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We lined the yellow children up on one side of the bridge and the livestock on the other. The yellow children started jabbering in tongues we could not understand.
We executed the yellow children. We slaughtered the livestock for food. Most of it went to feed the troops at hand. Some was passed down the line to be cured and dried. A few choice tidbits, excellently spiced, no doubt made their way to the tables of our lords.
The bodies and heads of the yellow children floated downstream. Some snagged in the reeds of stagnant backwaters. Many found their way to the open sea.
The woman who tends the docks at Rai, her eyes like slits, watched as they passed through the harbor.
Bruce Boston is the author of forty books and chapbooks, including the novel Stained Glass Rain and the best-of fiction collection, Masque of Dreams. His stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications and been translated into German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. His latest poetry collection, Pitchblende, is available from Dark Regions Press. He has received numerous awards, including the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Aboriginal SF Boomerang Award, and a record seven Rhysling Awards. In 1999 the Science Fiction Poetry Association honored him with the first Grand Master Award in its then twenty-two year history. He lives in Ocala, Florida with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon. For more information, visit: http://hometown.aol.com/bruboston.
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