira to complain about them. Her fingers brushed across a blue scarf and inspiration struck. Kady got out her sewing kit and, with a few quick tacking stitches secured the scarf into the top of the bodice of one of her dresses. Then she put it on and was satisfied that nothing objectionable showed. No one could accuse her of looking like a slut in that.

  Her stomach and chest tightened and Kady fought down a sensation of panic. "I'm not a slut. I'm not."

  Todd's words came back to her: One love affair does not a slut make. She remembered the silver that Todd had given her to purchase trousers and a shirt. Kady opened her pouch and counted out the coins in it. In addition to the silver, she had seven copper fivepence that she had been saving. If she bought two sets of pants and shirts, then she could rip the seams out of one set and use it as a pattern to turn all of her dresses into more pairs. If she was going to start a new life and put all the ugliness behind her as Todd had said, then clothes were a good beginning.

  She walked out into the shop and found Cahira sitting at the table with a cup of tea. A teapot, a platter of hot scones, a tub of butter, and another of jam sat in the middle of the table.

  "Sit, Kady. Have some tea and scones."

  "You should have gotten me up. I could have fixed breakfast for you."

  Cahira gave her a maternal smile. "You needed the rest. After what happened yesterday."

  "I'm worried about Kynyr."

  "I'm more worried about Ramsey. Kynyr and Finn are responding to Pandeena's treatments. Ramsey isn't."

  "Poor Ramsey. He was always nice to me."

  Cahira's lips tightened for an instant as she nodded. "Here, eat. Can you handle a team?"

  "Yes."

  "Good. Once you've eaten, you can drive over to the manor. The cubs have loaded all of Aisha's stuff that was salvageable into the wagon. Take Rory with you."

  "Is there anything I can pick up for you while I'm out?"

  "Lots of things. Todd cleared the second floor storage room so we can use it as an infirmary. The biggest problem is finding beds for it."

  "I'll see what I can find. Maybe we can get people to donate since it would benefit the whole community."

  "Well, see what you can do. But first, eat."

  * * * *

  Georgie Rogan came out of the barn when Kady drove into the yard with Rory beside her. The hostler offered her a hand down from the seat as she set the break. "Hello, Kady. What ya got there?"

  "Everything we could salvage from the broken wagon."

  Kady hesitated to put her hand in his, uncertain whether to trust him or not, memories of Gorgarty Burr making her cringe.

  Rory jumped from the wagon and ran over to stand next to Georgie. "Give him yer hand, Kady! No one's gonna mess with you while I'm around."

  Kady managed a whiff of a grin that vanished the instant it appeared.

  "Ack, Kady, I'm sorry." Georgie clucked his tongue at her. "Heard about Gorgarty Burr. No one believes him. No one likes him. Let me help ya down."

  Kady sucked a breath through her nostrils, a smile wavering across her lips as she accepted Georgie's hand. "Thank you."

  Georgie held onto her hand after her feet touched the heavy packed earth, and that set her stomach to fluttering with a case of nerves. He led her up to the door and knocked on it.

  Kissie answered. The blonde nibari had a kind smile for Kady that took the edge off the young bitch's initial nervousness.

  "Kissie, this here is Kady Wiggins and she's just brought Aisha's salvage. Be a good one and take her in to talk to the Mistress."

  Kady saw Rory nod at her. "Okay."

  She had never been inside the manor before. The sheer size of it overwhelmed her and she had to struggle not to hunch her shoulders and lower her head, which would have revealed how intimidated she felt by it all. Kady grabbed Rory's hand and clutched it, sneaking glances at the rich tapestries on the walls and the elegant chandeliers hanging overhead.

  The immensity of the Great Hall stole Kady's breath and her steps faltered as Kissie showed her inside. Two rows of stone support columns ran along the south and north sides of the room. Clusters of comfortable chairs, sofas, and low tables in dark-stained wood broke the Great Hall into false alcoves. The sections of a large trestle table stood stacked along the south wall to be assembled for rare formal dinners. At the east end stood the deep hearth and to the left of the hearth were three looms, a spinning wheel, and several baskets of wool and yarn.

  Two bitches in fine dresses sat at the looms, while a third kept the spinning wheel going with a steady hand.

  "Hello, Kady. What brings you here?"

  Kady jumped and nearly fell over. She had not noticed Robert Morcar sitting in the shadows. He wore chain mail that hung to his knees with the sides split to make movement easier, with a breast plate of a strange sapphire metal she had never seen before.

 
Rory stepped in front of her, bristling with a child's ire and protectiveness, laced with the arrogance of the street and a deeply-rooted self-myth of his own invincible resourcefulness. "We brought Mistress Aisha everything that wasn't broken."

  The bitch at the spinning wheel rose and walked into the middle of the Great Hall, smiling at the cub's audacity. "Rory, Darmyk is playing in his treehouse. Why don't you join him there?"

  "Todd told me to keep an eye on Kady so nothing bad happens to her."

  "Go play, Rory," said Robert Morcar. "Kady is perfectly safe here. Erskine and I won't let anything happen to her. Go. Play."

  Rory gulped and backed away from Morcar. "Yessir."

  The cub turned and fled.

  "Kady, come along. I want to talk to you a bit in private." Aisha picked a bell off the nearest table and rang it.

  Kissie reappeared. "Yes, Mistress Aisha?"

  "Please bring" Aisha turned to Kady. "What would you like to drink? Sherry? Brandy? We have some very nice claret."

  "Uhmmn. The claret."

  "Kissie, two glasses and a bottle of claret. Bring them to the Rose Room. And some of those Eccles cakes you baked this morning."

  The Rose Room was small by the standards of the manor decorated in deep shades of rose and mauve. A mural covered the south wall of lycans at a picnic in the middle of a rose garden the males in hybrid form and the females in human while true wolves romped around them. The wall hangings were all of pastoral scenes. Sofas and chairs formed half circles around three low tables, upholstered in matching rose brocades. A woven reed basket, containing knitting, occupied the corner of a sofa. Aisha settled on that sofa, moved her knitting to the floor, and adjusted her skirts.

  "Sit where you're comfortable, Kady."

  Kady chose a chair, smoothing her skirt. Although she wore her best dress, Kady felt shabby compared to Aisha.

  Kissie arrived with a platter, placed it on the low table, and left.

  Aisha poured claret for both of them. "I hope it's to your taste, Kady. I don't favor the stronger spirits that my husband prefers."

  Kady sipped her wine and nodded. "It's very good."

  "How is Kynyr and the others? When I heard about the Devil's Silver"

  "None of them have been fully conscious yet. Ramsey's the worst though. Cahira says he's" Kady had a difficult time with some of Cahira's words and phrases. "She says he's not responding to treatment."