The Lightstone

Chapter 47

About a mile from our camp, Atara found a ford over the Diamond River and led Liljana, Daj and Kane across it. Thus they entered the lands of the Adiri tribe, who were presently allied with the Kurmak. As she rode north on her red horse draped in her black-maned lion's skin, I had no fear for her – only a great doubt if I would ever see her again.

In the quiet of the morning, I rode with Maram and Master Juwain east along the river. There were no boundary stones to mark the exact place where Altaru first set his hoof upon Meshian soil. But when the steppe gave way to the low foothills fronting the Shoshan Range of the Morning Mountains, I knew that we would find no Sarni farming the rocky ground or tending flocks of sheep on the pastures, but only Valari waniors who followed the standard of King Shamesh.

A fortress, built beneath Tarkel's lower slopes, stood looking down upon the Diamond River and the valley through which it cut. It was a great square construction, with thick granite walls – one of the twenty-two kel keeps that ringed my father s kingdom. Politeness demanded that we make our way up to it and pay our respects to its commander. And the knights and warriors who manned its walls would have demanded this too if we had tried to ride past it. In truth, there was no way that three unknown men could simply ride out of the Wendrush into Mesh along the river without being seen and stopped.

And so we were met at the north gate by fifty warriors in mail and the keep's commander, a long-faced, jowly man whose long hair had gone almost completely gray. He presented himself as Lord Manthanu of Pushku. He had summoned forth the entire garrison to witness the strange sight of three men, who obviously were not Sarni, coming unscathed out of the Sarni's lands.

'And who,' Lord Mantham called out as we stopped just inside the gate, 'are you?'

His men were lined up on either side of the road leading from the gate, their hands gripping their kalamas should they need to draw them. I did not recognize any of them. It seemed that the keep was garrisoned with warriors from the lands along the Sawash River, a part of Mesh I had visited only once ten years before.

'My name,' I said, throwing back my cloak to reveal the swan and stars of my much-worn surcoat, 'is Valashu Elahad.'

Like a lightning flash, Lord Manthanu whipped out his kalama and pointed it at me.

And nearly as quickly, his fifty warriors drew their swords, too.

'Impossible!' Lord Manthanu called out. 'Sar Valashu was killed last spring in Ishka, in the Black Bog. We had reports of it.'

' That is news to me,' I said with a smile. 'It would seem that the Ishkans reported wrongly. My name is as I've said. And my friends are Prince Maram Marshayk of Delu and Master Juwain of the Brotherhood.'

After much discussion we convinced them of who we really were. It turned out that one of the keep's stonemasons making repairs to its battlements had once done work for the Brothers at their sanctuary near Silvassu. Upon being summoned, he greeted Master Juwain warmly, for Master Juwain had once healed him of a catarrh of the eyes that had nearly blinded him.

'Sar Valashu, my apologies,' Lord Manthanu said. He sheathed his sword and clasped my hand. 'But the Ishkans did send word that you had perished in the Bog.

How did you escape it?'

Maram took this opportunity to say, 'That might be a story best told over a glass of beer.' 'It might,' Lord Manthanu admitted, 'but this is no time for drinkfests.' 'How so?' Maram asked.

'Haven't you heard? But of course not – you've been off on that foolish quest. Did you ever make it as far as Tria?'

'Yes,' I said, smiling again, 'we did. But please tell us these tidings that have all your men drawing swords on their countrymen.'

Lord Manthanu paused only a moment before saying, 'We received word only yesterday that the Ishkans are marching on Mesh. We're to meet in battle on the fields between the Upper Raaswash and the Lower.'

So, I thought, it had finally come to this. Autumn having reached its fullness, and the year's barley safely grown and harvested, the Ishkans had succeeded in calling out the battle that they had long sought 'Has a date been appointed?' I asked.

'Yes, the sixteenth.'

'And today is the twelfth, is that right?'

Lord Manthanu's eyes widened as he asked, 'Where have you been that you are in doubt of the date?'

'We have been,' I told him, 'in a dark place, the darkest of places.' It seemed that while all the Sarni tribes from Galda to the Long Wall knew of our adventure in Argattha, word of this had not yet penetrated beyond the wall of the Morning Mountains. I decided that this was no time to tell of our journey – and certainly not to show the golden cup that we had brought out of the bowels of Skartaru.

I bowed my head then and said, 'Lord Manthanu, as you can see, we haven't much time. Will you supply us with food and drink that we might ride on as soon as possible?'

Maram was now quite alarmed by what he heard in my voice. He looked at me and said, 'But Val, you can't be thinking of riding to this battle?'

I was thinking exactly that, and he knew it. I told him, 'The King has called all free knights and warriors to the Raaswash. And the King himself gave me this ring.'

I made a fist to show Maram my knight's ring with its two sparkling diamonds. The fifty warriors lined up by the gate looked on approvingly. And so did Lord Manthanu.

'It's our duty to remain here and miss the greatest battle in years, and more's the pity,' he said. 'But, Sar Valashu, it seems that fortune has favored you. You've arrived home just in time seek honor and show brave.'

So I had, I thought. But I feared that fate had brought me back to Mesh so that I must witness the death or wounding of my brothers beneath the Ishkans' swords.

Maram, who hadn't yet reconciled himself to another battle, looked at me and said,

'It's a good hundred miles from here to the Raaswash – and mountain miles at that.

How can we hope to cover this distance in only four days?'

'By riding fast,' I told him. 'Very fast.'

'Oh, oh,' he said, rubbing his hindquarters. Despite Master Juwain's ministrations, he still complained of hurts taken from the two arrows shot into him in the battle for Khaisham. 'My poor body!'

While five of Lord Manthanu's men went to take charge of filling our saddlebags with oats, salt pork and other supplies, I turned to Maram and said, 'This isn't your battle. No one will think worse of you if you remain here and rest or go straight on to the Brotherhood's sanctuary with Master Juwain.'

'No, I suppose they wouldn't,' he said. 'But I would think worse of myself. Do you think I've ridden by your side across half of Ea to leave you to the Ishkans at the last moment?'

