The last man tackled her down, and they hit the road together, him on top, trying to pin her. Sasha pinned one arm, fighting for leverage, then simply overpowered him, to his utter astonishment. She rolled on top, sat up, then began to beat his head into the road with her fists until he stopped moving.
She got up, and the last man grabbed his bleeding friend and dragged him stumbling away. Sasha examined her knuckles. One was raw and bleeding. She'd hit her head on the road when she'd fallen, and that stung. A bruise to her ribs throbbed. Overall, she felt wonderful.
The elderly serrin man was looking at her with more curiosity than gratitude. Sasha picked up his cane from where it had fallen, and handed it to him.
“Hmm,” said the old man. “Not from around here, are you?” Sasha blinked. He'd spoken in Lenay. Then she realised her hat had fallen off, and her tri-braid was free. She scampered to her hat, beside the groaning man she'd beaten, and put it back on, tucking the tri-braid into place.
“There,” she said cheerfully in Saalsi. “That better?”
The old man sighed. “I think you'd better come with me.”
The old serrin's name was Tershin. He'd been talmaad in his day, and had served Saalshen in all the Saalshen Bacosh provinces, as well as Torovan, Telesia, and Lenayin. When his talmaad service was ended, he'd returned to Saalshen, had two children with the same serrin woman, then moved to Andal. It had always been the prettiest place he'd been to, he said, and the mother of his children (“wife” had no equivalent word in Saalsi) had accompanied him, and enjoyed the clean air. She was dead now, but Tershin had old serrin friends here, and a few human ones.
“I did warn them,” he said, as Sasha sat at his table and sipped fragrant tea. “There was not enough debate within the Remischtuul. Maldereld never paid Ilduur the attention she did Rhodaan and Enora, and the Ilduuri will always cling together like mud when threatened. Maldereld no doubt thought that useful, compared to the bickering in other human lands. Serrin value cohesiveness too much; only too late have we learned of its dangers amongst humans.”
“I do wish that everyone today would stop blaming everything on Maldereld,” said Sasha, sipping her tea. “I think she did a wonderful job for the most part. But she was only one woman, and whatever mistakes she made were made by all of those who helped her. She was no tyrant, and serrin make no decisions alone.”
“True,” said Tershin, eyeing her curiously. He placed some fruit and cheese on the table. “My old uman knew Maldereld. He'd met her several times as a boy, when she was an old woman.”
“Truly?” Sasha was impressed. “What was she like?”
“An unusual serrin,” said Tershin, easing himself slowly into his chair. “She loved to ride, even in her old age. She liked to be alone, more than was typical for serrin. She was no great linguist, very unusual for a leading talmaad. And she had little patience with the long debates more typical of our people.”
Sasha smiled, thinking of Rhillian. “That sounds like someone I know.”
“Those three boys today. You did not need to beat them up on my account.”
“Who said I did?” Sasha retorted. “I enjoyed it enough just for me.”
“You are Sashandra Lenayin, aren't you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I might be.”
“It takes no great genius to see it. Though fortunately for you, even many seniors of the Remischtuul will not have heard the name. Only we who care about the world outside have cause to find interest in such names. Why do you not fight with the Army of Lenayin?”
“I do,” said Sasha. “The Army of Lenayin defected. Or most of it did. We fight now with Saalshen.”
Tershin stared at her. They did not know. She had travelled in this direction as fast as any news could, and was the first here to spread the knowledge. To Sasha's surprise, Tershin's eyes filled with tears. He wiped at them.
“Oh, Lenayin,” he sighed. “Such a strange attraction we serrin have for your land. We have never been a warlike people, yet we are all astonished to find that the one land in all Rhodia that understands us best, has the most warlike people imaginable. It is a conundrum that has kept serrin returning to Lenayin for centuries.”
“The north still fights with the Regent,” Sasha added, lest he get too romantic about it.
Tershin made a dismissive gesture. “Hardly surprising-ask three Lenays for their thoughts, and you'll get ten different opinions.”
“Just like serrin,” said Sasha with a smile. “As you said.”
“And so you come here. With friends, I suppose.” Sasha nodded. “To talk the Remischtuul into fighting? It cannot be done, my girl. Their minds are decided, and most of the people agree with them.”
“The Steel don't.”
“And so you must convince the Steel to break with the Remischtuul. To do that, you must discredit the Remischtuul.”
Sasha shrugged, not truly wishing to divulge more detail to an old ex-talmaad. Tershin seemed a good man, but Rhillian and Aisha were meeting with many of those more significant Ilduuri serrin. If Tershin was not one of them, then he must have removed himself from that circle on purpose-serrin were too sociable for there to be any other explanation.
“I never told you what I did for a trade, once my talmaad days were over,” said Tershin. “I was a moneylender.”
Sasha frowned, and looked about at his house. It was clean and simple, but without the grand view or ornamental expense that she might have guessed of one in that trade.
Tershin smiled. “You have a preconception of the trade. Serrin break the preconception, and this explains our success. We are fair, and charge only a small percentage for ourselves.”
“Don't tell me there are no serrin with expensive tastes. You're not all saints.”
Tershin's smile grew broader. “True, but we share. I have enjoyed the acquisitions of wealthy friends as much as I have enjoyed a few of my own. But listen to me. Humans do not trust each other with money, the powerful in particular, as money amongst humans is power. But they know that money, though valued, does not mean the same thing to serrin. The powerful in Ilduur have often preferred to use serrin moneylenders, and serrin bookkeepers to manage their accounts.”
Sasha had heard the same thing in Rhodaan and Ilduur. “They trust you because they know serrin will not steal, or reveal their secrets to their competitors.”
“And a misguided trust it sometimes is,” said Tershin, “because though we will not sell them to their enemies, neither will most serrin tolerate corruption or theft from those who employ us. It is fuin'is, disruptive of the great balance.”
“A fuin'as tal,” Sasha agreed. A disharmony.
Tershin smiled at her grasp of the tongue. “But it does mean that we serrin are often wound tightly into the finances of the powerful, in cities like Andal. Even those amongst the powerful who dislike us discover that they like the safe management of their accounts more. As it so happens, my latest employment was to manage the books and accounts of the Steelwrights' Guild.”
Sasha frowned. “Aren't they allied to the Steel itself?”
“Certainly, certainly. They are distrusted within the Remischtuul. Understand that the Remischtuul is comprised of guilds, primarily. It brings them all together, and they discuss, and vote. Now, a little over a month ago, there appeared in the Steelwrights' Guild's books an entry for nearly ten thousand silver talons.” Sasha shook her head, not knowing that currency. “Those are used in Meraine, issued by the Chansul of Meraine himself. My task as keeper of the books was to convert those talons into Ilduuri gold marks-understand that talons are commonly converted in Ilduur, but are prohibited from general exchange.”