only by assiduously signing away the
capacity to make war, and although the
covenants that had secured their formation
had eroded, that one prohibition still
held. Only governments could help us, and
the governments tried negotiation and
diplomacy as Dragan Vukadinoviлc made
promises for the New Orthodox Resurgence
and broke them.
High above, the owners of the sky-cities
did the only thing that they could, which
was to deny access to space to either
side. This kept the war on the ground, but
hurt us more than it hurt the armies
surrounding us. They, after all, had no
need for satellites to find out where we
were.
To the east, the Pan-Slavic army and the
New Orthodox Resurgence were pounding
against the rock of the Tenth Crusade;
further south they were skirmishing over
borders with the Islamic Federation.
Occasionally the shelling would stop for a
while, and it would be safe to bring
hoarded solar panels out into the sunlight
to charge our batteriesЎthe electric grid
had gone long ago, of courseЎand huddle
around an antique solar-powered television
set watching the distant negotiating teams
talk about our fate. Everybody knew that
the war would be over shortly; it was
impossible that the world would not act.
The world did not act.
I remember taking batteries from wrecked
cars to use a headlight, if one happened
to survive unbroken, or a taillight, to
allow us to stay up past sunset. There was
a concoction of boiled leaves that we
called "tea," although we had no milk or
sugar to put in it. We would sit together,
enjoying the miracle of light, sipping our
"tea," perhaps reading, perhaps just
sitting in silence.
With the destruction of the bridges,
Salzburg had become two cities, connected
