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TALI HAD TRIED TO THROW herself into her work, but she really hadn’t the heart for it. Amber had been, as ever, the incarnation of patience and despite very little help from Tali, and the Gallery-folk were starting to be integrated once again in society.
And that society too, whatever it had now become, was coming along in leaps and bounds. Folk were singing again, telling jokes, chatting in the street. Amber had instructed the formation of workers co-ops where before there had been family monopolies in all of the major crafts. Then there was a meeting of all the chairs of the co-ops every span, once work had ended. These had become quite social occasions due to the presence of food. They were always held at the tent village as Amber said she always wanted to be available and for folk to know she was never far. There were many, many grievances being aired, and Tali was starting to suspect that their honeymoon period might be ending. Regardless, Amber listened to them all and waited until folk had talked themselves out. She invited comments from all the other co-op chairs and a discussion was started on each topic with usually a decision there and then, but if not, Amber made scribes take down details of the unresolved issue on a small, thin stone tile and hung it from the roof by wires. These were removed and reexamined at any moments of downtime and anyone could take on a tile and bring a solution back. So far, the organic tile sculpture janckled gently in the roof and was not swamping the tent too much. This beginning of the New Stone-folk, as they were calling themselves, was hopeful, mostly peaceful, and not too chaotic. Tali wondered how long that would last.
She didn’t have to wonder long.
The first the new Stone-folk knew of the attack from the River-folk was right in the middle of sleep span. Bandits poured into the Great Market, seemingly from everywhere, attacking and looting at random.
Tali awoke to hear the crashes. Amber came around more slowly. Tali knew sounds of fighting and River-folk skirmishes enough to be fully awake in a few clicks. Their war cries were filthy, frightening, and familiar. Quickly she shook and kicked everyone else in the tent village awake and reached for her pack. She could never quite bring herself to unpack it and find somewhere for it all to go. Bag on one shoulder and a flask in her hand, she met the first River-folk group ready.
“Give us...” the harsh grating voice of the River Bandit paused. “Everything!”
“I don’t think so, River-rat!” Tali shouted.
The flask arced from her hand and smashed on the bandit’s head, the contents running down his face. There was a hiss and a thin scream. The bandit turned himself away from Tali. She gave him a well-aimed boot for luck and sent him sprawling into his companions. She knew there wasn’t long.
“To the cells!” she shouted. “Now! RUN!”
They did. Amber hustled her growing team and as much as they could carry toward the stairs, shouting for guards as she went. Tuf, the new de facto head of the Stone-folk guards, met them at the entrance, marshaling stumbling guards behind him.
Tali waited for the next group of bandits to reach the tent village, as luck would have it at the same time the first group found their feet. She smartly whipped the central tent pole out from the middle of the canopy, bringing it down on the two scrabbling bands. She threw a flask of something unpleasant and slippery under the flap as she left and ran into the arms of Tuf and the guards, busy making a makeshift barricade from what boxes and bundles they could lay their hands on.
Before the enemy had emerged from their impromptu cocoon, the soldiers had run a handful of them through with their vicious stone-tipped spears.
“Don’t follow!” Tuf yelled. “Back to the barricades.”
“But, Sarge... the folk out there,” one of his loyal guards said.
“I know, son, but we’re no use to them dead. Now, sort the rest of the rabble out.”
“Yes, Sarge.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Tuf said. “I’m not your Sarge anymore.”
“Oh, yeah... sorry...”
“You are”, Tuf said.
“Sorry?” the guard replied. This one was a young but reliable new recruit during the revolution, Tuf scratched his head trying to extract the pup’s name.
“You’re now Sergeant Berro. Congratulations. Try and live long enough to enjoy it. Find me more guards, more barricades, and for the love of the all the gods find me some missile weapons. Go!”
Tali had little time to enjoy the camaraderie before she heard the next wave of raiders approaching. “Incoming, Tuf!”.
“Guards, present arms,” Tuf yelled and a crunch of a squad executing a well-practiced maneuver was his answer.
Well, at least the River bandits would get scratched if they tried to dash over the top of the barricade. She paused. This was no banditry though. Too many, too organized. Wrong. Everything about it was wrong. She had one more thing she’d remembered. The “needler” as Padg called it. The odd weapon that Myrch had left them. Padg gave it over to her as he’d left; said he was heading for a more peaceful life. Good luck with that, she thought. Better the stupid thing get used where it was needed than sit as a souvenir in her pack.
“Hey, Tuf,” she said, “present.”
She handed over the weapon to the commander with the few packs of ammo she had left and a brief set of instructions. He then went to find a sniper with good Air-sense to site on the staircase overlooking the barricade.
Tali left to find Amber. She wasn’t hard to find; the screaming gave it away, not Amber, but one of her inner circle. Amber was trying valiantly to calm her, but to no avail. Tali reached them and the younger girl was hysterical.
She came up carefully on their inside to avoid flailing arms and quietly said, “Drink this. It’ll help.”
Perhaps someone new arriving took her by surprise, but the young female took the flask Tali proffered and took a deep swig. The effects were instant, at least for everyone’s ears.
“You okay?” Tali asked Amber, there was no point in asking the girl. She already knew the answer.
“Yes,” Amber said, breathless. “You are a wonder, you know.”
“Just doin’ what we can.”
“Yes, about that: What can we do?”
“Right now? I don’t know.”
