Chapter 10 #2
‘You had no choice, Sereh.’ Erann met her gaze, forcing her to look into his eyes, as he stood in front of a large wooden table where she’d once sat and eaten meals while her parents still lived, and her father held the honoured position of quarter scribe.
‘It was your life or the child’s. There’s nowhere you could have gone.
No one would have welcomed you, no matter what your reason – not at this time of the rotation.
It must’ve been terrible. I understand why you ran away from him when you had the chance.
It was a crazy thing to do, so dangerous, especially on Vatna Jokull.
You were brave.’ His voice dropped to a whisper.
He released her hand and moved further into the steading.
Sereh nodded and swiped the tears from her eyes. ‘And you’re sure he doesn’t know I’m still alive?’ Her voice trembled as she asked the question.
‘I didn’t tell my sister I’d met you on Vatna Jokull, and I certainly wouldn’t have told that bastard.’
Sereh’s fear slightly abated now she knew her secret was safe. But still. Erann’s steading seemed to be abandoned. Where was his mother, his younger brother? She was sure he had one. Hadn’t Aras mentioned him?
But Erann wasn’t finished. ‘What I don’t understand is how you survived that first night or how I survived on Vatna Jokull at all. Do you?’
Sereh shrugged. ‘I know how I survived: Arrow found a cave, and we slept in it – keeping each other warm. But I don’t know how you survived. Have you remembered nothing?’
Erann met her frank question with an unfathomable expression on his face and then dropped his flashing jade eyes back down to the journal he still held.
Sereh waited, the sound of their breathing the only noise. After a long moment, she realised he wasn’t going to say more.
‘Where is everyone?’ Sereh decided to change the subject.
Erann eyed her appraisingly. Then he shrugged.
‘After visiting with Rankil, I have… concerns about his intentions towards my family home and lands, so I came back here, even though my mother and brother are with my uncle and his wife. I fear Rankil intends to destroy this steading.’ He must have noticed the quizzical look on Sereh’s face, because he added, ‘Because of its association with the previous jarl of the Eastern Quarter. It might not stay standing unless someone’s living inside it, and now I know my mother is going to receive the healing she needs, this is my next concern. ’
Sereh’s jaw dropped in shock. She knew Rankil was a terrible person, but would he do something like that?
‘Nobody’s done anything like that for hundreds of rotations.
It would go against every rule and law we live by.
I know Rankil’s a bastard, but surely he would never stoop so low as to burn your steading? He’s already taken so much from you.’
Erann barked a short, bitter laugh. ‘Rankil’s as bad as all the villains in our history combined.
Oh, he says the right things at the Quarter Council and comes across as a decent enough temporary jarl at the Full Council Meeting to the jarls of the Southern, Northern and Western Quarters.
Admittedly, their concerns are with those who look to them as their leader, and not what’s truly happening, here in the Eastern Quarter.
Deep down, he’s plotting. He always has been.
I believe my sister when she talks about his ambitions.
He kills his own children.’ Sereh flinched at the unwelcome reminder.
‘He takes what isn’t his. He insisted on my father’s exile with the other jarls, even though all know those who spoke against him were suspected of speaking falsehoods.
This isn’t a man who baulks at anything.
He has some plan, something I don’t understand, but he’s setting something in motion, and the Gods know where it will end.
I think he’s coming to take this farm. Then I imagine he’ll burn it down as a warning to all those who oppose his wishes to become the permanent jarl of the Eastern Quarter.
Without this steading, without my father, people will have no one else to turn to. ’
‘But we’re a peaceful people,’ Sereh protested. ‘We don’t attack one another. We barely keep weapons. Why would Rankil resort to such violence?’
Erann didn’t answer immediately.
‘He already has everything he could want,’ she persisted.
‘And your family steading – what use is it to him? It’s too far from his holdings.
He couldn’t farm it unless he gifted it to someone else and took the surplus.
He couldn’t travel between the two during the Long Night. It makes no sense for him to take it.’
Erann’s eyes flashed angrily, and she saw his hands were bunched into fists.
‘You’re looking at the land, Sereh,’ he said at last. ‘He’s not.’
‘Then what?’
