The Desert Spear

“Everyone’s alright, ent they?” she asked, dreading the answer.

Cobie shook his head. He bent in close, lowering his voice though no one was around. “Lucik’s da passed this morning,” he confided.

Renna gasped, putting her hands to her mouth. Fernan Boggin had always been kind to her when he came to see his grandchildren. She would miss him. And poor Lucik…

“Renna!” came her father’s bark. “Get inside and cover yourself, girl! This ent no Angierian house of sin!” He pointed to the door with his prized hunting knife. The blade was Milnese steel, with a bone handle, and was never far from his hands.

Renna knew that tone, and left Cobie with his mouth open as she turned and hurried inside. She stopped at the door to watch Harl stride out to meet Cobie, who was tying Pinecone to the hitching post.

Her father was wrinkled and gray, but he seemed to only toughen with age, his wiry muscles hard from working the fields and his skin leathern and rough. Harl had wanted to find Renna a husband before Ilain left, but since, he had scared off any boy who even looked her way.

Cobie was taller than Harl, though, and wider, one of the biggest men in Tibbet’s Brook. Hog had chosen him as his messenger because he had more than a little bully in him still and didn’t scare easily, especially with his armor on. Renna couldn’t hear what they said, but her father’s rumbling tone was respectful as they clasped wrists.

“What’s the commotion?” Beni asked from the fire where she was chopping vegetables into the stew.

“Cobie Fisher’s come in from Town Square,” Renna said.

“Did he say why?” Beni asked, her face clouding with worry. “Messengers don’t just come to say hello.”

Renna swallowed hard. “Da called me in before he could say,” she lied, and hurried to the curtain in her corner of the common room, pulling off her dirty shift and putting on a dress. She was still lacing the stays when she exited the curtain and caught Cobie looking at her again.

“Corespawn it, Renna!” Harl roared, and she vanished behind the curtain until she was properly done up.

Harl scowled when she reemerged. “Run and fetch Lucik from the fields, girl, and keep the boys out in the barn. Messenger’s come with dark news.”

Renna nodded, darting out the door. She found Lucik tending the wardposts at the far end of the fields, just before the ground turned black, scorched clean by flame demons.

Cal and Jace were with him, digging weeds while their father worked. They were seven and ten.

“Suppertime?” Cal asked hopefully.

“No, poppet,” Renna said, tousling his dirty blond hair. “But we’re going to put the animals back in the barn. Your da has a visitor.”

“Eh?” Lucik said.

“Cobie Fisher,” Renna said, “with news from your mam.”

Fear flashed on Lucik’s face, and he set off at once. Renna led the boys back and set them to work leading the hogs and cows from the day pens into the big barn. Renna untethered Pinecone herself, leading the mare into the small barn off the back of the house where they kept their mollies and the chickens. Their last horse had given out two summers past, so there was an empty stall. Renna undid the girth, slipping off the saddle and bridle. She turned to get the brushes and caught Jace reaching for Cobie’s spear.

“Hands off, ’less you want a whipping,” she said, slapping his hand away. “Get the brushes and rub the horse down, then go slop the pigs.”

She fed the chickens while the boys went about their chores, but her eyes kept glancing to the door to the house. She had seen twenty-four summers, but Harl still treated her like a child, sheltering her as much as he did the boys.

After a time, the door opened and Beni stuck her head in. “Supper’s ready. Everyone wash up.”

The boys whooped and ran inside, but Renna lingered, meeting her sister’s eyes. Since they were children, the two had been able to speak volumes to each other with but a look, and this time was no different. Renna put her arms around Beni and hugged her as she cried.

After a brief bout of sobbing, Beni straightened and wiped her eyes with her apron before going back inside. Renna drew a deep breath and followed.

The dinner table only sat six, so the boys were sent to eat by the fire in the common room. Having no idea anything was amiss, they scampered off happily, and the elders could hear them laughing and wrestling the dogs through the thin curtain that served as a divider between the dining area and the common.

“We’ll head out first thing in the morning,” Lucik said when Renna had cleared the bowls. “With Da and Kenner gone, Mam is going to need a man around afore Hog starts buying Marsh Ale again.”

“Can’t someone else take it on?” Harl said, his face sour as he whittled the end of a wardpost. “Fernan young’s near a man.” Fernan young was Kenner’s son, named after his grandfather.

“Fernie’s only twelve, Harl,” Lucik said. “He can’t be trusted to run the brewery.”

“Then what about yer sister?” Harl pressed. “She married that Fisher boy couple summers ago.”

“Jash,” Cobie supplied.

“He’s a Fisher,” Lucik said. “He might be able to scale and gut, but he won’t know night about brewing.” He glanced at Cobie. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Cobie said. “Jash is apt to drink more than he brews, anyway.”

“You’re one to talk,” Harl snapped. “Way’s I hear, Hog made you his message boy when you couldn’t pay all the ale credits you owed. Maybe it’s you, ort be up at the brewery, working off your drink.”

“You got some stones, old man,” Cobie said, scowling and half rising from his seat. Harl rose with him, pointing at him with his long hunting knife.

“Know what’s good for you, boy, you’ll sit’cher ass back down,” he growled.

“Corespawn it!” Lucik barked, slamming his hands down on the table. Both men looked at him in shock, and Lucik glared in return. He was of a size with Cobie, and flushed red with anger. They returned to their seats, and Harl picked up his post end, whittling furiously.

“So just like that, you up and desert us,” he said. “What about the farm?”

“Spring planting’s done,” Lucik said. “You and Renna should be able to weed and keep the wardposts till harvest time, and me and the boys’ll come back for that. Fernie, too.”

“And next year?” Harl asked.

Lucik shrugged. “I don’t know. We can all come to plant, and might be I can spare one of the boys for the summer.”

“Thought we was family, boy,” Harl said, spitting on the floor, “but it looks like you’ve always been a Boggin at heart.” He pushed back from the table. “Do as you want. Take my daughter and grandsons away from me. But don’t expect a slap on the back for it.”

“Harl,” Lucik began, but the old man waved him off, stomping over to his room and slamming the door.

Beni laid a hand over Lucik’s clenched fist. “He din’t mean it like that.”

“Oh, Ben,” he said sadly, laying his free hand over hers, “course he did.”

“Come on,” Renna said, grabbing Cobie’s arm and pulling him from his seat. “Let’s leave them in peace and find you some blankets and a clean spot in the barn.” Cobie nodded, following her out of the curtain.