Haven: A Trial of Blood and Steel Book Four (63 page)

Aisha was also with her. For what Sasha was planning to start, she needed not only serrin, but scholarly and educated people. Aisha was every bit the part, and Aisha loved Lenayin with a passion that rivalled Sasha's own. Linguistically, she opined, Lenayin was the most interesting place in all of Rhodia and, with what Sasha now attempted, had a greater potential for cultural amazements than even the newly expanded Saalshen Bacosh.

Yasmyn also came, following the formal ceremony that made her Sasha's uma. She was old for a new uma, and Sasha young for an uman, but Yasmyn had recognised that the only path for a woman in her position to gain the authority and respect she desired in Isfayen was through the Nasi-Keth. Sasha did not know if these motivations were the most desirable, yet if that was what it took to gain converts in Lenayin, she would take it.

There were many she left behind in the new Saalshen Bacosh whom she was sad to leave, yet happy for all the same. There were her precious, brave Ilduuris, five of whom also rode with her now, two of those with families sent for from Ilduur itself. It was imperative, all had agreed, that Ilduur maintained contact with Lenayin, and with Sasha in particular. Sasha thought it imperative for emotional and political reasons. The men who rode with her had fought with her in the Steel. Two had been wounded and could no longer serve, and all knew construction and masonry from their civilian lives, one of them to an exceptional degree. She needed lowlands builders with grand skills to fulfill her dreams, and best of all, as Ilduuris they knew how to build in mountains.

Kessligh, she had no doubt, would spend several more years as commander of the Steel armies, yet she thought it likely that the Steel's fighting days were done, for a while at least. He'd been so long in Lenayin, required by the Nasi-Keth to be so, yet he'd always yearned to see Saalshen. He'd have the chance now, and Rhillian had offered to take him herself, to learn and see, travel and talk, to all the places that had been largely forbidden to humans for as far back as anyone remembered.

Certainly he'd travel back to Lenayin at some point and see how she was faring. Whether he'd finally settle here, or there, as his years finally began to catch up with him, she had no idea. He'd rather teach, she knew, but it was nice to see him finally getting the respect he deserved, and she had no doubt they'd eventually build far more statues of him in the Bacosh than of her.

Rhillian was the person Kessligh had appointed to put the whole Saalshen Bacosh back together, in its new, enlarged form. The wise heads of Saalshen, reappearing now that the serious work was done and frivolous concerns could rule serrin minds once more, were displeased by this, but what her own people found disconcerting in her actions only recommended her more to human eyes.

Rhillian grasped human ways and minds to a degree that most serrin could not, and though her understandings were not always perfect, she had at least learned to know her own limitations. Even as the fighting had continued, she'd been spending long hours in a tent or borrowed quarters, scribbling notes on laws, or reading books. Many long evenings they'd all sat together with her—Sasha, Errollyn, Kessligh, and others, discussing their new provinces' structure of councils, the form of laws, the raising of new Steel armies, the disbanding of noble title, and how to stop the old nostalgias from flaring up once more as they had in Tracato and Andal.

All had contributed ideas, yet it was Rhillian who settled now upon what she hoped would be a working formula—that of serrin oversight and mediation, in all human institutions, for the next generation at least, and probably beyond. Serrin would not always run human institutions (save the Ilduuri Nasi-Keth) but they would hold positions of oversight, to watch the appointment of officials, and the conduct of debates. Human powers could squabble and fight all they liked, as trying to prevent such conflicts was clearly against human nature. But serrin would mediate and make certain that honourable rules were upheld, and that all would accept the final result as final.

Humans liked things to be absolute. Serrin preferred them in balanced and nuanced shades. Humans would try to force “final” solutions, often with terrible results. Serrin would prevent them, and maintain balance by playing the ends against the middle.

