Sasha

shoulder, and the swing of his arms, though lacking the power of a grown man, generated considerable speed with stanch or sword. 'Now, are you going to listen to me, or am I just wasting my time?'

Andreyis must have seen the dark look in her eyes for he held up both hands, defensively. 'I'm listening. Show me again?'

She took him through all of the fundamental taka-dans, which were not so different in basic strokes to svaalverd taka-dans, truly. And she acquired several more bruises along the way, for Andreyis knew better than to pull his strokes-if he acquired that bad habit before the headmen at the ceremony, he'd remain a boy for one more, humiliating year, and have his hair cut short once more. Mostly, she concentrated on footwork, which was the one thing svaalverd and Lenay styles had in common. Except that the serrin understood balance and momentum with far greater sophistication. Sometimes, svaalverd knowledge could assist a non-svaalverd fighter, whatever Kessligh's doubts. She'd seen it herself, in Andreyis's improvements.

And saw it again now, as he smacked her stanch back to a hard blow against her right thigh. Andreyis grinned outright. Sasha scowled at him, rubbing her leg. 'It wasn't that good,' she told him. 'Your elbow lost extension again, you'd have so much more power if you could keep the lead arm straight.'

Andreyis slung the stanch over his shoulder and gave her an exasperated look. 'You just can't stand to admit when someone's beaten you,' he told her.

'Oh you think that, do you?' Sasha said loudly.

'You've always been like that!' Andreyis retorted. 'Like that time I beat you racing up the road from town and you insisted Peg had a cold? Or the time I beat you at the knife throw and, of course, you just happened to have a sore elbow? Or that time…'

'Okay then, let's try that again,' Sasha told him, resuming her fighting stance. Andreyis followed, eyes hard with concentration, lips pressed thin. 'This time, I get to fight nzy way. Ready? Go.'

Andreyis paused a few moments, poised on the balls of his feet, awaiting the right moment. Then he attacked. Sasha met his lead overhead with a firm blade-it jarred her arms, but when she knew it was coming, she did have the strength for it. Then she stopped being polite, swung an angular intercept to the strike that followed, deflecting Andreyis away from whatever he'd intended next, and left him open for her counter-slash that smacked into his ribs beneath his right arm.

Andreyis staggered sideways at the force of it, dropping his stanch and holding his chest. 'I've told you before,' Sasha said firmly, as he doubled over, winded, 'you can't make training personal, Andrey. It can't be about ego and pride, it has to be about improving your technique. Now if you'll just get this stupid notion that you can beat me at svaalverd out of your head, then maybe we can get back to fixing your footwork, yes?'

Andreyis did not reply, still doubled over. Sasha's temper fled, replaced by concern. The sound her stanch had made against his banda came again to memory… How could she have been so stupid? She hadn't needed to hit him that hard!

'Andrey!' She dropped her stanch and grabbed him, carefully. 'Oh spirits, Andrey! Spirits, I'm so stupid… I'm sorry, Andrey, I wasn't thinking. Are you okay?'

Andreyis took a deep breath and winced, holding his side. 'I think you cracked a rib,' he said in a small voice.

Sasha swore, loudly. 'Look… just sit down. Damn it, I'm such a fool! Come on, sit. Here.' She helped him down and began unstrapping his banda. Andreyis tried not to breathe deeply, or move. She lifted the padding away. 'If you can lift your arm at all, I'll get your shirt off,' she told him anxiously. 'Can you do that?'

'Don't bother,' Andreyis said, in a small, muffled voice.

'Don't bother?' She stared at him, aghast. 'Andrey, I have to look. I can see if it's broken, then… then maybe Kessligh will have something to help it heal… Spirits, why am I such an idiot? Just before the Wakening too! What was I…'

And then she saw the grin on Andreyis's face and the reason his voice had been muffled. He was trying to stop from laughing. She stared at him, dumbfounded. Something bubbled up inside, half fury, half laughter. 'You! You…' She turned about, fetched up her stanch and thought about removing his head with it. Andreyis put both arms over his head, shaking uncontrollably, but not with fear.

