Free Fool's Gold by Jon Hollins Page B

definitely never heard that before.
    â€œMostly they ate the soldiers actually.” Firkin shrugged. “Touch of irony there.”
    â€œSo what if they hadn’t attacked?” It seemed to Will that if this whole attacking thing happened then everyone would be happier, along with Firkin.
    â€œWell,” said Firkin, ruffling Will’s hair, “in that case the dragons would have gone and eaten all the nobles, and if there’s one thing the nobles like even less than dragons eating all the farmers, it’s dragons eating all of
them
.”
    Will had never truly considered what Mattrax ate before. Thinking about it now, he felt again some of the fear that he’d felt when he’d seen the dragon fly over him. And while he was mostly convinced Firkin was telling him a tall tale, given Mattrax’s size, the dragon
could
eat a person. Will shuddered slightly.
    â€œSo pretty much the dragons ate the soldiers, and then they ate the nobles,” Firkin went on. “And somewhere along the way, the farmers started fighting too.”
    â€œWhy?” So far it seemed to Will that nobody had actually been threatening to eat the farmers and the whole thing still felt a lot like a giant misunderstanding.
    â€œBecause they were fucking idiots,” Firkin said, with a certain amount of feeling.
    Something about the way he said it felt odd to Will, even at six years old. “Did you fight?” he asked.
    Firkin shrugged. “Let me just figure out how to tell this, would you?”
    Will mimed buttoning his lips. Firkin laughed. Buttoning his lips always made Firkin laugh. And that made Will laugh, though he did his best to keep his lips shut.
    â€œSo the farmers fought. And they did it because… Well, men and women get used to a certain way of living. And even if it’s not a great way to live, they’ll oftentimes fight to protect it. They get scared of a future they don’t know. Like a room you’ve never been in before and there aren’t any lights. So you stay in the room you know, where the lights are. You understand?”
    Will nodded. He understood enough.
    â€œAnd to be fair, when you know the next room has a dragon in it, then you’re probably smart to stay where you are,” Firkin said with a strange, sad smile. “And I think that back when they started out, the farmers really thought they had a chance. Gods still manifested in Kondorra from time to time back in those days. And they seemed to think that the great father Lawl, or the protective mother Betra, or hardworking Toil, or someone would come and deliver them from their woes. Even if all a god normally did when it was manifested was whore around and break bits of the world.” He shook his head.
    Will risked a question. “What’s whoring around?”
    Firkin looked at him and grimaced. “It’s… it’s a bit like running round all the farmhouses and sticking your finger in all the pies, and licking the finger in between without washing it. Except worse.”
    Will imagined every mistress of every household in a rage at him, and wasn’t entirely sure what could be worse than that. Still, he let the issue lie for now. Firkin’s story was a good one.
    â€œDid a god come?” he asked.
    â€œThe gods did jack and shit, Will,” Firkin said and threw away his apple core so hard it broke in two when it hit another tree. “Not a sight nor a sound of them. Not even hardworking Toil, who some said was patron of this place. Not protective mother Betra. Not law-obsessed Lawl. None of them. The farmers got eaten up along with everyone else.”
    â€œAll of the farmers,” Will asked incredulous.
    â€œNot all of them, you dolt,” said Firkin with a roll of his eyes. “I’m still here, aren’t I? Your ma and pa are still here. But enough.” His voice grew somber. “Enough got eaten up. Until we gave up, said enough, said