‘The symbolism of it,’ Erann snapped. ‘He’s trying to erase my father and the history of our family. He wants to rewrite what’s happened throughout the last however many rotations our family have lived here.’
Sereh frowned. ‘Really? Do you think those are his intentions? Does he hate your family that much? He’s married to your sister.’
Erann’s eyes flashed. When he spoke, his voice was implacable. ‘He’s already sent Father into exile, taken his daughter to become his wife, as you remind me. And now he wants to take the home of the former, and rightful, jarl of the Eastern Quarter.’
‘But even so, Erann. I don’t see it, and I’ve lived with the awful man.’
‘Think about it, Sereh. If he holds our lands, the physical seat of the jarlship, as it were, then the people will have no one left to turn to. No one to stand against him. They’ll have to accept he’s replaced my father permanently – as he has done for the last eight rotations.
Without this steading, no one will even consider that I should be the one to take my father’s place now I’ve grown to manhood. ’
Sereh was far from convinced, and yet, couldn’t deny there was something in Erann’s words. Silence fell between them, broken only by his harsh breathing. ‘What are you planning then? You think you could stand against him yourself?’ she queried.
‘For now,’ Erann answered, ‘as weak as we are – my mother, brother and me – we’re still something.
Even without the ability to take part in gift-giving, people still come to us during the Long Day for our aid and our wisdom.
If Rankil angers the farmers, they could pledge their support to us, provided we have this steading.
I took my mother from here, to my uncle’s.
I should have been wiser and brought my uncle here, but hindsight won’t right that wrong. Not now.’
‘Rankil won’t like that,’ Sereh admitted.
‘No.’ Erann shook his head. ‘He wants us gone. His every move chips away at tradition and precedent. He wants my mother dead, alongside my father, for I fear he’s met his death in exile. Rankil wants my home torn apart, and my brother and I reduced to nothing. He wants Ramon to be nothing.’
‘You’re certain of this?’ Even now, and as much sense as it made, Rankil’s ambitions shocked her.
‘You should’ve seen his face when Aras asked if the herb woman could tend to my mother. He looked like he’d swallowed curdled milk leftover from last rotation.’
Sereh could imagine only too well. Rankil wore a permanent sneer that was only made worse by anything he didn’t want to hear.
‘So you’re going to stay here to stop him?’ she finally asked, looking at the cold room. It felt abandoned already.
Erann grimaced. ‘I thought I would. But being here, now, knowing what I do about Rankil, I think there’s another possibility for me, and my family.
One you can help me with, if you’re prepared to.
’ He stroked the worn leather cover of his journal, and suddenly, his voice lost its vigour, dropping to an almost reverential whisper.
‘Thank you for bringing the journal back to me – it’s far more than I deserve, after what I did. ’
Sereh found herself smiling. ‘It’s not a problem. I sensed it was important to you.’ She wanted to ask him more. About the numbers. But Erann was already talking.
‘You know, you could have told me on Vatna Jokull. I’d have helped. Although I guess I didn’t hang around long enough for you to tell me anything. Now, let’s see if there’s something for Arrow to eat.’ His voice rang with humour as they both heard the rumble coming from the wolf-dog’s belly.
As Erann moved away from the table, Sereh appraised the steading.
It was exactly as she remembered it. The floor was raised wooden boards to keep the constant damp at bay.
Surrounding the huge hearth, lay huge flat flagstones.
But the room and its curtains and furnishings looked tired and dirty.
She couldn’t imagine Erann’s mother wanting to live like this, and it made sense that she and Erann’s brother were visiting family.
Although, now she thought about it, Erann must have taken a terrible risk if they had left on what she assumed must have been the first day of the Long Day.
The weather had been brutally cold, and the daylight short.
Unlike Rankil’s steading, the space here was all for living, and while she’d caught sight of the animal barn to the far side of the steading, it was separate.
The steading smelled empty and cold, but at least it didn’t stink of animals living in immediate proximity with Erann’s family.
Rankil’s steading, by comparison, was small, cramped and very smelly.
It wasn’t truly the home of a jarl, but of someone who lacked the wealth to live separately from his herd beasts.
Tail wagging hopefully, Arrow followed Erann as he ventured towards the storage area of the steading. He reached out to stroke the wolf-dog.