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that this particular business must go at the speed of lightning?"
    "Now you know! How do you summon the councilmen to an emergency session?"
    "I don't know; we have never experienced an emergency."
    "Does Jamilo boast a brigade for the control of fires?"
    "Yes indeed. The gong is yonder."
    "Go sound the gong!"
    The folk of Maiy were commerciants; a tall, dark-haired, dark-skinned people, suave and quiet of demeanor. They lived in octagonal houses with tall, eight-sided roofs, from the center of which projected chimneys, each taller than the one before; and indeed the height of a man's chimney measured his prestige. The canton's administrative center, Vervei, was not so much a town as an agglomeration of small industries, producing toys, wooden bowls, trays, candelabra, doors, furniture. Etzwane found the industries working at full speed, and the First Negociant of Maiy admitted that he had taken no steps to implement the Anome's proclamation. "It is very difficult for us to move quickly," he stated with a disarming smile. "We have contracts which limit our freedom; you must realize that this is our busy season. Surely the Anome in his power and wisdom can control the Roguskhoi without turning our lives upside down!"
    Etzwane ostentatiously noted the code of the
    Negociant's torc. "If a single one of your concerns opens for business before an able militia is formed and at drill, you will lose your head. The war against the Roguskhoi supersedes, all else! Is so much clear?"
    The Negociant's thin face became grave. "It is difficult to understand how—"
    Etzwane said: "You have exactly ten seconds to start obeying the Anome's orders. Can you understand this?"
    The Negociant touched his torc "I understand completely."
    In Conduce Etzwane found confusion. Looming above the horizon to the southeast stood the first peaks of the Hwan; an arm of Shell flower Bay extended almost as close from the north. "Should we send our women north? Or should we prepare to receive women from the mountains? The Fowls say one thing, the Fruits [6] another. The Fowls want to form a militia of young men, because old men are better with the flocks; the Fruits want to draft old men, because young men are needed to harvest the fruit. Only the Anome can solve our problems!"
    "Use young Fowls and old Fruits," Etzwane told him, "but act with decision! If the Anome learned of your delay he'd take heads from Fowls and Fruits alike."
    In Shade, under the very loom of the Hwan, the Roguskhoi were a known danger. On many occasions small bands had been glimpsed in the upper valleys, where now no man dared to go; three small settlements had been raided. Etzwane found no need to stress the need for action. A large number of women had been sent north; groups of the new militia were already in the process of organization.
    In the company of the First Duke of Shade Etzwane watched two squads drilling with staves and poles, to simulate swords and spears, at opposite ends of the Lanteen Arena. The squads showed noticeable differences in costume, zeal, and general competence. The first wore well-cut garments of indigo and mulberry, with green leather boots; they sprang back and forth; they lunged, feinted, swaggered; they called jocular comments back and forth as they exercised. The second group, in work clothes and sandals, drilled without fervor and spoke only in surly mutters. Etzwane inquired as to the disparity.
    "Our policy has not yet been made firm," said the First Duke. "Some of those summoned to duty sent indentured bondsmen, who show no great zest. I am not sure if the system will prove feasible; perhaps persons who find themselves unable to drill should send two bondsmen, rather than one. Perhaps the practice should be totally discouraged. There are arguments for all points of view."
    Etzwane said, "The defense of Shant is a privilege accorded only to free men. By joining the militia the indentured man automatically dissolves his debts. Be so good as to announce