She threw the stanch down, hard. 'You utter bastard!' she shouted at him. 'I thought I'd really hurt you!'

'You did!' Andreyis retorted, now indignant despite his laughter. 'It hurt like hell! Serves you right, hot- tempered wench!'

Sasha cuffed at the top of his head, but missed on purpose. And found herself laughing. 'Oh thank the gods,' she sighed, and sat heavily beside him.

Andreyis made the spirit sign, with his left hand. 'Don't say that,' he said. 'Not in the circle.' Not that there was a proper tachadar circle beneath the vertyn tree, but one did not praise lowlands gods within them, lest the spirits be offended…

'Old habit,' said Sasha.

Andreyis winced again as he took a deep breath. 'I still don't know how you do that. I was almost overpowering you for a while there, and then you just…

'Technique is more powerful than muscle,' Sasha said simply. 'If my technique is superior, my strength of muscle is irrelevant. Even Jaegar can't touch the svaalverd.'

Andreyis frowned. 'So no non-svaalverd fighter even has a chance? Then how did the Saalshen Bacosh armies even take any losses in all those wars the Larosa launched against them?'

Sasha shook her head. 'That's a different kind of fighting. The Bacosh wars are all armour and shields, huge formations of men with no room to swing. I wouldn't last a heartbeat in that kind of fight. You'd do better than me, probably. The Saalshen Bacosh armies are so formidable because they combine the best of human tactics and mass formations with serrin fighting technique and serrin steel and craftsmanship in weapons and armour.'

Andreyis just looked at her. It was a face that might have been handsome, were it not so familiar. Despite his eighteen summers, and the new strength of his jaw and brow, she could not help but notice the boyish ears that stuck out, or the reluctant nose. With his dark hair and funny dark eyes, he continued to look… well, puppyish. Sadly, many other girls in Baerlyn seemed to think the same. Those girls only flirted and giggled with the rough- and-tumble lads, and regarded a quiet, awkward, thoughtful boy like Andreyis with cool disdain or worse.

'Are you going to Petrodor with Kessligh?' he asked finally.

Sasha stared at him, incredulously. 'And abandon Lenayin? What does Krayliss do when he arrives in Baen- Tar and discovers I'm not there? At least if I'm there, I can… I don't know. Try to keep him under control somehow. The man's only a hair's-breadth away from open treason.'

Andreyis stared at his boots. 'I don't understand,' he said quietly. 'I don't understand why Kessligh would leave.'

'That makes two of us,' Sasha said darkly.

'Is there… is there something in the Nasi-Keth beliefs that… I mean…' He seemed at a loss for words. Sasha knew how he felt. 'So much of what the serrin think is so strange and… I don't know, maybe he has his reasons. Reasons we can't understand.'

'I'm Nasi-Keth,' Sasha retorted, 'and I don't understand.'

'Aye, but you're not really Nasi-Keth.' Sasha frowned at him. Andreyis blinked. 'Well, you are Nasi-Keth, but… but you're Goeren-yai first, aren't you?'

'The serrin don't think like that, Andrey. They can be many things at once, not like humans who can only be one thing at a time. The Nasi-Keth aren't a religion, they're just a collection of ideas and none of them are exclusive of other ideas. So most of the Petrodor Nasi-Keth are Verenthanes too-they practise serrin teachings, yet they pray to the Verenthane gods and hold temple communion like any Verenthane. So there's no reason a Goeren-yai can't follow serrin teachings… hells, a lot of Goeren-yai already do, sort of. Serrin have been coming here for centuries, they've left a lot of knowledge behind.

'But serrin don't have a religion. They don't believe just one thing. They… Damn, she'd tried to explain this to various Baerlyners before, but it was difficult. Now, it seemed important to try… for herself, as much as Andreyis. 'They have a way of thinking; they try to be rational. It's not that they don't believe in anything, they do… but that's the problem, they believe in everything. They don't go around saying this is impossible or that's impossible, like humans do. They accept everyone's beliefs because they know they can't disprove them. And anything you can't disprove is possible, right?'