The Desert Spear

“I’ll send runners today,” Selia said, nodding. “We’ll meet in three days.”

Jeph carried Renna out to his cart and they took her down to Selia’s house in Town Square, locking her in the spinning room. Garric nailed the shutters closed from the outside himself, testing the wood carefully before grunting and agreeing to leave.

CHAPTER 21

TOWN COUNCIL

333 AR SUMMER

DAWN CAME THE NEXT day, and Selia’s bones ached as she swung her feet out of bed. The pain had come to her joints a few years past. It was worst when it was rainy or cold, but lately she felt a twinge of it even on the warmest, driest days. She supposed it would worsen ere she died.

But Selia never complained, not even to Coline Trigg. The pain was her burden to bear. She was Speaker in Tibbet’s Brook, and that meant folk expected her to be strong and stand up for what was right. No matter how her limbs screamed, no one ever saw any sign that Selia was anything other than what she had always been, a rock of support they could lean upon.

She felt that added weight heavily as she rose and made her ablutions, dressing in one of her heavy, high-necked gowns. She didn’t know Renna or her sisters well, but she knew their mother, and how Harl had treated her before the corelings took her. Some said she went to the demons willingly, to escape him. If he was at all the same with his daughters, Selia could well imagine Renna needing to kill in her own defense.

When she was done, she saw to Renna, dressing her in one of her own gowns and sitting her up to take some porridge. She wiped the girl’s mouth clean when she was done and left the spinning room, dropping the bar.

She had her own meal, then went outside. Rik Fisher was standing on her walk, holding his thin fishing spear. He was seventeen and not yet married, though Selia had seen him walking with Ferd Miller’s daughter Jan. If Ferd approved the match, they would likely be promised soon.

“Need you to run an errand for me,” Selia said.

“Sorry, ma’am,” Rik said. “Raddock Lawry said to stay right here and make sure the girl dunt leave, no matter what anyone said to me.”

“Oh, did he?” Selia asked. “And am I right to guess I would find your brother Borry around back, by my nice shutters that Garric nailed shut?”

“Yes’m,” Rik said.

Selia went back into the house, coming out with a broom and a rake. “Won’t have idle hands milling around my house, Rik Fisher. You want to stay here, you’ll sweep my front walk spotless and have your brother clear the leaves and dead grass out back.”

“I’m not sure I…,” Rik began.

“You’d leave an old woman to do work you’re too lazy to?” Selia asked. “Perhaps I’ll mention that to Ferd Miller, the next time I see him.”

Rik had taken the broom and rake before she finished the sentence. “That’s a dear boy,” she said. “When you’re done, you can check my wards. Anyone comes calling, have them set on my porch. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes’m,” Rik said.

She took a crock of butter cookies and went to where the children played in the Square, sending the swiftest to deliver messages in exchange for a cookie. By the time she made it back to her house, Rik was done with the walk and was sweeping her porch. Stam Tailor, the first person she had summoned, sat slumped on her porch steps, clutching his head in pain.

“Regretting yesterday’s ale?” Selia asked, knowing the answer already. Stam was always regretting yesterday’s ale, even as he reached for today’s.

Stam only groaned in reply.

“Come inside then, and have a cup of tea to soothe your head,” Selia said. “Want to talk about what you saw, night before last.”

She interviewed Stam at length, and then the others who claimed to have seen Renna pass through on her way to the store. There were too many of these to believe, though, as if the whole town had seen her charge down the street, eyes ablaze and knife in hand. Raddock and Garric had been from one end of the Brook to the other with the bloody knife and dress, and everyone wanted to feel a part of the drama.

“Cobie may have been weak in the flesh,” Tender Harral told her, recalling the scene after Fernan Boggin’s funeral, “but he was honest in wanting to marry Renna, I saw it plain on his face. Hers, too. It was Harl that had murder in his eyes at the thought.”

“My Lucik got in a fight with two Fishers last night,” Meada Boggin told her later. “They said Renna planned to kill her da all along, and tried to trick Cobie into doing it for her. Lucik punched one on the nose, and they broke his arm.”

“Lucik punched one?” Selia asked.

“My boy lived with Renna Tanner nigh fourteen years,” Meada said, “and if he says she ent a killer, that’s enough for me.”

“You’ll speak for Boggin’s Hill, now that Fernan’s gone?” Selia asked.

Meada nodded. “Hill voted yesterday.”

Coline Trigg came next. “Keep asking myself,” the Herb Gatherer said, “why was poor Cobie stabbed twixt the legs? Must’ve been her done it; no man’d do that to another man. Expect she wasn’t as willing as folk say when Cobie visited. Reckon he forced himself on her, and she went to kill him for it. When her father tried to stop her, she must’ve killed him, too.”

In the afternoon, Jeph arrived with Ilain and Beni. He kept close to the women, interposing himself between Beni and Rik Fisher as they glared at each other.

“How’s Lucik?” Selia asked Beni as they came inside.

Beni sighed. “Coline says the splint comes off in a couple months, but it puts us in a bad place, we want to fill Hog’s ale orders. Worried for my boys, too, this feud goes on much longer.”

Selia nodded. “Best keep your boys close to hand. Raddock’s stirred the Fishers into a fine frenzy, and they reckon they’re owed blood. Might be they’re not picky about where they get it. Meantime, I’ll see if I can find any idle hands around town to throw in at the brewery.”

“Thank you, Speaker,” Beni said.

Selia gave all three a hard look. “We all have to do our part, when times try us.” She turned and led them to the spinning room. Renna sat in a chair, staring at the wall.

“She been eating?” Ilain asked, worry in her voice.

Selia nodded. “She’ll swallow what you put in her mouth, and use the privy if you lead her to it. Even worked the pedal on my spinning wheel last night. Just her will that’s gone.”

“She was like that for me, too,” Ilain agreed. Beni looked at Renna and started to cry.

“Would you mind leaving us a spell, Speaker?” Jeph asked.

“Course not,” Selia said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Jeph hung back, giving Ilain and Beni distance as they went to their sister. They spoke in hushed tones, but Jeph could hear a mole digging his fields at thirty yards, and he caught every word.

“She done it,” Beni said. “Never believe she hurt Cobie Fisher, but she was scared to death of what Da might do if they was alone. Begged me to take her away with us…” She sobbed again, and Ilain joined her. They held each other until it passed.

“Oh, Ren,” Ilain said, “why’d you have to go and kill him? I always just took it quiet.”