The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Thirty-Nine: Scapegoats and Marriages

Laila pushed forward, elbowing past me. She stepped right into Sven’s personal space. She stood, inches from Sven, glaring up at him. 

“This is wrong, father. And you know it. You are dishonoring our house. You are dishonoring your father. And you are dishonoring Hyperborea.”

She stood, hands on hips, face set in granite. 

The soldiers around us murmured to each other. Sven took a step back and looked around at the men around him. I could hear whispered doubts. They were commoners and Sven was a noble, and they didn’t dare disobey him. But they mistrusted his judgment. 

I inhaled and let the anise flavor of the smoke fill my lungs, and then I blew a smoke ring towards Sven. He turned and glared at me. 

“Bind their arms.” Sven said to a nearby soldier. 

“No! Father, listen to me. You will bring down our whole house if you do this. Ren is right, they will use you as a scapegoat. The whole family will fall with you.”

None of the soldiers moved. 

Sven wasn’t looking at Laila. He kept staring at me. I wondered if Laila was getting under his skin. Perhaps we did have a chance to talk him down. I didn’t like hinging everything on Laila’s persuasive ability. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. I didn’t like to rely on anyone else’s persuasive ability. I preferred to use my own. But I had already failed. We couldn’t fight our way out. Even with Fiona and Vincent, I doubted our ability to fight this many soldiers. And we didn’t have either. Further, we still needed to free them. We needed to free them, and both free and cure Leon. And, I realized, we needed to find Quincy. And all I could do right now, was wait and trust in Laila. I didn’t like it. 

“Father, are you listening to me?” Laila said.

“No. I am not. You are my daughter. I do not listen to women. I certainly do not listen to my daughter.”

“Then you’re a fool. No Hyperborean man stands without the support of the women in his life. And anyone who thinks he does, is an idiot.”

“Are you challenging me, daughter?”

“I am advising you, because nobody has been up until now. You are being used. And when they are done with you, they will throw you away and leave you for dead.”

“I am in control, daughter. Do not imagine that I can be tricked.”

“I am your daughter. I trick you all the time. My mother, your wife, tricks you all the time. We know precisely how easy you are to trick.”

Sven smacked her across the mouth. “You will not disrespect me.”

“And who will strike you for disrespecting yourself father? Who will strike you for disrespecting our house?”

“It is my house, not yours. You are a woman.”

He smacked her again. She wiped blood from her mouth and glared. 

“Do you think women have no houses then, father?”

“Women belong to houses. They are possessions. Like a horse or a cat.”

“Do you believe that lie, father? Are you actually that stupid? Or do you actually think you’re arguing with a cat? Do you actually think that you have been deceived and outsmarted by a cat?”

“You have never deceived me!” 

Sven backhanded Laila so hard that she stumbled backward. But again she remained standing. 

“And yet you didn’t know I would oppose you. You didn’t know when I hid Lady Ren inside your own longhouse. And you were there! You fool only yourself, father. If I can deceive you, then your superiors can as well.” 

“Enough! You have been corrupted by these Yssian witches. I will not allow my daughter to degenerate into some sort of Yssian whore.”

I watched Sven. His eyes set hard and nasty. He had made his decision and Laila had lost the argument. He would not listen. So now what? I was tempted to give up. This was all exhausting and I had been through a lot. Laila was yelling at Sven, but he was ignoring her. He looked through the crowd of soldiers, trying to find somebody. 

I shook my head. I didn’t like men like Sven. I didn’t like Hyperborea’s treatment of women. And I wasn’t willing to let Hyperborea impose that treatment of the women of Ys. No. I wasn’t giving up. I wasn’t backing down. I didn’t know how I would do it, but I was stopping this creep and the people pulling his strings. 

Sven craned his head. “I see what is happening here. And I can deal with it. You need to be brought to heel by a husband. We are in a church. I will marry you here off and now. Where is Magnus?”

The bishop shook his head. “A church doesn’t marry people. A priest does. And no priest here is going to officiate a wedding for somebody who violated the laws of sanctuary.” 

“You are not in a position to refuse.” Sven said, stepping nose to nose with the bishop. 

“I am the bishop.”

“And I am a lord. You will obey your better.”

“The church stands apart from the nobility. We do not bow to you.”

“You bow to the king, and I do his will.” 

“I am not not defiling this church by granting anything to somebody excommunicated.”

“I am not excommunicated.” Sven answered.

“You are. I declare you now excommunicado. I declare you expelled from the church. I forbid you to receive its sacraments.”

A murmur ran through the crowd of soldiers. The murmur did not sound confident. 

Sven curled his lip into a snarl. “Then you are not my bishop any longer and I owe you no deference. So now you will marry my daughter or I will kill you in your own church.”

Amy gasped to my left. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing either. He was charging ahead despite excommunication. I had never met anyone so fanatical before. But the soldiers looked uncomfortable with proceedings now. And we could use that. 

“Do you think the soldiers are going to risk excommunication on your behalf?” I asked. 

Sven swung his head back towards me. His eyes looked wild. He opened his mouth to speak.

Magnus pushed his way through the crowd. “Sven, you are going to lose everything if you keep pushing. Don’t do this. His majesty can convince the church to reinstate you.”

Sven shook his head, “What happens to me is irrelevant. What I do, I do for Hyperborea.”

Magnus nodded, “Very well. I will marry Laila here, if you wish it.”

Sven drew and levelled his sword at the bishop. “I wish it.”

“I will not officiate such a marriage.” the bishop repeated.

“Then I will kill you and one of your priests will officiate instead. Know that I will kill priests until one chooses to obey me.”

A priest in the back stepped forward. “I will officiate the marriage, do not kill his excellency.”

“So some priests can listen to reason,” Sven said, turning to face the new priest. 

“Bring my daughter to the altar,” Sven said to Magnus.

As he spoke, Monique wrenched from the soldier holding her and charged at Sven.

“You will not do this!” She yelled.

Sven turned to look at her. And Monique, hands still tied behind her, head butted Sven in the face. Sven’s head snapped back and blood spurted from his now disfigured nose. 

“Monique! No!” Laila cried. 

“You are a minor lord, and I am still your duchess. I will not let you marry off the woman I love!”

Laila turned bright red at Monique’s words. And she opened and closed her mouth several times without saying anything. 

Sven wiped blood from his nose and stared at Monique.

“This is not Ys. Women cannot marry each other. And even a duchess is still a woman. And you are a woman who needs to learn her place.”

He swung his sword and hammered the pommel into Monique’s skull. Monique crumpled to the ground and lay still. I noticed blood running from his lips as she lay on the dirt floor. Laila stared at Monique’s fallen body. Then her eyes narrowed and drew out her bodice dagger. 

Laila didn’t say a word. Instead she lunged at Sven. Sven parried her dagger with the flat of his sword blade, knocking the dagger from her hand. He whipped his hand around and struck Laila in the jaw with the sword pommel. Blood sprayed from her mouth and she fell to the ground beside Monique. 

I took a step forward. Sven turned and leveled his sword at me. 

“I would love to kill you here, witch. Give me an excuse.” He said. 

I’ve stared down swords before. I inhaled and blew a smoke ring at Sven. I kept my face serene, but my mind raced through options. Monique and Laila both needed healing potions. I feared Monique had a cracked skull. She might be dying at my feet. I didn’t know how to fix this.