Chapter 22

I was surprised at the quickness with which events proceeded, once the challenge had been laid. The news swirled through the rest of the clan and in the face of it, the group of hunters took on an eerie calm, as they took the news in and then quickly went about their business.

I had my share of the grass runner to take care of before it went into the clan smoker, and I meant to grill up some of the back ribs tonight for my own meal, and perhaps I would share it with someone. Tak the Spear came to mind. He had been showing some interest of late, and he was a fine smith, though no shudiki; and there was a pleasing coppery-golden patina in the patterns at his throat and wrists that I found enticing.

I rubbed seasoning and spice into the meat, saving the saltiest for tonight's ribs. There would be baked root of the Moko bush and milk fat to dip them in, as I had traded a bit of the back meat for a small pot of it.

If I wasn't running for my life once the challenge had been settled.

I slipped into Adira's tent once second candle was over. He sat at the back of it cleaning his sonshu with songbark oil.

"So, our friendship has brought me to this, eh, Ita? Challenged by my own blood."

"Belad was set on this course before I arrived, Adira. My coming has only hastened it a little."

"True enough," she sighed, "but I had hopes that I could divert her down some other path." She frowned and threw the oil soaked rag in her right hand down onto the small table in frustration. "And yes, I know — hope will not feed the hungry."

"I am the excuse that Belad has found to make his challenge over, Adira, but in doing so he has revealed his backer, and he has forgotten one thing. Perhaps you have forgotten it as well."

"Tarag's showing his colors at last is no surprise to me, Ita. I have kept him closer even than my dearest friends, but only so I could watch him. What have my daughter and I forgotten?"

"Tarag said he was not in the circle challenging you, but Belad and you were not the only ones standing in the circle when the challenge came. I stood there too."

"You would challenge me too, Ita?" Adira asked with pain in her voice.

"Oh get over yourself you old warrior," I laughed. "I'll take your job only when you're ready to give it to me. No, I won't make challenge, I'll answer it."

"A champion?" Adira squeaked out once it came to her. "You would stand as my champion?"

"Just as the clan laws allow. Only those within the circle can stand, and I was in the circle, Adira. I was at your side, even if I was at the far end of the circle, I was at your side."

"And you were named in the challenge," Adira said, thinking out loud now. "You have a stake in this, no matter if Belad demands otherwise."

"I will stand as your champion, if you will have me, Clan Wife," I said, taking a knee before her.

"Oh get up!" She snorted. "Save the dramatics for the circle. "Are you as good a fighter as you are a hunter then, Ita?"

"Better, Adira. Much better, but I take no pleasure in it, so prefer the role of hunter."

"Once taken up in the circle, the role of Clan Wife's champion cannot be set aside. You will be my champion for life."

"I know."

"You have planned for this, haven't you!" Adira suddenly realized it. "This is why you have avoided arms training with the rest of the guard."

"Yes."

"To what purpose?"

"A day will come when I shall need mighty warriors. Warriors who are led by a wise leader who commands their love and loyalty. This is why I have sought to make a place for myself with these, who you and your people have trained so well. In hopes that someday you would share them with me."

"Hope does not feed the hungry, as you reminded me, Ita, and you should not forget the meaning of that ancient wisdom either. Still, I believe I know what I need to about you, I accept your offer. What may I do for my champion?"

"Remain my friend, Adira. Remain my friend and I could ask for no better."

I returned to my own tent for a while, waiting for the call to the circle. When it came I was wearing my hermis. This one was made of a scaly leather, dark and iridescent scales ran subtle patterns across and through it. The scales were very obviously not of any familiar Sonshi creature, as the scales were much to sharp and angular. The scaled things of this place, including the Shiru themselves, wore much softer, rounder scales. I wore my sonshu belted at my waist with a belt of soft, tooled snake skin. I walked to the circle but stood behind the innermost row of observers, and waited.

Tarag did not keep us waiting, once all were gathered, stepping on a platform someone had placed at one side of the circle and calling out for everyone's silence.

"In the Council circle, challenge was issued. Let challenger and challenged return now to the circle."

"The challenger returns to the circle," Belad bellowed as she strode into the circle wearing only a loin cloth and breast band, as was done in the most ancient of days. Adira followed from the opposite side of the circle, wearing her hunter's cloak, pulled tight about her. Once her first foot was within the circle I brushed past those in front of me and stepped into the circle as well.

"The challenged also return to the circle," Adira answered.

"Get this interloper out of the circle," Tarag boomed. "She has no place in it."

"No!" Came a cry from my left. "All who were in the circle have returned to it. I will bear witness to the facts," It was Garus, another member of the Council, and a friend of Adira's.

"As will I," Semeda the carver spoke this time, and all knew she was no great friend of Adira's, so her words carried some weight with the crowd.

"I did not challenge her," Belad screamed. "You cannot hide behind this outsider, mother!"

"Only those who were within the circle can answer a challenge, daughter. This is well known." The crowd murmured in agreement at Adira's words. "Just as only those within the circle may stand as champion for the Wife of Garak when she is challenged."

Those words sent the murmurs into outright cacophony, especially when Adira dropped her robe to reveal she wore only her Clan Wife robe of office and bore no weapons.

"She is an outsider!" Tarag cried out. "She has no rights in the circle."

"She was named in the challenge" Adira countered. "You brought her into the circle yourself in doing so!"

"Regardless of her status then, I believe her status now is that of the Clan Wife's champion!" Semeda declared. How speaks the council?"

A round of affirmative coughing spoke for the council. This clan, the Garak clan and its people, the Garaki knew. So said the laws of the clan.

"So be it then," Garus affirmed. "The council has spoken. Ita, do you confirm your consent to be named champion?"

"I do," I answered, bowing towards Adira.

"Very well," Garus said, nodding at me in return before raising his voice to the crowd. "Ita is the Clan Wife's champion. She defends the honor of the clan."

This set of what Grandpa Dave would have called a good old-fashioned chaos bomb, and it took some time for order to be restored. My eyes never left Belad's during that time, and hers were trained similarly on me. Tarag spent most of the time whispering in her ear. Finally Garus and Semeda had the crowd quieted down and some semblance of order restored.

"Challenge has been issued, and challenger and challenged have entered the circle." Garus reminded the crowd.

"Belad challenges for status as Garak Clan Wife," Semeda continued. "Challenges for status are usually to first blood..."

"No!" Belad interrupted. "To the death. This is an outsider!" The hate that had been in her eyes before this was greater now and promised to consume one of us completely.