Sasha

High above, the eagle cried. Across the riverbank, men were gazing sky ward, and pointing. Goeren-yai men in particular had a love of wild things, and birds of prey had a special place in their hearts. 'Do silvertipped eagles have a legend to go with them?' Kessligh asked wryly.

Sasha frowned as she thought about it, watching the eagle's circling flight. 'Not that I can recall. Although it is said that a white-headed eagle swooped down to carry Hyathon the Warrior away from the fire mountain to escape the dark spirits. But white-headed eagles are much bigger than silvertips.'

'All nonsense,' Kessligh pronounced, and took a bite of his roll.

'Why?' Sasha demanded. 'Just because it's not what you believe?'

'Sasha,' Kessligh said around his mouthful, 'if you'd seen as many people killed as I have, all because one of them believes this thing and the other believes this other thing, you wouldn't think it was all so harmless. Tales and legends are fun, but beliefs, Sasha. Beliefs are dangerous. Be very careful what you believe in, for beliefs are far more dangerous than swords.'

'And you believe in the Nasi-Keth,' Sasha retorted. 'That makes you just as dangerous and misguided, doesn't it?'

Kessligh nodded, vigorously. 'Aye. But the Nasi-Keth take their learnings from the serrin, and the serrin simply don't think like us. They don't believe in truth. They don't believe in anything they can't prove, and they won't construct these elaborate fantasies with which to advance their own power and kill each other. That's the whole point of the Nasi-Keth, Sashait's an attempt to help humans to think rationally. And that's difficult, I know, because humans are fundamentally irrational. But it's worth a try, don't you think?'

'Hmmph,' said Sasha, chewing her own mouthful. 'What's rational?'

'Exactly the question the serrin ask each other constantly.'

'And what's irrational about the Goeren-yai beliefs?' Sasha continued. 'It's rational, surely, that people survive as well as they can? Goeren-yai legends tell us much about these lands, and the animals, and the ways people can live and survive well out here. And the serrin have come here for centuries-they find Goeren-yai culture fascinating! So why should you, who takes his inspiration from the serrin, be so dismissive?'

'I'm not dismissive of the process, Sasha, just the conclusions. I'm dismissive of any culture that thinks it knows everything.'

'The Goeren-yai don't…!'

Kessligh cut her off with a raised hand. 'I'm dismissive of any person who lives his or her life like a frog down a well-all it knows is that well, and those walls, with no interest in what lies outside. I'm trying to make you think, Sasha. That's all I've ever tried to do. That's all the Nasi-Keth as a whole have ever tried to do. To make people think before they commit some terrible evil in the name of their various truths, if it is at all possible that they might be wrong.'

'Aye,' Sasha replied, 'well maybe that's the difference between me and you. You lead with your head, I lead with my heart.'

'Hearts can be rational too,' said Kessligh. 'They just need a little training.' Sasha knew better than to try and get the last word in. 'How was Damon last night?' he asked then, changing the subject.

'Nervous,' she said. 'He slept a while, I think. His temper's short, but that's normal. Best not to push him.'

'With any luck, he won't make me. He's second from the throne, in truth. It's best he learned to deal with these kinds of things on his own.'

Sasha stifled a laugh behind her hand. 'Damon. King!' She swallowed a mouthful, shaking her head in disbelief. 'I can't imagine it.'

'Men have similar difficulty picturing you as my uma,' Kessligh replied, unmoved by her humour. His eyes flicked toward the riverbank. Sasha looked, and saw Master Jaryd Nyvar talking animatedly with a corporal. Their conversation was about swordplay by the look of their moving hands.

Sasha snorted. 'Only because those men have never thought women good for anything but babies and housework.'

'What's wrong with babies and housework?' Kessligh said with a faint smile.

Sasha shrugged expansively. It was pointless to get annoyed. Kessligh simply liked contradicting her.

Kessligh swallowed his mouthful. 'Before I came to Lenayin, I hadn't thought women good for much but babies and housework.'

