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Get everyone down to the river and tell them to hide in the brush at the Big Swamp. The Invaders won't go there. Move!" Kevenoe didn't even pause to answer. He ran back toward the saddle animal he had tethered at the edge of the village. Anketam was running in the opposite direction, toward Basom's quarters. He didn't bother to knock. He flung open the door and yelled, "Basom!"
Basom, who had been relaxing on his bed, leaped to his feet. "What is it?" Anketam told him rapidly. Then he said: "Get moving! You're a fast runner. Spread the news. Tell everyone to get to the Swamp. We have less than an hour, so run for all you're worth!" Basom, like Kevenoe, didn't bother to ask questions. He went outside and started running toward the south. "That's right!"
But he was careful with his information; he didn't go spreading it around for all to hear, and he made it a point to verify his information before he passed it on. Anketam respected the old man. He was the only one in the village who called him "Ank," outside of Memi. "Do you think The Chief will give her to Kevenoe?" he asked. Blejjo nodded. "Looks like it. He thinks a great deal of Kevenoe."
If he ever said one word to me, I'd probably break his neck right there." Anketam nodded. The Chief had given Zillia to Kevenoe only two months before, and the only one who liked the situation was Kevenoe himself. "I'll deal with Kevenoe, Basom," Anketam said. "Don't you worry about that." "All right, then," Basom said. "I'll do my best, Anketam." "You'd better," said Anketam.
Young Basom proved to be a reasonably competent supervisor. He was nowhere near as good as Anketam or Jacovik, but there were worse supers in the barony. Anketam found that the biggest worry was not in the handling of the farmers, but in obtaining manufactured goods. The staff physician complained to Kevenoe that drugs were getting scarce. Shoes and clothing were almost impossible to obtain.
Kevenoe was on The Chief's staff at the castle. Like many staff men including, Anketam thought wryly, his own brother Russat, on occasion he tended to lord it over the farmers who worked the land. "Kevenoe has an eye on Zillia?" he asked after a moment. "I understand he's asked Chief Samas for her as soon as she's eighteen. That would be this fall, after harvest."
"That's what I came to tell you." Basom's grin didn't fade in the least. "They landed up in the Frozen Country, where our missiles couldn't get 'em, according to Kevenoe. Then they started marching down on one of the big towns. Tens of thousands of 'em! And we whipped 'em! Our army cut 'em to pieces and sent 'em running back to their base! We won! We won!"
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.
"I ran all the way here to tell you!" He was grinning widely and panting for breath at the same time. "You suddenly got an awful lot of energy," Blejjo said sourly. "What happened?" Anketam asked. "The invasion!" Basom said between breaths. "Kevenoe himself came down to tell us! They've started the invasion! The war's on!" "Than what are you looking so happy about?" Anketam snapped.
The seedlings now in the greenhouses will have to be destroyed, but that cannot be helped." He stopped for a moment, and when he began again his voice took on a note of sadness. "I will be away from you until the war is won. While I am gone, the barony will be run by my wife. You will obey her as you would me. The finances of the barony will be taken care of by my trusted man, Kevenoe."