Mandegga smiled. “We’ve formed our own court, ignorant human. The high court has a right to enter into all places when taking a criminal from its hole.”
Ragnar stepped forwards from the shadows of the doorway. “Lady, you must come with us. As you see, I carry the ancient warrant. This is the Althing summons.”
Skarga shook her head. “No. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“The court will decide that,” said one of Mandegga’s jarls, clasping his cymbals beneath his arm.
Another, avid eyed, darted to the bedside, waving his flaming torch in her face. “This is the wolf Althing now. We outnumber on every level. The court of the bears is over-ruled. The dominant bear has deserted his post. You belong to us.”
Mandegga reached out, small fat hands, sharp nails, gripping Skarga’s arm. “Get up, human, and come with me.”
“I need to dress first. And you’ll have to fetch crutches, or I cannot walk,” she said quickly. Skarga wore only her shift, having thrown off her old tunic, newly soiled with vomit and thick with serpent’s blood.
“Then we’ll drag you.” Mandegga laughed. “And you’re clothed enough for what we want. If you’re ruled guilty, you’ll be stripped anyway and whipped.”
Skarga knew they would smell her fear. The long bench where several of Thoddun’s knives lay, was far out of reach. Mandegga’s jarls surrounded her, leering, threatening. New supporters now pushed in behind. “I demand defenders,” Skarga raised her voice. “I have a right to call on the law too.”
“Not yet,” Mandegga sneered. “Once you’re in court. Not before.”
Hammering on the door outside, a swish of the furs, and others marched in, staring, affronted at the rabble. “What’s going on? Who dared force their way in here? This is forbidden.”
One of Mandegga’s jarls cursed, and drew his sword. “This is an Althing arrest,” he shouted.
“I’m one of the Althing elders,” a voice answered. “I don’t know you. You have no place here or at the court.”
“Not your court. The new court.”
“Ragnar, answer for yourself. This is illegal.”
Ragnar stepped forward. “Not illegal, simply a new litter. You’re outnumbered Flokki. Relinquish your rights.”
The clank of metal, the scrape of sword from scabbard, the hiss of steel through the frosty air. “Who draws a sword within the castle?” the man Flokki demanded. “And in the lord’s private apartments! No weapons are permitted here.”
“Our court is always armed,” Mandegga said.
“So it’s the werebitch returned,” another shouted. “Is she pressing Orm’s claim?”
“Let us in,” and the pushing, squeezing, swearing crowd bustled, rebounding, swelling, officious, increasingly furious. Perhaps thirty men now in the chamber, and Skarga huddled on the bed, hugging her knees, her bare toes scrunched under the quilts and her thoughts in panic. She recognised no supportive faces. Kjeld had not come. Certainly Thoddun had not come. She supposed them both still absent.
Mandegga, squeezed within the crush, hissed, “We hold the stronger court. No one else must enter. Everyone else must leave.”
“Then you leave,” bellowed a voice from the back. “You’ve no right at all. You’re no part of any court.”
Swirling in a sweep of gold and a sheen of reflections, Mandegga turned around to face the speaker. “I’ve the right to this chamber,” she spat, “whatever other right is upheld. This was always mine. I was dominant and Thoddun was my husband.”
“You left,” someone yelled. “Or he threw you out. I remember an Althing ruling, punishment and a year’s exile decreed.”
“But the year’s up. He let her back, and what a mistake that was.”
Flokki had pushed forwards again, frowning down at Mandegga’s upturned snarl. “You make your claim before the court and wait for the result before entering here. And wait until Lord Thoddun returns. He’ll decide.”
“How can he decide,” scowled Ragnar, “when the claim is against him?”
The chamber was a heaving squeeze of squabbling curiosity, their arguments, ever more intense, increasingly angry. Squashed to the outer edges, others proclaimed each their own loyalties. “For the she-wolf, and a new order,” and “When the lord rides back, all you fools’ll be shackled or slain, and I’ll eat your tongues with radish and spiced ale.” Then, in the long shadows furthest from the torch flares, the quick fingers, the sudden interest in a gold filigreed comb, a cup carved from walrus ivory, a silver armlet tucked quickly beneath a stout belt.