We clasped hands then, and he gripped mine so hard that his fingers squeezed like a vise against my knight's ring.

'I'm afraid I won't be leaving either,' Master Juwain said. He rubbed the back of his bald head and sighed. 'If a battle must be fought, if it really is, then there will be much healing to be done.'

After Lord Manthanu had seen to our provisioning, we thanked him and bade him farewell. Then we rode forth out of the gate and found our way to the Kel Road leading along the border of Ishka. As always, my father's men had kept it in good repair. We urged the horses to a greater effort and so cantered at a fast pace toward the northeast corner of my father's kingdom.

All that day the weather held fair, and we made good time. It was one of the most beautiful seasons of the year with the foliage of the trees just past the most brilliant colors. The maples lining the road waved their bright red leaves in the sun while on the higher slopes, the yellows of the aspens were a yellow blaze against the deep blue sky. We passed by pastures whitened with flocks of sheep and by fields golden with the chaff of freshly cut barley. That night we took shelter in the house of a woman named Fayora. She fed us mutton and black barley bread, and asked us to look for her husband, Sar Laisu, if we should see him on the field of the Raaswash.

The next day – the thirteenth of Valte – found us struggling across and around some of the Shoshan's highest peaks. We pounded across a bridge spanning one of the tributaries of the Diamond, then came to two more kel keeps before crossing over this icy blue river's headwaters where they wound down from the south toward Ishka. We had hoped to make it as far as Mount Raaskel by evening; but for the horses sake, to say nothing of Maram's poor hindquarters, we felt compelled to spend the night at the kel keep only a few miles from the bridge.

'You'll have some hard travel tomorrow,' Master Tadru the keep's commander, told us. 'From here to the North Road, the way is very steep.'

And so it was. In the hard frost of the next morning, before the sun had risen, the horses' breath steamed out into the air as they drove forward up the Kel Road. Here, its ice-slicked stones turned away from Mount Raaskel, rising up like a white horn to the north of us. The road led south for a few miles, before turning back north and east again. We passed up a hot meal offered us at the keep where the Kel Road intersected the North Road On our journey into Ishka, we had stopped here to greet the keep's commander, Lord Avijan. But the keep's new commander, Master Sivar, informed us that we would be hard-pressed to join Lord Avijan in-time for the meeting with the Ishkans two days hence.

'The battle is to begin in the morning,' he admonished us, 'and it won't wait upon one late knight, even if he is King Shamesh's son.'

We paused at the keep only long enough to give the horses oats and water – and to gaze up the North Road where it led through the Telemesh Gate into Ishka. There, on the snowfield between Raaskel and Korukel, with its twin peaks and ogre-like humps, the white bear sent by Morjin had attacked us and nearly put an end to our quest at its very beginning. It gave us grim satisfaction to know that the Lord of Illusions would not he making ghuls of animals or men for quite some time to come.

That afternoon we passed through Ki; as on our journey into Ishka, we found that we didn't have time for a hot bath at one of its inns, nor for the beer that 1 had promised Maram. We left its little chalets and shops quickly behind us. Only one kel keep graced the long stretch of road between Ki and the Raaswash, and I wanted to reach it before nightfall.

We found this cold, spare fortress to be nearly emptied of supplies, which had been sent off in wagons toward the battlefield to the east. Our rest there that night was brief and troubled. For the first time since Argattha, I had bad dreams, none of which had been sent by Morjin. 1 was only too happy to arise in the darkness before dawn and saddle Altaru for another long day's ride.

It was a good thirty miles from the keep to the Lower Raaswash, and then perhaps another seven to the appointed battlefield. I didn't know how we would be able to cover this distance in a single day. It was a cold morning with wisps of clouds high in the sky and a shifting of the wind that presaged a storm. Although the forest beyond the keep's battlements smelled sweetly of woodsmoke and dry leaves, there hung in the crisp autumn air a certain bitterness: both our remembrance of what we had lost on our long journey and a presentiment of what the following day's battle might still take from us.

I didn't need spurs or the silver-handled quirt that the Niuriu's chieftain, Vishakan, had given me to hurry Altaru onward. As always, he sensed my urgency to cover ground quickly, and he led the other horses in moving down the road with all the speed their driving hooves could purchase against the worn paving stones. My fierce warhorse smelled battle ahead of us – and not a battle where he must hide behind walls while the Blues and other warriors came howling over battlements, but a great gathering of warriors in long, shining lines and companies of cavalry thundering over grass toward each other. He was a fearless animal, I thought and I envied him his trust that the future would somehow take care of itself and come ouf? all right.

It grew colder all that day as we rode along; by early afternoon, the sky was growing heavy with clouds. The first snowflakes of the season's first snow began falling a few hours later. Maram, pulling his cloak around himself, offered his opinion that the hand of fate had fallen against us and now we had no hope of reaching the battlefield by the morrow. 'Perhaps they'll call the battle off,' he said as our horses clopped along the road. 'It's no fun fighting through snow.'

I looked at him past the fluffy white crystals sifting slowly down from the sky. I said to him, 'They won't call off the battle, Maram. And so we must ride, even faster, if we can.'

'Ride through the snow, then?'

'Yes,' I said. 'And we'll ride through the night, if we have to.' Although we had suffered much worse cold in the Nagarshath, we had been hoping by this day for the warmth of our home fires and our journey's end. If the storm had proved a heavy one, it might have gone badly for us. As it was, however, it snowed for only a couple of hours. And a couple of hours after that the clouds began breaking up. By dusk, with the air growing dark and icy, the sky was beginning to fill with stars. 'It seems,' I said to Maram, 'that fate may yet offer us a chance.'

'Yes, to throw ourselves onto the Ishkan's spears,' he muttered. He wiped the frost from his mustache, then said to me, 'Do you remember that day in Lord Harsha's fields? He said that the next time the Ishkans and Meshians lined up for battle, you'd be there at the front of your army.'

Master Juwain, making a rare joke, looked at Maram from on top of his tired horse and said, 'I didn't know Mesh produced such scryers. 'Perhaps we should have taken him with us on our journey as well.'

