Peter Brett - The Desert Spear

"Town council meets tomorrow," Selia said when the tea was served. "Early, most like. If Renna ent talking by then, and I don't 'spect she will be, Raddock's going to demand a ruling without her words, and with so much evidence against her and nothing for, reckon he 'll have his way. I'll try and delay till she's better, but that will be up to the council."

"What'll they rule, you reckon?" Jeph asked.

Selia blew out a breath. "Can't say for sure. This ent ever happened before. But the Fishers are in arms, and it's one more reason for Marshes and Watches to preach keeping their young'uns away from Town Square and its temptations. The Tender and Meada won't turn on the girl, but there's no telling what the rest will do. Expect she 'll be strung from the nearest tree, with Garric hauling the rope."

Ilain gave a little cry.

"This ent no small crime, girl," Selia said. "We got two men dead, and one with angry kin. I'll argue in moot until I'm blue-faced, but the law is the law. Once the council votes, there ent no choice but to hold peace and abide."

She looked at Beni and Ilain. "So if there's anything-anything-you can tell me that'll help me when I am fighting for that girl, I need to hear it now."

The sisters both glanced at Jeph, but neither said a word.

Selia huffed. "Jeph, Mack Pasture speaks for the farms in council. Go visit him; see if you can get an idea how he'll vote. Make sure he's got the story straight, and not whatever tampweed tale Raddock is spinning."

"Mack's farm is a long way," Jeph said. "It'll take the rest of the day just to get there."

"Then succor there, and use the time wisely," Selia said, the tone of command returning to her voice. She nodded to the door. "Now, dear. I'll see Ilain and Beni get home safe."

Jeph glanced nervously at Ilain, then nodded. "Yes'm," he said, and headed out the door.

Selia turned back to the sisters but kept her eyes down. "Always wondered about your da," she said, selecting a butter cookie from the crock on the table. "Learned to watch a man after corelings take his wife. Sometimes they…crack a bit. Start acting irrational. I asked folk to watch Harl, but your da liked to keep to himself, and all seemed well those first years." She dipped the cookie in her tea, eyes still on her hands.

"But then, Ilain, when you ran off with Jeph, though his lost wife wasn't even burned yet, I wondered again. What were you running from? And the Harl I knew would have fetched some men and come and dragged you home, kicking and screaming. I had half a mind to do it myself." She ate the moist cookie with quick, neat bites, and wiped her mouth delicately with a napkin. Ilain just stared at her, mouth open.

"But he didn't," Selia said, setting down the napkin and meeting Ilain's eyes. "Why?" Ilain recoiled from the force of Selia's gaze, but she dropped her eyes and shook her head.

"Dunno," she said.

Selia frowned, selecting another cookie. "And there was all the suitors that went to court Renna." She dropped her eyes again. "She 's a pretty enough girl, fit as a horse, with two elder sisters shown to give strong sons. Harl could've made a good match for her after Arlen Bales ran off. Could've had another man to help about the farm; even taken a widow to wed himself. But again, he didn't. He drove them boys off time and again, sometimes at the end of a pitchfork, till your sister's best breeding years were all but gone. By then, Cobie Fisher was as good a match as she could hope for, and the farm in desperate need of a strong back, but still he refused."

Selia looked up at both of them. "I wonder what would make a man behave like that, and have my guesses, but what do I know? Saw your da maybe once or twice a year. You two lived with him every day. Reckon you know better than me. Anything to add to the slate?"

Ilain and Beni looked at her, and then at each other, and then at their hands. "No," they mumbled together.

"Ent no one seen either of you shed a tear over your da," Selia pressed. "That ent natural, when a girl's father takes a knife in the back." Ilain and Beni didn't even lift their eyes.

Selia looked at them a moment, and then sighed deeply.

"Off with you, then!" she snapped at last. "Out of my house, before I take a cane to both your backsides! And Creator forbid you selfish little brats ever need someone to stand for you!"

The two sisters scurried out of the house, and Selia put her head in her hands, feeling her age as never before. Selia had barely dressed the next morning before she found Raddock Lawry in her yard with Cobie's parents, Garric and Nomi, and close to a hundred folk from Fishing Hole, which was just about everyone.

"Are your words so feeble, Raddock Lawry, that you need all your kith and kin to back them?" she asked, coming out on her porch.

There was a murmur of shock through the crowd, and they turned as one to Raddock for their cue. Raddock opened his mouth to reply, but Selia cut him off.

"I will not call the town council to order in front of a mob!" she shouted, her voice making grown men cringe. "You voted yourselves a Speaker for a reason, and apart from those making accusations, you will disperse, or I'll put the meeting off until you do, even if you have to wait out the winter right on my doorstep!"

A sudden buzz of confusion started in the crowd, drowning out Raddock's reply. After a moment, they began to trickle away, some heading back up toward the Hole but most heading down the road to the Square and the general store to await the verdict. Selia didn't like that, but there was little she could do once they left her property.

Raddock scowled at her, but Selia only smiled primly, putting Nomi to work helping serve tea on the porch.

Coline Trigg was the next to arrive, having heard the commotion from her house down the road. Her apprentices, who were also her daughters, took over the tea at once while the three council members awaited the others.

There were ten seats on the council. Each borough of Tibbet's Brook held a vote each year, electing one of its own to the council, to sit with the Tender and Herb Gatherer. In addition, they cast a general vote for the Town Speaker. Selia held the head seat most years, and spoke for Town Square when she didn't.

The council seats usually went to the oldest and wisest person in each borough and were rare to change from year to year, unless someone died. Fernan Boggin had held the seat for Boggin's Hill almost ten years, and it was only natural for it to fall to his widow.

Meada Boggin was next to arrive, escorted by at least fifty from Boggin's Hill who dispersed into the Square. She came up the walk with Lucik, his arm in a sling, and Beni, her shoulders covered in a black shawl to mark the death of her father. With them came Tender Harral and two of his acolytes.

"Parading your injured young'uns around ent gonna get you sympathy," Raddock warned Meada as she took tea and sat.

"Parading," Meada said, amused. "This from the man who's ridden from one end of town to the other, waving a bloody dress like a flag."

Raddock scowled, but his response was cut off as Brine Cutter, also known as Brine Broadshoulders, stomped up the walk. "Ay, my friends!" Brine boomed as he ducked to avoid hitting his head on the porch roof. He embraced the women warmly, and squeezed the hands of the men until they ached.

A survivor of the Cluster Massacre, Brine had spent weeks in a fugue state similar to Renna's, yet now he stood tall as Speaker for the Cluster by the Woods. A widower almost fifteen years, Brine had never remarried, no matter how often pressed, saying it wouldn't be right to his lost wife and children. Folk said loyalty was rooted in him as the trees he cut were rooted in the ground.

An hour later, Coran Marsh came slowly up the walk, leaning heavily on his cane. At eighty summers, he was one of the oldest people in the Brook, and he was given every courtesy as his son Keven and grandson Fil helped him up the stairs. All of them came barefoot, as Marshes were wont to do. Toothless and shaky as he was, Coran's dark eyes were still sharp as he nodded to the other speakers.