Black Jade

Chapter 21

We rode out onto the hardpack between the Avari and Zuri lines. The captain named Oalo waited there along with another Zuri warrior, still under the banner of truce. Next to them, on fine horses, sat Maslan and the droghul. In appearance, this double of Morjin seemed identical to the first droghul who had died so terribly in the forest of Acadu, except that he had two good arms and the sun had burned his fair face red. His hair shone all golden like the sun, as did his eyes. I could see nothing of his own will in these hideous orbs, and everything of Morjin. He radiated an overweening arrogance and the command of a king. The malevolence that poured out of him struck me like a hammer blow to the throat. I found myself bitterly wishing that I had not abandoned my steel mail. I wondered what armor I might find here against his sword, no less his inevitable lies and assault on my soul.

Three Avari warriors greeted Sunji, whom they treated as a prince. Although these three kept their faces covered, I could see from the webwork of creases around their black eyes that they were nearly old men. Sunji presented them as Laisar, Maidro and Avraym, and said that they were to be the judges of what was told here today.

With the fierce sun prompting all of us to speak concisely and quickly, we submitted to trial all the while sitting on the backs of our horses. The droghul and I gave our respective accounts of what had occurred at the Masud well. We told of our journeys and our purposes, as much as we dared. The three judges listened closely. The warriors in the two lines behind us tried to listen, too. Twice, Oalo, an ugly, much-scarred man, interrupted in order to clarify matters or make important points, speaking self-importantly in behalf of the Zuri's chief, Tatuk. Sunji silenced him both times. He and he alone, as he told us, would conduct this trial.

After we had finished speaking, Sunji swept his saber from Kane to me and called out, 'You claim to be landless knights guarding pilgrims; the names you gave are Rowan Madeus and Mirustral. But King Morjin, if such he really is, tells that your true names are Kane and Valaysu Elahad. Do you claim that he has mistaken you for others?'

The three judges, I saw, leaned forward on their horses, waiting for me to answer. Maslan, as with the four other Red Priests in the Zuri line, regarded me as might a spider a fly trapped in a web. The droghul simply stared at me with unrelenting hatred.

'No, he has not mistaken us for others,' I said to Sunji. 'Those are our true names, though little else he has said about us or himself is true.'

Now the eyes of Laisar, Avraym and Maidro, who sat on their horses close to me, grew as stonelike as obsidian. I sensed doubt and disdain hardening the hearts of the Avari warriors who watched me.

'Do you think to convince us of what you put forth as true,' Sunji asked me, 'by readily admitting a lie?'

I gazed at the shawl wrapped around Sunji's face. I said to him, 'You and those of your tribe keep yourselves well-covered against the sun that would burn you. So it is with me and my companions. We have chosen these names to wear just so this droghul and his kind wouldn't discover us, as he has.'

It was a good answer, I thought, the best I could give, but none of the Ravirii approved of it, especially not Yago, who clearly didn't like it that I had kept secrets from him. He sat on his horse next to me gazing at me in anger.

'I do not know yet what to believe,' Sunji said, now pointing his saber at the droghul and then at me, 'but it is clear that the two of you are mortal enemies. The king of a realm called Sakai, or his sorcerous double, a droghul as you name him. And an outlawed prince of a faraway realm called Mesh.'

'I am no outlaw,' I said, wiping the sweat from my neck. 'I left my homeland of my own choice.'

'To seek this Well of Restoration that you have told of?'

I commanded my hand not to wipe at the sweat pouring from my face* It had come time to tell of things that should be kept a secret. I said, 'In a way. We seek the one who would use the Cup of Heaven to restore Ea. We call this one the Maitreya.'

As I told of the Lightstone, Sunji's eyes gleamed, and a great excitement filled the three Avari judges and rippled through their fellow warriors who sat watching us. Sunji allowed me to finish speaking and then said to me, 'Is this another of your truths clothed in the dirty robes of a lie? Do you ask us to believe that you would risk your lives journeying into the desert in search of this Maitreya?'

From the Avari line, which had moved in closer to us, a young man called out: 'What I cannot believe is his story of entering the Stone City. Burning holes through rock with sorcerous fire, and slaying dragons — dragons! And this man and a few companions slaying nearly a hundred men? He told that a blind woman fired arrows into their hearts! He lies, surely, and more, he must be mad to think that we should listen to such — '

'Be quiet, Daivayr!' Sunji suddenly barked out, cutting him off. He turned back to me and said, 'My brother is impulsive, as it is with the young. But he only voices questions we all have. You say that you risked your lives seeking the Cup of Heaven in the great Quest, as you do now in search of the one you call the Maitreya. Why?'

