The Desert Spear

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.
    “Your da always like this?” he asked as they left the house proper.
    “He took it better than I expected,” Renna said, taking a broom and sweeping out one of the empty stalls. Outside, the sun had set, and there were shrieks and flashes of light as the corelings tested the wards. The animals were used to the sound, but still they shifted nervously, knowing instinctively what would happen if the wards failed.
    “Lucik just lost his da,” Cobie said. “You’d think Harl would show a little heart.”
    Renna shook her head. “Not my da. He don’t care about any needs but his own.” She bit her lip, remembering what things were like before Lucik came.

    After Cobie was safely settled in the barn, Renna came back in to the house to find Lucik in the common room, explaining things to the boys. She slipped quietly by and went into Beni’s room, finding her sister folding clothes and packing her few belongings.
    “Take me with you,” Renna said bluntly.
    “What?” Beni asked, surprised.
    “I don’t want to be alone with him,” Renna said. “I can’t.”
    “Renna, what are you…” Beni began, but Renna grabbed her shoulders.
    “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!” she snapped. “You know what he was like before Lucik came.”
    Beni hissed and pulled away, going to the door and pushing it shut. “What do you know of it?” she asked, her voice a harsh whisper. “You were always the baby. You never had to endure—” She broke off, her face twisting with anger and shame.
    Renna glanced pointedly at her bosom. “I’m not a baby anymore, Beni.”
    “Then bind your breasts,” Beni said. “Stop running about in just your shift. Don’t give him a reason to notice you.”
    “That won’t stop him, and you know it,” Renna