Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 21:17:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: Dark Wishes Installment 39: Part 5 Chapter 12

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.

Comments to quasito_cat@hotmail.com or
quasito_cat@yahoo.com