“We need to know whether thisdango tells the truth,” he said. “In return for commanding our horsemen, he has promised us wondrous things. We find his tales difficult to believe. You are to work your skills on him.”
Swinging the yoke around, Arwydd looked at Tristan. Her gaze was penetrating. She regarded him for some time before turning back to Gunther.
“I will do what I can,” she answered in a gravelly voice. “He is an interesting specimen, that one. To do this properly, I will need two things.”
Gunther’s eyes narrowed. “And what are they?” he asked.
“I must be unchained,” she answered, “for I must have access to my tools and bottles. And I will need three goats. I must perform a sacrifice.”
Gunther nodded, then gave Balthazar a commanding look. The huge highlander left the clearing again. As everyone waited for Balthazar’s return, Gunther left his chair and walked to the soothsayer. He reached beneath his shirt and produced a rusty key, that hung around his neck from a leather string. He unlocked the padlock securing Arwydd’s chains. Removing them from her body and the yoke, he dropped the chains to the ground. Arwydd carefully placed the yoke at her feet with her precious bottles facing skyward.
As the mysterious woman was freed, Tristan saw many in the crowd recoil, and frightened children scurried to hide behind their parents. Gunther held a wizened finger before the woman’s eyes.
“One false move and you’re dead,” he growled.
Rubbing her chafed wrists, Arwydd smiled crookedly. For the next quarter hour, Gunther explained Tristan’s offer to her.
Turning, Arwydd walked to stand before the prince. Tristan grimaced as she neared. He didn’t fear her, but there was something about her that was disconcerting. Tilting her head this way and that, she looked deeply into his eyes. She grasped some of his hair, then made a great show of feeling it and smelling it. After letting go a soft grunt, she walked back to her ox yoke.
Freed from her chains, she had easy access to her tools. From the yoke’s underside she selected a pair of scissors, then walked back to the prince. Smiling, she snapped the scissor blades open and shut several times. Unsure of what was about to happen, Tristan gave her a deadly look.
“If you harm me, you won’t have to worry about Gunther,” he whispered. “I’ll kill you before he can stand from his chair.”
Saying nothing, Arwydd gleefully snipped away a lock of the prince’s hair. She put the hair in a pocket of her robe, then backed away.
Just then Balthazar reappeared. He was shepherding three common goats. The goats bleated as he led them into the clearing. Another highlander followed him. The second fellow carried three tent pegs and a small mallet.
Arwydd pointed to a spot near the fire. “There,” she said simply.
Balthazar and his companion set about pounding the stakes into the ground and tying the goats to them. They then returned to the crowd.
Arwydd looked at Tristan. “Select one of the goats,” she said simply.
Tristan gave her a skeptical look. “Why?” he asked.
“It is not my job to educate you in such matters,” she snapped back. “But if you must know, the task I am about to perform might not be valid unless the subject in question picks the sacrificial goat himself. It makes no difference which one you choose, provided it is you who do it. I suspect that your life hangs on my pronouncements, dango. Do you wish to keep arguing with me, or shall I simply tell Gunther that you are lying and get things over with quickly?”
Tristan looked over at Rafe, and the chieftain nodded. “Very well,” Tristan answered. “I choose the one in the middle.”
Arwydd walked back to her yoke and took up four branding irons and a knife. She shoved the irons’ business ends into the bonfire coals. She then walked to the tethered goats. Quick as a flash, she grabbed one of the middle goat’s horns, lifted its head, and slit its throat. Bleeding profusely, it wobbled shakily for a moment, then fell dead. Wasting no time, Arwydd starting boning out the goat’s hindquarters.
She soon produced four wet bones. Two were from the goat’s upper rear legs where they met the hip joint. The other two were the smaller shank bones from between the goat’s knee joints and ankles. After wiping them clean with a rag, she walked over to the fire and dropped them into the black pot.
After returning to her yoke she selected a bottle. Uncorking it, she walked back to the fire, then poured some of the bottle’s contents into the boiling pot. The strange white fog rose higher, vanishing into the sky and releasing a terrible odor that smelled like rotting flesh. She then reached into her pocket, removed the lock of Tristan’s hair, and also dropped it into the pot.
Tristan looked over at Rafe. “Does she command the craft?” he asked quietly.
“No one knows,” Rafe answered. “Father always suspected her of it. Most highlander clans have a soothsayer in their midst. But none compare to Arwydd. We are simple folk, and have no way to know if she commands magic.”
Using a pair of tongs secured from her yoke, Arwydd retrieved the blanched bones from the pot. After again drying them with the rag, she placed the bones in a line on the ground. Then she removed the first of the irons from the fire. Holding it against the first bone, she branded it on either side. She repeated the strange process with subsequent irons until each bone had been branded twice with its own distinctive markings.
After picking up the bones, she looked at Tristan and crooked one finger at him. Standing from his chair, he walked to her. Except for the sounds coming from the crackling fire, the meeting place was deathly silent. Arwydd’s haggard features seemed evil and gloating in the bonfire light.
“I am ready to start,” she said. “Be careful how you answer my questions, dango. You might lie, but the bones never do.”
Tristan nodded. “Go ahead,” he answered. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Very well,” she said. “Tell us your name.”
Arwydd looked deeply into Tristan’s eyes. For a moment, he felt dizzy. As quickly as it had come, the sensation passed.
“I am Tristan of the House of Galland, prince of Eutracia,” he answered loudly, so that everyone could hear.
Arwydd squatted and picked up the bones. She put her hands together, then moved them in a wide circle. As she dropped the branded bones to the ground they clattered into a small pile. Arwydd went to all fours to smell the bones and look at them from several different angles. Then she looked up at Gunther.
“He is who he says,” she answered simply.
The crowd immediately let go a collective gasp. As the elders busily conferred, Tristan looked over at Rafe. Rafe grinned back broadly.
Coming to her knees, Arwydd picked up the bones the same way she had done before. She again looked Tristan in the eyes.
“Gunther says that if you are allowed to command our horsemen, the Kilbourne clan will be rewarded in specific ways. Are you speaking the truth?”
Again Tristan’s dizziness came, then left just as quickly. “Yes,” he answered. Then he paused, thinking. “I will also order my sister and my wizards that in the event of my death, it will be their duty to see that the rewards are given to you just the same.”
Arwydd again cast the strange bones to the ground, then crawled around as she interpreted them. It took longer this time for her to form her decision. She finally looked up at Gunther again.
“He tells the truth,” she answered. “If he is allowed to command our horsemen for a time, he truly intends to reward you, and in the exact way he mentioned.”
This time the spectators positively buzzed with excitement. Tristan imagined them asking themselves if thedango would really give so much.
Tristan looked at the elders. From their surprised expressions he gathered that they had fully expected Arwydd to tell them that he had been lying. Confused by her findings, they huddled together urgently.
Rafe leaned closer. “It seems you have caused quite an uproar,” he said. “For your sake, it is good that so many spectators attended this meeting. There is no way that the elders can say that something else happened here. Before these gatherings were made public, the elders were not above such trickery. This time they will be
