"We're lucky the Daikon found him."  Macander, with the help of one of his men, dragged a beastman into Karux's room and dropped him on the floor.

The man groaned and rolled onto his side, curling into a fetal position.  His nose had been broken and great clots of blood matted his beard and mustache.  One eye had swollen shut and the cheek below it appeared to have been crushed.  It had swollen to a bright purple bruise that nearly matched the wine-colored stain on his face.  He clutched himself with one good hand while the other, its fingers swollen and bent, appeared as if someone had stamped on it until every bone had shattered.  He looked like a piece of raw and well-tenderized meat.

Macander handed Karux a helmet fashioned from a drwg's head.  "The local men are outraged.  The only reason he's alive is because the locals couldn't decide whether to hang him or stone him.  This gave the Daikon a chance to drag him away."

Karux looked down at him in disgust.  "Arm the spears and station them outside the building.  Let none of the locals in without my word."

"You mean to protect him?"

"I mean to talk to him first, find out why they did this.  We'll decide what to do with him later."

"Very well."  Macander turned to leave.

"Also, bring me a drinking bowl of water."

Macander hurried off with a puzzled look.

Karux crouched next to the beastman and listened to the gurgling wheeze of his breathing.  The man's one good eye was screwed shut in pain.  He couldn't tell if the man were conscious or not.

He should hate the man.  He should be filled with rage.  He had found here the same acceptance, caring and good humor he remembered in his home village.  He could understand why Theris would want to settle down near here.  Karux had even thought of making a home here someday, but as he stared at the broken man groaning on the ground, he didn't feel hate, only overwhelming confusion.

He had known men to attack each other over jealousy, revenge or even greed.  The angorym and the drwg he could understand; they saw men as prey and food.  But what would make a man butcher people he didn't even know?  This attack was senseless.  What did they gain by this?  Or were they simply driven by a mad desire to lash out and destroy?

Karux remembered a time as a young child when his father and uncle Naipho had killed a culled animal for the meal.  He, Theris and Amantis, had watched in horrified fascination while Macander had run away crying.  A few days later, Amantis had stuck a knife in the throat of one of the goats in his care and watched it bleed and struggle and die.  Karux and Theris had wasted no time in telling their fathers.  Arrain had lectured Amantis about cruelty, about waste and the need to care for their animals.  As punishment he made Amantis clean and dress the goat.  The task would have crushed him or Theris for they were still young enough they named their animals, but Amantis took a dark delight in pulling out its organs, cutting off its head and feet and ripping the skin from the carcass.

As Karux knelt beside the beastman and wondered if a man might engage in such bloody cruelty purely for the sense of power it gave him over others, he felt the first flicker of hatred.

A reaver returned and handed Karux a cup of water.  Karux put it to the beastman's mouth.  "Are you thirsty?  Can you drink?"

The man opened his good eye, looked at Karux then opened his mouth and tried to raise his head.

Karux cradled his head and poured the water over his broken teeth.  "My name is Karux.  What's yours?"

The man choked and sputtered.  "Kaelis."

"Where are you from, Kaelis?"

"A little korion southeast of here."

"And your men?  Are they from the same place?"

"No.  They're from other koria."

"What brings you here?  Why did you attack us?"

"We were sent to punish you."

"Punish us?  For what?"

"For being an enemy of humanity."

Karux rocked back, stunned.  "You dress up as animals, indiscriminately kill men women and children and call us enemies of humanity?"

"We visited every korion along the edge of the blight but each one refused to join the collective.  You horde your food and resources while your neighbors to the south starve!  Entire koria have been emptied!  We thought this was because you were simply greedy, but our oracle has told us that the oracle of the north has caused the blight to force us to let him rule over us."

"Your oracle?  That lying bastard Amantis?"

"How dare you call him that?"

Karux dropped the bowl and grabbed the front of the man's tunic.  "I dare because, unlike you, I know him.  I grew up with that little goat-turd.  I even trusted him once until he betrayed me and destroyed our korion.  He has deceived you.  He will betray and destroy you as well."

"You lie!"

"I have spoken with the elementals and conversed with the servants of Heaven.  They tell me Amantis has cursed the land and used the blight to force you to sell your freedom for a little bread."

The man laughed derisively.  "How could you know such things?"

Karux's anger flared.  He rose, letting the man drop to the rush-strewn floor.  "Because I am the oracle of the north."

