"You're the Sudder, aren't you?"

I tore my eyes away from the increasing frenzy of the dance and looked up at a big, blonde, blowsy woman who I had seen dispensing drinks from a makeshift bar set up outside the tavern.

"Yeah," I admitted, tentatively. It occurred to me that while Jax had stood up for me earlier, there were people here who had deep and abiding reasons to despise my people and the guys were too busy dancing right now to help me if someone decided to take revenge. With the rope still fastened about me, I wasn't going anywhere.

"Don't worry," the woman smiled, "I'm not like that. My brother-in-law is a Sudder."

"You're kidding? How does that work?"

She shrugged. “I grew up near the borderlands. People are a bit more flexible there. You have to be with the territory changing hands every other day. He was a soldier, she was available; it was bound to happen. They fell in love and that was that. People weren't happy about it - our dad was about ready to kill someone and wasn't that worried who - but the truth is that, once you got him away from his army, he was a decent man." She sat down on a box beside me. "People as individuals tend to be alright. It's when you give them a race or a religion or a cause that sets one group against another that they forget the other side are people, too."

All of which seemed to make a lot of sense to me.

"I'm Viola," said the woman, sticking out a hand which I took and shook.

"Aleah."

"Pleasure."

"Do parties like this happen very often?" I asked, my eyes straying back to the whirl of the dance.

"Depends what you mean by often."

"Everyone seems very..." I struggled for the word. "Happy?"

"You mean all over each other like rabbits?" suggested the woman.

I had no idea what rabbits were like, but from the context that did seem to be what I was driving at.

Viola laughed. "When you live at a time of war then you take your pleasure where and when you can, and you don't get too uptight about it. People fall in love in the normal course of things - that's people - and sometimes they stay true to each other because that's what they want. But not everybody does. Why deny yourself what you want just because of some rule that someone thought up way back when times were different? We're pretty free with our affections around here, no one worries too much about it and I think we're all happier for the result. If you held off being with someone today because he was with your friend yesterday, and tomorrow he gets killed, then you'll regret it. We don't believe in regrets."

It was a philosophy that would have shocked the Priests of Sudder to their core. Our religion was based on love between a husband and a wife - if then - and you weren't supposed to enjoy it. Perhaps this was some source of the enmity between our nations, and were that the case then I knew whose side I would be on.

"So," Viola gave me a leering smile, "which on 'em have you got your eye on?"

I immediately blushed scarlet and Viola cackled with laughter when I said, "Well... they're all very handsome."

"Gorgeous is more the word I would use. All of them, eh? Well, if you want all of them, my dear, then you've come to the right place. But you're not going to get them sitting here."

I held up my rope in answer.

Viola shrugged. "I see. Well, of course, some people like that. I prefer to have my hands free. Tried it a few times but; not for me. Anyway, I think we can trust you now." She set to work untying the knot - something I suppose I could have done myself but hadn't had the courage. "Of course, if you run then I'll be as ready to kill you as anyone here," she added conversationally.

"I know. Sudders can't be trusted."

Viola nodded. The rope dropped from me and she took my hand, leading me towards the floor.

"But I don't even know if they like me," I protested. "In fact, I think some of them might hate me."

"One way to find out."

On the dance floor, my feet automatically tried to execute one of the festival dances which really didn't work to this rhythm and I tripped over myself, much to Viola's amusement. Next, I tried to copy everyone else but no one seemed to be doing the same thing - it was a free for all.

"Just let the music do the work for you," said Viola. "There's no right or wrong."

I closed my eyes and let the music take me. As the years of dance training fell away, I suddenly realized why I had been so bad a dancer when I was young - because my feet wanted to follow the rhythm, not the steps. I had no idea if I was any good, but I didn't care, I hopped, skipped, jumped, sashayed and swayed with the music, laughing like a child.

As the song ended and I opened my eyes, I half expected everyone to be staring at me and laughing. They weren't. But there were four pairs of eyes trained on me, and the guys weren't laughing. Jax suddenly looked the other way and pushed his way off the dance floor, as if he hated himself for taking a moment's break from hating me.

"That was very good," said Viola. "Come on, let's take a break."

"Jax hates me," I said as we sat down again.

"And that's important to you?"

I turned pink as I nodded, and wondered why it did.

"He doesn't hate you. He hates Sudders."

"Same thing."

"Weren't you listening to what I said earlier?"

I shrugged. "It's the same thing to Jax, which is what matters."

Viola shook her head. "At the moment, I think he hates himself more than you because he doesn't hate you." She sighed and stared at the ground for a minute. "Jax's older brother was killed by the Sudder. Not so uncommon for men around here but, Jax's brother wasn't a soldier, he was a farmer. He took some flak for that but he didn't want to be a killer. Never hurt a soul in his life. Back then, Jax wasn't so different. The irony is that when those Sudder soldiers killed a farmer they created a ruthless soldier in Jax. They'd have been better off leaving the poor man be."

I wondered if, up to that point, I had really appreciated what my people had cost these men and women, and the effort it must have taken them not to string me up as soon as I arrived. Every family could probably tell a similar story to Jax's. I had thought that I was as much a victim as they were, but it didn't come close. To be bred for death was one thing, but to lose a loved one? That was a cut that ran bone deep.

"What was it like growing up in a temple?" asked Viola, consciously changing the subject.

I shrugged. "I thought it was pretty awful, but after what you just told me." I looked around the throng of celebrating Norren. "There was no freedom. There was nothing like this. I'm twenty years old and I think I've only lived these last few days."

Viola nodded. "We've all got problems. Who's worse off? Who cares."

I gave a little half smile. "I had a good friend there. Sadie. Without her, I think it would have been unbearable."

Viola's face set grimmer than I had seen it. "I'm sorry to hear that. All this celebrating," she cast an arm about the scene, "it's all very well but we all know the lads' mission wasn't the success we wanted. They'll find another virgin. They're not about to anger the volcano. I'm afraid your friend will die on schedule."

A shiver ran across my skin and I felt the unfamiliar food and drink curdle in my stomach.

"I've got to..."

I ran off into the bushes and threw up. What had I abandoned Sadie to? Would I never see her again? Would she think that I had run off and left her? What would she think of me as she stood on the edge of that volcano, waiting to die?