Diamond Warriors

Chapter 13

It is impossible for a man, burdened by more than fifty pounds of armor, weapons, clothing, water and food, to run more than a short distance. Even so, I pressed my warriors to such a fast walk that others might have called it a run. For all the rest of that day, I led my army around the slopes of Mount Ihsan. We had some good luck when the rain stopped in the late afternoon. We must have covered ten miles of some of the Morning Mountains' most rugged terrain by the time dusk fell upon the world. When we came out into the forested hills northwest of Harban, we were all so exhausted we were ready to crawl off beneath the trees and drop onto the bracken. But we could not sleep just yet. The Kaashan and Waashian armies would meet on the battlefield early the next morning, and we still had another fifteen miles to march in order to reach it.

The track that we had been following, as Lord Zandru told us, found its end in Harban. From there, a good road led down along the Rajabash to the proposed battlefield. But we could not set out on this route, for surely King Sandarkan would have left warriors behind in Harban to secure his rear. Therefore we needed to march cross-country — and now at night.

Lord Zandru found a woodcutter who knew of a track that would take us a good way through the forest toward the battlefield. When the moon and stars came out, we had just enough light to make our way through the ghostly trees. Lord Zandru, after dropping back to observe the heavy motions of Lord Tanu's and Lord Tomavar's warriors as they trudged along, said to me, 'Your men are already spent, and even if you come to the battlefield in time, they won't be able to fight.'

'They won't have to fight,' I told him. 'But only appear ready to fight.'

Lord Avijan, hearing this as we rode along through the starlit trees, turned to Maram and said, 'If the warriors cannot lift their shields and work their spears, then you can strike down our enemy with that sorcerer's stone of yours.'

'Could I?' Maram asked, taking out his firestone and holding it up to the thin light sifting down through the crowns of the trees. 'Ah, I suppose I could. But I won't You see, I've taken a vow never again to burn men with its fire.'

I commanded my army to halt only once that night, for a break of half an hour. It was a dangerous thing to do, for it seemed that no one could remain awake to rouse the others when the time came I no one, that is, except Kane. I wondered for the thousandth time at his inexhaustible vitality. He seemed no more tired by our mountain's passage than he would have been after a walk in the woods.

Just after dawn, we came out into the pastureland along the Rajabash, below Harban but to the north of the battlefield. Now that we marched in the open, I commanded Lord Tanu and Lord Tomavar to keep a tight formation and to be ready to deploy from columns into lines at a moment's notice. We hurried across the rolling, grassy ground full of sheep and cattle. I sent outriders ahead of us. King Sandarkan's scouts would probably spot them, as they surely would our thousands of warriors before we drew up close enough to fall upon the Waashians' rear. But by then it would be too late.

I led my army's vanguard down along the Rajabash River, gleaming an icy blue off to our left. Our hundreds of horses churned up the dew-damp grass. Behind them marched Lord Tomavar's and Lord Tanu's warriors, now wearing their ankle bells again. The tinkling of silver spilled out into the cool morning air.

At last, I urged Altaru up and over a hummock, and saw the battlefield spread out below us. About two miles away, King Talanu had drawn up his army into glittering lines that stretched from the Rajabash across the pasturage, where he had anchored them against a wooded hill. A half mile closer to us gathered the Waashians. Their diamond armor gleamed as brilliantly as did that of the Kaashans and my own warriors. But King Sandarkan had arrayed them in an unusual and desperate formation: as a huge, open square, fronted by perhaps three thousand foot and as many on each of the other three sides. He had posted cavalry on each point of the square, and the most forward of these knights faced the Kaashans while those in the rear had their lances pointed toward us. In short order, I saw to it that my army deployed as did the Kaashans, from the river in the east to the hills in the west. I rode with the vanguard to the right, pressed almost up against the hills; the rear guard took up its post to protect my army's left flank along the river. Then we advanced. Our drummers beat their great war drums and added to the thunder that the Kaashans' made; the jangle of thousands of silver bells spread out across the valley. Our warhorses, eager for battle, let out terrible whinnies. Yard by yard we moved down the meadow closer to the Waashians. In truth, we closed in upon them like a jaw of diamond and steel that would soon tear into them and grind them against the Kaashans' lines.

The battle, however, never took place. King Sandarkan now held an impossible position; his army's square formation gave evidence that his outriders had indeed warned him of our approach — but too late for him to retreat. And now, when he beheld my men's numbers, he must have realized that it would be hopeless to fight. As I had intended as far back as Mesh, he would have no choice but to surrender and ask for terms. If he did not, he and his entire army would be annihilated.

It did not take long for him to send out a herald holding up a white banner of truce. I saw another such gallop out toward the Kaashans' lines. 1 halted my men to receive the herald. We spoke for a few moments, and then I sent him back to his king — and sent one of my own to King Talanu, as he did to me. In this way, with heralds racing back and forth across the battlefield, we arranged a parley of the three kings and their captains down by the river.

