Lord of Lies

‘That is still too many,’ I said. ‘Warders must be found for each of them so that Morjin’s illusions won’t touch them. And I must be sure of every Guardian.’

‘Are you saying that you’ll doubt the knights I choose?’

‘No, King Hadaru. But the Guardians’ first loyalty must be to the Lightstone, and to me. I must know the men I lead.’

‘How long, then, would it take you to become acquainted with thirty of my knights?’

‘Twice as long,’ I said, ‘as it would half that number.’

‘Fifteen knights,’ he muttered, shaking his head. ‘Of course, all this is only speculation. Who could think that even fifteen Ishkan knights could ride with Meshians all the way to Tria?’

‘Is it easier,’ I asked him, ‘to imagine twenty knights making this journey?’

‘Perhaps. Surely you can understand that my knights would long for the company of their countrymen.’

‘Then why don’t you choose these knights now, since they stand with their companions?’

‘Why don’t I? Why, I don’t because it hasn’t been decided yet that the Ishkans will join the Guardians as you propose.’

He gazed at the Lightstone for what seemed an hour. Then he announced, ‘It’s said that the Gelstei is able to find all other gelstei and have power over them. It’s also said to give immortality.’

He held out his old, scarred hand and studied it for a long few moments. And then again his fingers closed around the golden cup as if he were loathe to let it go. I, of all men, knew how he felt. To surrender the Lightstone to another was like giving up one’s heart.

My eyes found his then, and he snapped out, ‘What are you looking at? Don’t look at me that way!’

All Valari, I remembered, aspired to polish their souls until they shone with the fire of flawless diamonds.

‘Maybe you are the Maitreya,’ King Hadaru said to me. He stared at the Lightstone for a moment before looking back at me. ‘Maybe you aren’t. But your hope of making an alliance is a good one. I have come to see that Morjin must be opposed, after all. He is like a spider who weaves his webs in dark places to ensnare the innocent.’

He leaned forward from his massive wooden throne as if to stand and give the Lightstone to Prince Issur. Then he seemed to think better of this impulse. He settled back into his seat as he pointed at Estrella. ‘Others have suffered worse insults at the hands of the Red Dragon than have I. This girl, perhaps, who has lost her power of speech. And yet I have lost a son to him; it is like losing one’s life. The one whose name I will no longer speak was not always a creature of Morjin’s. He was hot-headed, yes, and proud – well, we all knew how proud he could be. But he was not born evil. Morjin made him so. Morjin is a stealer of souls, and I will do all that is in my power to make him pay for his crimes.’

So saying, King Hadaru finally rose from his throne. He stepped over to a tall, young knight with a noble face, whose long nose was like a pillar holding up his finely-boned brow. He extended the Lightstone to him and said, ‘Sar Jarlath, will you guard this with your life? Will you swear to slay all enemies who would steal this cup from its rightful master?’

Asaru turned to look at me just then, and so did Maram and Lord Raasharu. Their faces seethed with anger and pride. As Guardian of the Lightstone, it was upon me to ask of Sar Jarlath the very questions that King Hadaru was now putting to him. But I did not gainsay him. I stood in silence watching the little miracle that unfolded before me.

And so King Hadaru continued, ‘Will you agree to ride forth under Lord Valashu’s command, and yet never forget that you are a knight of Ishka and carry with you the honor of your king and countrymen?’

Sar Jarlath gave his assent, and we watched with gladness as King Hadaru pressed the Lightstone into his hands. So it went with other knights, King Hadaru walking about the room and choosing out the finest of the men who followed him. Now, it seemed, they would follow me. When all twenty had been selected, they joined the hundred Guardians near the ring of honor. Then Sivar of Godhra gave over the charge of the Lightstone to Sar Jarlath, who would be its next bearer on the road to Nar and Tria.

After that, King Hadaru called for a feast. We all ate much meat and drank much beer. King Hadaru regaled us with accounts of valor of the twenty new Guardians whom he had chosen. Years seemed to fall away from his worn, old face. It was the first time I had seen him happy. I gave thanks yet again that it had been my fate to find the Lightstone. For a great king had touched the golden cup, and it had touched him.

