Peter Brett - The Desert Spear

"We got reason," Raddock growled. "It's our kin dead."

"Case you ent noticed, my kin's dead, too," Ilain said, glaring at him.

"All the more reason to want justice," Raddock said.

Selia hissed, and everyone fell silent. She held the bloody knife out to Tender Harral.

"Tender, if you'd be so kind as to wrap this and hide it in your robes till we get to town, I'd be grateful." Harral nodded, reaching for it.

"What in the Core you think you're doing?" Raddock shouted, snatching the knife before the Tender could take it. "The whole town's got a right to see this!" he said, waving it around.

Selia grabbed his wrist, and Raddock, outweighing her twice over, laughed until she drove her heel down on his instep. He howled in pain, letting go of the knife to clutch his foot. Selia caught it before it could hit the floor.

"Use your head, Lawry!" she snapped. "That knife's evidence and all have a right to see it, but not with two dozen men outside with spears and a defenseless girl numb with fright. The Tender ent gonna steal it."

Ilain fetched a cloth, and Selia wrapped the knife, giving it to the Tender, who stowed it safely in his robes. She gathered her skirts and strode outside, back arched and head up high as she faced the gathered men in the yard, who grumbled angrily and fingered their spears.

"She's in no condition to talk," Selia said.

"We 're not looking to talk!" Garric shouted, and the Fishers all nodded their assent.

"I don't care what you're looking to do," Selia said. "No one's doing anything until the town council meets on this."

"The council?" Garric asked. "This ent some coreling attack! She murdered my son!"

"You don't know that, Garric," Harral said. "Could be he and Harl killed each other."

"Even if she didn't hold the knife, she done it," Garric said, "witchin' my son into sin and shamin' her da!"

"The law is the law, Garric," Selia said. "She gets a council meeting, where you can make your accusations and she can say her piece, before we name her guilty. Bad enough we've had two killings, I won't have your mob doing a third because you can't wait on justice."

Garric looked to Raddock for support, but the Speaker for Fishing Hole was silent, edging toward Harral. Suddenly he shoved the Tender against the wall, reaching into his robes.

"She ent tellin' you all!" Raddock shouted. "The girl had a red dress soaking!" He held Harl's knife up for all to see. "And a bloody knife!"

The Fishers gripped their spears and shouted in outrage, ready to push right into the house. "The Core with your law," Garric told Selia, "if it means I can't avenge my son."

"You'll murder that poor girl over my dead body," Selia said, moving to stand directly in front of the door with the rest of the council and Jeph's family. "That what you want?" she called. "To be named murderers yourselves? Every Fisher?"

"Bah, you can't hang us all," Raddock scoffed. "We're taking the girl, and that's that. Stand aside, or we 'll go clean through you."

Hands in the air, Rusco stepped aside. Selia glared at him. "Traitor!"

But Rusco just smiled. "I'm no traitor, ma'am. Just a visiting businessman, and it isn't my place to take sides in this kind of dispute."

"You're as much a part of this town as anyone!" Selia shouted. "You've been in Town Square twenty years, and on the council near all of 'em! If you've a place that's more home than this, maybe it's time you went back to it!"

Rusco just smiled again. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I got to be fair to all. Standing against a whole borough is just bad business."

"Once a year at least, half the town comes to me, ready to run you out for a cheat, like they did to you in Miln and Angiers and Creator knows where else," Selia said, "and every year, I talk them out of it. Remind them what a benefit your store is, and how things were before you came. But you stand aside now, and I'll see to it no decent person sets foot in your shop again."

"You can't do that!" Hog cried.

"Oh, yes I can, Rusco," Selia said. "Just you try me if you think it ent so." Raddock scowled, and it turned venomous when Hog went back to stand with Selia in the doorway.

Hog met his eyes. "I don't want to hear it, Raddock. We can wait a day or two. Any man puts hands on Renna Tanner before the council meets is banned from the store."

Selia turned to Raddock, her eyes blazing. "How long, Lawry? How long can Fishing Hole go without Bales' grain and livestock? Marsh rice? Boggin's Ale? Cutters' wood? I'm betting not nearly so long as we can go without ripping fish!"

"Fine, you call the council," Raddock said. "But we 'll lock the girl up in Fishing Hole until she has her trial."

Selia barked a laugh. "You think I'd entrust her to you?"

"Then where?" he asked. "I'll be corespawned before I let her stay here with her kin, where she could run off."

Selia sighed, glancing back at the house. "We 'll put her in my spinning room. It's got a stout door, and you can nail the shutters and set a guard, if you wish."

"You sure that's wise?" Rusco asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, feh," Selia said, waving dismissively. "She's just a little girl."

"A little girl that killed two grown men," Rusco reminded her.

"Nonsense," Selia said. "I doubt she could have killed one of those strong men herself, much less two."

"Fine," Raddock growled, "but I'm keeping this," he held up the knife, "and that bloody dress, until the council comes." Selia scowled, and their eyes met as they matched wills. She knew Raddock Lawry could whip the town into a frenzy with the items, but she didn't have much choice in the matter.

"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.

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."