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predated the technological era with its widespread use of steel beams and
reinforcment bars.
The capital of ancient China, Baver decided.
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He groped for the name: Beijing, that was it. Now an army was barracked there,
in scores or maybe hundreds of long, single-story stone buildings. Nearby were
farms, their mud-brick buildings clustered in hamlets. There was wheeled
transport, both wagons and carts, and the road was rutted from the last wet
weather, but dusty now from drought.
From Beijing the troop turned north, the midday sun at their backs, and after
a while they were in forested hills again
-- the Yan Mountains, though Baver didn t know their name. Late the next day
they came to a town of perhaps twenty thousand, in a valley of farms; an
un-walled town. A large hill rose above it, with large buildings surrounded by
a defensive wall. Atop the hill was what Baver thought must be the imperial
palace. From a distance its size impressed him, and as they came closer, its
beauty. They rode into the town on a road paved with stone blocks, till they
came to a great gate that swallowed the road.
It was at the gate that Baver saw his first
Yunnan ogres. He d never heard of them before, and they both awed and
astonished him. Each was well over two meters tall, looked enormously strong,
and wore an indigo uniform with buttons and trim of copper. Their helmets were
steel, though he didn t know it, for the steel was plated with polished
bronze. Each held a great sword at shoulder arms, while on his other shoulder
was slung an enormous bow. Baver doubted he could do more than lift the sword,
and was sure he couldn t begin to bend the bow. The creatures looked
intelligent and alert, their eyes on the coming cavalrymen and particularly on
himself, an obvious prisoner.
At the last minute, one of them stepped in front of the troop s commander. And
spoke! Its speech sounded to Baver not unlike that of the soldiers he d been
traveling with, though the voice had a
different timbre, with a sort of  hard-napped fuzz to it unlike any human
voice he d ever heard.
Then the column waited calmly. No one dismounted or spoke. Almost the only
sounds were the occasional clop of a shod hoof on stone, a slight snort, the
buzz of horse flies and swish of tails.
One of the ogres had planted himself in the gateway, sword loosely ready in
one long hand. The blade was one-and-a-half-edged, Baver noticed, one edge
sharp the whole length, the other only half. The long hand had an opposable
thumb, and thick nails that might be thought of as blunt claws. The feet were
bare, and their claws curved strongly enough for traction.
From inside the gate came the sound of shod feet marching in step. Then a
squad of human guards came out. Like the ogres, they wore uniforms of indigo
and copper. With them came what was clearly an officer, by both uniform and
bearing. He seemed to be senior to the cavalry commander. Haughtily he rattled
off several sentences, then two of his men strode to Baver and lifted him
down. These were large men, larger than most of the troopers, and with hands
beneath Baver s arms, they walked him through the great gate and into the
palace grounds.
Baver had visited the national garden on New
Home. The palace grounds were at least as beautiful, and exotic to boot. He
realized this even as he was hustled along a graveled path to a building,
lovely on the outside, which inside proved to be a prison. At least the cellar
was. They took him down a corridor and pushed him into a cell, where one of
them untied his hands.
They left him standing there and slammed the barred door behind them. A key or
keys seated massive bolts. The only light was that from the corridor, and from
an airshaft with a barred opening.
Baver stood bemused, not willing to sit, as if sitting would make the
situation more final, more irrevocable. Well, he told himself after a long
couple of minutes, they didn t go to all that trouble just to lock me up.
Something s bound to happen before long.
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