The Desert Spear (61 page)

'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.

Next to arrive was Mack Pasture, at the head of quite a few other farmers, including Jeph Bales. Jeph leaned in to Selia as they came onto the porch.

'Mack's come with no prejudice against Renna,' he whispered, 'and promised me to judge fair, no matter what the Fishers shout.' Selia nodded, and Jeph went to stand with Ilain, Beni, and Lucik on the opposite side of the porch from Garric and Nomi Fisher.

As the morning wore on, a general buzz grew in the air, and it became clear that more than just Fishing Hole was out in force. Hundreds of folk walked the streets, trying to seem nonchalant as they glanced toward Selia's porch on their way to the tailor, or the cobbler, or any of the other shops about the Square.

Last to arrive were the Watches. Southwatch was the farthest borough, practically a town unto itself, with near three hundred inhabitants and their own Herb Gatherer and Holy House.

They came in neat procession, marked by their stark clothing. Watch men were all thickly bearded and wore black pants with black suspenders over a white shirt. A heavy black jacket, hat, and boots finished the outfit, even in the harsh heat of summer. The women all wore black dresses reaching from ankle to chin to wrist, as well as white aprons and bonnets, with white gloves and parasol when not working. Their heads were bowed, and they all drew wards in the air, over and over, to protect them from sin.

At their head was Jeorje Watch. Speaker and Tender both, Jeorje was the oldest man in Tibbet's Brook by two decades. There were children running around the Brook who hadn't been born when he celebrated his hundredth birthday. Still, his back was straight as he led the procession, his stride firm and his eyes hard. He stood in stark contrast with Coran Marsh, a quarter century his junior and ravaged by time.

With his years and his solid bloc of votes from the largest borough, Jeorje should have been Town Speaker, but he never got a single vote outside Southwatch, and he never would, not even from Tender Harral. Jeorje Watch was too strict.

Selia rose as tall as she was able, and that was very tall, as she went to greet him.

'Speaker,' Jeorje said, biting back his displeasure at having to give that title to a woman, and an unmarried one at that.

'Tender,' Selia said, refusing to be intimidated. They bowed respectfully to each other.

Jeorje's wives, some old and proud like him, others younger, including one great with child, flowed around them wordlessly and went into the house. They were heading for the kitchen, Selia knew. Watches always took over the kitchen, to ensure that their special eating needs were attended to. They kept to a strict diet of plain foods with no seasoning or sugar.

Selia signaled Jeph. 'Go and pull Rusco from the store,' she told him, and Jeph ran off.

Selia was always elected Speaker for Town Square, but on years when she was also elected Town Speaker, she appointed Rusco Hog to speak for the Square, so that it would keep an independent voice, as prescribed in town law. Few people were pleased by this, but Selia knew the general store was the heart of the Square, and when one prospered, the other most often would, as well.

'Well come in, and let's have supper,' Selia said when they'd had their ease a bit. 'We'll handle standing council business over coffee, and then on to this last affair when the cups are cleared.'

'If it's all the same, Speaker,' Raddock Lawry said, 'I'd just as soon dispense supper and the rest till the next council meeting and get on to the business of my dead kin.'

'It is
not
all the same, Raddock Fisher,' Jeorje Watch said, thumping his polished black walking stick. 'We can't just take leave of our customs and civility because someone died. This is the time of Plague, when death comes often. Creator punishes those what sin in his own time. The Tanner girl will have her judgment when the Brook's standing business is done.'

He spoke with the authority of one who is never questioned, though Selia was Speaker. She accepted the slight'a common one from Jeorje'because he argued to her favor. The later the hour grew, the less likely Renna's sentence, if death, would take place that very night.

'We could all use some supper,' Tender Harral said, though he and Jeorje were often at odds themselves. 'As the Canon says,
There's no justice from a man with an empty stomach.
'

Raddock looked around to the other Speakers for support, but apart from Hog, who was always the last to arrive and the first to leave, all were resolute to keep the council meeting in its traditional fashion. He scowled but gave no further protest. Garric started to open his mouth, but Raddock silenced him with a shake of his head.

They had supper, and discussed the business of each borough in turn over the coffee and cakes that followed.

'Reckon it's time to see the girl,' Jeorje said when the business of his borough, always handled last, was complete. The closing of old business was the Speaker's to call, but again he spoke over Selia, thumping his stick like the Speaker's gavel. She sent the witnesses out onto the porch, then led the nine council members in to see Renna.

'Girl ent faking'' Jeorje asked.

'You can have your own Gatherer examine her, if you like,' Selia said, and Jeorje nodded, calling for his wife Trena, the Herb Gatherer for Southwatch, who was near ninety herself. She left the kitchen and went to the girl's side.

'Men out,' Jeorje ordered, and they all trooped back out to their seats at the table. Selia sat at the head, and Jeorje, as always, the foot.

Trena emerged some time later and looked to Jeorje, who nodded permission for her to speak. 'Whatever she done, girl's shock is true,' she said, and he nodded again, dismissing her.

'So you've seen the state of her,' Selia said, taking up the gavel before Jeorje could try to take over protocol. 'I move that any decision should be postponed until she comes back to herself and can speak her own defense.'

'The Core it should!' Raddock shouted. He started to rise, but Jeorje cracked his walking stick on the table, checking him.

'Din't come all this way to glance at a sleeping girl and leave, Selia,' he said. 'Best we hear from the witnesses and accusers now, in proper fashion.' Selia scowled, but no one dared to disagree. Speaker or no, if she went against Jeorje, she would be doing it alone. She called in Garric to make his accusation, and the witnesses, one by one, for the council to question.

'I don't pretend to know what happened that evening,' Selia said in her closing. 'There ent no witness but the girl herself, and she ought to get to speak in her own defense before we pass judgment on her.'

'No witness'!' Raddock cried. 'We just heard from Stam Tailor, who seen her heading toward the murder not a moment before!'

'Stam Tailor was rot drunk that night, Raddock,' Selia said, looking to Rusco, who nodded in agreement.