Redfork Menace

Hard truths

It was her!" Royce insisted. "She was climbing the bank of the river back to the Blackwood side!"

There were murmurs around the room and Martyn had heard enough.

"How do we know you didn't set the fire? I didn't see you when it started, nor to help get anyone out." He felt a prickle of pride when Royce's face screwed up in an expression of anger.

"That's ridiculous." Royce huffed.

"No more ridiculous than you accusing our sister of conspiring to burn our own people!"

"You didn't see her! Bloody Ben was right beside her, what more proof do you need brother?"

A whole hell of a lot more, Martyn thought.

"Yeah and he's the same man that just had her sentenced to death Royce. She was probably trying to run away!"

"Enough, both of you."

Martyn sat at his father's voice, his brother hesitated a moment before following suit.

"Your loyalty is touching Martyn. But we can't so easily dispute what your brother mentions. After all, she never told me of any plan to gather Blackwood secrets."

Martyn groaned internally, he was surrounded by idiots.

"Harold, surely you know our sister wouldn't conspire this way."

Harold, another of their brothers, was in his thirties but had spent many days hanging with Martyn and Shanda when they were children.

"I agree with Martyn. Shanda wouldn't do this."

"We should wait and judge her behavior in Riverrun." Responded Gerolt, who was a few years older than Harold and decently liked by Martyn.

Another murmur went through the room at the suggestion.

"Has anyone heard from Normon?" His father asked.

Normon was a brother of theirs who spent his time sailing. Last Martyn heard he was in Oldtown, bothering the citadel. Normon was barred entrance since books had a tendency to go missing in his presence. Shanda had every missing tome hidden in their family library. Silence followed his father's question.

"That's too bad. We could use him at Riverrun." Amos had replied at last.

"What will our defense be?" Gerolt asked the question they were all wondering about.

"We deny it of course." Their father responded. "We'll say Shanda is only a woman. She can't be held responsible for this. The heat got to her fragile mind."

Martyn knew his father did not really believe this but his hand twitched towards his sword at the words regardless. It was this backwards rhetoric that had made Shanda feel the need to leave in the first place. It made his blood boil. He knew his sister was twice as smart as more than half of this room full of blithering idiots. Said idiots all nodded at his fathers words, lapping it up.

"Then we'll talk about the Blackwood scum sulling her. Twisting her mind."

Martyn was wound so tightly he was likely to shatter into a million pieces listening to his father talk about his sister this way.

"Maybe we could work in what you saw Royce. Use it as proof of Blackwood influence."

That was enough for Martyn who stood harshly shoving his chair back and leaving the room, slamming the large wooden door on his way out. How his own family could sit there scheming ways to pin the blame on Shanda was beyond him. It made him sick. He would make his own petition at the trial separately from his father and brothers. Stalking off to a guard tower, Martyn vowed not to let his sister's name go down without a fight.
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