Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [127]
There was little time for either. Liriel abandoned her meal to watch as two burly thralls lugged the chest out and hoisted it up onto a flatbed wagon, to which were hitched two pairs of oxen. Several barrels and crates had already been loaded and strapped securely into place.
Sanja crossed her arms over her bosom and surveyed the heavily laden cart with a critical eye. "Well, Dagmar, an that's lacking are the traditional barrels of oil and meal. Those you can fetch from Hrolf's warehouse before we leave. Not even a First Axe could quarrel with my daughteis bride price," she said with deep satisfaction.
Liriel's eyes widened with astonishment and rage. A female was expected to bring a dowry? in her land, not even the lowly males were subjected to such indignity. Drow males were chosen as mates for whatever merits the females happened to see in them. They were discarded just as easily, true, but at least their families didn't sell them to whatever priestess put in the highest bid!
Before Liriel could speak her mind, Sanja stripped off several of the golden bands encircling her plump arms and gave them to her daughter, along with a spate of motherly admonitions about a wife's duties. The speech was blunt and detailed enough to startle even the fun-ioving drow. Dagmar made her escape as soon as she decently could, her face corpse-white except for the livid stains of embarrassment that slashed across her cheeks.
"i'll go with you to Hrolf's warehouse," Liriel said abruptly.
The young Northwoman only nodded, clearly eager to be away. She took up the lead rope and began to guide the oxen down the road that led toward the warehouses. Liriel fell into step, and they walked in silence past the small buildings that housed the ducks and rabbits that supplied the family's table.
Dagmar paused near the edge of the yard and cast a long look over the kitchen garden. Tending this, Liriel had learned, was one of Dagmar's responsibilities. Between gardening and fishing, the girl was as much a servant as any of the slave-born thralls who served the household. And this was the life of the only daughter of an important and relatively wealthy man! The drow couldn't help but wonder what type of servitude awaited Dagmar in another woman's household.
Two large wooden boxes stood just off the path, full of sand and salty water. Liriel caught sight of a burrowing clam-it seemed that many of the villagers kept a supply of shellfish and edible seaweed handy. She absently plucked a bit of kelp-a tightly whorled bud of some sortfrom the water and began to nibble it as she searched her mind for anything that might ease Dagmar's situation. A look at the girl's stricken face, however, banished all thoughts of diplomacy.
"You don't have to do this," Liriel said bluntly. "Fight your way out of it, if you have to. I'll stand with you. I won't see another female served so badly!"
But the young Northwoman shook her head. "i must go," she said in a distracted voice as she flipped a pale yellow braid over her shoulder. "The First Axe needs a hamfariggen heir who can lead the berserkers in battle. It is my duty to provide one.
"You heard Hrolf speak of Y graine," Dagmar continued softly. "She was my twin-born sister, lost last spring in a sudden squall. The night we two were born, the old women who read the oracles said Ygraine would bring the shapestrong magic back to Ruathym and help restore the ancient glories we have all but lost. And what other path to glory is given a woman of the North, but through the man she weds and the sons she bears him? Ygraine's betrothed was the last young hamfariggen warrior on the island. He is dead. The only shape-strong man on Ruathym is Wedigar, and he must have sons. Ygraine would have gone to him willingly. This destiny now falls to me; can i do less than she?"
Liriel threw up her hands in disgust. If Dagmar was going to take that attitude, there was no helping her!
"But there is something you can do for