“To…” She smiled. “Oh, Wayne. You’re so precious.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Why ain’t you told me of this Blatant Barm before? If he was so bad wouldn’t he be the first one you told stories about?”
“You were too young,” she said, sitting back. “And the story too frightening.”
Ooooh… This was going to be agoodone. Wayne bounced up and down. “Who got ’im? Was it a lawman?”
“It was Allomancer Jak.”
“Him?” Wayne said with a groan.
“I thought you liked him.”
Well, all the kids did. Jak was new and interesting, and had been solving all kinds of tough crimes this last year. Least according to Dug.
“But Jak always brings the bad guys in,” Wayne complained. “He never shoots a single one.”
“Not this time,” Ma said, digging into her oatmeal. “He knew Blatant Barm was the worst. Killer to the core. Even Barm’s sidekicks—Gud the Killer and Noways Joe—weretentimes worse than any other bandit that ever walked the Roughs.”
“Tentimes?” Wayne said.
“Yup.”
“That’s a lot! Almost double!”
His ma frowned for a moment, but then leaned forward again. “They’drobbed the payroll. Taking not just the money from the fat men in Elendel, but the wages of the common folk.”
“Bastards!” Wayne said.
“Wayne!”
“Fine! Regular old turds then!”
Again she hesitated. “Do you… know what the word ‘bastard’ means?”
“It’s a bad turd, the kind you get when you’vereallygot to go, but you hold it in too long.”
“You know that because…”
“Dug told me.”
“Of course he did. Well, Jak, he wouldn’t stand for stealing from the common folk of the Roughs. Being a bandit is one thing, but everyone knows you take the money what goestowardthe city.
“Unfortunately, Blatant Barm, he knew the area real well. So he rode off into the most difficult land in the Roughs—and he left one of his two sidekicks to guard each of the key spots along the way. Fortunately, Jak was the bravest of men. And the strongest.”
“If he was the bravest and strongest,” Wayne said, “why was he a lawman? He could be a bandit, and nobody could stop him!”
“What’s harder, love?” she asked. “Doing what’s right or doing what’s wrong?”
“Doing what’s right.”
“So who gets stronger?” Ma asked. “The fellow what does the easy thing, or what does the hard thing?”
Huh. He nodded. Yeah. Yeah, he could see that.
She moved the lantern closer to her face, making it shine as she spoke. “Jak’s first test was the River Human, the vast waterway marking the border with what had once been koloss lands. The waters moved at the speed of a train; it was the fastest river in the whole world—and it was full of rocks. Gud the Killer had set up there, across the river, to watch for lawmen. He had such a good eye and steady hand that he could shoot a fly off a man at three hundred paces.”
“Why’dyou want to do that?” Wayne asked. “Better to shoot ’im rightinthe fly. That’s gotta hurt something bad.”