'Because it is the only hope for Ea — and for much more.' As Sunji and the three judges listened to every word I spoke, and the droghul's golden eyes never left mine, I tried to tell of my love for Ea's forests and mountains, her oceans and grass-covered plains. And it would all be burnt to ashes, I said, and washed in blood if Morjin and his Red Priests had their way. 'I.. would see an end to war. The Maitreya might bring this abiding peace, if he can be found.'

'But how could you hope to find him,' Sunji asked me, 'if you do not even know his name or what tribe has given him birth?'

It was a good question, and I knew that my judges would find my answer weak as I said: 'There is one among us who is gifted in finding things.'

'Through the aid of sorceries?'

'We are not sorcerers!' I cried out.

Although the droghul's face remained implacable as he regarded me, his whole being lit up as with a triumphant smile. Then he opened his mouth to speak. His voice, ever golden and persuasive, swelled with a new power. His words fell like irresistible weapons thatJaid people open and left them utterly vulnerable to his command: 'This Elahad has impugned everything about me, going so far as to deny who I am. I am King of Sakai! I have risked much in coming into the desert, as I have. In the past, I have sent priests to your people — the bravest and freest of Ea's peoples! — to help them understand the nature of the menace that would undo us all. And to help them unite against sorcerers such as the Elahad and his kind. My priests have not always been well-received. I do not blame you Ravirii for this, as the world is hard and our enemies are not always as they seem. But we are not your enemies! I have come here, in my person, that you might hear the truth of things from my own lips.'

The droghul, I knew, almost had a mind of his own, although at the moment I could sense no particle or flame of his own self-ness. So compelling was the smoothness of his voice — the perfection of pitch and tone and utter certainty in itself — that he almost convinced me that he was the real Morjin.

'Lord Morjin,' Maslan said hoarsely, coughing at the dry air, 'is known in all lands as the most veracious of kings.'

No, I thought, the most voracious. If these desert tribes let him, he would swallow them up one by one as he had the great kingdoms that surrounded them. Little sense of this peril, however, seemed to have made its mark on the Ravirii, at least not the Zuri gathered here. They seemed to regard Maslan and the other Red Priests as keepers of a great and mysterious power. They looked upon these five terrible men with something of the same awe that my people held for the masters of the Brotherhood. Only Oalo, I sensed, suspected how vile they really were. The tightness in his chest told me that he lived in great fear of them, even as the priests themselves dreaded the droghul and Morjin himself.

'I would enlist the aid of all the Ravirii tribes,' the droghul said, looking from Oalo to Yago and then at Sunji. 'The Lightstone has been taken back from the Elahad, who stole it and claimed it for himself. Even now, he seeks other stones of power that he might cast his ensorcellments over all peoples and all lands in hope of stealing back the golden cup yet again.'

'He lies!' I said, shaking my fist at him. 'He accuses me of his own evil dreams and deeds — even as he did the poisoning of the Masud well!'

'I do not lie,' the droghul said. 'And I am no poisoner.'

I tried to find the right words to gainsay this, but I could not. So excruciating was the burning of my blood, from the kirax within and the fiery sun pouring down on me, that I could hardly speak at all.

'The Cup of Heaven,' the droghul said, letting his golden voice carry out to the lines of Zuri and Avari warriors pressing in even closer, 'will remain safely in my hall in Argattha, where I invite any and all to come drink of its light.'

'The urna has been found!' Avraym marveled as he gazed at the droghul. Until now the judges of this trial had been as silent as stone.

'In my own lifetime, sought and found. All glory in the One!' The droghul smiled at him, a bright, open smile all full of the promise of happiness and otherwordly riches, even love. And he said to Avraym and the other judges, and to all the Avari and Zuri: 'When the time comes and victory is ours, I shall bring the Lightstone into all lands. The Ravirii shall be its keepers, and here it will do its most wondrous work. A golden light will poor itself out onto the desert's sands. Trees will grow here again, soft grasses and flowers. Water will run in the dry river beds, and lakes will shine in the sun. The desert will be green again.' 'As it was, it shall be again,' Avraym intoned.

'All glory in the One,' Laisar said.

The droghul, I thought, through his master in Argattha, knew the Ravirii well, even as he knew all peoples. He gave them precisely what they wished to hear.