When it came time for bed, Asaru took me aside and said to me, ‘You gambled greatly in bringing the Lightstone here, little brother.’

‘Yes – but all the other gambles seemed worse.’

‘But how did you know that King Hadaru wouldn’t try to take it?’

‘I didn’t. But one either believes in men or not.’ I smiled to reassure Asaru and continued, ‘King Hadaru is presumptuous, arrogant and vain. But he has the soul of a Valari.’

That night I took my rest in a richly furnished room reserved for princes and kings. I slept well, knowing that the new Guardians who stood watch outside my door would lay down their lives to protect me and the Lightstone.

9 (#ulink_893ce583-2e11-5ce9-8865-d5099311274f)

In the morning, everyone assembled in the lane in front of the palace. King Hadaru, wearing a red tunic emblazoned with the great white bear of the Aradars, sat astride a big gelding. His standard-bearer held aloft a fluttering banner with the same charge. Prince Issur and Lord Nadhru rode next to the king. Fifty knights, King Hadaru’s private guard, took their places behind them, followed by a considerable baggage train. Asaru and Yarashan chafed at having to trail after this company, but protocol demanded that we yield precedence to a king in his own realm. And so the Guardians and I lined up much as before, only now there were twenty more of us. I went among these Ishkan knights learning their names and those of their fathers. In appearance, they were little different than the knights of Mesh. They wore diamond battle armor glittering in the morning light. Their surcoats and shields, bordered with white bears, showed their various charges. I noted the black lion against the white field of Sar Kimball and the gold sunburst of Sar Ianashu, a slender and hirsute young man, who was Lord Solhtar’s second son. As marks of cadence, to each of their charges, had been added a small golden cup. I considered letting the new Guardians ride together as a single squadron within our company. But they must become used to us, and we to them, and the sooner the better. And so I positioned Sunjay Naviru next to a Sar Avram and Sivar of Godhra next to Sar Jarlath, and so on. It would be many long miles, I thought, before these proud knights accepted each other in companionship, much less love. In truth, we would be lucky if we didn’t tear into each other with mistrustful eyes and words – or even our swords.

The first hour of our journey took us down through the houses and shops of Loviisa, the largest of Ishka’s cities, though still quite small. The cool air smelled of baking bread and coal smoke from the many smithies. The armorers here made good steel – though not quite so fine, I thought, as did my countrymen in Godhra. Our route led through winding streets back to the North Road, which gave onto a stout bridge spanning the raging Tushur river. Just beyond this dangerous water, in a square lined with several inns, we came to the intersection of the King’s Road. This was a well-paved band of stone wide enough for six horses to ride down it side by side. It curved east through Ishka into Taron, all the way to Nar. King Hadaru led his knights onto it. And we who guarded the Lightstone followed them.

We had a fine day for travel, with many drifting white clouds to steal some of the heat from the bright spring sun. It was noisier than I would have liked, however, as the hooves of so many horses sounded a continual percussion of iron against stone, and the wagons’ iron-shod wheels ground particles of grit into dust. It pleased me to hear the knights in my company keeping up a low hum of conversation or even singing one of the battle songs that all the Valari know. In truth, there were moments when both Meshians and Ishkans became too intoxicated with the passion of these old verses, and then their voices seemed to vie with each other in loudness and stridency rather than harmonizing. There were moments, too, when I thought I caught a rumble of discord or a brief flurry of heated words from the knights behind me. But that was the worst of things, and I gave thanks for that. The hours and miles passed uneventfully as we all kept the peace.

But later that afternoon, a quarrel broke out and threatened to turn into a brawl. We had stopped to water the horses at one of the little rivers that flowed down from the low range of mountains to the north of Loviisa. As I watched Altaru drinking his fill of the icy water, a shout rang out behind me; I turned to see Skyshan push the heel of his hand against Sar Ianashu’s chest and nearly knock him off his feet. Then Sar Ianashu reached for his sword even as Tavar Amadan grabbed his arm to restrain him and Sar Jarlath knocked his shoulder into Tavar.