This suggestion produced nothing but groans from Maram. He turned toward me and said, 'Lord Harsha is too old to go off to war, isn't he? Now there's a man I don't want to meet decked out for battle.'

'We're likely to meet only the dead on the battlefield,' I said to him, 'if we don't hurry.'

That evening we ate our supper in our saddles: a cold meal of cheese, dried cherries and battle biscuits that nearly broke our teeth. We rode far into the cold night. The many stars and the bright half-moon opened up the black sky and gave enough light so that we could follow the whitened road as it wound like a strand of shimmering silver along the mountains toward the east. It would have been safest for us to cleave to the Kel Road and take it all the way to the keep by the gorge of the lower Raaswash.

There the road from Mir, by which my father's army had marched, came up from the south and followed the river for seven miles as it flowed northeast toward the Upper Raaswash. But for us, coming from the west, this was not the quickest way toward the battlefield. I knew of another road that led straight from the Kel Road down to the Upper Raaswash. 'Are you asking us to cut through the mountains on a snowy night?' Maram asked incredulously when I told him of my plan. 'Have you lost your wits?'

'Is this wise?' Master Juwain asked as we stopped the horses for a quick rest. 'Your shortcut will save only a few miles.'

I looked up at the stars where the Swan constellation was practically flying across the sky. I said, 'It may save an hour of our journey – and the difference between life and death.'

'Very well,' he said, steeling himself for the last leg of a hard ride. 'Ah, I think I've lost my wits,' Maram said, 'following you this far.'

'Come on,' I said, smiling at him. 'We've dared much worse than this.'

The path that gave upon the Kel Road, when we finally found it, proved to be not nearly as bad as Maram had feared. True, it was unpaved and quite steep, leading up and over the side of a small mountain. But there were few rocks to turn the horses' hooves, and tile path was quite clear. It took us through a swath of evergreens dusted in white and gleaming in the moonlight. Soon enough the road began its descent through some elms and oaks mostly bare of leaves; by the time the sky ahead of us began growing lighter, the quiet woods through which we rode were covered with only a couple of inches of snow.

I guessed that the confluence of the two Raaswash rivers lay only four or five miles from here. We rode quickly over ground that gradually fell off toward the northeast, our direction of travel. As we lost elevation, the trees around us showed many more leaves. The rising sun was just beginning to melt the snow from them. The woods around us rang with the patter of falling water, like rain. And from ahead of us came a deeper, more troubling sound: the booming of war drums shaking the air and calling men to battle.

At last we crested a small hill, and through a break in the trees we saw the armies of Ishka and Mesh spread out below us. The clear morning sun cast a great glimmer upon ranks of shields, spears and polished steel helms. The Upper Raaswash was to our left; the Ishkan lines – perhaps twelve thousand men – were drawn up about five hundred yards to the south of it. They ran along the river, from the base of our hill to the Lower Raaswash, which joined the Upper about a mile farther on to the east.

There King Hadaru had anchored his left flank, which were all warriors on foot against these bright waters. He himself had gathered the knights of his cavalry to him on his right flank at the base of our hill. I sensed that Salmelu, Lord Issur and Lord Nadhru were there sitting on top of their snorting and stamping mounts as they awaited the command to charge. I counted nearly seven hundred knights around them, all looking toward the standard of the white bear that fluttered near King Hadaru.

Facing them across the snow-covered ground were the lines of the ten thousand warriors and knights of Mesh. A mile away, by the Lower Raaswash, two hundred Meshian knights on horse were massed to the right of the foot warriors. I knew that Asaru would be there leading them, and perhaps Karshur and one or two of my other brothers as well. Although my father always made good use of terrain, he didn't believe in relying upon rivers, hills or suchlike for protecting his flanks. It gave men, he always said, a false sense of security and weakened their will to fight. And my father's will toward fighting, I knew, was very strong. Having tried to avoid this battle with all his wiles and good sense, now that he had finally taken the field against the lshkans, I pitied any knight or warrior who dared to cross swords with him.

He sat on top of a great chestnut stallion with five hundred knights on their horses at the base of our hill, off toward our right. I couldn't make out his countenance from this distance, but his flapping standard of the swan and stars was clear enough as was the white swan plume that graced his helm. I made out the blazons of the Lords Tomavar, Tanu and Avijan nearby him, and of course, the gold field and blue rose of his seneschal. Lord Lansar Raasharu. Much to Maram's chagrin, Lord Harsha had taken a post just to their right. It seemed that he was not too old for war, after all.

Maram, Master Juwain and I had only a few moments to drink in this splendid and terrible sight before a signal was given and the trumpeters up and down the Meshian lines sounded the attack. Now the drummers ahead of the lines beat out a quicker cadence in a great booming thunder as ten thousand men began marching forward.

Their long, black hair, tied with brighdy colored battle ribbons won in other contests, flowed out from beneath their helms and streamed out behind them.

Around their ankles they wore silver bells which sounded the jangling rhythm of their carefully measured steps. This high-pitched ringing had been known to unnerve whole armies and put them to flight before a single arrow was fired or spear clashed against shield. But our enemy that day were Ishkans, and they sported silver bells of their own, as did all the Valari in battle. And every man on the field, Ishkan or Meshian, warrior or king, was dressed in a suit of the marvelous Valari battle armor: supple black leather encrusted with white diamonds across the chest and back, covering the neck, and gleaming along the arms and legs down to the diamond-studded boots.

The brilliance of so many thousands of men, each sparkling with a covering of thousands of diamonds, dazzled the eye. Who had ever seen so many diamonds displayed in one place? The wealth of the Morning Mountains was spread out on the snowy field below us – and not just her gemstones. For it was men, I thought, and the women who would grieve for them, who were the true treasure of this land.

Warriors such as Asaru, pure of heart and noble-souled, born of the fertilest and finest soil – these were the only diamonds that had true worth. And they mustn't, I knew, be squandered.

'Come on!' I said to Maram and Master Juwain. I urged Altaru forward down the hill.

