So, though her heart thumped madly, she moved through the room full of people. The voices slowly fell silent as she passed. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A few candles burned at the table, augmenting the light straining through the warped, pockmarked windows and open doors. The room smelled of tallow candles and lye soap. As always, the Council was seated before the empty fireplace, with clan chiefs on the left, clan mistresses on the right, and white-haired High Chief Burdin in the center.
As she came before the table, Rone smiled at her reassuringly. Some of the tightness eased from her chest at the familiar sight of him and her father in their seats. Perhaps she would be allowed to take her own place.
But then she saw Darrien standing behind his father. Their gazes locked. Horror and hatred burned inside of her. The Council could order her back as his tiam. With a shudder that shook her to her bones, she focused on High Chief Burdin. Though she could feel Darrien’s eyes on her, she refused to look his way again.
“Ah, Ilyenna,” High Chief Burdin said in his gravelly voice. “We’ve heard from your father and just now from Rone Argon. But we’ve yet to hear from you. Can you tell us of your treatment as a tiam?”
Ilyenna’s blood seemed to freeze in her veins. She cleared her throat, her eyes tracing the grains of the floor. “In the short time I was a tiam, I was starved, beaten, humiliated, and—and . . .” She paused and shifted her weight uncomfortably.“. . . and nearly violated, even though they agreed not to harm me by violence or neglect. I was only supposed to submit my sweat.” She finished in a whisper.
More than one Council member shot Darrien and his father looks of disgust. For the term of their service, tiams were property, no better or worse than sheep or cattle. But Ilyenna wasn’t a common criminal. She was one of them—a clan mistress. One who had taken her father’s place in order to save his life, and the Council knew it.
“And were the other tiams treated this poorly?” Burdin asked gently.
Ilyenna managed a tight nod. “Even before some of the clanwomen were made tiams.”
Her father gripped his axe as if he was considering using it. Rone glared at Darrien like he’d already made the decision to use his. Later. With a growing sense of dread, Ilyenna realized that’s exactly what Rone had planned.
He spoke in a voice as calm as the stillness before a thunderstorm. “I would ask Ilyenna to relate to the Council what she saw at the Tyran clan house.”
She locked gazes with Rone. She pretended he was the only one in the room, that she spoke only to him. “Darrien kept me in the attic above his room. One night, I saw three riders approach the clan house.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ilyenna saw Undon and Darrien exchange a quick glance.
She swallowed. “One held the horses, while the other two approached the house. When the door opened, I saw the men in the light—men with foreign cloaks and strange tunics. I believe they were Raiders.”
A cry rose up from nearly every mouth in the room. Undon and Darrien remained oddly silent. She’d expected them to deny it, to accuse her of lying. Their silence frightened her more than their shouts would have.
“You saw the tattoos on their skulls?” asked Zenna of the West clan.
Ilyenna slowly shook her head. “They had their cowls up.”
Conversations erupted throughout the room, so Ilyenna spoke a little louder. “I sneaked down to the kitchen to try to hear what they were saying, but I couldn’t make out their words.”
Rone leaned forward. “I can add my witness to Ilyenna’s. Near Kebholm, two Raiders attacked her. I managed to kill one before the other escaped.” He threw something that looked like poorly treated rawhide on the table. But this rawhide had writing on it.
Then Ilyenna stepped closer. The strange marks weren’t writing, but tattoos. It was one of the Raider’s scalps. She shuddered as she remembered the wet thing Rone had tucked out of her sight after he’d killed the Raider. She looked away, determined not to look at it again.
Clan Chief Shamaron of the Kebs cleared his throat. “A body was found, but it was rotted beyond recognition.”
Samass stood to get a better view of the scalp. His face paled and he sat down heavily. “So there are Raiders about.”
“That doesn’t prove I was in league with them.”
Every eye in the room turned to Undon, the tension so thick it felt like weight on Ilyenna’s shoulders.
Undon wiped his mouth and leaned forward. “I would ask that the room be cleared of all but the Council and the doors be shut.”
