Curse Of Blood: Gods & Monsters

Chapter XXV - Brenna

One Year Later...

No single year had ever made so great a difference to the Blackmanes than the one that ended at the twelfth month that followed after the betrothal of Rothgar the Flesh Eater to Frida of the Redtooth Clan.

The shift had began almost as soon as the chief had returned with her kin, little changed but for the subtle lines in her face and the shadows in her eyes that had not been there when she'd left. She was a well-respected, meticulous, and just leader, and that would likely never change, but she had returned with less fortitude and a more volatile temper that had, in the ensuing weeks thereafter, mantled her entire kith in an uneasy solemnity that lasted far longer even than Aila's desponding ire.

Though she was distrait, her restiveness continuing long after they returned, she guarded herself well, most of her clan little knowing just how keenly she felt the weight of her capitulation to Thorgny the Usurper.

It was a powerful and much loved chieftain indeed that could engender so much change in the disposition and atmosphere of those around her; knowing full well the impact she was capable of, she concealed it from all save her closest kith. The veritable force that her humor affected within her clan was practically omnipotent and felt by all. She therefore obviated the outcome so that her karls and nobles alike were ignorant of all that plagued her.

She was, however, content to let the tides of her dark moods alter the lives of her family without stemming the backlash; at least for a time. In that she was like the seasons that invariably altered the landscape. In the end, Aila had either purposefully begun to disguise her worriment or the fury had run its coarse and she was now well rid of it. Her lengthy and frequent perambulations into the Redwood seemed to clear her head and fortify her spirit after a time, for she always returned becalmed, and within weeks of her return she was once again like the Aila of old.

But in Brenna's opinion the largest alterations that had taken place these last few months were those that manifested in the chieftain's sons who were not only transformed physically, but in essentials too. The latter changes were the definitive result of witnessing their mother's protracted ennui and the knowledge that they were the causation; yet she had eventually rallied whereas they had not. Perhaps it was guilt or the work of another unseen force that was taking place, but their inner changes seemed as permanent as those that took place without.

Both were now as tall as Ragnar and gave every evidence that they would soon surpass their uncle's height. There was not one in a hundred sixteen year old males that looked as they did. Feasibly none at all. They had all only just returned from another Klanerting and, unlike the last one, had this time refrained from further bloodshed.

However, the damage was done and they were forever Renic the Bone Crusher and Rothgar the Flesh Eater, cognomens earned during the last infamous Klanerting. The two were now legends in their own right.

If Aila had been pursued before it was nothing to how she was beset with marriage proposals now, for not only was she a shrewd chieftain and a skilled shield-maiden — it was well known that a woman was required to be twice as proficient than a man in order to be considered half as good — but she had also borne two robust sons of almost impossible physical perfection.

They were incredibly tall and broad, and not even yet fully grown. Thorgny, as Brenna understood from Heida, had lately insinuated that they might not be as young as Aila claimed and therefore were both now of marriageable age, looking as they did quite as old as Eirik himself.

It was for this reason that he sent Frida to live with Aila and, in parting with his daughter, was most adamant that she and Roth be married before the next gathering of the clans. Frida was, after all, not getting any younger, for the girl had seen eight and twenty summers already. Her stunted height and fine bones were likely the reason for her yet unmarried state, for who would choose to beget heirs that might indeed be as frail as their mother. She was not even Thorgny's progeny, but the product of her mother's first marriage to the previous Redtooth jarl that had died beneath Thorgny's blade.