“What would you want to do, dearest, to the man who ordered it?” Alexanda gazed at her firmly. There was fear in his wife's lovely eyes. Fear and concern. Dear gods, he loved her so much. “Varona, Patachi Maerler has the Shereldin Star. I have no idea how, but perhaps some suspicions. He has declared himself its rightful guardian, and invited all who follow its cause to unite behind him as leader of the Torovan Army on the grand crusade.”
“And what will you do?” Varona asked fearfully.
“I will do what I have to do,” Alexanda said. “I will do what I've been desperately trying to avoid since the first moment I arrived in this gods-forsaken city. I will pick a side.”
Barely had the barricades been abandoned than they were being manned again. Grim, tired Docksiders stood in rows, improvised weapons at the ready. As late afternoon shadows fell across the incline, upper Petrodor was burning. Sasha sat atop a Dockside roof and polished her sword. There were fires everywhere. Famous houses were ablaze. Smoke blackened the sky and, when the wind shifted, there would come loudly the screams, shouts and clashing steel of battle.
A man climbed out the trapdoor nearby and sat beside her. It was Bret, his previous thin beard now shaved to allow easy access to a shallow cut on his jaw. He gazed up at the battle.
“They're not fighting with sticks and knives up there,” he observed.
Sasha kept polishing. The blade was so brilliant now she could see her reflection.
“They say Rhillian gave Maerler the star,” Bret added when Sasha did not reply. “Makes you wonder why Maerler didn't just have his brother priest bring him the star, if he wanted it so badly.”
“Some priests have morals,” Sasha said darkly. “Some serrin don't.” Bret just looked at her, long and wordlessly. Sasha kept polishing, crosslegged on her chair. “Maerler's a damn fool. Even Patachi Steiner didn't try to take possession of the star directly. He at least knows no one will ever confuse him with a saint.”
“Patachi Maerler has always been a proud and vain man,” Bret agreed. “Patachi Steiner is just greedy. Rhillian must have decided to chance Maerler's vanity.”
“Her opinion of humans is at its lowest ebb,” Sasha muttered. “And we keep fulfilling her expectations.”
“What do you think she intends?” Bret asked, nodding toward the conflagration. It would take months, Sasha was sure, for the smell of ash to wash from the Dockside. “I mean…what does this gain her?”
“She wants to see Petrodor bleed. She sets humans at each other's throats. She hopes there'll be nothing left with which to fight a war.”
“She's mad,” Bret said softly. “All she'll create is a single victor. And then we'll have tyranny.”
“She doesn't think it could get any worse.”
Bret shook his head sadly. “These serrin, they think they know everything. She hasn't seen anything yet.”
More to the left, a new mansion was on fire. Nearer to Sharptooth, now. The fighting seemed to be heading that way. Perhaps Patachi Maerler was losing, but Sasha knew that it was rarely so simple. More likely, the two sides would batter each other to a bloody draw. Just taking one ridgetop mansion would cost the lives of many soldiers. By the time Steiner's forces managed to smash their path all the way to Maerler House atop Sharptooth, most of the army would be dead.
A mansion's roof caved in, followed by a rumbling crash of collapsing masonry and a billow of sparks. Gasps and exclamations went up from the neighbouring rooftops. Some children sounded excited and their parents were not discouraging them. Many Docksiders seemed happy to see the upper slopes burning for a change. Sasha wondered if they'd be quite so pleased when Bret's prediction came true.
Bret looked at her for a moment longer. “Kessligh has forbidden it, you know.” Sasha gave him a blank, questioning look. “Going after Errollyn.”
Sasha returned her attention to her sword. “I'm not going after Errollyn.”
“And you'd never lie to me, would you Sasha?”
“If you're so unsure that you need to ask the question, what possible use would my answer be?”
Bret took a deep breath. “Rhillian won't hurt Errollyn, Sasha. She hasn't gone that far yet.”
“Kiel would.”
“But Kiel's not in charge, is he?”
“They're serrin, stupid,” Sasha muttered. “They don't understand the concept. Kiel follows Rhillian on the big picture, but on smaller matters he does as he pleases.”
“Sasha…wouldn't it just be better to let it all end here? Everyone's suffered enough.”
“There was a great warrior in Lenay legend named Tragelyon,” said Sasha, still polishing. “He led his people to a new land and settled them in an uninhabited valley. His neighbours didn't like it and gathered a warband to attack. Tragelyon challenged them to single combat, and drew a circle in the dirt around him with his sword. Every attacker who entered that circle died.
“That's where we get the tachadar circles from today. Tachadar in old Taasti means space, but more than space. A personal space, to which every man's honour entitles him, no matter if he is in his homeland, or travelling in a strange land. That's why we don't hug and kiss so much as Torovans do. You only enter that tachadar when invited. When stepping into the circle for sparring, we always ask permission on the other person's honour.
“I have my tachadar, Bret, even in this city. And Errollyn has his, even though he's not Lenay-he speaks it well enough, and he fought for Lenayin, he's earned Lenay honour. Rhillian didn't just spit on it, she pissed on it-mine and his. It's unacceptable.”
“But Errollyn is more than your friend,” Bret said quietly. Sasha didn't look up. “And maybe Rhillian felt, by taking him into your bed, you crossed her circle.”
“No,” said Sasha, very firmly. “You can't claim another person unless they want you to. Errollyn came into my bed by choice. He left Rhillian's service by choice. She pissed on that too.”
“Sasha…here in Petrodor, we also have tales and legends. There is one of two sisters who loved each other very dearly and both married powerful men from different families. Those families have a falling out, which turns to conflict. The carnage is great and, with each family member killed, the two sisters grow to hate each other more and more. Finally, one day, they find that all of their families are dead, and only the two of them remain…and yet, despite their families having been the only cause of their hatred, they still cannot bring themselves to reconcile.”
Sasha gazed at him. For the first time since Bret had sat down, she stopped polishing. “What happened to them?”
“They died together, each impaled on the other's sword.” Sasha swallowed hard and gazed up at the flames. “It is a terrible thing, Sasha, to fight a friend.”
“And is a friend still a friend,” Sasha asked quietly “when she destroys those things I most care for?”
“Errollyn is not dead, Sasha. Nor will he be.”
“Yesterday Errollyn. Today Petrodor. What tomorrow, Bret? For how long must she desecrate my circle and expect me to sit here on my hands and do nothing?”
Alexanda Rochel strode up the winding, firelit road and tried not to look too hard at the bodies of the dead. Ahead, a wall had collapsed, spilling brick and stone across the cobbles. Amidst the debris lay men in the colours of several southern-stack houses, and others in the maroon and gold of Pazira. Some lay locked together where they'd fallen, arms about the other like old friends. Several soldiers tried to bind the wounded arm of a sobbing comrade. Burning buildings lit the men, walls and bodies in a dancing, hellish glare, and smoke seared at the back of Alexanda's throat.
Alexanda paused before the wounded man. “Hold on, lad, you'll be home soon. This is but a moment in time, be brave and it will pass.” The man tried, but Alexanda could see the arm was half severed. He strode on, repeating his own words in his head. Be brave, and it will pass. The lad had been about Carlito's age. Dear gods.