Sasha frowned at him. 'Oh come on! There are serrin everywhere in Petrodor! What about all of these wonderful serrin women you keep talking about, the ones you studied with as a Nasi-Keth uma yourself?'

'Serrin women, exactly,' said Kessligh around another bite. 'Petrodor has a very conservative branch of Verenthane belief where women are concerned. My mother died when I was young and from then on the Nasi-Keth were my family. I saw many serrin women, but the human women I knew were very fixed in their notion of what a real woman was. Even when I rode to Lenayin for the war, I didn't see Lenay women as much different. It's only when I met you that I truly realised that a human woman might be born with the aptitude to be my uma.'

Sasha smiled. 'Well at least I know what kind of behaviour impresses the great Kessligh Cronenverdt-bratish, noisy and overactive. I could revert, if you like?'

'Revert?' Kessligh asked in mock surprise. Sasha kicked him lightly on his boot and scowled. 'My point,' Kessligh continued, 'is that people never know what they shall be, and how they shall respond, until the moment of testing arrives. I can assure you that very few of my Nasi-Keth elders and peers suspected that I could rise to such heights from my beginnings. As a student I was quiet, uncooperative and solitary. I loved serrin teachings because they seemed to me to offer the best solution I'd yet seen to all humanity's obvious ills.

'But I was always frustrated that neither my uman nor my other tutors seemed to grasp the implications of those teachings fully. And so I enjoyed the company of the serrin more than humans. Serrin never judge. Through them I learned to see the world as it is, and myself as I am, rather than what I might want or expect them both to be. Which is how I recognised your talents, while other men would not. I realised I was wrong about human women. Many men cannot admit this about themselves.

'Always be aware that you may be wrong, Sasha-about anything and everything. I rose to Commander of Armies during the Great War simply because I learned from my mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and when something did not work, I stopped doing it and did something else. Many commanders did not, due to pride or stubbornness, and killed not only themselves, but many good men as well. The unquestioned belief in one's own supremacy and righteousness is the surest road to ruin yet devised by man. Avoid it at all costs.'

Sasha listened sombrely, chewing the last of her lunch as the river bubbled about their rock. Kessligh did not lecture often, yet she was not surprised that he chose to do so now. A Hadryn-Taneryn conflict was surely the most serious calamity she had yet ridden into. An uman's role was to teach, and to prepare his uma for trials to come.

'Why have the Nasi-Keth not spread more through Lenayin?' Sasha asked suddenly. 'I mean… you led Lenayin to victory over Chieftain Markield, you risked your life and became a Lenay legend-all because you volunteered to come from Petrodor. The popularity of the Nasi-Keth and the serrin was surely never so high in Lenayin as then. And yet there are so few other Nasi-Keth here.'

Kessligh nodded slowly, as if faintly surprised at the question. 'Your father tried,' he said. 'He believes in providence, in signs from the gods. When Markield was beaten, your father saw that the gods favoured the NasiKeth, and thus surely they favoured the teachings of Saalshen. That was a time when the king was least persuaded by the northern fanatics, since the north had failed to defeat the invasion without help as they'd insisted they would, and had protested my ascension to commander at every turn. Trade with Saalshen improved dramatically, and many senior serrin were invited to visit the capital. And, of course, he declared that Krystoff would be my uma, binding the kingdom and the Nasi-Keth inextricably together.

'But the response of the Verenthanes was not good, especially in the north. And precious few Nasi-Keth from Petrodor have felt inspired to follow me to the highlands.' He shrugged. 'Perhaps it would have been different had Krystoff lived. Then Lenayin would have had a king both Verenthane and Nasi-Keth, as are so many in Petrodor.'

'And we have the Hadryn to thank that it didn't happen,' Sasha muttered.

Kessligh fixed her with a hard stare. 'Sasha. What happened to Krystoff is old history. It hurt me as much as it hurt you. But we're riding into this mess now on the king's business, and the king must be impartial. If you feel that will be a problem for you, best that you tell me now.'