"It's not my responsibility to abandon or to exercise," Matt said. "I'm not the lawgiver."
This time there was no sound from the tables. Instead there was silence. A silence so deep and so empty Matt could practically hear the stars moving above the barn.
And then there was a scream from the Vetch side of the room. Ezekiel Vetch had jumped to his feet and was racing toward the Gilhoolie table.
"Fucking Hoggins killed my pig!" He launched himself at Alwyn Hoggins, who dived beneath to the floor. Vetch landed on the table and skidded across its breadth, sending plates and glasses flying. Before he reached the end, four Gilhoolies grabbed him and he was lost in a sea of fists.
"Let him go!" someone yelled from the Vetch table, and a group of men started across the floor toward the Gilhoolies.
"Stop them!" Mouse screamed. "Matt, you have to stop them!"
He hadn't needed her to tell him that. But there was nothing he could do. He was shouting at the top of his voice, but his words were drowned out in the noise from the crowd. He fought to get up, trapped by the weight of the throne against the table.
And then the table was gone, sent tumbling into the center of the room. The giant was standing, arms raised to the room, tears in his eyes. "My cousin's been roont!" he wailed, and then took off across the room. Heading for where the naked boy lay on the floor, curled into a ball.
"You have to stop this," Matt told Orfamay.
"I can't stop anything," she said. "Only the lawgiver can do that."
Matt jumped up from his chair and ran through the litter of broken crockery on the floor. But no matter how fast he ran he couldn't beat the giant's enormous strides,. and before he could reach the boy, the giant grabbed him and hoisted him in the air.
"You roont my cousin!" the giant wailed. "You won't roon another girl!"
He held the boy's neck in one massive hand. With the other he reached down and grabbed the kid's penis and testicles, which were swallowed up in the mighty fist. And he pulled.
The boy screamed in agony. His body spasmed as if he were in the electric chair. But the giant kept pulling and pulling.
Matt finally reached him, tried to peel off his hand, but the giant knocked him back with a sweep of an elbow to his head, and Matt sprawled to the floor next to Mouse.
"Stop him," Mouse sobbed. "You're supposed to stop him."
Matt got back to his feet, felt the floor spinning under him, and took two staggering steps toward the giant.
Too late. Even as he reached to grab the giant's hand the room was filled with a horrible sound of flesh tearing and a howl of agony from the boy.
"Oh, God, Cal!" Mouse screamed.
The giant hurled the kid back to the floor, and as he rolled Matt could see the bloody hole where his genitals had been. The giant opened his hand and displayed his prize. "Never going to roon another Vetch girl!"
"Vetch whore, you mean!" Mouse screamed "Trash like that's only good for burning. Burn her! Burn her!"
The Gilhoolie table flew aside and eight men set out across the floor, heading toward the Vetches. Five more were heading for the girl, who was sobbing on the floor.
"Burn her!" Mouse screamed again. "Burn the Vetch whore!"
Matt moved in front of the girl, trying to shield her. But a heavy plate flew through the air and shattered at his feet, raking her naked form with ragged shards of pottery.
Matt looked around for help and saw Vern sitting frozen in his chair. "Stop them!" Matt said. "You're the leader of the family. Don't let them hurt her."
Vern looked at him, lips drawn so thin they looked like pale worms stretched across his face. He whispered two words. His tone was so quiet Matt was sure no one in the room could hear them. But Matt could read them on those bloodless lips:
Burn her.
The Gilhoolie men were almost on top of him now. Some had steak knives they'd grabbed off the table. Others carried bigger blades.
"Stay back," Matt warned, his hand itching for the axe he'd left back at Orfamay's house. "I'm not going to let you hurt her."
The Gilhoolie in the front grinned at him, and Matt could see blood on his teeth. From where? And then Matt saw Ezekiel Vetch lying on the ground under the Gilhoolie table, one hand pressed to the side of his head where blood pulsed out from the mangled flesh that had been his ear.
"We don't want to hurt you," the Gilhoolie said. "You killed that bitch queen for us. But you don't want to make this stand."
"I'm not going to let you hurt this girl," Matt said again, low and steady.
"The whore is going to die," the Gilhoolie said.
"Not at your hands, Gilhoolie scum." Orfamay's voice came from behind Matt. "We take care of our own."
Matt turned to see the old woman at the head of a mob of angry men and women.
"You'll cover up the truth about what this whore did," the Gilhoolie man said.
"If she's a whore, she'll burn for it," Orfamay said. "But it'll be Vetch fire that chars her flesh."
"You're both insane," Matt said. "She's just a girl. She's -"
A heavy plate struck Matt's forehead and sent him staggering back. He looked where it came from and saw Mouse preparing to launch another one.
"Burn her!" Mouse screamed. "Burn the whore!"
There was a commotion on the Gilhoolie side, and a large man pushed forward holding a blazing torch. A broom, Matt thought as blood from his forehead dripped into his eyes. It's a burning broom.
The man shoved the flaming end of the broom toward the girl's face. Matt dived on top of her, covering her with his own body, waiting for the stench of his own burning flesh to fill his nostrils.
Instead he saw the broom fall to the ground, the bristles lighting the straw that covered the floor. He looked up. There was a pitchfork protruding from the Gilhoolie's chest. He stood absolutely still for one moment, then crumpled down next to Matt.
That was the signal. On both sides of the room, men and women lunged toward each other, wielding knives and forks and broken shards of pottery and any other weapon they could grab.
For the moment, they'd forgotten him. In their blood lust they'd forgotten everything, even the girl whose sin had started the war. Even the flames that were spreading across the floor and licking the walls. Even the man who refused to be their lawmaker.
Matt folded the girl in his arms, then got to his feet. No one noticed as he made his way toward the door.
Almost no one.
"He's taking the girl!" Mouse shouted. "Stop him!"
But they couldn't hear her. The blood had stopped their ears.
Matt slipped out into the night.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The girl slept in the bed in Joan's guest room. Matt hadn't wanted to bring her here, hadn't ever wanted to come back to this house. But he was afraid that the warring tribes would remember the cause of their fight and come looking for her. He couldn't take a chance of being found on the road with nowhere to hide except for woods that everyone here knew much better than he did. He had a feeling they'd think twice before coming here, even if they were sure Joan was truly dead. He'd brought the girl here and put her to bed, then doubled back to retrieve his pack and his axe from Orfamay's place.
He thought the girl was in shock. Her eyes were dilated and he could hear her shallow, gasping breaths from the living room, where he'd stretched out on the couch. Matt had tried talking to her as he carried her away from the barn, but she didn't seem to hear him. Her lips moved continually, but no sound came out. Finally he was able to understand what she was trying to say:
It wasn't rape.
Then what was it? Young love? Forbidden love? Cal Gilhoolie and Tally Vetch's daughter, teenagers from warring tribes, in love despite their families, despite their knowledge of what would happen if they were caught. Romeo and Juliet in the Cascades.