he said. ‘Closing the tavern would just make it worse.’
‘Close the border, maybe?’ Darral was reaching for straws there.
‘Crettan might agree to that. Or maybe we could stampede their
Cows. That might keep the Algars busy for a while.’
– ‘I don’t really care how you do it, gentlemen,’ I told them, ‘but
keep the peace. That’s an order, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
Geran and Ildera seemed oblivious to the undeclared war between
their mothers. They’d reached that happy stage of mindless
obliviousness
to everything going on around them that’s the usual prelude
to a happy marriage. I’d seen it before, of course. That afternoon in
Camaar sort of leaps to mind. It always does, since that was the
day I lost my sister. Geran and Ildera didn’t go quite as far as
Beldaran and Riva had gone, but they came close.
The antagonism between Alara and Olane didn’t find its outlet
in open violence, but rather in competition. They tried to outdo each
other in every single detail of the upcoming occasion. They bickered
with false smiles frozen in place on their faces about which of them
was going to provide the flowers. I headed that off by announcing
that I’d take care of it, ‘since you ladies have so many other things
to attend to. Besides, I can do it much less expensively than either
of you can.’ I even fell back on thrift to fend off an incipient clash
of arms.
Then Olane smugly showed off Ildera’s wedding gown, and Alara
began to chew on her own liver over that. She tore Annath apart
and finally found an out of date and ill fitting doublet for Geran to
wear at the ceremony. The doublet was of a faded purple, and it
really didn’t look all that nice, but she crammed her reluctant son
into it and then paraded him in front of Olane with a spiteful little
smile on her face. I assessed the impact of the dress and the doublet
and silently ruled that clash to be a draw. Draws didn’t set too well
with the competitors, though. The wedding supper, jointly prepared,
was a clear win for Olane. She did have access to unlimited beef,
after all. Alara took the one about the officiating priest, however.
Olane’s champion was the clan’s priest of Belar, but Alara’s was the
local Sendarian priest. Sendars are ecumenical to a fault, so Alara’s
priest could invoke the blessing of all seven Gods. I kept my mouth
shut about UL, fearing that Alara might postpone the wedding until
she could make contact with the Gorim of Ulgo. Alara and Olane
bickered back and forth, their faces both locked in those icy smiles
that absolutely reeked of false politeness and were meant to conceal
their real feelings but didn’t even come close to succeeding. Spurious
reasoning about the two priests flowed back and forth until we were
all knee-deep in logical fallacies. ‘Both of them!’ I decided finally,
just to put an end to it.
‘I didn’t quite follow that, Pol,’ Alara said sweetly.
‘Both priests will officiate.’
‘But – I
‘No buts. Both priests, ladies, and that’s the end of this.’ I had to
do that fairly often during that undeclared war.
When the wedding day finally arrived, I was exhausted. if I could
just survive this one day, I was definitely going to give myself a
vacation. I felt that if I heard, ‘But, Olane, dear -‘ or ‘But, Alara,
sweetie -‘ one more time, I’d just scream.
The ceremony, since there were two priests in contention, dragged
on for two hours, and the wedding guests, who were really looking
forward to the post-ceremonial festivities, grew restive.
Ildera was stunningly beautiful, and Geran so handsome that the
village girls of Annath were almost audibly gnashing their teeth
over the fact that they’d let him get away.
I largely ignored the wedding sermons, but I did choke just a bit
when the Sendarian priest invoked the blessing of Torak on the
marriage. This was most definitely the wrong wedding for that.
Then the ceremony was finally over, and Geran and Ildera were
man and wife. They endured the wedding supper, obviously
impatient to go to the neat stone cottage Geran and his father had
built at the south end of Annath’s single street. They definitely had
plans for the evening. Father, Darral, and Grettan kept the peace
during the supper, but that was about as far as the pacification went.
We all trooped down that long street, accompanying the happy
couple home, and then I went back to Darral’s house and fell into
bed. I was absolutely exhausted.
The citizens of Annath and the Algar clansmen were all very
civilized, of course, so the fights didn’t start until after the sun went
down.
*CHAPTER40
I spoke with father the next morning, and he entertained me with
a humorous description of the post-wedding festivities. I always
take father’s accounts of such events with a large grain of salt, since
father has a deep-seated need for artful embellishment.
‘Broke the priest’s jaw?’ I exclaimed at one point.
‘As neatly as you’d snap a twig,’ father smirked. ‘Caught him
right on the point of the chin with his fist. Of course, the priest
wasn’t expecting it. Over in Algaria, people don’t hit the priests of
Belar. He won’t be giving any of those long-winded sermons of his
for a while – at least not until his jaw heals. Then, just after that ‘
Knapp the tavern keeper was trying to get everybody to take the’
fight outside, and some rascal bonked him on top of the head with
a stool.’
‘Bonked?’
‘That’s the sound it made, Pol – “Bonk!” just like that. Knapp
went down like a poled ox, and the revelers continued to break up
his tavern.’
I sighed.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I was looking forward to a day of rest. I guess I’d better go tend
the injured.’
‘They’ll heal, Pol. It was a friendly fight. Nobody even thought
about drawing a dagger.’
‘Broken bones need to be set, father.’
‘You can’t fix everything, Pol.’
‘Who came up with that rule? What are your plans?’
‘I think I’ll go back to the Vale. Chamdar’s in Tolnedra right now,
but I’m sure he’s got Grolims and Dagashi snooping around in
Sendaria. I don’t want to attract attention to this place, and I am
fairly recognizable.’
‘Wise decision. Give my best to the twins.’
‘I’ll do that.’
I spent the rest of the morning tending to the assorted cuts, bruises,
abrasions, and broken bones, and then I went on down to visit
the newly-weds. They were polite, of course, but I got the distinct
impression that they had plans for the rest of the day so I trudged
on home and went back to bed.
In the days that followed Alara rearranged the events of the
wedding day in her own mind so that it became a day of absolute
triumph for her. Oh, well, it didn’t hurt anything, and if it made
her happy
The location of Geran’s cottage down at the south end of town
was slightly inconvenient, but that might have had something to do
with his selection of the site. His mother was a bit possessive about
him and more than just a bit domineering. We all loved her, of
course, but she had a tendency to be just a bit erratic. I probably
should have paid closer attention to that.
There was a world out there beyond the last house in Annath,
however, and it kept moving along, whether we noticed it or
not.
It was at about the same time as the wedding that Taur Urgas
came up with his insane scheme to assassinate emperor Zakath of
Mallorea. The scheme involved Zakath’s beloved, and she was
among the casualties when everything fell apart. After that, Zakath
became obsessed with the idea of exterminating the Murgo race
a commendable goal, I suppose, but it did sort of get in the way
when more important things were going on. Taur Urgas was every
bit as crazy as Drosta had said he was, and Zakath wasn’t much
better. Cho-Ram of Algaria later cured the insanity of Taur Urgas,
and Cyradis, the Seeress of Kell, cured Zakath’s. They used entirely
different methods, however.
I don’t think I’d fully realized just how much my isolation in
Annath had kept me out of touch with current affairs until father
stopped by in the spring of 5349 and told me of the dissension
among the Angaraks. There’s a kind of charm about rustic life, but
the entire world could end, and it’d take several years for the news
to reach a place like Annath.
Then, in the autumn of that same year, tragedy struck my little
family. It was an ordinary autumn day with a chill in the air and
with the leaves of birch and aspen a riot of bright colors. As usual,