There was a river to the east of this spot and our combined crews built a fortress there, collecting trees from miles around.  The organization of our two groups was somewhat different and our commander was jealous of any loss of authority through a merger, so it was decided to keep our forces separate.

     This was a good idea, because the army of the East was slower and more encumbered than our own.  They had their artillery pieces and were better fitted for a siege or a defensive role than an assault.  Our troops were light and quick, as we often demonstrated in exercises before the others.  My men were trained to work in squads that could merge or disperse in an instant, run up a hill in units, fire at a superior force and evenly retreat, still firing, while our cavalry dashed right and left in maneuvers to support them.  The Church officials who watched these displays agreed to keep us as a separate, offensive force.  A few days later they sent us off to explore a large city to the north.  The rest of the army would follow a few days behind.

     With no knowledge of what was out there, our plan was to build a camp at the edge of the city and probe from there.  But when we drew near the place and surveyed its vastness, I convinced our young commander to halt and send out the scouts.  He agreed and nominated me to pick out ten horsemen and do the job.

     Here again there was nothing to do but ride in and see if anyone would shoot us, hardly a pleasant task.  Again we crossed over miles of burnt and leveled suburbs, a soft cover of vegetation masking the unlovely remains.  Where this carpet ended and the streets resumed a tattered semblance of their former selves, we drew our pistols and rode in like fools at a gallop to get the reckless business over with all the sooner.

     The center of this city was deserted, but not nearly as ravaged as the last one.  Except for the street level, the windows of these skyscrapers were intact and the streets empty of vehicles, as if the place had been cleaned up.  We found the temple complex right on the shore of the lake.  Here we could see some signs of violence.  Two wings of the structure had been burned and lay in ruins, as were the rows of glasshouses along the shore.

     We dismounted and explored the standing parts.  We found no bodies and much good furniture and materials in the rooms.  The place must have been a going concern before its wreck.  Evening was approaching and I sent back two of my men with the news of our discoveries.  The rest of us camped in the open courtyard of the temple.  It was a balmy night.  I posted guards and slept soundly.

     The next morning I planned to look around some more before returning.  We trotted up and down the streets and searched a few buildings and found only two skeletons in one ransacked basement.  But on our return to the south, along the lakeshore, one of my men noticed a faint plume of smoke across the tip of the lake.  We rode hard and reached this place in an hour.

     We met with the sight of a small clan of people living in what looked like an Indian village.  They’d made tepees out of canvass and skins.  Small children were playing and women worked by open fires along the lakeshore.  An old man waved to some open boats not far out on the lake when he saw us coming.  A few other men came running up to meet us at the edge of the camp.  They were unarmed and begged us not to harm them as we dismounted.

     I could see right away that these people were not Indians.  Nor were they scrupulously white.  Their skins were tan and without ointment.  We could see this because the men were all shirtless and in shorts.  The women also wore shorts and colorful tops, light blouses or bras such as I hadn’t seen in a long time.  The children ran naked.

     I told them we intended no harm but needed to talk.  We proceeded to a central spot and the whole village gathered around us.  The boats came in with their small load of fishermen.  One of them, a barrel-chested, middle-aged man with a trim beard stepped forward and acted as their leader.  There were about fifty of these half-naked people surrounding us.

     "We know who you are," he said, "and welcome you to our village.  Does the Church flourish?"

     "It flourishes enough to visit this region with an army" I replied.  "Do you have any weapons?"

     "No," he replied, "and nothing worth stealing.  Three years ago our bullets ran out, and since then we’ve been at peace with all the world, and they, with us."

     They seemed peaceable enough as we sat down and shared food.  It struck me as curious that these people, without their city and guns, had returned to the same life and even looks of the Indians that once ruled the area, as if the land itself fashioned our lives and looks.  Their leader told us that there were four more tribes like them further to the north.  Two of these tribes had been their enemies in the city but they’d now made peace.  They hunted with bows and arrows and fished a great deal.  The land and the lake supported them.  He said they traded with the other tribes and gathered each fall for an annual celebration.

     I asked him if he ever thought of returning to the city.

     "No" he told me, "it has too many thieving ghosts."

     By this he meant that stray, probably half-demented people were still living there in the countless shadows, stealing whatever they could from all who passed through.  We were told of the fire in the year after the first exodus.  But the winds off the lake had preserved the temple, blowing the flames away from it.  Then there was a time of bloody warfare, when outcasts collected into bands and tried to steal the food.  When the glasshouses were destroyed, almost everyone left.

     The feuding with others continued in the wilds until all sides decided it was suicidal to waste their last ammunition on each other when they needed it to hunt.  They made peace and divided up the territory around the lakes and even split up their own groups.  The land could support them better in smaller units.  They passed a few hard winters when the bullets ran out, but now they thrived, as the forests and lakes were rich again.

            I felt a sigh of relief upon hearing this.  Our glorious reconquest wouldn’t be so bloody.  I told these people of our armies and that I would intercept them and intercede with all my influence and sue for peace.  It was too late in the day to depart so we stayed and ate at their campfires.  We kept our guns at our sides and camped that night a few hundred yards from their tents.  I posted two sentries, just in case.

     The next morning I bid goodbye and said I would be back soon with my superiors.  I also mentioned that it would go best for them if they could manage to clothe themselves in white and whiten up their camp as much as possible.  We gave them all the ointment we had and then rode off.  But I left four of my men on a nearby hill to keep watch on these people until we returned.

     That afternoon I returned to our main force.  A council was held to hear my findings.  Our hot-blooded Marshall seemed somewhat disconsolate that no gory battle was at hand.  But the Church superiors were glad of such an easy success and consented to negotiate with this peaceful, lost tribe of the Church and win the glory of bringing them back into the fold.

     The next day we marched to the shore of the lake and built a grand camp in full view of the city across the waters.  The lost tribe was welcomed with open arms.  They played their part well and ran up to the Church officials and kissed their feet, as if the day of deliverance had arrived.  I wondered what revolutions of fear and hope had motivated their submission.  They would, no doubt, lose a sort of vagrant freedom and simplicity and only gain the security of a rule-ridden, complicated, bullying society of their fellow man.

     Commander hot head was soon dispatched with most of the Western Army, including my engineer friend and his men, to reconnoiter the other cities to the east.  I was sent with my horsemen to the north, to find the other lost tribes and bring them home.  Meanwhile, the eastern group would repair the highway to the city and prepare for the re-population of it with the people we found and with all who would be told to immigrate from East and West, for the greater glory and expansion of the Church.

     I spent the next month slowly skirting the lakeshore north.  I found the tribes I’d been told about, over two hundred people all together.  They received us peaceably and I told them of their new situation.  The Church was moving back into the region and they would either have to rejoin it with full clemency for all past deeds, or vanish into the wilderness further north, where no one would find them.

            This wasn’t exactly what I’d been instructed, but they reminded me of my own clan and I didn’t want to see this mode of life entirely disappear.  I revealed these sentiments to them privately and rode away to let each group settle the matter.

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