'It's nearly too late.'

Already, on the battlefield ahead of us through the trees, the archers behind the opposing lines were loosing their arrows. The whine of these hundreds of shafts shivered the air; their points clacked off armor in a cacophony of steel striking stone.

Soon enough, some of these arrows would drive through the chinks between the diamonds and find their way into flesh.

I rode hard for the edge of the woods and the quickly narrowing gap between the two advancing armies. Maram, clinging to his bounding horse, somehow managed to catch up to me. He pointed through the trees off to the right, towards my father's standard and his cavalry. And he gasped out, 'Your lines are that way! What are you trying to do?' 'Stop a battle,' I said.

And with that I drew forth the Lightstone and charged out onto the field. I held it high above my head. The sun filled the cup with its radiance, and it gave back this splendor a thousandfold. A sudden blaze poured out of it, drenching the warriors of both armies in a brilliant golden sheen. More than twenty thousand pairs of eyes turned my way. With Maram to my right, and Master Juwain to my left, we rode straight past the lines of men to either side of us as down a road. Thus did Lord Harsha's prediction come true as we found ourselves in the middle of the battlefield in front of both advancing armies.

'Hold!' I cried out to the warriors around me as Altaru galloped through the snow.

'Hold now!'

An arrow, shot from behind the Ishkans' ranks, whistled past my ear. Then I heard one of the Ishkans shout, 'It's the Elahad – back from the dead!'

Many men were now giving voice to their amazement. I recog nized Lord Harsha's gruff old voice booming out above others of the knights grouped around my father,

'They've returned! The questers have returned! The Lightstone has been found!'

Suddenly the trumpets stopped blowing and the drums fell silent. The captains calling out the cadences up and down the lines gave the order for a halt. The silver bells bound around the warriors' legs ceased their eerie jingling as the twenty thousand men along the Ishkan and Meshian lines drew up waiting to see what their kings would next command.

I stopped Altaru at the middle of the field. Master Juwain and Maram joined me there. The Lightstone was now like the sun itself in my hand. It was a call for a truce, the like of which hadn't been seen among the Valari for three thousand years.

My father, along with Lansar Raasharu, Lord Tomavar, Lord Harsha and several other lords and master knights, was the first to ride toward us beneath a fluttering white flag. A few moments later, King Hadaru gathered up his most trusted lords and called for one of his squires to hold up a white flag as well. Then he, too, led his men slowly toward us. It was not quite the thundering charge that either the Meshian knights or the Ishkans had anticipated.

'Stop the battle, you said!' Maram muttered at me, holding his hand to his chest.

'Stop my heart, I say!'

My father had signaled for Asaru to join the parlay; now he broke from the ranks to the east down by the river and urged his dark brown stallion across the field. It took him only a few minutes to canter across the half mile that separated us. As he drew closer and the Lightstone's radiance showed the long, hawk's nose and the noble face that I had nearly given up hope of seeing again, my heart soared and tears filled my eyes.

Then my father, who had drawn up with his lords in a half circle around Master Juwain, Maram and me, called out my name, and his voice touched my soul, 'Sar Valashu, my son – you have returned to us. And not with empty hands.'

He sat straight and grave in his sparkling armor as he regarded the Lightstone with marvel and me even more so. We were like new men to each other. His black eyes, so like Kane's in their brilliance, found mine, and embraced my entire being with gladness and love. In his fierce gaze burned a certainty that he had not lived his life in vain.

As King Hadaru and the Ishkans formed up on the other side of me facing him, my father studied my torn cloak and nearly ragged surcoat.

Then he asked me, 'Where is the shield that I gave you when you set out on your journey?'

'Gone, Sire,' I told him. 'Consumed in dragon fire.'

At this, even the greatest lords of both Ishka and Mesh gasped out their amazement as if they were still unbloodied boys. They all pressed closer. No one seemed to know if what I had said should be taken literally.

'Dragon fire, is it? King Hadaru said. He sat all bearlike and irritable on top of his huge horse as he looked at me skeptically. His great beak of a nose pointed straight at me as if threatening to pry out the truth. 'And where did you fight this dragon?'

'In Argttha,' I said.

This name, dreadful and ancient, loosed in the lords another round gasps and cries.

All their eyes now lifted up and fixed on the golden cup still pouring forth its fight from above my hand. 'It was in Argattha,' Maram said, 'that we found the Lightstone.' Prince Salmelu nudging his horse closer to his father, held his hand covering his eyes as he shook his head. The scar running down the side of his race to his weak chin burned a goldish red. Then he tore his gaze from the Lightstone.

His cold, dark eyes fell upon me in challenge. He looked at me with a great hate that had only grown in poisonousness during the months since I had wounded him in our duel.

'Is it your claim, then,' he said to me in a bitter voice, that this is the Lightstone?'

'There's no claim to me made,' I told him. 'It is, as you can see, the cup that our ancestors brought to earth.'

He pressed his horse a few paces forward as if to get a better look at the cup that I held. His ugly, furtive eyes showed but little of its light. 'And you claim to have entered the forbidden city and brought forth this cup?' Salmelu asked me.

'In fulfillment of our quest yes,' I said to him.

'What proofs can you give us, then?' he called out to me. 'Why should we believe the word of a man who has dishonored himself in fighting duels that he didn't have the courage to finish?'

Despite my resolve to keep a cool head, I suddenly found myself gripping Alkaladur's hilt. And Salmelu moving slightly more slowly due to the wounds I had cut into his arms and chest, curled his fingers around his kalama.

'Val,' Master Juwain reminded me with an urgent whisper, 'If you truly wish to stop this battle, this is no place for pride.' 'Perhaps not pride,' I. told him, 'but certainly honor.' Then I fought to turn away from the ever-beckoning and burning black pool of hatred that would conume me if I let it, my father's clear voke rang out. 'Sar Valaahu, on this day no knight on all of Ea has more honor than you.'