'This Elahad,' he said, 'claimed the Lightstone for himself. Even as he claimed to be the Maitreya.'

Sunji looked at me and asked. 'Is this true, Valashu Elahad?'

'I… yes, there was a moment,' I stammered out. 'Only a moment when I claimed this. But I was wrong.'

My admission did not make a good impression on those judging me. The droghul smiled at me. I could feel him using the raw power of Morjin's passions to pull at the heartstrings of everyone gathered here. He touched their passions. He played on their vanities and fears, and spoke to their deepest dreams. I vowed again that I would never use my gift this way to violate people's souls and work such evil.

'From his own lips, he admits another lie!' the droghul said. 'How many more must we hear before we judge him as what he is?'

How, I wondered, could I ever prevail here against this double of Morjin? The droghul sat up straight on his horse, disdainful of the sun and radiating all of Morjin's power and authority. Morjin was a king, even if an evil and false one, and people heeded what he said.

'The Elahad has no more respect for you,' the droghul said to the judges, 'than he does your laws. He and his fellow conspirators invaded your lands solely to flee a richly deserved justice. With his own hand, he poisoned the Masud well so that he could — '

'He lies!' I called out. 'Can't you hear how he lies?'

Sunji waved his sword at me. He Said, 'You must keep your silence unless you have testimony to offer. Calling King Morjin a liar does not constitute such, nor will it serve you.'

The droghul bowed his head to Sunji, and then smiled at me. He drew in a breath of burning air hi order to further defame me. His cleverness cut with all the precision of a surgeon's knife as he called out: 'When the Masud discovered the Elahad's true purpose, the Elahad poisoned their well to keep them from turning against him. And what is his purpose? He seeks gelstei and other stones of power. He found suchlike among the Masud, the very skystones that are sacred to the Avari.'

At this, Sunji touched the blue stones set into the silver of one of his bracelets. Avraym, I saw, wore a pendant fashioned of the same substance, as did Maidro and Laisar. I recalled seeing such jewelry among the gold bangles that Daj had gathered from the dead Masud.

Yago remembered this as well. He looked at me with suspicion eating at his hard face.

'The Elahad,' the droghul went on, 'would use the gelstei to take control of the Lightstone. Each of the conspirators has gained these gelstei and mastery over them.'

How, I wondered, could people ever mistake a lie for the truth? I knew from bitter experience that the truth always spoke with a clear and perfect voice, but too often it spoke too softly. People did not hear it, for they believed what they wanted to believe.

'Valashu Elahad — is this true?' Sunji asked me.

I turned to my right to see Kane's black eyes warning me to silence. But with the judges and everyone else looking at me, I could not keep silent. Neither could I lie.

'Yes,' I said, 'each of my companions and I keep one of the gelstei.'

'Show us these stones, then.'

I saw that Kane trembled to whip out his sword and cut off Sunji's head. Instead, he took out his baalstei and showed it to him and the three judges. At the sight of this black crystal Avraym kissed his own hand and pressed it over his heart. So did Laisar and Maidro theirs. The droghul told that the black gelstei could be used to suck out the very fires of a man's soul and Kane did not dispute this.

'So, it can be used this way,' Kane said, making a fist around his stone. He stared at the droghul with such hate that the droghul finally looked away. 'This thing of Morjin should know this, for Morjin himself has used a much greater baalstei to try to suck at the soul of the whole world and all her peoples.'

As he went on to tell of the Black Jade, the Avari warriors up and down their line kissed their hands and clasped them to their chests, as did the Zuri warriors in their line.

Then the droghul, for the first time seeming to struggle against Morjin's iron-fisted control of him, pointed at Kane and said, 'He, too, is a liar, like the Elahad. Can no one here feel him attacking you with this evil stone?'

With the sun sucking the life out of everyone gathered in this sweltering canyon, and Morjin perhaps wielding the Black Jade from afar, it was easy for Sunji and the judges to believe that Kane strove to lay an evil enchantment upon them. And so Sunji called to Kane: 'Put away your sorcerer's stone!'

Kane tucked away his gelstei, then said to Sunji, 'Ha — you know nothing of what you speak! All the gelstei were made out of the essence of the Lightstone itself. So, the baalstei were meant to control the fires of the tuaoi stones, for good, not ill.'

'The firestones,' the droghul explained. 'Even as ww speak, the fat leper on that hill makes ready to wreak burning sorceries upon us.'

He pointed up the ravine where Maram, with Master Juwain and Liljana, stood watching us.

