Joel Shepherd - Haven

“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?”

“The good King Damon,” said Sasha. “He's promised us gold. ”

“So we're paying for it,” Jaegar said drily.

Sasha smiled, knowing local opinion of the king's tax. “Aye, but so are the Hadryn.”

Jaegar snorted a laugh. “And good luck to your brother collecting that tax up north this year.”

“Aye,” Sasha sighed. “Another thing to have a war over. That and Koenyg's bitch Hadryn wife claiming the throne for her son.”

Unfortunately, it was most likely the truth.

After the inspection, Sasha took Errollyn, Yasmyn, and Aisha up to their new home at the ranch. There Sasha reintroduced herself to Kaif and Keef, her enormous boarhounds, who became so excited to see her they had to be restrained. And then the horses, whose number had indeed increased. Torovans had been buying a lot of horses, it seemed, and paying good money for breeding them, too. Though it sobered Sasha to think that at least a few of the horses she'd raised at this place would have marched with the Torovan army against Saalshen.

Errollyn, Yasmyn, and Aisha loved the ranch, and spent some time exploring, marvelling at the enormous views of the mountains to the south, and at the thick forest above the cleared pasture slope. Sasha told them of the animals that lived there, of the wolf pack with dens in the next valley across, and took them to see the waterfall and rock pool hidden amongst the trees to the west, freezing cold now but lovely for swimming in summer. Lynette told them that Jaryd had loved that pool when he'd been here two summers ago, before the Army of Lenayin had marched. Sasha thought she would name it for him, Jaryd's Falls, and have Jaegar and some others up for a traditional remembrance. A freed spirit liked to return to the places where it had been happy in the previous life, and in that happiness could be enticed to rejoin the living world in birth once more.

After lunch, with tea in hand, Sasha settled on the south-facing verandah with Errollyn to take in the warmth of the midday sun and admire the view, while Lynette showed Yasmyn and Aisha more secrets of the ranch. Errollyn looked utterly relaxed. He'd never liked cities much either, and at the prospect of settling here for some considerable time, he looked as though all the tension had fled from him.

Sitting beside him, Sasha knew how he felt. There was a lot of work to do, and trials ahead. Damon's kingship was not yet secure, and she was a vital pillar of his support. The north would doubtless rebel, as soon as they settled their internal disputes over who their great lords now were, and probably there would be civil strife and battle. The provincial lords had been hammered at Jahnd, yet would certainly regroup and press again at their claims for feudal rights in Lenayin. To the far north the Cherrovan threat always loomed, Torovan was now a problem rather than just a source of gold, and the new Bacosh was one giant experiment in a new form of civilisation that no one was certain would work.

Nothing ever truly ended, and returning home felt like more of a beginning than a conclusion. But there were wonderful possibilities ahead also, born of the sacrifice of so many heroes. Things that were worth fighting for, and dying for if necessary. She'd learned, these past two years, that she needed that more than anything. Something worth dying for. Something worth living for. In Lenayin, those two things were usually the same.

“That sun across the mountains is just magnificent,” said Errollyn, shading his eyes against the distant glare.

Sasha nodded, smiling, and for the first time in years felt completely at peace.