His words washed through me like a thrill of cold water. I suddenly let go of my sword. But my father's praise only inflamed Salmelu and deepened his spite. And so, before two kings and the assembled lords of Ishka and Mesh with the thousands of warriors of two armies waiting in their lines and looking on, he sneered at me, saying,

'And still you lack the courage to test whether the swordstroke that cut me so dishonorably was skill or only evil luck!'

I took a deep breath and said, 'We haven't journeyed to the end of Ea and returned here today to make more tests – only to tell of what we've seen.'

I informed the assembled lords then of the battle for Surrapam and the conquest of Yarkona by Count Ulanu and his dreadful Blues. I spoke of the armed might that Morjin was assembling behind the rocky shield of Skartaru. And then I called for a peace between Ishka and Mesh. I said that the Valari must now join together and renounce our petty squabbles, duels and formal combats. For someday Morjin would recover from the wound that I had dealt him. And someday we would have to fight a war without rules or mercy, a terrible war to determine the fate of the world – and perhaps much else.

'A great scryer named Atara Ars Narmada has told that we can die bravely as Ishkans and Meshians,' I called out. 'Or live as Valari.'

Salmelu nudged his horse a step closer as he pointed at the Lightstone. He said,

'And still Sar Valashu will say anything to avoid battle. How should we believe anything of what he has told us? How do we know that this is really the cup of our ancestors and not just one of the False Lightstones told of in the ancient chronicles?

Or even some glowstone gilded over to fool us?'

Truly, a poisonous serpent was Salmelu. And the time had come to pull his fangs.

'Those who serve the Lord of Lies,' I said to him, 'will hear lies in the truth that others tell.'

As Salmelu froze in a hateful stare, all the Ishkan lords except King Hadaru grabbed at the hilts of their swords. He sat beneath the white flag held by his squire, looking at Salmelu and the others as if to remind them that we had gathered here in sacred truce. Then he turned toward me. In a deathly calm voice, he asked, 'Do you accuse my son of treachery?'

'Treachery, yes, and more,' I said. I looked straight into Salmelu's black, boiling eyes. 'It was he who shot the poison arrow at me in the woods. He is an assassin, sent by the Red Dragon to -'

I had expected that Salmelu might not be able to bear the shame of his iniquity. And so I was prepared for him to whip free his sword and deliver an underhanded cut at me. But at the last moment even as he screamed and spurred his horse straight at me, I was seized within sudden premonition that if I drew forth Alkaladur to defend myself, I would touch off the very battle that I had come here to prevent. 'Damn you, Elahad!' he screamed at me again.

He aimed his kalama in a silvery flash at my hand holding the Lightstone; its razor-sharp edge easily would have cleaved off my arm. But I suddenly gripped the cup tightly and turned it into the plane of his swordstroke. The gold of the gelstei – of the Gelstei – met cold steel in a shiver of shrieking metal. His sword shattered into pieces, and he stared down in disbelief at the hilt-shard sticking out from his spasming fist.

'Hold!' King Hadaru called out, spurring his horse forward. He motioned to Lord Issur, Lord Nadhru and Lord Mestivan. 'Hold him, now! Let it not be said that we Ishkans are trucebreakers!'

As the Ishkan lords and knights swarmed around Salmelu, grabbing at him and the reins of his horse, King Hadaru himself wrested the broken sword from his son's hand. He spat on it and cast it to the ground. Then he raised back his gauntleted hand and struck Salmelu across the face. And he raged at him, 'Trucebreaker! You have dishonored yourself in the sight of both friend and foe!'

My father, sitting on his horse between Asaru and Lord Harsha, stared at the livid welt raised up on the side of Salmelu's face. He had little liking for this man, but even less desire to see a king savage his own son.

'And you!' King Hadaru said, whirling about on top of his horse to point at me. 'You bring no honor to yourself if you cast careless words at one whom you have already wounded! He who provokes the breaking of a truce may be called a trucebreaker himself!'

'None of my words has been careless, King Hadaru,' I said. 'Your son has called for war with Mesh at the command of the Red Dragon. He was to weaken your realm and my father's. His reward, after the Red Dragon had sent his armies to conquer us, was to have been the overlordship of both Mesh and Ishka – and eventually all of the Nine Kingdoms.'

'No, no,' King Hadaru said, his red face falling white with a cold, deadly wrath, 'that is not possible!'

Although I pitied him, and his pain was like a great, hard knot in my chest, I looked at him and said, 'Your son is one of the Kallimun.'

Now a terrible silence descended upon all those assembled beneath the flapping white flags and spread out like death across the battlefield. For a moment, no one dared to move.

'Who has ever heard a Valari knight speak such evil of another?' King Hadaru said, staring at me. 'How could you possibly know such a thing?'

'Because,' I said, 'one of my companions saw this in Morjin's mind.'

'Proof!' Salmelu suddenly screamed out. 'He has no proofs!'

King Hadaru pointed at him and commanded, 'Hold him!'

Lord Issur and Lord Nadhru, who had their horses pressed up close to Salmelu's, gripped his arms while Lord Mestivan dismounted and pulled him offhis horse. Then three other Ishkan lords dismounted as well, and helped Lord Mestivan subdue the furiously struggling Salmelu.

'There are proofs,' I said to King Hadaru. I gave the Lightstone to Maram to hold, then climbed down from Altaru and stepped over to Salmelu. 'Watch closely.'

I pulled out the bloodstone that Kane had given me. Its dreadful red light fell upon Salmelu's face. And there, at the center of Salmelu's forehead, was revealed a tattoo of a coiled, red dragon.

'It's the mark of the Kallimun,' I said. 'The Red Priests affix it to their own with an invisible ink. The bloodstones bring it out into view. Thus do the Red Priests know each other.'

'It's a trick!' Salmelu cried out, shaking his head back and forth. 'An evil trick of this gelstei!'

'Salmelu's murder of me,' I said, ignoring him, 'was to have been his final initiation into Morjin's priesthood.'

The Ishkan lords murmured among themselves and cast Salmelu looks of loathing.

Lansar Raasharu pressed his horse forward as he stared at him. Then he turned toward me and said, 'But Sar Valashu, this cannot be! I've already told that I saw Prince Salmelu in the woods by Lake Waskaw on the afternoon you say he shot at you.'

