Days of Blood and Fire - Katharine Kerr [86]
“I hereby declare this malover open,” the gwerbret called. “Let the gods strike dead any man who lies during its course.”
He knocked the pommel of the sword three times upon the table, then laid it flat.
“Lord Matyc of Brin Mawrvelin will speak first and lay his grievance. Then Otho the dwarven merchant will speak to answer him. Then the witnesses will tell me what they saw.”
Lord Matyc rose in icy calm, his voice flat as he recounted his version of the incident.
“I’ll admit that I raised a hand to the man, Your Grace,” he finished up. “But I never meant to land a blow. It was just a stupid sort of slap, like brushing away a fly.”
The scribe wrote something down.
“And what did he call you, Lord Matyc,” Cadmar said, “that makes you feel your honor’s at stake here?”
Matyc hesitated, his face turning just the slightest bit pale.
“Unless you give out with the insult, lean hardly judge it, can I now?”
“Very well, Your Grace. He called me a running sore on a leprous she-mule’s cunt.”
Carra laughed. No doubt she was merely anxious, but she giggled so loudly that most everyone could hear, and way in the back of the hall some maidservant or other answered with a snicker of her own. It was too much for human nature to bear. The hall broke, man and maid alike snorting, tittering, guffawing, and outright howling. Cadmar hauled himself up and pounded on the table.
“We will have silence in this hall!”
The laughter abruptly died. Matyc was trembling with shame and rage, his lips bloodless, his face red, his fists clenched at his side. That’s torn it, Rhodry thought. When he glanced at Otho’s kin, he saw them rolling their eyes heavenward, as if in prayer.
“Otho the dwarven merchant,” Cadmar intoned. “Do you deny this charger?”
“I don’t, Your Grace, because he deserved every word of it. How was I to know he never meant to hit me, eh? When a hand as big as your face comes flying your way, you’ve no mind for subtleties.”
The wrangling went on, back and forth, while the great hall grew hot and fetid from the bodies packed into it. Although Otho turned furious, growling each word, Matyc stayed dead-calm, his entire face bloodless by then. Cadmar started scowling, then finally leaned forward.
“I find both of you equally at fault,” he snapped. “This is a stupid wrangle over naught.”
“Naught, Your Grace?” Matyc stepped forward. “He insults me in front of you, my peers, my captain, my men, the common-born servants, these silver daggers. His words shame me here in your very hall and expose me to the mocking laughter of my peers as well as my inferiors. And you call that naught?”
Cadmar hesitated, glancing at the priest.
“A lord’s honor is more precious than gold.” The priest began quoting from the laws. “Without honor in the eyes of his people, how may a lord rule? Will men who mock him in secret obey him in the open? Thus a lord must seek redress for the slightest stain upon that which he treasures.”
“Well, true enough,” Cadmar said, sighing. “But, Matyc, I can’t find you blameless. A slap at a man’s head is a threat. What redress would you have me assign you?” He glanced at the priest again. “What’s the usual price for this sort of thing?”
Before his holiness could speak, Matyc stepped forward.
“I want no coin nor cattle, Your Grace. I demand a trial by combat to let the gods assign the shame and blame for this.”
“That is his lordship’s right under the laws,” the priest said. “But I would counsel against it.”
“I demand my right,” Matyc snarled.
Otho sat down heavily on the floor, his mouth flopped open like a landed fish. Carra clasped both hands over her mouth to stifle a scream. The crowd began to murmur as the gwerbret bent close to the priest to whisper. Suddenly Rhodry saw the way to solve the little problem of Lord Matyc once and for all. He stepped forward with a low bow toward the, table of honor.
“My lords, Your Grace, and all you assembled here.” Rhodry turned to look significantly at various members of the crowd. “Even by the standards of his people, Otho’s an old man. Even if he were a young one,