They could, I believe, have destroyed the
city at any time, but that did not serve
their purposes. Salzburg was a prize.
Whether the buildings were whole or in
parts seemed irrelevant, but the city was
not to be simply obliterated.
In April, as buds started to bloom from
beneath the rubble, the city woke up, and
we discovered that we had survived the
winter. The diplomats proposed
partitioning the city between the Slavs
and the GermansЎAsians and other ethnic
groups, like me, being conveniently
ignoredЎand the terms were set, but
nothing came of it except a cease-fire
that was violated before the day was over.
The second summer of the siege was a
summer of hope. Every week we thought that
this might be the last week of the siege;
that peace might yet be declared on terms
that we could accept, that would let us
keep our city. The defense of the city had
opened a corridor to the outside world,
allowing in humanitarian aid, black-market
goods, and refugees from other parts of
the war. Some of the people who had fled
before the siege returned, although many
of the population who had survived the
winter used the opportunity to flee to the
west. My foster father, though, swore that
he would stay in Salzburg until death. It
is civilization, and if it is destroyed,
nothing is worthwhile.
Christians of the Tenth Crusade and Turks
of the Islamic Federation fought side by
side with the official troops of the
Mayorтs Brigade, sharing ammunition but
not command, to defend the city. High
above, cities in the sky looked down on
us, but, like angels who see everything,
they did nothing.
CafОs opened again, even those that,
without black-market connections, could
only serve water, and in the evenings
there were night-clubs, the music booming
