5 Hall of the Overking O'neill

All the people in the room, quieted into silence, as the door opened again, and Overking O'neill entered. The people backed up, making a path for him. He walked through the horseshoe shaped throng of people, through the empty space, and up to where his ceremonial chair was. Following a few steps behind him was a younger man of about twenty-five.

Kayleigh caught Ciara's eye and raised an eyebrow in question. Very close to Kayleigh's ear, she whispered, "He's his tanaiste."

'Ah.' Kayleigh thought, 'So he is the relative who is elected as his deputy and the chosen successor of the Overking position.'

Kayleigh nodded in understanding.

The Overking O'neill took his seat, and the tanaiste stood beside him on his right. He lifted his left hand, and the door was opened again and a group of five men came in. These men were the breitheamh- Brehons were a group of men who worked as experts in Brehon Law, working as lawyers, jurists and arbitrators, as the occasion called for it. They could make educated arguments, or suggestions, but these were only followed through with, if the Overking approved of decisions.

The breitheamh stood on the left of the Overking. Hall was now officially in session.

The first case was a dispute between two upper class men over the ownership of some cattle.

"I wonder when I will be called?" Kayleigh whispered to Ciara.

"It is very hard to tell, Miss." Ciara whispered. "The cases take place in order of rank in society as well as severity of a charge. If two poor free families go against each other over the matter of a murder, it may be seen first before an 'honour-price' dispute between two families in the chattel owning freemen class."

"I see." Kayleigh whispered.

The matter of the first case was solved in the span of half an hour. One man kept ownership of the cattle, and the second man had to pay a monetary fine to the first.

Moving on to the next case, the Overking called forth his tanaiste, who he said something quietly to. The tanaiste walked over to some of the male servants by the door. The servants exited and returned with a boy of seven. The servants then followed the tanaiste, dragging the boy between them, towards the Overking.

"Well, now that we have Sean present," the Overking O'neill said sternly, "I would like Miss Kayleigh Brown of Derry to step forward."

Kayleigh gulped and let go of Ciara's sleeve. She took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" Kayleigh said trying to make her way forward to the Overking.

As soon as she broke through to the empty space, she heard a gasp from a young man, and many whispers wondering who she was, and wasn't she good-looking?

Kayleigh did a respectful curtsy to the Overking O'neill and heard a nearby woman whisper "She's a doernemed."

"Glad to see you again, my dear!" Overking O'Neill said. "Are we ready?" he asked the breitheamh.

They nodded their assent.

"This case is brought forth by me." Overking O' Neill said. "On behalf of an unmarried woman, Kayleigh Brown, who I am guardian of."

There were a few whispers.

"Because of the nature of the case, I will take a step back and the final outcome will be decided by the breitheamh."

'Smart!' Kayleigh thought. 'After all, all his decisions must be justifiable and defensible to the Ri Ruirech (the provincial king who ruled over all the Overkings).'

"Will the kinman defending Sean please step forward?"

An older man with greying hair stepped forward and stood near Sean and the servants.

Mrs. MacConnell then appeared, as if from thin air, and at the Overking's request gave her first-hand account of the event ending with kayleigh going in a tumble down the stairs. At one point, she grabbed Kayleigh's arm and turned her, so she faced the audience, and pointed with a finger to where the small gash on her forehead still was visible.

When the breitheanh asked if there were other witnesses to the event, some other people present raised their hands.

So, the breitheanh declared that under 'Brehon Law' an offense against Kayleigh's honour had taken place. The discussion now seemed to be centered around the value of Kayleigh's 'honour price', now that she was legally a part of the doernemed class, and what punishments would suffice.

Everyone had an 'honour price', that varied depending on their rank in society. The 'honour price' was the amount to be paid to a person (or their guardian) if their honour was violated by a particular list of offenses.

Listening to some of the suggested punishments, Kayleigh thought that they all sounded too harsh, for the crime committed. Even though he had knocked her down the stair, no one asked for his side of things. It seemed unimportant if he had done it by accident or on purpose; the mere fact it actually happened was enough for these men.

At this point Sean's defending kinman could not get him out of trouble, but the man was doing his best to try and get a lighter sentence for the boy.

After a further lively discussion of ten minutes, it was decided. The breitheanh announced that the boy was to get ten lashes.

Kayleigh wondered if she would be free to leave now. The thought of them whipping the boy made her feel sick to her stomach and thinking how much it would hurt him made her pale. She could already feel the blood draining from her face. She had never seen much violence in her past lifetime, and she was afraid this world would be a rude awakening. She wished desperately that there was some way of stopping this.

A servant walked up to the Overking and bowed. He was holding a whip.

'Dear, God!' Kayleigh thought. 'Find some way to stop this!'

Overking O'neill nodded and the servant handed the whip to the tanaiste.

Kayleigh wanted to yell to them to stop but knew she couldn't. This was the Overking's will and she did not supersede him in rank. If she challenged him and his authority, he could drop her down a social level or two and her life would become immensely harder.

She could do nothing as Sean's small body was stripped and he was struck with the whip.

Kayleigh was bad with blood and she fought nausea. Unable to cope with the emotional and psychological stress, her body shut her down. The darkness closed in as she dropped to the ground in a dead faint.