“Maldereld reborn,” some were calling Rhillian now, listening to her pronounce on such matters. One great female serrin general had built the first version of the Saalshen Bacosh from the ground up, and now two centuries later, another would expand on the project, and hopefully improve it. Sasha had little doubt that she would, for so much had been learned in that time, from bloody, painful lessons. Rhillian seemed utterly absorbed in her work, and Sasha found some pride in the thought that their many struggles together, both with and against each other, had shaped and prepared her for this, what would be the great defining purpose of her life.

Sasha was saddest to part with Sofy. For all her strength, Sofy had not a warrior's soul, and Jahnd's aftermath had left her shaken and fragile. Sasha missed Jaryd deeply, and mourned for him, yet as a warrior herself she knew that Jaryd's loss should be rightfully placed amongst that of a pantheon of heroes, whose glorious deeds would outlive them all. Such a death was to be celebrated more than mourned, yet Sofy did not see things this way.

She had declined Damon's request for her to return with him to Baen-Tar, and remained in Tracato, to bury herself in the task of rebuilding. The latest news before Sasha's departure from Tournea had been that Sofy was appointed by the new Rhodaani Council to the role of Protector of Rhodaani Arts and Treasures, whatever that meant. Sasha reckoned that Sofy would take it to mean more than it was intended to. She had great goodwill amongst Tracatans, as the Princess Regent who had tried to save them from her husband and nearly died for it. Even amongst the Rhodaani nobility, some still considered her Princess Regent, despite the extinguishment of noble title across all Saalshen-occupied Bacosh. Thus she could finally play her much sought-after role of peacemaker, as Rhodaani nobility attempted to resettle into their lands while weathering the understandable resentment of non-noble Rhodaanis. Princess Sofy (her reverted and more accurate title) could keep them safe, and advise them on how not to upset the resettling Rhodaani populace.

That task would be easier, of course, now that Alfriedo Renine had accompanied Damon to Baen-Tar, as much for his own protection from his people as anything else. But having abandoned his claim for the lordship of Rhodaan, Alfriedo was in need of somewhere safe to stay, and to continue his education, and Lenayin had seemed the ideal location, given his ongoing fascination with the Lenay people. Whether the somewhat fragile and intellectual boy would continue to love Lenayin, once exposed to its more brutal expectations of masculinity, Sasha did not know.

But Sofy, she was confident, would love it in Tracato. Sofy had always wanted to make things, and in Tracato she had a palette on a broad scale. There were libraries to see rebuilt and restocked, the Tol'rhen to repair, the Mahl'rhen to see resettled by serrin occupants and serrin treasures, and new masters to be found for the many schools.

And in the meantime, she could be Lenayin's representative in Rhodaan, and perhaps even the most senior for the entire Saalshen Bacosh—Damon would see her well endowed with coin on top of whatever the Rhodaani Council were granting her, and she could keep her own court and advisors, and gather a centre of Lenay power and influence in one of the Saalshen Bacosh's most powerful cities. From there she could also keep contact with the one part of Petrodor that King Steiner did not control—the dockside—and help to spread Nasi-Keth and serrin influence there, and elsewhere in Torovan. An unusual role for an unmarried princess, perhaps, but these were unusual times…and for certain there would be no lack of handsome and powerful male suitors. Sasha did not envy such men, however. They would be competing with the memory of one of Lenayin's finest heroes. But hopefully, some day, one of them would measure up favourably, and her little sister could be truly happy once more.

The party arrived in Baerlyn just before dark, and found a grand celebration prepared. There were introductions for her new friends, happy reunions with old ones and a tearful reunion with Lynette Tremel, who had been working Sasha's ranch the whole time she'd been away.

“Andreyis met a girl?” she exclaimed now, hearing this news for the first time.

“That's why he's not returning,” said Sasha. “At least not yet. Perhaps one day.” They sat together in the Steltsyn Star, having deflected promises of great tale-tellings for another day, for she was too tired, and she had so many accumulated tales it could take her until the next morning to work through them. Now the rest of Baerlyn busied themselves getting to know Errollyn, Aisha, Yasmyn, and the Ilduuris, allowing Lynette and Sasha a little time alone, in one corner of the very noisy inn.