Mandegga, voice almost a shriek, “Listen, and think! The only grounds for Orm’s claim being found unjust, is this human judged simply a guest with no place in the order. If that’s the truth, then as the only other female, I must therefore be dominant. And so this room’s my own.”
“And if –”
“And if his claim’s upheld as just, then Orm’s the new leader and I’ll take him as mate,” Mandegga shouted over the continued chaos. “Which makes this my place, whatever the outcome.”
Flokki was quiet, pondering. Another man interrupted. “But if Orm’s claim’s agreed, that means the human is lead female. His claim was only launched through her.”
“But his claim failed,” and more shouting. “The human blooded him at least twice. He didn’t mount her. He was outdone even before the raven attacked.”
“That’s true. I saw no fucking. A fair struggle, but he never even got his prick out before he Shifted and the worm couldn’t fuck a human even if he tried. Orm was barely left alive.”
Mandegga’s chief jarl raised his blade. The steel caught reflections of torch fire and water, scarlet and silver. He killed the man who had spoken last. The body slumped, his blood a congealing mess across the ice. There was a sudden silence and then pandemonium. Only Mandegga’s retinue and the Althing elder carried swords, but every man had one knife or more.
Skarga’s own knife remained buckled within her belt, on the bench where Thoddun’s belongings were strewn and unreachable. She scrambled back against the pillows. Then a second body pitched across her legs, throat slit and blood over the furs.
“Murder in the lord’s own chamber,” someone squealed. “There’ll needs be an accounting for this,” but he was dead as he spoke, kicked small onto the icy ground, scuffled between boots out to the edge of the waterfall, tipped into the tumbling waters and was lost in unknown depths.
Two sprawled, each with his knife in the other’s belly, and a sudden scream as Mandegga’s younger jarl was hurled towards the water’s precipice, and hurtled down, another kick of booted legs amongst the crashing spray.
The crush was emptying, several dead but only one of Mandegga’s men gone. It was the wolf men who were prepared and well armed. Mandegga thrust her lead jarl aside as he stood panting, his blade dripping blood, stepping back from the slaughter to catch his breath. She wrenched his sword from him. Heavy for her small wrist, she swung it two handed, injuring but not killing, whirling in a spin of bright silk and flowing hair. The startled confusion of uncertain men momentarily kept their distance. Mandegga discarded the sword and climbed immediately, hands and knees amongst Thoddun’s furs, onto the bed facing Skarga.
Skarga grabbed Mandegga’s hair, forcing a pillow across the woman’s nose and mouth. She thrust hard. Mandegga lurched back and sneezed, flinging off the suffocating feathers. Skarga came behind and kicked, sweeping both Mandegga’s arms from beneath her. Her damaged ankle jarred but the bandaging added force. The wolf woman, losing balance, tumbled face down, and Skarga hurtled on top, knees on her back, squashing her head down into the bed covers, both hands around her neck and squeezing.
Mandegga was the smaller but carried the strength of the wolf. She twisted and came back up, springing onto her haunches, her face stretched eagerly forwards. Skarga reached for her again but the werewoman kept her off.
Mandegga began to Change. She grew. At first all shadow, the shadow became substance. Her bright slan
ting eyes creased inwards and her nose lengthened, nostrils wide and flared and dark. The dog’s jaw emerged out from the woman’s chin as the tongue slicked thick and red, too large for the small pursed mouth. Skarga cowered back.
Still shaped for speech, Mandegga said, “And now, human fool, I make my claim.” Her teeth were growing. From her saliva they sprouted like heads of corn, curved yellowed canines and a tongue coated in avid slime. Skarga winced, turning away. Mandegga’s breath smelled like the midden heap.
With Mandegga on top of her, Skarga kicked. “Kill me, and Thoddun will kill you.” Her ribs were crushed. Woman’s hands had become paws, claws sharp with the weight of the wolf.
Mandegga, still half woman, smiled a wolf smile. “Kill me? Ignorant human slut. I’m his rightful mate. He’ll bed me, not kill me. The dominant male’s obliged to mate the dominant female and I’ll have him throw you out into the snow.”