'The Elahad himself,' the droghul said, 'bears a sword wrought of the evilest of substances. He has used it to slay with all the deadliness of a scorpion.'

Sunji aimed his saber at me, then commanded Laisar, Avraym and Maidro to draw their sabers. He said to me, 'Let us see this sorcerous sword!'

I drew out Alkaladur then. The Ravirii of all three tribes gasped to behold its silvery brilliance. They drew back from it, too, for even as I held it up to the sun, red flames ran up and down its length. Only Kane, I thought, knew how badly I longed to stab its point into Morjin's heart — even into the droghul. But killing this dreadful creature would not kill Morjin. It would serve only to bring down the sabers of the Ravirii upon me and my friends.

'Break it!' The droghul cried out. 'Take this evil thing from the poisoner, and break it into pieces!'

'You take it!' I shouted back at him. I pointed my sword at him, and watched in horror as it blazed with even hotter flames. 'Let us cross swords, the two of us here and now, and let that be the test of things!'

Sunji turned to nod at the Avari warriors backing him up as if making sure they were ready to close in on me at a moment's notice. Then he said to me, 'This is no trial by combat; put away your sword.'

The Sword of Light, Alkaladur was called, the Sword of Truth. It caught me up in its fiery light Then I sheathed it and sat gasping at the torrid air.

The sight of this burning blade seemed to stir something within the droghul. His jaws clamped shut as if he struggled to bite off the words forming in his throat. I sensed Morjin from afar, and too near, driving a heated iron into the droghul's spine to make him speak. And when the droghul finally did, he spoke too much — too much for me to bear: 'With that cursed sword, the Elahad murdered his own father and brothers when they discovered his sorceries and tried to drive him from Mesh!'

So bright did the sun blaze just then that I thought it would burn out my eyes.

'Father-killer!' one of the Red Priests called out. A Zuri warrior next to him repeated this accusation. And then, from both the Zuri and Avari lines came more cries: 'Father-killer! Well-poisoner! Sorcerer!'

The three judges stared at me in a silence even more terrible than these accusations.

He has won, I thought, looking at the droghul for the hidden hand of Morjin. He will always win.

'Father-killer! Father-killer! Father-killer!'

I had told of things as accurately as I knew how, and it seemed that I had only turned my judges against me. But had I really spoken truly? Inside me whispered a deep and beautiful voice that had never failed me; often, now, it called to me as loud and clear as a bell. I knew, though, that I was afraid to make this voice my own and shout it out so that others might hear it. I feared that they would mishear it or misuse it — or use it against me. Even more, I feared wielding the truth as a sword that men could not resist, annihilating their wills so that mine might prevail. That was Morjin's way. As the golden eyes of the droghul fell upon me and I felt Morjin staring me down from far away, I knew that he wished me to fear this and to live in dread of my gift of valarda. In a hundred ways, perhaps even through the Black Jade, he had attacked my will toward all that was good and true. And so I spoke with what honesty I dared, but softly and weakly, in words that were often at least partial lies.

'Father-killer!' the warriors around me called out. 'Sorcerer! Well-poisonerl'

'What else is there to say?' the droghul shouted. It seemed that he had given up struggling against Morjin. 'These men and their kind are well-poisoners! Give them to us that we might give them justice!'

Morjin, I suddenly knew, wished to torture out of me and my friends our knowledge of the Maitreya even more than he wished our deaths. If the droghul and the Red Priests got their hands on us, I wondered how they would be able to crucify us to a land without wood? Perhaps they would settle on cutting apart Daj and Estrella piece by piece, knowing that I could never bear this.

'Well-poisoners! Well-poisoners! Kill the well-poisoners!'

What is truth? It is not merely faultlessness and honesty, the uncovering of facts, but rather the urge toward these things, and much more, the primeval drive to bring forth into the light of existence the deepest designs of the real. It is as clear and perfect as starlight, and it blazes with all the fierceness and power of the sun.

Well-poisoner! Sorcerer! Father-killer! Father-killer! Father-killer!

In the black centers of the droghul's eyes, Morjin sat on his Dragon Throne shouting these words at me. Then, at last, I drew in a deep breath of fiery air and shouted back at him: 'My father died defending our land from your armies! My brothers, too! My mother was nailed to wood by your bloody priests! They put my grandmother next to her! You, with your own fingers, tore out my beloved's eyes! I. . could not stop this! I tried, with all my might, but I could not!'