I asked Lords Avijan, Sharad, Tanu and Tomavar to come with me, as well as Kane and my other friends. I asked Bemossed and the Seven, too. And, of course, Lord Zandru. It would be an unusual company for such a meeting, but these were unusual times.

King Talanu ordered a great canopy set up above the banks of the raging Rajabash and three chairs placed beneath it in the shade of the sun. I watched him ride out from his lines toward this meeting place. My uncle was now an old man — almost too old to hold a horse's reins and wield a sword, let alone command an army. Despite the pains of his joints and old wounds, however, he held himself proud and straight as if he would let nothing in the world bend him. He was thick through the shoulders and chest as my brother Karshur had been, and I had never known a man with such large, strong hands — except, perhaps, for Sajagax. Nineteen brightly-colored battle ribbons festooned his shining white hair, and I knew of no other warrior in the Morning Mountains who sported so many. Over his diamond armor, he wore a bright blue surcoat showing the white tiger of Kaash.

'Greetings, nephew!' he called out as our horses drew closer to each other. 'Welcome and bless you, honored King Valamesh!'

I dismounted and would have helped him do the same if he hadn't waved me off. I could feel a sharp stabbing pain in his shoulder, elbow and crippled right foot as he struggled down from his horse. Two men — Prince Viromar and Lord Yarwan — hovered near him, but he eschewed their attentions. With difficulty he walked over beneath the canopy and sat down in the middle chair. He beckoned for me to take the one to his right.

'This is a great day,' he said to me. 'Perhaps the greatest in Kaashan history since Kaash and Mesh threw back the invasion from Delu a thousand years ago.'

At the time he spoke of, Delu had been nearly the strongest Kingdom on Ea instead of one of the weakest. In fact, it had been one of Maram's own ancestors, King Kasturn, who had led Delu to her age of ascendence. Maram seemed to take an uneasy pride in this, for he hung back behind me with my captains and other friends, and he gazed at King Talanu with conflicting emotions lighting up his face.

'I have things to tell you before King Sandarkan arrives, King Talanu said in his straightforward way. 'First, I regret with all my heart not marching to Mesh when your father called for us to come. I did not think we could arrive in time — and we couldn't have, as events proved. But more, King Sandarkan made maneuvers against Kaash, and I felt that I couldn't let him ravage my kingdom. I was wrong. No Valari, not even King Sandarkan, would commit the atrocities that Morjin did against Mesh. It took the torture of my own sister and too many of your countrymen for me to see that Morjin is our true enemy. Even though I knew it, in my heart, I was afraid to fight him.'

Here he placed his great, scarred hand across his chest and looked at me. And his captains, standing behind him nearer the river, looked at him with the poignant reverence they held for their old king.

'Anyone who knows the Red Dragon,' I said to my uncle, 'is afraid to fight him. But what other choice do we have?'

'What choice, indeed? At least we won't have to fight the Waashians, though I must tell you that many of my knights looked forward to washing their swords in our enemy's blood.'

Behind me I could almost feel my other uncle, Prince Viromar, directing his rancor toward the Waashians in their diamond block out in the middle of the field, and so it was with my cousin, Lord Yarwan, a bold-looking man with a great hawk's nose and a bloody eye for vengeance. And with several other of the Kaashan lords standing there, too. All of us, I thought, waited to see how long it would take King Sandarkan to force himself to ride out and face his defeat.

'But it is best to avoid bloodshed, as I have always said,' King Talanu told me. He shifted about in his chair the better to look into my eyes. 'When Lord Yulsua's messenger arrived to tell us that you were coming, we all rejoiced, for victory seemed at hand. But I must tell you that when your Lord Harsha confirmed that you had taken the route around the mountain, many despaired.'

Lord Harsha, standing off to my right as he conferred with Lord Tanu, bowed his head to me as if to inform me that our baggage train had arrived safely behind the Kaashans' lines.

'We nearly despaired as well,' I said to him. Then I told him something of our journey and Maram's great feat in cutting a way across Mount Ihsan's slope.

'A great feat, indeed, King Talanu said. 'And I mean the whole of your march: it will go down as one of history's great ones. As will this victory today. What you have done is both brilliant and bold.'

I bowed my head to him, and looked at Maram, Master Juwain, Master Storr and Abrasax. 'I have had great help from great companions,'

Then I turned to gaze off down by the river, where Kane stood talking to one of the men who had ridden out with King Talanu from the Kaashans' lines. This stranger wore a stained traveling cloak instead of diamond armor, and was too short and thick to be a Valari. Although I could not get a good look at his face, he seemed familiar to me.

