The Edge of the World by Kevin J. Anderson

that Imir’s guards and soldiers
     could extinguish the flames, and that would be that. Now she doubted any man, even the soldan-shah, could save the city.
    They fled the residence as the flames encroached. Making their way downhill toward the docks, they followed the choked drainage
     canals, until they reached a shallow-draft boat with a man aboard waving to them from the anxious crowds on the edge of the
     canal. “Lady Asha! Soldan-Shah Imir commanded me to wait for you. You and some of your party can ride with me!”
    With her closest handmaidens, she crowded aboard while the rest of her servants took the heavily laden carts directly to her
     barge. She kept the voluminous birdcages with her. The manservants and two armed guards had to beat away desperate people
     who clawed and pushed, trying to board the small boat. Asha hated to leave them behind. “But… all these people! We should
     save them.”
    The manservants and guards were momentarily speechless; finally, one of the men gestured around to indicate their single small
     boat. “My lady, we cannot! Our orders are to save you.”
    Asha felt her heart lurch in her chest. The desperation of these poor people called to her. The people of Ishalem, faithful
     to Urec. They were only trying to escape the fire, having left every possession behind. But the guards were right—the boat
     had no room, not with her pets in their bulky cages and baskets. Two bright green parakeets squawked and fluttered against
     the bars. She was surprised to see that one of her cats had been caught after all, and now it yowled piteously, fur bristling.
    Uneasy with the angry crowd, one of the soldan-shah’s guards untied the painter, even as Asha tried to think of a solution.
     Before she and her handmaidens were fully settled, the boatman used a pole to shove his craft into motion, leaving the shouting
     crowd behind. Some of the people even cursed her!
    “Wait!” Asha yanked out her birdcages. “I’ll make room. We can save
somebody.
” Since she and the soldan-shah had had no sons or daughters of their own, her pets had always been like her children. Now
     she opened the cages, shook the bars to force the squawking and frantic birds into the air, ignoring her deep sadness as they
     flew off into the smoky night. She knew she would never see them again. Asha tossed the cages overboard. “There, now take
     some children perhaps.” She looked to the side of the canal, reached out her hands as they drifted past the terrified people.
    But the guards ignored her. “I am sorry, my lady. We have to get you down to the docks.” They refused to obey! Continuing
     to push the boat along the canal, the boatman picked up speed. The heavily laden craft scraped bottom from time to time, and
     two men had to push with poles to free them.
    Barely able to breathe, she looked over the side of the boat as it drifted along the canal, forlorn. What would happen to
     all those people? If the whole city was going to burn, as Imir said, where would they go? She began to grasp the horror of
     just how many might die here this night. “No!”
    Though the canal deepened as the boat drifted, the water was cluttered with debris and coated with an oily scum. Asha spied
     a burned man floating amongst the flotsam, his head above water, arms clinging to the side of the canal. His clothes were
     singed and in tatters, his face and hands covered with soot. Much of his hair was gone. And she saw he was alive.
    “Wait! That man needs help!”
    “We’ve already told you, Lady Asha. There is no time.” The boatman looked up as a shower of sparks glittered above them in
     the night sky. “We cannot save him.”
    The man feebly lifted a hand, eyes closed, face drawn in agony. The cooling water of the canal must have saved him, but he
     would die soon unless a healer tended him.
    “Stop! That is my order! We must save
someone.
” The unwavering command that charged her voice sounded new and completely