Anika smiled, but for only a moment.
“When the Pirate got to him, he stopped. Randy’s father was one of the first men killed by the Pirates, and, I don’t know, maybe that marked him. I remember Deborah, Randy’s mother, was farther down the line. When the Pirate nodded at Randy and pulled him out of line, Deborah saw what was happening and screamed. The babies started crying—but not Ogden, though. I remember whispering to him that we’d be all right. But, really, I was so scared.
“When a few of our men tried to step in and stop what was happening, they were shoved to the ground. Deborah ran toward her son, but one of the other Pirates tackled her. She would’ve let them kill her, except her son got right on the Pirate’s horse, as instructed. The boy didn’t say anything. Maybe he already knew what it all meant, that he was being recruited into their terrible army. And maybe his silence was what kept the rest of us in line. Randy was looking down at the horse, as if he’d never touched a saddle. It was like he was being sacrificed for our safety, and he’d accepted it.”
“He just let them take him?”
Anika didn’t answer.
“Anika?”
“We told Deborah that Randy was a hero for giving himself up like that, for the good of all of us. What else could we have said?
“We’d been so terrorized, that when Micah and the others showed up three weeks later, we were afraid. I came running at them with the scythe, screaming once more. They could slice out my vocal cords if they wanted to, I didn’t care. Micah held up his hands in surrender, and I was caught off guard. He had a pear in his hand. A peace offering.”
A few hours later in the Church, August asked them why they hadn’t fought off the Pirates. “We said we’d tried, but that we didn’t have the manpower or any more weapons. Micah did, and he had twenty-five more men and women waiting nearby, ready to come to the Land to protect us. He had a solution.”
The Pirates were using the Land, he said. “Unless there was a real threat against them, they would continue to steal from us until we didn’t produce enough to make it worthwhile, and then we’d be unceremoniously murdered, every last one of us. I remember he’d looked at Deborah and said, ‘But before that happens, they’ll take the stronger boys. I don’t want to say what they’ll do to the girls when they get older.’”
Micah and his people were looking for a place to settle. “They needed a permanent territory, and we were it,” Anika went on. “Back then, there had been a few Forms; they were built long before we came around, probably by some eccentric artist. Did you see them on your way in—they’re smaller, but no less frightening.”
Frida shook her head.
“Those original Forms gave Micah an idea. ‘It’s a natural border,’ he told us. ‘And you’ll be protected.’ Peter wanted to know more.”
“Peter was here all along?”
“One of the first.” Anika turned to Frida then and gave her a soft smile, as if she were a kind but firm boss about to lay off her least-productive employee.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Frida said.
“I suppose it’s time I tell you that Peter was Ogden’s father.”
A silly gasp escaped from Frida’s mouth. “You and Peter?”
“It’s long over,” she said. “It ended even before I gave birth.”
“So you guys came here together.”
“No, he came from Portland with a few of the others. We were from all over, though. I’m from Oakland. A bunch of us communicated online years before, and then we finally decided to meet and make a go of it. Not that we knew what we were doing. We came out here without any conception of what we’d need to survive.” She shook her head, a rueful look on her face. “We barely had enough food. We lived in constant fear of Pirates. Melissa was very sick, and when Marie’s milk dried up a few weeks earlier, her baby had nearly died of starvation until another woman got him to eat some sweet potato.
“I remember Peter’s arguments well, because they were articulated so clearly, it was almost impossible to find fault with them. He said we’d all perish if something didn’t change. We had to welcome Micah and his gang of settlers. They had skills; they would help us. He said that Micah’s plan meant safety for everyone. Peter’s confidence in Micah convinced everyone else.”