Dream of Me/Believe in Me

question but she answered all the same. “Yes, I knew.”
    “And you knew why.”
    “I knew you believed my appearance would cause trouble among your guests.” She paused. “You were right.”
    “Yet did you disobey.”
    “Yes, I did. To save my friend, I would do so again.”
    She heard the sharp intake of breath that ran through the crowd, the quick murmurs of disapproval, but that was as nothing to her. There was only his touch, firm yet oddly gentle, and his gaze that seemed to look directly into her soul.
    As though there were only the two of them alone in the world, she asked softly, “Do you think I was wrong?”
    A faint smile flickered at the corners of his mouth. She had a moment to realize that he was a man who admired courage. He dropped his hand but continued to look at her. “It is true I require obedience but I recognize there are circumstances in which there may be a higher duty. Protection of a friend is one such.”
    The crowd murmured again, this time united in agreement. It was wisdom indeed that a man of such strength and power could recognize when even his own laws must be exceeded.
    “You made the right choice,” Wolf said. Relief sped through her but before it could reach very far, he added, “Yet even a right choice has consequences.”
    He glanced at the three men, then again at the crowd. “Had the servant girl, Brita, been abused, it is our way that wergild would be paid. That she is in service to my wife and the insult therefore done to my house, the fine would be steep. A man could be ruined by such payment and left to hire out his sword as best he could to earn his bread. Yet would his life still be his own.”
    He said what everyone already knew, and even if there were those, like Cymbra, who thought it grossly unjust that men could escape true justice for such a crime merely by paying for their offense, they kept silent.
    His voice cut through the night like the great walls of ice that slashed the sea far to the north where the sky rained fire. “But that is not all that happened here. These—” He turned to the assailants and as his gaze settled on them, an unholy light flared deep within his eyes. “These animals laid hands upon my wife.
My wife.”
    Between one breath and the next, steel sang. Bathed in the bloodred glow of the torches, the sword that was as legendary as the man who wielded it moved like a living extension of Wolf's mighty arm to point directly at the miscreants.
    Flatly, he declared, “Your lives are forfeit.” He looked at the youngest of the trio. “Thus does your father agree.” His gaze shifted to the other two. “As do your uncles. You have shamed your houses as you attempted to shame mine. For that you will die.”
    Even as the attackers reacted variously, two stunned and disbelieving, the third still arrogantly defiant, Wolf continued. “Yet out of respect for your families, I will not deny you the chance to enter Valhalla.” He gestured to the older men who stood nearby, watching and silently agreeing to what must be. “Arm them.”
    The crowd roared its full-throated approval. Here was a tale as great as any told of the gods themselves! One man against three. One man claiming justice and vengeance at the point of his blade. One man settling his right to primacy in the only way that ultimately mattered, in battle.
    Feet stamped against the hard-packed earth, hands clapped in unison, cheers rose to heaven. Amidst it all, Cymbra's was an unheard scream.
    “Nooo!”
Oh, God, please no, let him not fight three men at the same time because she had disobeyed. She had sought only to help a friend, surely that was not deserving of this. Surely God would not be so cruel. She wouldwake, discover all this to be a dream. This couldn't be happening … it couldn't….
    Dragon wrapped a steely arm around her waist and held her fast as he drew her back toward the edge of the circle. When she struggled, so desperate that she hardly knew what she was doing, he bent down and said into her ear, “You will not leave this place until this is done, sweet sister, nor will you interfere. So has my brother ordered and so it will be.”
    She subsided against him but only because of the creeping numbness that made everything seem both unreal and hopeless. With stomach-churning horror she saw the grim-faced older men come forward, saw the flash of steel as they cut the attackers free and returned their swords to them, saw the mingled shock and hope in three