‘Hold!’ I cried out. I saw, all in an instant, that the Ishkans of King Hadaru’s guard on the road ahead of us were all gripping the hilts of their swords. And so were Baltasar, Sunjay Naviru and other knights of Mesh. ‘Hold, now, before it’s too late!’

I ran down the road and threw my body between Sar Ianashu and Skyshan. I pulled them apart and shouted, ‘Are you Valari knights? Are you Guardians of the Lightstone?’

My fury, if not my words, cut into them like a sword and seemed to empty them of breath. Tempers cooled, then. I stood listening to these men’s explanations. It turned out that their quarrel was ancient. The ancestors of both of them had lived along the Diamond River, on opposite sides. Once a time – 939 years ago to be precise – one of Skyshan’s great-grandsires had fought a duel with one of Sar Ianashu’s over a woman who had both Meshian and Ishkan blood. Both men had been killed. The resulting feud had lasted a hundred years, until the Diamond shifted its course, and Sar Ianashu’s ancestors had been forced to move to another site higher in the Shoshan range of mountains. For reasons that I was not able to determine, both Sar Ianashu and Skyshan had decided to renew this feud after all these many centuries.

‘But this cannot be,’ I said to them. ‘Your grievances are ancient. The very mountains have changed their faces in this time, but you have not. How are we to ride together this way? Is there an Ishkan knight who can’t tell of sorrows more recent at the Meshians’ hands or a man of Mesh who hasn’t suffered the loss of kinsmen in one of our wars? My own grandfather was killed along that very same river scarcely ten years ago, and so were many others.’

Sar Ianashu, a violent man whose cheek muscles were popping beneath his taut ivory skin, finally opened his mouth as if to gainsay me. But then he thought better of such rashness and bit his lip. I was now his lord. He had made vows and would not break them. He bowed his head in shame, and so did Skyshan.

By this time, King Hadaru had walked down the road to see what trouble had befallen us. He watched in silence, both jealous that I should so address one of his knights and glad to see that I had calmed this little dispute even as he might have done. Then he returned to his place at the head of our columns. When it came time to get back on our horses, Asaru walked up to me and said, ‘This cannot go on. Ishkans and Meshians, together – this is impossible.’

And I said to him, ‘No, it will be all right.’

‘But, Val, how can you be sure?’

‘Because,’ I said, ‘either one believes in men or one does not.’

Despite my brave words, I kept a wary watch upon my men as we resumed our journey. But Sar Ianashu’s and Skyshan’s outburst seemed to let the bad blood between them rather than inflaming it. That night, we had a happy camp within sight of the mighty Culhadosh river. I gave the Lightstone into Sar Ianashu’s keeping; Sar Ianashu surprised everyone by lending Skyshan his sharpening stone, which was a very fine one made of pressed diamond dust. After that they clasped hands and pledged their companionship. They both knew that, although I had made no threats, any more fighting would result in their expulsion from the Guardians. What would it avail for them to satisfy some point of honor a thousand years old if they must suffer such shame?

While our dinner of fresh lamb was sizzling over our cooking fires, I gave Estrella what was to become the first of a series of riding lessons. She hated sitting all day by herself in a creaking wagon. With a few motions of her hands and her eager eyes, she indicated that she wished to ride next to me. And so I chose out a gentle mare from our string of remounts and sat Estrella upon her. With her skinny legs gripping the mare’s brown sides, she seemed almost too small to ride a full-sized horse. And she could not speak to this fine animal as others might, with soft words and comforting tones that found resonance in the mare’s easy nickers. Estrella, however, spoke to her in other ways. Her graceful hands caressed the mare’s mane and communicated her faith that the mare would not hurt her. It seemed to me, watching how Estrella’s quick, dark eyes met the dark eye of the mare’s great turned head, that she immediately loved this beast and that the mare knew this with an animal’s instinct. As I led both horse and girl about the fields along the river, I thought that it wouldn’t be long before Estrella could ride with the knights and others of our company.