Lynette had had a year to come to terms with her father's death, on the battlefield of Shero Valley. It had been some months since she'd learned of Jaryd's death at Jahnd, which had saddened her also, though she'd not known him long. Sasha was proud of how well Lynette coped, for she'd loved Teriyan dearly, and missed him still. It was a common fate for the women of Lenayin, to lose their men upon the battlefield, and she bore it stoically. But now she was sad to learn that her old friend Andreyis was not in Sasha's party, though pleased that he was well.

“Her name is Yshel,” Sasha explained. “She is serrin and
talmaad
, eighteen years old…”

“Serrin!” Lynette gasped.

“And Andreyis is quite convinced she is the most beautiful girl in all the world. She was hurt at Jahnd, she had some burns to her body, but she's recovering well and her scars are fading. Last I heard they'd joined Sofy's court at Tracato. It's a new world in the Bacosh, and they're both young and smart. Who knows where they will end up?”

“A girl like that fell for Andrey,” Lynette sighed. “Who'd have thought?”

Sasha smiled. “She has red hair. I'm sure you were some inspiration.”

“I should have just grabbed him, shouldn't I?”

Sasha laughed. Lynette had never had any interest in grabbing Andreyis before. Women were blind sometimes, only noticing a man after he became unavailable. “I don't think Andreyis would have known what to do if you'd grabbed him before,” she chuckled. “But he certainly does now.”

The following morning, after a night spent at the inn, townsfolk accompanied the party out to empty fields higher up the Baerlyn Valley. Here by the little stream, Sasha's Ilduuri friends examined the site she'd been thinking of for more than a year now. The ground was sloping, but they insisted it was not a problem; they could dig a flat foundation, and build wide and long.

They loved the valley. It was steep enough to remind them of Ilduur, yet more rugged and wild. Already they were discussing plots for their own houses, to the curious enthusiasm of the locals, now contemplating the large changes that their most famous resident had brought back to the village.

“Much will change,” Sasha told village headman Jaegar as they stood together on the slope, and looked over the wonderful view down the valley. Its jagged, pine-strewn ridges were even more lovely than she remembered. “A Tol'rhen in Baerlyn will mean this is not a sleepy little village any longer. In time it might even become a proper town, with wealthy folk, large buildings, and everything.”

“Good,” said Jaegar, with genuine approval.

Sasha was a little surprised. “You won't be sad to see such changes?”

Jaegar shrugged massive shoulders within his heavy coat. “Everything changes. Some changes are sad. But for all your rustic life out here, Sasha, you've never been poor, and you don't really know what it's like. But you've seen Torovan now, and the Bacosh. You know how poor we still are up here.”

“Oh, you'd be surprised,” Sasha said wryly. “In both lands massive wealth is matched only by extraordinary poverty; I saw people there for whom Baerlyn is luxury.”

“Even so, folks here would rather have more. Build a Tol'rhen here, and they will. Trust me on this.”

“I always do.”

The Ilduuris were gesticulating as they explained to others, through Aisha's translation, what the finished building would look like. Large, seemed the general agreement.

“Besides,” Jaegar added, rubbing his hands against the cold, “it's not like you're building a slaughterhouse. Should be pretty.”

“I'll make sure it is,” Sasha assured him. “It will probably take about five years, if we get the coin we're promised. But we'll not wait five years before opening. Saalshen's promised me many teachers—I said I'd send for them once I got here and finalised my plans. Then we start recruiting kids.”

“What criteria?”

“Haven't decided yet. We need some nobility and wealthy folk, obviously, for politics. Need high folk to have a stake in the Nasi-Keth. But talent has to count for a lot, too. Willingness to learn. And I want some girls,” she added, with a sharp look for emphasis.

Jaegar smiled. “I've four daughters. Take one, please.” Sasha laughed. “Who pays for it, exactly?”