Lord Raasharu had told this to Asaru and me, if no other, and it was courageous of him to declaim before two kings what he supposed was the truth – even if it aided Salmelu.

'You did not see Prince Salmelu there as you thought,' I told him. 'When he failed at my murder, the Lord of Lies sent an illusion to the most trusted man in Mesh so that suspicion wouldn't fall upon his priest.'

'What you say disquiets me greatly,' Lord Raasharu said. 'To think that the Lord of Lies could make me see what is not.'

'It has disquieted me, as well,' I told him.

'Illusion!' Salmelu cried out again. His squinting at the bloodstone crinkled the red dragon tattooed into his forehead. 'What you see is surely an illusion cast by this evil stone!'

I put away the bloodstone then, and watched as the red mark disappeared.

'Do you see?' Salmelu said. 'It's gone, isn't it?' I drew my sword an inch from its sheath. I touched my thumb to its blade, drawing blood. Then I pressed my thumb to the middle of Salmelu's forehead. The ink seared into his flesh grabbed at my blood and held some part of it. When I pulled back, the dragon tattoo now stood out red as blood for all to see. 'A trick!' he called. 'Another trick!'

He managed to wrench free his arm, and he clawed his hand furiously at his forehead in a vain attempt to rub away the mark that would remain there to his death. 'Is this a trick?' I asked him.

As the Ishkan lords regained their hold on him, I placed my hand on the dagger at his belt and drew it. I showed it to King Hadaru. Its blade was coated with a dark blue substance that could only be kirax. 'During the battle,' I said to him, 'if you weren't struck down, he was to have touched you with this.'

King Hadaru's eyes locked on Salmelu in disbelief. 'Why?' he asked him softly.

Salmelu, now seeing that his lies would no longer be believed, tried hate and terror instead.

'Because you're a blind old fool who can't see what must be done!' He tried to twist free from the men holding him, but could not. 'All the Valari – fools! Can't you see that Morjin will rule Ea? If we oppose him, he'll annihilate us. But if we serve him, he'll make us kings and lords over other men!'

King Hadaru climbed down from his horse. He drew out his sword and stepped in front of me. Then he raised it up above Salmelu's neck. In his wrathful eyes was horror and hate of his son – and a terrible love as well.

'Hold!' my father called out from on top of his horse. 'King Hadaru, hold! None of us would see a man slay his own son.'

'If not I, then who else?' King Hadaru said. 'My son has earned this death – no man more so.'

'So he has,' my father agreed. 'But let there be no blood spilled here today.'

His eyes met mine in a twinkle of light and then he glanced down at my hand. 'No more blood, that is.'

King Hadaru's sword wavered above Salmelu's neck. I knew that he did not want to kill him. And my father knew this as well. 'May a king ask another king for mercy?'

'Very well,' King Hadaru said. As quickly as he had drawn his sword, he sheathed it.

Although it was he who should have thanked my father, his manner suggested that he had granted him a great boon.

'Let me go, then!' Salmelu screamed out.

'Yes, let him go,' King Hadaru commanded his men.

As Lord Mestivan and the others set Salmelu free, King Hadaru took the tainted dagger from me, then bent and thrust it through the snow into the ground beneath.

He walked over to Salmelu's horse. He grabbed up the shield slung there and cast it to the ground as well. His war lance and three throwing lances followed in quick succession. Then, as Salmelu's cold eyes met the even colder stare of his father, King Hadaru commanded that Salmelu's helmet, armor, and ring be stripped from him. This was done. He stood almost naked in his underpadding before the lords of Mesh and Ishka waiting to hear his father pronounce his judgment.

'This is not yet Ishkan soil,' King Hadaru said, 'and so not even the King of Ishka can banish you from it. But you are so banished from Ishka, forever. No one in my realm is to give you fire, bread or salt.'

'And in my realm as well, Prince Salmelu,' my father said, 'you are denied fire, bread and salt.'

As twenty thousand men watched the badly shaking Salmelu, he climbed on top of his horse. Again he rubbed at the red dragon marking his forehead. And then, kicking his heels into his horse, he screamed out, 'Damn you, Valari!'

And with that he thundered off across the battlefield cursing and screaming. When he reached the Lower Raaswash, he drove his horse in a savage gallop through its swift waters. From the Raaswash to the Culhadosh was a distance of ten miles. And on the other side of that river was the kingdom of Waas.

After Salmelu had disappeared into the woods beyond the Raaswash, I turned to address his father and my own.

'King Hadaru,' I said. Then I looked at my father, 'Sire, in all the Morning Mountains, no other kings have so great renown. But a war between Ishka and Mesh will only diminish both realms. It will only please the Lord of Lies – he who has schemed and sent out assassins so that this war might take place. Will you do the bidding of a false king?'

'The King of Ishka,' King Hadaru said, touching the white bear of his purple surcoat,

'does his own bidding and no other.'

With his bushy white hair whipping about in the wind, I could see that he was still wroth over what had occurred with Salmelu. He scowled at my father and said, 'The Lord of Lies' schemes notwithstanding, there are still grievances between our kingdoms. There is still the matter of Korukel and its diamonds.'

I took back the Lightstone from Maram and stood holding it. Then I looked at my father and said; 'Sire, let the Ishkans have the diamonds. They'll need many diamonds to make armor to face the Dragon in the wars that are to come. All the Valari will.'

My father, Shavashar Elahad, known throughout the Morning Moun tains as King Shamesh, was not a vindictive or grasping man. For a long time, it seemed, he had been looking for a good reason to cede the Ishkans their half of Mount Korukel.

Only the stubbornness and ferocity of his lords such as Lord Tanu and Lord Harsha had kept him from this course. But now, in light of all that had occurred here this day, their hearts softened, and the greatest lords of Mesh nodded their heads to my father in assent of what I had suggested.

'Very well,' he said to King Hadaru. He dismounted and walked over to him. 'You shall have your diamonds.'

