The wooden shelter wasn't much of a home, but it was all Anketam could
provide. It had been difficult to cut down the trees and make a shack of
them, but at least there were four walls and a roof.
Anketam stood at the door of the rude hut, looking blindly at the ruins
of the village a hundred yards away. In the past few months, weeds had
grown up around the charred blobs that had once been the homes of
Anketam's crew. Anketam stared, not at, but past and through them,
seeing the ghosts of the houses that had once been there.
Behind him, Memi was speaking in soft tones to Lady Samas.
"Now you go ahead and eat, Lady. You can't starve yourself to death.
Things won't always be this bad, you'll see. When that oldest boy of
yours comes back, he'll fix the barony right back up like it was. Just
you see. Now, here; try some of this soup."
Lady Samas said nothing. She seemed to be entirely oblivious of her
surroundings these days. Nothing mattered to her any more. Word had come
back that Chief Samas had accompanied General Eeler in the fatal
expedition towards the Invader base, and The Chief had been buried there
in the Frozen Country.
Lady Samas had nowhere else to stay. Kevenoe was dead, his skull crushed
by--by someone. Anketam refused, in his own mind, to see any connection
between Kevenoe's death and the fact that Basom and Zillia had
disappeared the same day, probably to give themselves over to the
Invader troops.
A movement at the corner of his eye caught Anketam's attention. He
turned his head to look. Then he spun on his heel and went into the hut.
"Lady Samas," he said quickly, "they're coming. There's a ground-car
coming down the road with four Invaders in it."
Lady Samas looked up at him, her fine old face calm and emotionless.
"Let them come," she said. "We can't stop them, Anketam. And we have
nothing to lose."
Three minutes later, the ground-car pulled up in front of the hut.
Anketam watched silently as one of the men got out. The other three
stayed in the car, their handguns ready.
The officer, very tall and straight in his blue uniform, strode up to
the door of the hut. He stopped and addressed Anketam. "I understand
Lady Samas is living here."
"That's right," Anketam said.
"Would you tell her that Colonel Fayder would like to speak to her."
Before Anketam could say anything, Lady Samas spoke. "Tell the colonel
to come in, Anketam."
Anketam stepped aside to let the officer enter.
"Lady Samas?" he asked.