The man groaned as his head hit the floor, yet he continued laughing.  "If you are a true oracle, then you've already seen the swarms of spears we are about to send your way.  You will not be able to stop us.  You will all face the judgment of Nur and be destroyed!"

The image of a past vision flickered across Karux's mind's eye.  He stood on a hill in the midst of a plain and watched as thousands of corpses rose and took up spears, like an endless field of bronze-tipped wheat.

Was it true?  If Amantis was already gathering such an enormous host, had they been wasting their time trying to defend the villages along the border?  Should they have gathered their strength and launched an attack before Amantis could have gathered his forces?  A surprise attack might have thwarted what was to come.

One of his reavers poked his head inside.  "The crowd has learned we have one of the beastmen and is getting restless."

"Watch him." Karux gestured at the man on the floor.  "Make sure no harm comes to our guest."  He stepped out into the antechamber and could hear the shouting as he approached the front door.

"We know he's in there!"

"He killed my son!"

"He's burned down our houses.  He deserves to die!"

"Send him outside!"

The reavers had lined up across the front of the building two ranks deep.  None of the local recruits had remained with the tireav defending the building.  Karux tapped the shoulder of the man in front of him and moved in between the two ranks.  The front rank, a mix of northmen and daikon, stood holding their spears sideways, an improvised barrier of wood which flexed like a snake as the crowd pushed against them. The reavers struggled to stand their ground.  The second rank stood with their spears at the ready, bronze spearheads hovering over the shoulders of the men in front, ready to strike out at the crowd.  In the back of his mind, Karux couldn't help but wish they held a better barrier.

Men and women screamed at them, their eyes and teeth flashing in their darkened blood and soot stained faces.  Karux watched some of the older children picking up rocks and noticed several armed reavers shouting in the crowd.  He knew he had to act or more blood would be shed before the sun rose again.

"Men of Korion-Athrion, hear me!"

"Give us the beastman!" the crowd demanded.

"We are not yet safe!  More reavers are coming!" 

This seemed to get their attention and some of the louder ones quieted down. 

"These so-called beastmen are really from Nur.  They are an advance force of reavers who envy our green lands and seek to take them from us.  Many more will follow."

Some in the crowd heard and cried out, "We must stop them!  What can we do?"

First we must send messengers to each of the koria along the border.  We must warn them so that no one will be caught by surprise again."

"Will that be sufficient?" one of the elders asked.  "Will they stand and fight, or will they flee?  Everyone is afraid of the beastmen already."

"Gather the fallen beastmen.  Put their helmets on them and tie them each to a donkey.  Parade them through every korion along the border.  Tell the koria what has happened here and what we have heard."

"It won't be enough."  Another elder shook his head.  "Thousands of men live in Nur.  There is no way under heaven our little koria can stop them."

Karux turned on the elder.  "You speak of heaven; have you no faith in the mountain?  The High Lord warned us this would happen and told us to prepare.  Would he have bothered if we had no hope?  Put your faith in the mountain.  Follow the path laid out before you and no matter what dark valleys it takes you through, you will pass through victorious!"

The adults grew quiet and thoughtful.  The children held onto their rocks, giving the adults questioning looks as if wondering whether to let them fly.

"Show the other koria the truth about the beastmen.  I will take the captive to the elders at Har-Tor.  There, we will learn all he knows of Nur's plans and I will convince the elders to send us more spears from the north."

The crowd grumbled.  Some liked the plan, others thought it pointless.

"I need one of you to come with me to bear witness of what happened here."

More grumbling followed.  A big middle-aged man with a receding hairline and the first streaks of gray appearing in his beard stepped forward.  "I'll go.  Those monsters have destroyed my entire family."  His voice cracked with barely suppressed grief like a rock escarpment breaking free from a cliff face to crush everything in its path.  "I'll see they understand what has happened here and that justice is done!"

The crowd slowly broke up.  The man's neighbors laid comforting hands on him and offered condolences.

Karux found Macander standing nearby.  "Split up the local reavers.  Divide them among the Daikon and the northerners and watch that no one sows any trouble."

Macander looked out over the crowd where the local men spoke together in low urgent tones.  "It would be best to keep them busy, but hard drills and long watches will only work for so long.  When will you return?"

"Not before I've extracted a promise of more men and seen them begin to make good on it."

"What shall I do until you return?"

"Improvise."

-=====|==

Amantis stood in the covered portico of his house enjoying a hot bowl of morning chaia, which now cost half a day's labor.  Only a couple of years earlier the raucous cries of vendors would have filled the street as they competed to sell their wares, each trying to collect the most wealth possible for himself.