At this grace, Asaru and others struck their lances against their shields that my father's wisdom had finally prevailed.

King Hadaru inclined his head very slightly in acceptance of his offer. And then, most ungraciously, he said, 'It is perhaps easy to surrender one treasure when a greater one has so unexpectedly been gained.' And with that, he turned toward me to stare at the Lightstone. I held the golden cup higher for all to see. Once before, on this same ground, Mesh and Ishka had fought over its possession, and the Ishkan king, Elsu Maruth, had been killed. As I looked upon the thousands of warriors who had taken the field here this day, I prayed that we would not fight over it again.

'King Hadaru,' I said, 'the Lightstone is to be kept by all the Valari. We are its guardians.'

And with that, much to his astonishment, I stepped forward and placed it in his hands.

While Ishkan lords and Meshians came down from their horses and pressed closer, he gazed at the cup in wonder. His grim, old eyes were wide like a child's.

Something coiled tightly inside him seemed suddenly to let go. Then he raised his head up and stood straight and tall, looking like one of the Valari kings of old. And in a clear voice he called out, 'Ishka will not make war with Mesh.'

He surprised even himself, I thought, in surrendering the Lightstone to my father. As his hands closed upon it, a golden radiance fell upon him. And in his noble countenance was revealed the lineaments of Telemesh, Aramesh and even Elahad himself.

'And Mesh,' my father told the assembled lords and knights, 'will not make war with ishka.'

Holding the cup in one hand, he stepped forward and clasped King Hadaru's hand with his other. As squires were sent off to report this news to the captains of the two armies, my father looked at the Lightstone and asked me, 'How were you led to find it?'

'This led me,' I said. And with that I drew Alkaladur and held it shining brilliantly before the Lightstone.

'There are stories to be told here,' my father said. His awe at the ancient silver sword was no less than that of the other lords staring at it. 'Great stories, it seems.'

As he passed the cup to Lord Issur, I began giving an account of our quest. I told of our nightmare journey through the Black Bog and the even greater nightmare of being pursued by the fearsome Grays. I told of meeting Kane and Atara, Liljana and Alphanderry. His death in the Kul Moroth was still a raw wound inside me; it opened in my father and in King Hadaru the anguish of sacrifice, for in their long lives they had witnessed many feats of heroism, and none had touched them quite like this.

Both of them were surprised – as were Asaru and Lord Harsha – when they heard of how Maram had almost singlehandedly saved the day at the siege of Khaisham. They nodded their heads when I declared that a great Maitreya had been born somewhere on Ea, and that the Lightstone must be guarded for him. They smiled to hear of Master Juwain's brilliant solving of the final clue that had led us into Argattha. And of the gaining of the seven gelstei and Atara's blinding that sometimes helped her truly to see, they listened with amazement.

Now it was Asaru's turn to hold the Lightstone; he gazed at the cup as if he couldn't quite believe it was real. Then he turned to me with a great smile and said, 'You've done well, little brother.'

'They've all done well,' my father said. 'It's too bad their other companions aren't here to see this.'

He suddenly turned his head and called out, 'Ringbearer! Send squires to summon the ringbearer! And Sar Valashu's brothers, too.'

At that moment Flick appeared and settled his sparkling form down into the bowl of the Lightstone like a bird into his nest. Asaru blinked his eyes, not quite daring to credit what they beheld. A dozen lords and knights shook their heads in awe.

'It seems,' Asaru said, 'that you've yet many more stories to tell.'

While he gave the Lightstone to Lord Nadhru, a thunder of hooves announced the arrival of my father's ringbearer and my other brothers. As they reined in and dismounted, I ran forward to greet them.

'Karshur!' I cried out throwing my arms around his solid body. 'Ravar! Yarashan!'

Quick-witted Ravar cast a glance at the Lightstone as if he thought that I had proved quite clever in finding it after all Yarashan of course, was envious of my feat; but his pride in being my brother was greater still. He embraced me warmly and kissed my forehead, as did the fierce and valorous Mandru. Jonathay, when he saw Lord Tomavar holding the Lightstone, let loose a great laugh of triumph as sweet and clear as a mountain stream.

With King Hadaru holding up his hand for silence, my father approached Master Juwain and said, 'Without your guidance, Sar Valashu might never have found the road that led him to seek the Lightstone. And without your courage and insight, none of you would have found your way to Argattha. Therefore it is my wish that the treasure that would have been wasted upon this battle be spent in raising up a new building for your sanctuary. There you shall gather gelstei to you that their secrets might be revealed. There, from time to time, the Lightstone shall be brought. And it shall be as it was in another and better age.'

Master Juwain bowed his head and said, 'Thank you, King Shamesh.'

My father next turned to Maram and said, 'Prince Maram Marshayk! Your courage at Khaisham and in Argattha was extraordinary; your prowess with the sword was the equal of great warriors; your faithfulness on this quest was as adamantine as diamond and worthy of a Valari.'

Then he smiled and said, 'Ringbearer!'

A young knight named Jushur stepped up to my father holding a broad, flat, wooden case. He opened it to reveal four rows of silver rings pressed into a lining of black velvet. The rings in the first row were set with a single diamond, while those in the second row showed two, and so on. It was my father's pride and pleasure, as king, to reward heroism by promoting knights and master warriors on the field of battle.

After studying Maram's fat fingers, he chose out the largest ring from the second row. Its two diamonds sparkled in the strengthening sun. My father grasped Maram's hand and slipped the ring onto his finger. It was the ring of a Valari knight, even as the one that I wore.

'For your service to my son,' he said, clasping Maram's hand. 'For your service to Mesh and all of Ea.'

As the lords of Mesh and Ishka crowded around Maram to stare at his knight's ring, Maram flushed with pride and thanked my father. For a hundred years, none but Valari warriors had been bestowed with such an honor.

Now my father turned to me and pulled off my knight's ring. He selected another from the case's fourth row. Then he placed this silver band with its four bright diamonds on my finger; he kissed my forehead and said, 'Lord Valashu, Knight of the Swan, Guardian of the Lightstone.' The golden cup, I saw, was now being held by one of the Ishkans whom I did not know. Others were whispering that they had never heard of a Valari knight being made directly into a lord.

