Eritopia

Fighting Talk

Despite the King's misgivings, no army gathered on the northern edge of the city. In fact, life carried on there much as usual. From the shacks and shanties, women still came to the river to wash their clothes. As usual.

On the flood plain beyond the river, nothing moved. Yet an observant man or woman would have been able to see a gathering in the near distance. A meeting of men and women cast out from the normal citizenry, who lived on the edge of things.

This crowd of renegades, dropouts, and dissidents all disagreed with the rule of the King. They lived beyond his City and his laws, which he policed with anger and enforced with cruelty. On the surface, they were poor people. Yet they included the most intelligent and articulate individuals their culture had produced.

Gordon stood on the trunk of a fallen oak, addressing a shifting, restless crowd. The sun was rising behind him over the Great Green River. A gentle breeze ruffled leaves in the trees that fringed the water and the river itself.

'The moment we have been waiting for is here,' he began.

Over the heads of the crowd, smoke rose from the chimneys of the shacks and huts that lay ahead. In the far distance, further up the incline, he could see the roof of the upper stories of the King's Palace. where he knew plans were being made for the coming conflict.

'Times have been cruel,' he said. Snorts of concurrence from the crowd.

'You have suffered much, seeing the King prosper, while work has dwindled and taxes have risen. You have seen first-hand the corruption and excesses of the council. So I want to thank you for coming. You are busy people. The search for food, wood, and employment consumes your time.' He paused. 

'We have some visitors here, from the Wastelands.'

At least fifty people held up their hands.

'My wife, Penny, and my son, Barnet, are here too. I wanted them to hear what I say because this concerns not only our individual futures, or those of our families. This is about the future of our world.'

The steady chatter dwindled. People were more attentive. The future? What did they care about that?

Gordon pointed south, over their heads, and many turned to look.

'In the City, the king is preparing an army.'

Grunts from the crowd, talk and murmuring.

'Listen,' Gordon held his hand held high raised high, and the chatter stopped. 'Some of you might not believe it, but I know this to be true. I have friends, we have friends, recently arrived here. They have gone to the Palace to try and avert this danger, to reason with the King. They may not succeed, because the King is wily and only interested in his own gains. But he in turn is led by an outside force.'

More murmuring.

Gordon's voice rose above it. 'Whether these friends succeed or not, we must be ready. When the King's army is ready, we must be ready too.'

'For what?' murmured a voice.

'Yes, what?' came a shout.

The clamour increased. Gordon raised both hands until it stopped.

'To fight,' he said.

Someone in the crowd laughed. We're not fighters,' they cried. 'There's no army to fight against,' bellowed another.

The crowd were getting restless, and belligerent. Tom Tall stepped up onto the tree trunk next to Gordon. He knew a lot of these people and had lived among them for years. They respected him, and as he stood up the shouting subsided.

'Friends,' he said. 'Listen to me. I know many of you and I welcome our friends from the Wastelands too. What Gordon tells you is true.'

More talk rippled through the crowd. 

'The truth is, if we stay silent and ignore this warning, things will not stay the same.'

He paused. 'You,' he pointed to a man in the crowd. 'Charlie Cheerluck. Yes, you. Your family has grown up on these slopes. Next to you, Benjamin, your eldest, tell us what do you do for a living.'

The young man he was pointing to looked round before saying, 'Nuffin', Tom.'

'Nothing,' Tom repeated. 'And why is that?'

''E can't get work in the city, and there's no work elsewhere.' Charlie Cheerlock offered.

'Again, why is that?' Tom asked, shouting above the rising chatter.

'Cos he's crippled,' the man said.

'Crippled?'

The crowd went silent. 'Yer, on account of the damp and the cold. and the fact that we haven't had any decent food for years. My shack is on the edge of the Pits, and the cold comes smothering in from them at night.'

Tom continued. 'I know Benjamin well. He's a great lad. Bright. Yes, he has his problems, but what's the other reason he can't get a job in the city?'

''Cos he's unregistered.'

'Exactly. Thank you, Charlie. Unregistered. Now raise your hands if you, your children or your friends are unregistered too.'

Many hands were raised.

'That's it. Right there. You, my friends, and many like us, are not part of the king's system. But the worst thing is, you never will be. Unless...'

'Unless what?'

'Unless you fight for change. The change that is coming.'

Tom stepped off the makeshift podium to warm applause. They were all in some way victims of the injustices of the king. Victims of the great Census that had failed to include all who lived on the outskirts of the city. Unable to work, and when they did having to give most of their pay to the Palace in taxes.

On the podium, Gordon was speaking once more.

The good thing is, we are not alone,' he said. 'Since the days of Barnabas the First, when the animals left the Outside, we have been waiting. Our fathers and our grandfathers and their fathers before them remember a better time. That time will return again. But for that to happen we will need to live in a different way.

'What way?'

'With the Insiders.'

'Animals?'

'Yes, animals,' Gordon said. 'They are coming to help us.'

Gasps from the crowd.

'And we must be ready when they do.'

He stepped off his tree trunk stage, and a muffled cheer went up, followed by more. Gordon spoke to Tom, Raff and Bowen. They moved into the crowd to help persuade those who still needed convincing.

Penny and Barnet appeared next to him.

'Do you know if it will work?' Penny entwined her arm in his and pressed close.

'Who knows,' said Gordon. 'We must do everything we can. I sense change is coming, but I fear for the others.'

'How many can we call on from, say, the Northern fringes?'

'A few hundred, at most.'

'And the Wastelands? If all fight with us?'

'Another hundred.'

'That doesn't sound a lot,' Penny shook her head. The King has many more at his disposal.'

'Ill-trained and undisciplined. We don't know how many will side with him. At a guess, a thousand. Yet people will fight to protect their homes and their families. He will tell them it is necessary.'

'Is that all that's at stake?'

'Not for us, obviously. And there is still no news from the Inside. The Bear and his companions have not been seen. Who knows if the Insiders will consider this a cause worth joining?'

Penny shook her head. 'And the Riders?'

'The Riders,' Gordon repeated and laid his hand on his son's head. 'All our hopes rest on them.'