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“And she wasn’t tugging your prick? Or drunk?”
Though he’d give just about anything for Sarya to tug his prick, Bannin knew that wasn’t what Helana meant. He gave her a warning look that had once cowed a tyrant king.
His sister was made of sterner stuff. “It has to be asked—and I won’t be the only one in the village who does. Although,” she said, putting away her shoeing tools, “I suppose that I haven’t seen her drunk in a while. Not that it was ever easy to tell when she was.”
“If it has to be asked, I’ll answer. I saw the trail the demon made dragging his body. Then I followed the trail back to where it started.”
She studied his face. “Bad?”
Bad enough that Bannin was surprised there’d been blood left in the body to leave a trail. He nodded and took another swig, relishing the burn down his gullet.
Alarm darkened the green of her eyes. “Ouin and the other children in the village play out there some days.”
Bannin set down the jug. “So we’d best get the word spread.”
Spreading the word was done quickly enough. Every village had its busybodies and gossips, so Bannin and Helana went straight to them. By nightfall, almost everyone would know—and signs would be posted to anyone traveling north through the forest road.
It was nearing sunset when they turned toward Helana and Aven’s small farm on the southern end of the village. “I need you to stay for supper and tell Ouin he can’t go into the woods,” she said.
Though Bannin always enjoyed seeing the boy, his plan had been to see Helana home, eat a quick meal in the village tavern, then head back to Sarya’s cottage. “All right. But why?”
“I don’t want him getting the idea that he should go hunting the demon himself.” She bumped her shoulder into his as they walked along the road. “It’s all those stories you told him. He wants to a legendary hero like you.”
A legendary hero? Bannin grinned.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t let it give you a swollen head.”
That was one thing Bannin never had to worry about. Not around Helana. “You’d puncture any swelling before it got too big.”
She laughed. “True. Though I wouldn’t need to this time. I’d simply let you read the latest from Mother.”
Oick. “I don’t want to know.”
Helana told him anyway. “As thanks for helping to break the stone curse, a grateful merchant in the city sent to the First a purse full of gold…and the use of his favorite courtesan.”
Bannin scowled. The First was their older brother, also named Bannin. Their parents hadn’t cared to give the second son a different name, so that if the elder died, the younger could slip into his place at the long-held family smithy. Beyond that, they hadn’t cared for their second son at all—or their daughter. Helana would have been married off, but she’d chosen to set up her own smithy as far from their family as she could without leaving Galoth. Bannin had also forged his own path, though his had taken him a bit farther.
“Did the First send the gifts back?” It wouldn’t be the first time someone in Galoth had wanted to thank Bannin for his role in breaking the curse. Even in the village, it was a rare day he wasn’t offered an ale or a meal. And though Bannin wasn’t the sort to throw someone’s gratitude back into their face, he sure as stone didn’t want the First to receive anything in his place.
Yet it wasn’t the first time that mistake had been made. Bannin might be a legendary hero in Galoth, but the description of a big, red-haired man named Bannin also fit his brother.
His sister scoffed. “When has the First ever cared whether he got what was deserved? Or earned?”
Never. Bannin shook his head, then forced himself to stop brooding over a situation that wasn’t likely to change. Even if it did, he wasn’t likely to ever return home. As far as Bannin was concerned, Helana and Ouin were his only family by blood.
Though that put him in mind of other families, and what they ought not learn through gossip. “Does Fas Lergin have any kin?”
“I’d have gone there first if he did.” Helana’s tone said he ought to have known she wouldn’t do any different.
He probably should have. “What of Sarya?”
“Sarya?” Helana abruptly stopped. “Did she get hurt so bad you’ll need to notify her kin? Or are you thinking that with the demon around, she might be?”
“You truly think that I’m not heading back out there to make sure she’s safe?” This time Bannin’s tone said his sister ought to have known better.
Helana only looked slightly mollified. “Should we tell her to come stay in the village?”
“I pity anyone who tries to tell Sarya to do anything.” When Helana laughed at that, he added, “Did she ever tell you what brought her here?”