Trapped beneath, Skarga glared up. “He despises you.”
Mandegga squealed with laughter. “Shit-ignorant bitch,” she spat. Her russet curls had rolled into deep divisions, entering back inside the woman’s head as it opened, and absorbed them. Across her forehead, the wolf’s grey hair sprouted. The nose thickened again, flattening beneath the eyes. The lips curled around the jaw. For a moment the woman’s cupid mouth framed the tongue, then faded into the full width of snarl. “Did you think it’s him I want? Let the fool despise me, let him hate me, but he’ll fuck me and dance to my chanting. He’s my rightful mate, a tool with no more use than validating my claim. I’ll take my dominance back again with him, or I’ll split the colony and chose my own mate amongst the wolves.”
The noise of the fighting renewed. Skarga cringed and shivered. Crushed beneath the wolf’s weight, her breath was almost gone. “Have the transanima no love then?” she whispered. “Do none of you take a partner in affection?”
“Affection? You fool. It’s power that counts.” The last vestiges of Mandegga’s voice. “If I want pleasure I can Shift, a climax more astounding than anything you’ll ever know. And after that? I’ll rut with the walrus if I have to, who cares about the choice of mate as long as he’s dominant. As a wolf I can lick my own fucking genitals if I want affection.”
Skarga kicked again, grabbing handfuls of coarse hair, ears and scrawny neck. Mandegga panted wolf breath and could no longer speak. Her pleated silk was gone and stubble thickened over her shoulders and back. The legs lengthened, but woman’s thighs beneath the swaying hips spread apart beneath the golden tunic. From the waist upwards, splayed on the furs of the bed, the fur of the wolf gleamed in the torch light. Mandegga growled, lips blackened and curled back from huge pale gums, teeth exposed. It leaned, and bit deep into Skarga’s neck. Wolf saliva smeared her face and Skarga screamed. She felt her own blood seeping hot from neck to shoulder. As her mind lost clarity, she called desperately but silently for Thoddun.
It was as if the waterfall parted. The crashing white torrent and the jumping, leaping spray opened like silvered curtains. Straight through sprang the great dark wings wide spread, and talons stretched forwards in attack.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“All the eagles are so beautiful,” Skarga sighed. “But you were the most magnificent of all.”
Thoddun laughed. “Silly little hatchling,” he said fondly. “And look what a mess you’ve made of my nice comfy eyrie.” The bodies had been hauled out. The blood was sinking, absorbed into the ground ice, a pinkish tinge to the sliding gleam. Some of the furs stank of a gory death, and Thoddun had simply tossed them into the far corner. “And come to think of it,” he added, “what induced you to let Orm anywhere near you? Even a human should surely have picked up a threatening hint of his subtle charms from the Islands, if not before.”
“Aren’t all men like that?” Skarga sniffed. “Besides, he was your Second. I thought you must trust him, and if you do – well – since I’ve no special insights, remember.”
“I remember only too well,” said Thoddun. “But you might guess I’d choose a Second for his leadership and fighting skills, not his delicate sensitivities. Since he is what he is, he’s a great sailor. And the men admire his particular abilities, since both the man and the creature he channels are ruthless. That’s all. Not qualities best suited to a passive Watcher. Not exactly a mother substitute.”
She looked up abruptly, the sniff turned to smile. “When you’re here, you protect me. Absolutely, wonderfully protective. Do you see yourself as a mother substitute?”
He grinned. “Perhaps not.”
“Nor me.” Skarga looked down again. “But then, I never had a protective mother either.” She buried her face tighter into Thoddun’s shirt collar. “I suppose you think I need an awful lot of defending. An inconvenient nuisance, just like you called me.”
“Undoubtedly.” Thoddun had both his arms around her, together stretched at ease on his bed.
“What will you do with them all? Am I allowed to know?”
“Oh, the usual.” His voice was a murmur, just a tickle in her hair. “First the court. Then an open challenge. Nothing to trouble you with. You won’t be involved.”
She curled within his easy embrace. “That woman called me a criminal.”
“Mandegga was always accustomed to control, poor bitch.” Thoddun chuckled. “Top dog. Top bitch. Hard to slip down to the bottom of the pack after once leading it.”