I drew my sword, and red flames swirled about its shimmering silustria. With tears nearly blinding me, I told the assembled warriors more, things that I did not want to tell anyone, not even myself. I admitted that it was I who had led Atara and my other friends into Argattha, and so shook my fist at the stars. Although I hadn't slain my family I had brought about their deaths through hubris and hate. I loved the world, yes, and wanted to bring an end to war, but even more I hated Morjin and wanted with every breath to thrust my sword into his heart and make him die.

To the judges staring at me with their black, blurred eyes, to Sunji and Yago and all the warriors looking upon me in awe, even to the sky, I told of things simply as they were. There was no

manipulation in this, no calculation to achieve a certain end. I wanted only that my judges, and the whole world, should know. Sorrow tore the truth from me. I held nothing back: all my anguish, guilt and grief came pouring out of me. Al my love, and all my hate. The sun was a fierce thing in the sky, burning with a white-hot light, but this was more terrible, more beautiful more real.

When I could speak no more, Sunji sat on his horse regarding me from beneath the shawl that covered most of his face. His bright, black eyes shone with a deep lucidty. After glancing at the droghul, he turned to the judges and told them, 'King Morjin is right — what more is there to say?'

He drew in a deep breath of air as he called out to everyone: 'The well-poisoner, and those who helped him, must be served justice. Laisar, what do you say?'

Laisar's old eyes grew hard with judgment as he pointed at the droghul and shouted, 'I say that this man, whether he is King Morjin or his mind-slave, is the poisoner!'

'I say this, too!' Maidru called out.

'And I,' Avraym said. 'Let the poisoner be served!'

All at once, the Avari warriors up and down their line began shouting out:. 'Well-poisoner! Well-poisoner! Kill the well-poisoner!'

But the Zuri warriors, trapped between the Avari and the rocks where Maram and my other companions stood, kept their silence. It is one thing to hear the truth, and another to act upon it.

All eyes now fell upon the droghul, who held up his hand and cast his dreadful gaze to the right and left. He cried out: 'You must listen to me! The Elahad lies! It is he, not I, who is the-'

'Sorcerer! Well-poisoner! Well-poisoner! Kill the well-poisoner!'

Sunji, having heard from the judges, swept his sword from the droghul to Oalo, and then out to the Zuri warriors as he pronounced their doom: 'You have heeded too well the words of this sorcerer and poisoner, and those of his priests. But we have all heard the power of these words — the power of these lies. I cannot believe that you knew of the poisoner's deeds. Therefore you shall be spared his punishment. Lay down your swords, and you shall be free to go back to your home!'

'We won't lay down our swords!' Oalo shouted, drawing his saber. Its polished steel flashed in the sun. 'We wont make it easy for you to slaughter us here!'

'Truce-breaker!' Avraym called out to him, 'Drop your sword now, or die along with the Poisoner and his priests!'

'Throw down!' Laisar shouted at Oalo. He turned to the Zuri warriors and told them, 'All of you — throw down your swords!'

The sixty Zuri warriors hesitated for a moment. They looked from the droghul and Maslan at the center of the field to the four other Red Priests waiting with them in their line. It seemed that they feared these men more than they did Sunji and the Avari. And so they drew their swords and pointed them at the Avari rather than throwing them down.

'Damn you!' the droghul cried out to Sunji as he drew his sword. Torment ate at his eyes as he seemed for a moment to struggle against his distant master. But then his face hardened once again as he screamed out, 'Damn you, Avari! I'll poison your wells! I'll send armies to crucify your women and children, and make you drink their blood!'

As he screamed out even more vile threats, Laisar, Avraym and Maidro drew in closer to Sunji; with battle now imminent, ten Avari warriors galloped out from the line to join Sunji and the judges. They positioned themselves facing Oalo, Maslan and the droghul, forming a sort of wall protecting Kane, Yago and me.

'This is no trial by combat!' Sunji called out again to the Zuri. 'Throw down your swords!'

The droghul, however, pointed his sword straight at me. Only his hatred of Morjin's control of him, I thought, had so far kept him from trying to ride me down and hack me apart in full fury. But now he and Morjin were as one.

'Damn you, Elahad! You killed my daughter!. My only girl! I executed your family, and so destroyed your past, but you have taken from me my hope for the future!'

'It was you who took this!' I called to him. 'You killed Jezi when you touched her with your foul hands!'

'Damn you!' he screamed at me. 'This time you die!'

And then, even as the Red Priests goaded the Zuri warriors to attack the advancing Avari line, the droghul spurred his horse straight at me.