Burdin hesitated, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Very well.” He motioned toward the door. People all around Ilyenna exchanged surprised glances, but no one argued. After they’d shuffled outside, the guards shut the doors. Without the breeze coming off the ocean, the room immediately felt stuffy. A trickle of sweat started down Ilyenna’s spine.
Undon bowed his head, as if speaking were difficult for him. If Ilyenna didn’t know better, she’d have believed his performance. “I struck the Argons because I believed they’d attacked my clan, killing many families.”
What game is he playing? Ilyenna wondered. She glanced at Rone. Every muscle in his body seemed clenched tight enough to pull away from his bones.
Undon sighed deeply. “I now believe I was wrong.”
In disbelief, Ilyenna swayed and had to catch herself to keep from falling over.
Her father grunted as though he’d been punched. “You’re saying that killing and enslaving my clanmen—was a mistake?”
Many other Council members exchanged shocked glances.
Undon gestured toward the evidence lying on the table—evidence Ilyenna had already seen. A charred clan belt, a few arrows, and now the scalp. “If Ilyenna truly saw any men coming to my clan house in the night, they were scouts. A week after attacking the Argons, we found signs suggesting the Raiders staged the attacks on my farms to goad me into attacking the Argons, which would substantially weaken our borders and our defenses. I’ve had my scouts out searching for signs of Raiders ever since.”
“Then how do you explain their cloaks?” questioned Tenna of the Kebs.
Undon made a gesture of dismissal. “Some of my men have taken to wearing them.”
“But why the subterfuge?” asked Jenly the Cor. “The Shyle is too far inland to worry about attacks.”
Ilyenna watched as realization dawned on her father’s face. “Because of Shyle Pass,” he muttered.
“Could an army of Raiders come down it?” asked Wynn of the West.
Otec nodded slowly. “There’s a few months a year that the pass is traversable.”
High Chief Burdin jumped in. “If there are Raiders coming down Shyle Pass, we need to know now, yes?”
All the clan chiefs and clan mistresses immediately agreed. Burdin stood, spreading his arms in midair over the table. “We’ll send scouts immediately. They’re to have access to whatever help they might need from the clans, especially fresh horses and food.”
Every head in the room nodded assent. “Each clan, pick your best. In the meantime, I want every clan to send at least two hundred warriors. Two hundred more are to be at the ready in case the Raiders attack by sea. Clans Cor, Carden, and Delya are to have ships patrolling the waters. The orders go out now.”
Ilyenna was completely forgotten as orders were sent out and men called for and dismissed. When the chaos finally died away, Burdin leaned back in his chair. “Now, what to do about you, Undon.”
The Tyran clan chief bowed. “My apologies to the Argons, the Shyle, and even the Riesen.”
Ilyenna’s father jumped from his chair. “I’ll accept no apology from you!” He turned to Burdin. “With enough time, our homes and herds can be rebuilt, our goods replaced. But the damage done by Undon goes much deeper. I have fistfuls of widows and fatherless children. Women violated. I go to bed at night to the sound of their weeping. Undon’s hands are stained with the blood and tears of my clanmen and clanwomen. I have a price to extract for it.” Otec turned to Undon. “I want you dead.”
Undon seemed unmoved. “What would more bloodshed accomplish? Haven’t enough died?”
“Because of you!” Otec shouted.
Undon slapped the table. “No, because of the Raiders!”
Rone spoke up, “You were in league with the Raiders. You only switched sides after your secret was discovered.”
Ilyenna nodded furiously in agreement. “I’m telling you, the men were foreigners.”
“That’s preposterous,” Undon huffed. “I’m a clan chief. Why would I do anything that risked my clan?”
“Money, power, jealousy. Why does any man betray those who would call him friend?” Rone shrugged. “Ilyenna has no reason to lie about the men being foreigners.”
“Yes, she does.” Darrien’s voice was soft, but it struck a ringing silence through the room.
The whole Council swiveled to face him.
He stared at his feet. “For one thing, that attic doesn’t have any windows. For another, it’s far too high to climb down from, or to climb back up. If she’d have been able to manage it, she’d have slit my throat long ago.”