stood what her father and brothers had done was
beyond reason. She understood the pain that drove me to do what I did."
170 "Well, she forgave you," said the boy, "but her brothers didn't
forgive her. They said she put up no fight for her honor. That she had
submitted to shame. They couldn't harm her, or, me, because we were
blood, but they banished us, stuck her on a little farm out in the
middle of nowhere, where even the servants despised us."
171 "Didn't fight?" screamed Mad Cat, "I've still got the scars to
PROVE how much she fought. She only submitted when the knife was at her
throat and she realized her life was too valuable to throw away. The
value of it is YOU."
172 Mad Cat sat down on a box. "Damn!" he said, "Great Mountain, will
you forget what happened here today? I want no charges brought against
him."
173 "If you live," agreed Great Mountain, nothing at all happened here
today. But if you die, that's another matter. What do you intend?"
174 "I intend," Mad Cat answered, "to go to his mother and offer her
what I couldn't offer her before. And if those brothers of
hers get in my way, I intend to break their necks!"
175 "You're not going to see my mother!" the boy screamed, "You leave
her alone!"
176 Mad Cat got up. "Boy, don't you understand? I just gave you back
your life. If there had been charges, you would have spent the rest of
your life in punishment somewhere. I don't want to hear another peep
out of you! Maybe you had no father up until now, but now you do!
You're not a man yet. Don't forget your place!