Free The Beauty of Destruction by Gavin G. Smith

we had not become fat and lazy. Our warriors trained hard, they raided and practiced warfare, yet we never warred needlessly. We had brought up our daughters and sons well and they would continue the work we had done once we had seen our last sunrise. Then it was all taken away.’
    Anharad took the jug from Tangwen. The older woman’s face was wet with tears now. ‘And that’s the thing that galls me the most. I could accept if another tribe had done this to us, if the Iceni had attacked from the north.’
    Tangwen could hear the fervour in Anharad’s voice as she leaned forwards, the flames in the fire reflecting in her eyes.
    ‘We would have given them such a fight, but if they had won it would have been because they deserved it. There was no chance with the Lochlannach. They were good fighters but we could do nothing against their magic.’ Anharad was glaring at Britha. Britha reached down and took the jug from the other woman and took a long swig of it. ‘It’s over a child, isn’t it?’ said Anharad. ‘That’s why you betrayed us?’
    Britha turned to stare at Tangwen. Tangwen managed to feel absurdly guilty, despite not having said anything to Anharad.
    The Trinovantes woman nodded. ‘I would have betrayed all for my children, which is why you must know I’ll see you dead if you do anything that will harm us.’
    Britha stared at the other woman. ‘I have never seen her,’ she said quietly. ‘They took her before I had a chance to.’
    ‘Does anyone ever see the Horned God?’ Tangwen asked. ‘Let alone get ploughed by him on these nights?’ Many newborns were supposed to be the children of the Horned God. It was why on the night before the wedding the betrothed was accompanied by two others, ideally one of them being the dryw that would perform the marriage ritual.
    ‘I’ve seen some foolish lovers and husbands-to-be running around the woods naked with antlers strapped to their heads, but I’ve never seen the Horned God in all the years I have done this,’ Britha said, ‘Though my people try … tried to avoid the gods.’
    And with good reason . Other than her Father, all the gods Tangwen had encountered, in one way or another, had brought them nothing but ill.
    ‘You didn’t answer her question,’ Tangwen said to Anharad. She did not want to talk of gods. It would have her thinking about her Father again.
    Anharad wiped the tears from her cold skin and shivered under her furs.
    ‘There’s a reason weddings are for the summer,’ Britha said, not unkindly.
    ‘He has enough power and you hand him more,’ Tangwen said, sounding serious despite herself.
    ‘Has he not earned everything he has?’ Anharad snapped back, but Tangwen could hear the defensiveness in the older woman’s voice.
    ‘Aye, he has,’ Britha said. ‘Including his satire and casting out. He has taken oaths in the past not to wed, and he has broken those oaths. Why would he not do the same to you? He cares about the words of an oath only, not its meaning. Look what he did to Guidgen and the gwyllion .’
    ‘Have you never broken any oaths?’ Anharad asked. Britha opened her mouth to answer angrily but then closed it again. ‘Do you think he is an evil man? Or is it because he is not evil enough for you?’
    Britha bristled.
    ‘Enough,I beg you,’ Tangwen complained. ‘Anharad, Britha must ask you these questions.’
    ‘And the more honest you are, the more likely you will get what you want from your marriage,’ Britha said irritably. ‘Despite what you may think, we are not here to judge you.’
    ‘And yet you are no friends to Bladud,’ Anharad pointed out.
    ‘I like him well enough,’ Britha admitted. ‘But I would not be living under his boot. The same cannot be said for your tribe.’
    ‘I like him less since he started to count Ysgawyn as an ally,’ Tangwen muttered.
    ‘He is no fool, he can see Ysgawyn for what he is,’ Anharad said, but she did not look at either of the other women.