The Desert Spear

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.

CHAPTER 21
TOWN COUNCIL
    p.
333 AR SUMMER

    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.”
    “Oh, did he?” Selia asked. “And am I right to guess I would find your brother Borry around back, by my nice shutters that Garric nailed shut?”
    “Yes’m,” Rik said.
    Selia went back into the house, coming out with a broom and a rake. “Won’t have idle hands milling around my house, Rik Fisher. You want to stay here, you’ll sweep my front walk spotless and have your brother clear the leaves and dead grass out back.”
    “I’m not sure I…,” Rik began.
    “You’d leave an old woman to do work you’re too lazy to?” Selia asked. “Perhaps I’ll mention that to Ferd Miller, the next time I see him.”
    Rik had taken the broom and rake before she finished the sentence. “That’s a dear boy,” she said. “When you’re done, you can check my wards. Anyone comes calling, have them set on my porch. I’ll be back soon.”
    “Yes’m,” Rik said.
    She took a crock of butter cookies and went to where the children played in the Square, sending the swiftest to deliver messages in exchange for a cookie. By the time she made it back to her