“Not that kind of fly, love,” Ma said.
“So what did Jak do?” Wayne asked. “Did he sneak up? Not very lawman-like to sneak. I don’t think they do that. I’ll bet he didn’t sneak.”
“Well…” Ma said.
Wayne clutched his blanket, waiting.
“Jak was abettershot,” she whispered. “When Gud the Killer sighted on him, Jak shot him first—clean across the river.”
“How’dGud die?” Wayne whispered.
“By bullet, love.”
“Through the eye?” Wayne said.
“Suppose.”
“And so Gud lined up a shot and Jak did likewise—but Jak shot first, hitting Gudstraightthrough the sights into the eye! Right, Ma!”
“Yup.”
“And his head exploded,” Wayne said, “like a fruit—the crunchy kind, the shell alltoughbut it’s gooey inside. Is that how it happened?”
“Absolutely.”
“Dang, Ma,” Wayne said. “That’s gruesome. You sure you should be tellin’ me this story?”
“Should I stop?”
“Hell no! How’dJak get across the water?”
“He flew,” Ma said. She set her bowl aside, oatmeal finished, and gave a flourish with both hands. “Using his Allomantic powers. Jak can fly, and talk to birds, and eat rocks.”
“Wow. Eatrocks?”
“Yup. And so he flew over that river. But the next challenge was even worse. The Canyon of Death.”
“Ooooh…” Wayne said. “Bet that place was pretty.”
“Why do you say that?”
“’Cuz nobody’s going to visit a place called ‘Canyon of Death’ unless it’s pretty. But somebody visited it, ’cuz we know the name. So it must be pretty.”
“Beautiful,” Ma said. “A canyon carved through the middle of a bunch of crumbling rock spires—the broken peaks streaked with colors, like they was painted that way. But the place was as deadly as it was beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Wayne said. “Figures.”
“Jak couldn’t fly over this one, for the second of the bandits hid in the canyon. Noways Joe. He was a master of pistols, and could also fly, and turn into a dragon, and eat rocks. If Jak tried to sneak past, Joe would shoot him from behind.”
“That’s the smart way to shoot someone,” Wayne said. “On account of them not bein’ able to shoot back.”
“True,” Ma said. “So Jak didn’t let that happen. He had to go into the canyon—but it wasfilledwithsnakes.”
“Bloody hell!”
“Wayne…”
“Regular old boring hell, then! How many snakes?”