Master Juwain came over to Maram to get a better look at his new ring. He said to him, 'I'm afraid that now you're a Valari in spirit.'

'Ah, I'm afraid I am, sir.' The diamonds of his ring dazzled his eyes. 'Ah, I'm afraid that I must formally renounce my vows to the Brotherhood.'

At this, Master Juwain smiled and bowed his head in acceptance. He said, 'I think you renounced them many miles ago.'

As the two kings sent squires to call for their armies to come closer and view the Lightstone, Lord Harsha limped over to us. On his bluff, old face was the brightest of smiles. His single eye fell upon me, and he said, 'Lord Valashu – you can't know how glad it makes me to say that.'

Maram, I saw, had pulled back behind the cover of Karshur's thick body. He looked away from Lord Harsha like a child at school who is afraid that his master might call upon him.

'And Sar Maram!' Lord Harsha said, finding him easily enough. 'We're all glad to see you.'

'You are?' Maram asked. 'I had thought you might be distressed, ah, about things that had distressed you.'

Lord Harsha looked at the two diamonds of Maram's ring and said, 'It might have been so. But my poor daughter has talked of little else but you since you went away.

And that distresses me.'

'Behira,' Maram said as if struggling to remember her name, 'is a lovely woman.'

'Yes, the loveliest. And she will be delighted to see that you've been knighted. What honor could we bestow upon you to equal that which you've brought to us?'

'Ah, perhaps some of your excellent beer, sir.'

'That you shall have, Sar Maram. And much else as well. The month of Ashte is a lovely time for a wedding, don't you think?'

'Yes, a lovely time.' Lord Harsha stepped forward favoring his crippled leg. He embraced Maram and said, 'My son!'

'Ah, Lord Harsha, I -'

'There is only one thing in the world that could distress me on such a fine day as this,' Lord Harsha added. He smiled at Maram as he rested his hand on his kalama.

'And that would be to see my daughter further distressed. Do you understand?'

Maram did understand, and he looked at me as if pleading that I might come to his rescue. But this one time, I was powerless to help him.

'Ashte,' I said to him, as Lord Harsha walked off, 'is half a year away. Much might happen between now and then.'

'Yes,' Maram said optimistically, 'I might come to love Behira, mightn't I?'

' You might,' I told him. 'Isn't it love that you really sought?' Now, as the Lightstone was passed back and forth between knights arriving at our encampment on the middle of the field, as my father stood conferring with King Hadaru, and Maram showed Yarashan the rock with the hole that he-had burned with his red gelstei in the Vardaloon, Asaru took my hand. Our lord's rings clicked together, and he said, 'My apologies for doubting that the Lightstone might be found. Our grandfather would have been proud of you.'

'Thank you, Asaru,' I told him. 'But you had me worried,' he said.

'When the news came from Ishka, about the Bog, we all gave up hope.'

I looked deep into the essential innocence gathering in his dark eyes, and I said, 'All except you.'

We clasped hands so tightly that my fingers hurt. And he said, 'You've changed, Valashu.'

All at once, as if ice were breaking beneath me, I felt myself plunging into unbearably cold waters. There pooled all the pain of Atara's blinding, of Kane's darkened soul, of Alphanderry's death.

'Valashu,' my brother said.

I blinked my eyes to see him suddenly weeping as all the anguish inside me flowed into him. I knew then that the gift of valarda that my grandfather had bestowed upon me had not left Asaru untouched. It lay waiting to be awakened in all Valari, perhaps in all men.

Now the twelve thousand warriors of Ishka and the ten thousand of Mesh had finally closed and met all about us in the middle of the field. At the commands of the warlords and captains, they laid their spears and shields down upon the snow. Its white crystals, like millions of diamonds, shimmered with blues and golds and reds.

Soon the morning sun would melt the ground's cold covering, even as the Lightstone melted six thousand years of hatred, envy and suspicion. I turned to watch the warriors of King Hadaru and King Shamesh passing the cup from hand to hand, along the ranks, up one file and then down another. The Valari drank in its radiance through their bright eyes and through their hands. It blazed like the sun through their beings. In each of them, as in Asaru, I saw a golden cup pouring out its light from inside their hearts. It melted them open, melted the very diamond armor encasing them. And in this grade that seemed almost an illusion but was as real as the water in my eyes, as real as my love for Asaru and for my brothers, for my father and King Hadaru and all the Ishkans, it melted even me.

'Look,' Asaru said, pointing up at the sky, 'there's a good sign.' I followed the line of his finger to see a great flock of swans winging their way south as they flew over the Upper Raaswash into Mesh. As my heart opened to this glorious sight, and to the hearts of the twenty thousand jubilant Valari all around me, I knew that the valarda was truly the greatest of gifts. For the joy of my brothers in arms and fellow guardians came flooding into me, and I felt myself soaring through the sky as well.

'Tonight,' Asaru said, still looking at the swans, 'they'll sleep at home. As we will soon enough, since there will be no war. What will you do, Valashu, now that you've found the Lightstone?'

What would I do, I wondered?

I turned to watch the swans disappear over the mountains to the south. In that direction lay the Valley of the Swans and the three great peaks above my father's castle. My mother and grandmother would be waiting for me there – even as my grandfather waited in another place. Atara was waiting in darkness for our son to be born and behold the beauty of the world. Where the stars burned cold and clean and bright, there the Elijin and Galadin waited for the Shining One to come forth. All people everywhere, and all things, always waiting.

And I must wait a little longer, too. The Quest had been fulfilled but one task remained: I must show my grandfather the golden cup that he knew would one day be found. And so, soon, on a clear winter night, I would climb Mount Telshar or Arakel and stand upon the summit with the Lightstone in my hand. I would breathe the cold breath of all those who had come before me; I would dream my fiery dreams and speak my promise to the stars: that darkness would be defeated, that men and women would soar the heavens with wings of light, that someday the Lightstone would be returned to that bright, blazing place from which it came.