Free Old Green World by Walter Basho

face-first into the sand. The commander rolled over onto his back, but now Albert’s sword was at his throat.
    “You try anything stupid right now, and it’s over. Stay down.”
    “I’ll kill you,” the commander said.
    “I doubt it. If you tried, I would kill you first,” Albert said. “You might as well just drop that idea.
    “All of your . . . behavior is going to stop. Stop harassing us, and start acting like a leader. If you say no, I’ll run you through.”
    The commander glared at him.
    Albert said, “Take your time if you aren’t sure which way to go. I’m not in any hurry.”  
    “Traitor!” the commander said. “Brat. Fucking Baixan. You’re going to be strung up for this.”
    “That isn’t helpful,” Albert said. He pressed the blade into his neck a bit, making a little dent.
    The commander’s eyes welled. He howled at Albert in rage, a mad look in his eyes. Albert moved the sword to the right of his Adam’s apple, just afield of the jugular, and pressed in, just until the skin was broken. The mad eyes widened and glazed over in helplessness.
    They were surrounded by soldiers. All of them murmured to one another, but no one did anything. Then a little man emerged from the crowd, one of the Old People. Albert had always known about the Old People, from school and from stories, but he’d never seen one until the Abyss. He thought this might be the same one. The Old Person looked frail and small, only six feet tall.
    “What’s going on?” the Old Person asked. He asked it gently, like they were greeting each other on a walk.
    “Stop him, Brother Richard,” the commander said. “Make him stop. Please.”
    Albert took a dry swallow and then spoke. He projected for the crowd. “Hello, Hail, Brother Richard. Sir. Sir, our leader fails to understand the distinction between discipline and abuse. It’s hurting our morale. I’ve asked him to correct his course. He had a particularly poor moment.” For a second, then, he became aware of himself. His words felt like Adept words, from the military training and the schooling that Sister Alice had passed to him. He felt strong and clever.
    “He’s lying, Brother Richard,” the commander pleaded. “He’s a traitor.”
    Richard looked at each of them for a moment. Then, he said, “Albert, Nikola. May I take a moment to observe your memories?”
    “Yes, sir,” Albert said. “Thank you for asking.” The commander whimpered an assent, the sword still at his neck.
    Richard closed his eyes, held still for a couple of moments, then opened them with an exhalation. “Albert, you’re obviously being insubordinate. You’re also right.
    “Nikola, dear. This isn’t working out. We talked about this, yes? About this need to dominate others to feel secure. We agreed it wouldn’t become a problem, didn’t we? But now, here we are, and you are contributing negatively to the effort.”
    Nikola started crying. His last bits of dignity flooded out of him. Richard kneeled beside Nikola and almost invisibly moved Albert’s sword away as he did so. He touched Nikola on the forehead.
    “There, there. Don’t blame yourself. I made an error in judgment. This is a new world, and it can be difficult.”
    Nikola curled his big head into Richard’s tiny shoulder and wailed.
    “We’ll send you back with some supplies. You’ll meet Brother Calvin at the outskirts of the Old City encampment. We will help you work through this.”
    Richard then looked at Albert. “So. You are the commander now.”
    “What?” Albert said. “I mean, excuse me, sir?”
    “You’ve just undermined this one’s authority and made a successful argument against his ability to do the job. What would you suggest I do?”
    “I don’t know. Shouldn’t you punish me, send me back or lock me up or something?” Float me up a mile in the sky with a magic box and then drop me?
    Richard smiled. “I’m trying an experiment. Let’s hope I don’t regret this decision, dear. Please