After dinner, I discovered that King Hadaru was a fine storyteller. He invited Asaru and me, and several others, over to his campfire to share some very good and very rare Galdan brandy. He recounted the deeds of the Ishkans’ ancestors at the Battle of Rainbow Pass in the year 37 of the Age of Swords, which marked the first time that the Valari had defeated an invading Sarni army and had fought with a people other than themselves. Then, to the nightly ritual of warriors running their sharpening stones along their swords, he recited some ancient verses that were close to every Valari’s heart:

A sword becomes a warrior’s soul, Its shining steel through pains made keen, His strength and valor keep it whole, His faith and honor keep it clean.A warrior’s soul becomes his sword:It cuts through darkness, pain and fright;Its diamond-brilliance points him towardThe brilliant, pure and single light.

When he finished, he raised his glass to me and told me, ‘Some day, I would know more about this sword it’s said you carry inside you, Valashu Elahad.’

Early the next morning we crossed the Culhadosh River, greatest of the waters that drain the Morning Mountains. And so we passed into Taron, the most populous of the Nine Kingdoms. It was a fair country with many farms spread along the Culhadosh. Out of this rich black soil, the Taroners grew barley and oats, wheat and rye – and not a few warriors and knights who had pledged their swords to King Waray in Nar. We met a small squadron of these who were on their way to the tournament. Their shields showed blue boars and black ravens and other devices unfamiliar to me. If the Taroners were chagrined to see such a large body of outland knights riding free through their land, they gave no sign of it. But their leader, a Lord Eladaru, remarked the strangeness of Ishkans accompanying Meshians, saying, ‘If this is truly the end of the age, as has been prophesied, then this must be the first of its miracles.’

After King Hadaru proudly called up Sar Marjay, one of his nephews, to bring forth the Lightstone, Lord Eladaru blinked his eyes and said, ‘It seems I misspoke. Meshians surrendering the guardianship of the Lightstone to an Ishkan – surely this must be the greatest of miracles. The next thing you know, maybe King Kurshan really will find a way to sail the stars.’

Lord Eladaru bid us a safe journey, then gathered up his men and rode on ahead of us. I watched them disappear along the road that wound up and around the low, green hills to the east.

We, with our heavy baggage train, followed them more slowly. We passed through fields of sunflowers and apple orchards, and then some miles of rolling pasturage given over to the grazing of goats and sheep. Toward the end of our first day in Taron, the finely paved road turned into a track of packed dirt. As there had been no rain for the past few days, the hot sun had dried out its surface. The horses’ hooves, no less the wheels of the wagons, pulverized the dirt and sent up thick clouds of dust. Trailing behind King Hadaru and his Ishkan knights became a torment of stinging eyes and grit coating our lips and teeth. We had to cover our faces with our scarves so as not to choke. Maram complained about riding behind King Hadaru. As he wiped at his beard and blinked his powdered eyes, he said, ‘Now that we’re in Taron, the Ishkans should trail us. Let them eat our dust.’

On our second day in Taron, Maram had good cause to wish for the previous day’s dust: toward noon, some thick, dark clouds came out of the west and let loose a downpour lasting for hours. The rain turned the road into a bog of sticky mud and potholes like little brown ponds. Twice, one of the wagons got stuck in this mire. Our pace slowed as the horses slogged along; I listened to the squish and suck of their hooves against the mud as I blinked my eyes against the slanting rain. The gray sky seemed too low, too heavy. The air was too moist and nearly smothered me. I felt something cold, wet and dark sniffing at my insides like the snout of some fell beast. I felt a pulling there, in my belly, as if sharp teeth were tearing into me while long claws hooked into my back. This odious sensation seemed to emanate from somewhere behind me; it reminded me of the time that the dreadful Grays had pursued Maram, Master Juwain, Atara and me through the wilds of Alonia. Only now, on this muddy road in the open country, whatever was pursuing me seemed to have no hate for me, but only a fierce will to rend and destroy.