“So you sympathise?”
He stared down at her. “It’s purely a statement of fact. Not of sympathy. I knew her well. No more than that.”
“So it’s true then? She was your wife?” His chuckle had annoyed her.
“Wife? It’s a pointless definition.” Thoddun lifted her chin, looking down directly into her eyes. His own were fiercely brilliant in the candle light. “The word has too many meanings, and most of them hypocritical. To you it means one thing, to me something else. Don’t try to understand the business of the transanima, child. We are not your people.”
She shrank back a little. “Are you warning me off?”
“With you already here, in my realm, my bed, and my life? No, little cub, I’ve invited you in and I won’t warn you out. But there’s small comfort for a human amongst the habits of my people, and no benefit to you to adapt to them.” She heard him sigh. “Orm’s misunderstanding was intentional, and no misunderstanding at all. Unfortunate. For him. And for you. I shall deal with it.”
“You’re going to kill him,” she said. “So you don’t accept it was a justifiable claim. I may not understand everything, but that doesn’t seem so hard to see. He knew I wasn’t, well – what he said I was.”
“He knew,” said Thoddun. “But if he’d succeeded and taken you, then the claim might have been upheld. He has his supporters, and the wolves are numerous”
Other words, almost spoken and then silenced, remained in the air. A transanima, she knew, would have heard the thought. “So Orm lied to me,” Skarga said. “And Mandegga lied to me. You told me once that you don’t.”
“I never said anything so absurd,” Thoddun answered. “Of course I lie. It’s a tool, as useful as any other, and as common amongst the werepeople as amongst mortals. I merely told you I wasn’t lying at that particular moment. I was recounting something of my own past. Lying would have served no purpose. I therefore told you the truth. On the other hand, you, little one, have lied to me consistently.”
Skarga was stung. “I have not,” she declared.
“Another lie.” Thoddun laughed. “Remember, when I hear your words I also read your thoughts. They do not always coincide.”
Skarga subsided. “Alright. I do. It’s usually false pride, and when I feel foolish. You know that too, don’t you? I haven’t lied to you about the important things. So, tell me about Orm.”
“Why?” He shifted, readjusting her position. He knew immediately when, bruised by the serpent and bitten by the wolf, her neck ached, and he angled another pillow behind her. “Amongst humans, any threat to your k
ing comes not from his leasing farmers or his thraells. The threat comes from his brothers, his sons and his most powerful jarls. With us it’s much the same. Only his eldest son or the second in command can challenge the leader.” His hand now wandered, carelessly in her hair, cradling her face.
She sighed leaning closer. “No sons. At least –?”
“No sons.” His fingers tightened amongst the curls of her hair, then relaxed. “But instead of challenging me, which he knew to be useless, Orm came crab-scuttling sideways and aimed for you. He knew you were my guest and not my partner, but still decided you fair prey, being the only female. As the only female you were, by default, the dominant female, and you occupied the quarters of the dominant leader. It was one of the several reasons Mandegga left. Without her presence as a second female, you were the lead. To make Orm’s claim seem valid.”
“So it was valid.”
“The courts would have argued the rights, had he won you,” Thoddun smiled. “But now I have a she-wolf of a more interesting quality. He failed. Without me, little cub, you saved yourself. In doing that, you also saved me.” He raised one finger. “First from the bear back on the journey here.” He raised a second finger. “Now this.”
Pleased but embarrassed, Skarga hid her smile in his collar. “Silly. I didn’t really do either.”
“You did remarkably well, little one.”
Skarga’s growing pride felt as sweet as Thoddun’s fingers in her hair. “So Mandegga came back and tried a different way.”
“And that failed too.”
“But she wasn’t lying when she said this used to be her bed? With you? She was your wife?”
Thoddun sighed again. “Hush, child. What questions. I never married her. I never loved her. I mated with her. Does that seem so different to the arrangements of your people? But now I may kill her. That is also the way of the werepeople. I shall kill Orm, once he initiates a direct challenge, and I shall kill Mandegga unless she exiles herself beforehand. I always eradicate my mistakes.”
Stars and a Wind- The Complete Trilogy Page 42