Outlanders

Chapter 21: The Inti Plan

The next morning, the warriors stood in long columns, lined up and ready to march down the narrow road for the Inti capital. Qasikay stood at their head, ready to direct them there.

"Are you ready?" asked Zoltána of the telegrapher, one last time.

"Indeed," she replied, looking to the two dozen people who would stay with her. "I'll keep watching the telegram, and we'll take care of the prisoners."

"Good. Stay safe."

"I will, Commander."

With that, Zoltána joined Eva and the children at the forefront of the army. She drew out the speech she had written the previous night. Seeing the people lined up and ready, she took a frowning look at her speech, then cast it at away. The warriors needed no call to action this time.

"Lead the way," she prompted Qasikay.

Qasikay began, and, with a shout and a sweeping gesture, Zoltána led the warriors after her. Their first steps shook the ground.

For weeks, the army marched, stopping at old safehouses and shelters, their stride broken each time the road cornered. As with their last journey, the mountains were deserted. The days spent in a uniform plod down the unchanging road blended in with nights spent sprawled around the crook of a random mountain. No one spoke, except when they dined on the rations carried by their porters.

Near their destination, Qasikay slowed down and led the army off the road. In small groups, the mercenaries marched up to a mountaintop, where the leaders gathered at the summit.

Beneath them stretched an enormous crater.

"Inti Valley," said Qasikay. "We have arrived."

In the titanic depression between the mountains lay a city, with buildings that rose two and three stories high, colored the same stony grey as the safehouses that dotted the Inti roads. In the center of the sprawling stone web stood a dozen gigantic earthen cones, and on their flat tops rested tiny brick structures. Outside of these cones, in the center of the city, a network of stone brick buildings radiated out in a grid pattern, crisscrossed with smooth roads and what looked like thin canals. People in green and blue cloaks ambled along the stone like ants, carrying baskets or leading along black, scruffy pack animals. Halfway to the rim of the circular city, the grid abruptly stopped, giving way to a series of concentric rings, broken by wide alleys. Firelight flickered in most of the city's windows, but the streets were empty.

Soldiers in heavy black uniforms clustered in pits and shallow caves in the mountainsides beyond the city. The needle-thin points of bayonets jabbed at the sky wherever they marched.

"The prisoners did not lie," said Zoltána. "The factory bosses have the city surrounded."

"This is bad," sighed Qasikay. "This is very, very bad."

"How many soldiers do you have in the city?"

"I do not know."

"Can we get you in there?"

"We may. When I left, the invaders did not have wizards. I doubt they have any now. Illusions could fool them."

"Astrapi, find me an illusionist."

"I know who," said Astrapi. "Give me just a minute."

"Are we sending Qasikay as a messenger?" asked Leif.

"Yes," said Zoltána, not moving her eyes from the valley. "We need to know what else we have to work with, and the Inti need to know that we've arrived. If they think they're still desperate, they might try something stupid."