Outlanders

Chapter 29: Unrest

Among the mob of returning factory workers, Zoltána trooped down the road with Leif at her side and Eva and the children close behind her.

"Look!" said Leif, pointing to the left, "It's Erdmuth."

"Who?" said Zoltána.

"The woman we met at the Inti port? The deserter?"

Zoltána scanned the crowd. "There she is," she said, a minute later. "Strange-- I wouldn't have thought she was from Textile Town." She paused, frowning. "In fact, I still don't. I'll be back." She drifted away from Leif to Erdmuth.

"Hello, Zoltána," said Erdmuth easily.

"Are you from Textile Town?" asked Zoltána.

"No. I'm from a different factory town south. Very far south, on the coast."

"Then why are you with us?"

Erdmuth sighed, and her walking slowed. "I have a husband and two children back home. For at least..." She thought carefully. "For eighteen months, they've been waiting for me to bring back soldier's wages. But there is no pay for a deserter, and I got none of the Inti gold. If I come home to my children empty-handed, it will break their hearts. I cannot bring them money, but if we conquer Textile Town first, at least I can bring them good news. I can bring them hope."

* * *

Colonel Amaru of the Inti army strode through the temporary camp, watching with satisfaction as his soldiers fraternized with the ones who had just arrived from the other landings.

With a deep breath, he stepped up to the command tent, a green wool-cloth octagon squatting on the marshy soil, and ducked in. This would be his first meeting with the general of the invasion force, and he had promised himself to look strong.

Inside, he suddenly understood why the other soldiers feared the general. She stood like crouching puma, her head penitently bowed, but with her eyes staring viciously up at him from beneath her smooth dark brown bangs. Her slim fingers curled into fists.

"General?" said the officer, forcing himself to keep calm.

"What?" she spat.

For a heartbeat, Amaru hesitated, marveling at how little her mouth had moved. "You summoned me?" he said.

"Then introduce yourself properly."

He stood up straight. "Colonel Amaru reporting as orders, General."

"Good." She paused, reaching for something at her feet, never lifting her chin. "Now, Colonel, how do you explain this?" She throw something wooden onto the ground between them.

Amaru was at a loss. It was a wooden club with copper blades embedded in the side- a typical infantry weapon.

"Look at these cutting edges," the general sneered. "They've been poisoned."

"It is a weapon, General."

"Colonel, you know my military doctrine as well as I do. We want the natives to side with us. That means must kill them only when they give us no other option." The general turned, her sandals scraping harshly over the grass, and began to pace. "Colonel, life is not a battle between good and evil, but between better and worse. The people of this land live in fear and hatred. They are threatened on all sides, if not by warlords and false god-kings, then by the higher classes of their own kind. Tell me, Colonel: if they hear of a horde of warriors sweeping the land, destroying everything in their path, what will they do?"

"They'll fight us, General?"

"Correct. Now imagine their reaction when they hear that their oppressors have been toppled overnight."