Now the few people quietly scurrying the city's streets gathered, processed, produced and assembled their wares for the good of the city.  Everything went into the city's massive warehouses to be rationed out as he saw fit, nice, neat, orderly and rational.

Amantis took a deep breath, enjoying the bright smell of the future.  So much change in such a short time!  Nothing remained to prevent him from changing the world korion by korion.  Already he had begun thinking of Mari, that giant city in the west along the Burat River, surrounded by rich koria untouched by the blight.

An old man in once-fine clothes now gone thread-bare, trudged up the street toward the hill on which Amantis' house stood.  Amantis tugged his soft new robe a little more snugly around himself.  Even clothing had become harder to get now that the weavers and tailors had discovered that the best way to feed their families was to help grow or catch the food they needed.  Still, Amantis made sure his personal tailors were provided for.

As he neared, Amantis recognized the elder Taelik.  He bore a clay tablet and an angry frown.  "Hello."  Amantis called out.  "How are you on this fine day?"

"What's the meaning of this?"  Taelik waved the clay tablet at Amantis without preamble after having wheezed to the top of the steps.

"Are you referring to the city's generous offer to compensate you for your contributions to the common good?"

"I'm talking about you confiscating all my product and equipment."

Amantis shrugged.  "Everyone must contribute their fair share."

"Does 'fair share' mean everything?"

"Those who have been blessed with more must give more.  Why I've contributed everything as well and I don't even have a promise of a double return."

"But you run the warehouses!"

Amantis dropped the false smile and the jovial tone.  "The people are on the edge of starvation.  You don't think they'd let you horde your food while they watch their children starve to death, do you?  The hunger will drive them to rip the food out of your hands and stone you to death in the process."  Amantis drew back indignantly.  "I'm really doing you and your family a favor."

Taelik looked hopelessly at his clay tablet and, for one brief moment, Amantis thought he would toss it away.  A wise man would have realized the symbols representing twice his "contribution" were only a false promise, but fear and desperation will turn even a wise man into a fool.  Taelik clung to the tablet, even though he must have suspected he would never again see what the city had confiscated.

"But what shall we eat?  How shall we live?"

Amantis smiled at the plaintive tone.  "Mosond has gone back to fishing so he can continue to contribute to the city's welfare."

"I'm too old to push a plow."

"Perhaps.  But the koria around Korion-Thunen have been having difficulty meeting their harvest quotas.  I could arrange to have you placed in charge.  Any harvest in excess of the quotas would be yours to keep."

"But you'd just keep increasing the quotas."

Amantis chuckled.  "Everyone needs an incentive to excel."

"All the surrounding koria, you say?"

By the time they had finished their conversation and Taelik walked away, Amantis knew the old man would go willingly into exile.  Amantis fought to restrain his laughter until after the man was long down the hill and out of earshot.  He had been the last member of the council of elders and now the council was no more.

Amantis raised his bowl to take a sip of chaia and discovered he had drained it. 

A hand shoved a tiny covered clay pot in his face. 

He looked up to find Apaidia with a trouble making glint in her eye, and cringed inwardly knowing he was about to get dragged into something unpleasant.  "What is it?"

"Smell it."

Amantis lifted the tiny lid and the pungent smell of crushed herbs rose up from the paste inside, leaving a bitter taste on the back of his tongue.  "Whew!"  He drew back.  "By the mountain, what is that stuff?"

"It's usually called marsh nettle.  Women often use it when they cheat on their husbands to prevent conception."

"Don't tell me you've only now learned what it does?" Amantis chuckled.

Apaidia shot him a dark look which told him she did not find the subject of her barrenness funny.  He suddenly feared she had learned the reason for her barrenness and might already be with child or seeking one.  He couldn't imagine the extent of how that would complicate his life.

She gave him an accusing look.  "If I had been using this, you would have known."

"So why have you assaulted me with this?"

"One of your reavers has been sneaking off and buying this from a yotare."

"Pish!"  Amantis waved a dismissive hand.  "I'm hardly surprised."

"That reaver is Sphal who guards your wife."

Amantis felt as if he'd been punched in the gut.  "Charissa?"

"I passed by her room on the way to tell you.  I noticed Sphal was not at his post outside her door.

Amantis felt that his head might explode with the heat of his rage.  He rose up and strode off, jabbing a finger at one of the reavers guarding his front door.  "Follow me."  Apaidia's sandals slapped the stones behind him as she ran to keep up.