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."By wiping out villages that gave shelter to the city Runa.Before long, they were burning out natural rakar fields in the midlands—to starve us into submission." She stopped, remembering, reassessing."What tipped the balance was when Fia believed they had begun to use biologicals against us.When she was a child, Fia had seen diseases used against a people called the Kurds.When the plagues began, we thought that Runa behind djanada lines were made ill and then smuggled south and left to infect all who came in contact with them.""But that sickness might also be explained by the sudden mixing of Runa populations during the rebellion," Joseba suggested."The sharing of disease reservoirs, the exposure to unfamiliar environments? Swamp harvesters working with city specialists—people exposed to local illnesses they had no immunity to, and spreading them?""Yes," Puska said after a time."Some of our scientists said so.It was not a consensus view at the time." She sat as straight as possible, her ears high."The djanada appeared to leave us no alternative but to strike back with overwhelming force.The people were dying.Thousands and thousands died of plague.We were fighting for our lives." She looked to the north, and forced herself to be just."So were they, I suppose.""Sipaj, Puska, someone wonders if the Jana’ata themselves changed or if the Runa idea of the Jana’ata changed."Puska considered this for a while, and then began to use English pronouns, as many Runa did now, to signify a strictly personal comment."My idea of the djanada changed when I left Trucha Sai." She paused for a time, eyes on the middle distance."When we first went to Mo’arl—.Sipaj, Hozei: the things we saw! I keened every night for a season.There were roads paved with our bones, crushed and mixed with limestone, levees along the rivers—three times the height of a woman—all bone.Boots from the skins of our dead—even Runa wore them in the cities! There were shops—" She looked now directly at Joseba."Platters of tongues, platters of hearts.Legs, shoulders, feet, fillets and chops! Rump and tail and elbows and knees—all beautifully displayed.Runa domestics would come and pick out the cut of meat to serve to their masters.How could they stand it?" she demanded."How could the djanada have asked it of them?""Someone is unsure," Joseba said honestly."Sometimes, there’s no choice.Sometimes the choices aren’t thought of.People can get used to anything." Puska lifted her chin, and then let her tail drop, unable to imagine how that vanished world had functioned."Yet," Joseba pointed out, "there were some Runa who remained with the Jana’ata—""Sipaj, Hozei: those people were traitors," Puska told him with flat conviction."You must understand that.They became very wealthy, selling the corpses of dead soldiers to the djanada, who would pay anything for even small scraps of meat.But those Runa paid in kind for their treachery: eventually the djanada ate them, too.""Sipaj, Puska, someone is sorry to keep asking—""There is no need for apology.Someone is content to answer.""There were Runa who stayed with the djanada, even after the war.Even now." He watched her carefully as he asked this, but Puska did not sway."They have said to us that they loved the Jana’ata.""That is sometimes so.The Runa are a noble people," she said."We repay kindness with kindness.""Do you believe those Runa wrong to live with the Jana’ata? Are they traitors, like the black marketeers?""Not traitors.Dupes.In the end, they’ll be eaten.The djanada can’t help it.It’s the way they are.The djanada are guilty in their genes, in their whole way of life," she told him calmly.It was then that he recalled the chorale."Sipaj, Puska, someone wishes to understand this clearly.You are patient and someone is grateful.It is said in the north that Hlavin Kitheri had begun to emancipate the Runa—"For the first time, Puska became upset, rising and beginning to pace."Emancipation! Emancipation meant, We’ll eat you when you’re older! The djanada told us we were stupid! Here is stupidity: Hlavin Kitheri walking out alone to do battle with an army of two hundred thousand.Refusing to negotiate with us was stupid! We offered them terms, Hozei! Just free the captives and we’ll leave the north to you.Hlavin Kitheri chose combat.He was crazy—and so were all the others who believed in him."She was looking directly into his eyes now."Sipaj, Hozei, the Runa did everything for the djanada.They kept us enslaved and fed us only enough to make us good slaves [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]