'Ah, at last!' Maram's voice boomed out as he pointed toward the Waashians' army. 'He comes!'

From between the warriors forming one wall of the Waashians' square, a short column of knights rode out across the field. A herald flying the white banner of truce kept pace with another holding up King Sandarkan's standard: two crossed silver swords against a black field. King Sandarkan, a tall reedy man, wore a black surcoat emblazoned with the same charge. Three of his captains — Lords Telsar, Rayadan and Araj — followed behind him. King Sandarkan led them straight up to our canopy, where he dismounted and sat down on the chair to King Talanu's left.

My uncle spent only the barest moments dispensing with the formal politenesses. He greeted King Sandarkan, as did I, and he asked after the health of King Sandarkan's family. Then he barked out at him in his gruff, old voice: 'Are we agreed that you have come to surrender?'

King Sandarkan's thin face tightened with such tension that it seemed his skin collapsed around his bones. And then he gritted his teeth and forced out, 'I am here to offer my army's surrender.'

'Good. Then let us agree upon the terms.'

'Let us agree,' King Sandarkan said, in his dry, raspy voice, 'but I can tell you that I will never ask my warriors to surrender their swords or their armor.'

'That has not been asked, and may not be. But you must know that you are in no position to insist on the point.'

'My army,' King Sandarkan said, pointing out into the field, 'still holds position. And we will fight to the death before giving up our swords.'

'We are met here so that we might avoid needless deaths. But since you have made your surrender, you must know that you must give up something.'

'What is it you want, then?'

'First,' King Talanu said, holding up a blunt finger, 'that Waas pay Kaash a weight of diamonds to compensate for the expense of my kingdom being threatened and having to prepare for battle these last two years.'

'How great a weight?'

'A bushel of bluestars. Or three hundred bushels of armor-grade whites.'

'Very well, then.'

King Talanu pulled at one of the ribbons tied to his long white hair as he studied King Sandarkan. He said, 'Second: You will agree to make common cause with Kaash if there should be war between Kaash and Athar. Eight thousand warriors you will agree to lead to Kaash's defense.'

'Very well — Athar is Waas's enemy, too.'

'Third,' King Talanu said, 'you will recognize Kaash's reclaiming of the Arjan Land. You will sign a paper stating that the Arjan Land is to belong to Kaash until the end of the world — or until the Star People return to earth.'

Now King Sandarkan hesitated. His long, predatory face fairly trembled with old grievances and desires. He shouted out: 'But the Arjan Land is ours! My own ancestors shed their blood so that — '

'This term,' King Talanu said, cutting him off, 'is not subject to dispute. Every warrior you have led onto the field today will shed his blood if Waas's king does not agree to it.'

King Sandarkan closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply in a meditation exercise. Then he finally looked at King Talanu. and he croaked out, 'Very well — the Arjan Land is yours.'

I sensed my uncle wanting to smile in triumph. But he would not allow himself such petty gloating. Instead, he bowed his head to acknowledge King Sandarkan's great sacrifice in giving up at long last the Arjan Land. Then he delivered his fourth term: 'During the course of your reign and for so long as you live, you shall forswear waging war upon Mesh.'

Now King Sandarkan turned to gaze at me with black, burning eyes full of jealously and resentment. And he called out to King Talanu: 'No other Valari king has been asked to accept such terms!'

And King Talanu looked at me as he told him: 'No other Valari king has so underestimated his enemy and let himself be trapped to face total defeat.'

I could feel King Sandarkan's face burning. His long limbs bent like those of a praying mantis as he pointed at me and said, 'Very well — so long as I live, Waas will not make war against Mesh.'

He drew in five deep breaths and asked King Talanu: 'Are those all your terms?'

'They are,' King Talanu said.

King Sandarkan bent forward as if readying himself to stand up and flee from this place of shame. And then King Talanu held out his palm toward King Sandarkan. 'But we are not finished here.'

'How not, then?'

King Talanu looked at me, and then back at King Sandarkan. He said, 'King Valamesh has marched here at great sacrifice and risk, and it is he whom Kaash must thank for victory. Therefore he has the right to demand of you his own terms.'

In response to King Talanu's logic. King Sandarkan stared at me with a smoldering resentment.

'Very well,' King Sandarkan said. 'What does Mesh's new king demand of Waas?'

While I sat there deep in thought, studying King Sandarkan's craggy, troubled face, Kane came up to me. He had no compunc-tion in interrupting a conclave of kings.

'I must speak to you,' he told me. The fire in his dark eyes put an urgent heat into my own. 'This cannot wait.'

'We cannot wait,' King Sandarkan said, glaring at him, 'while this rogue knight whom the Elahad calls his friend delays matters here.'

'Please excuse me, King Sandarkan,' I said with all the politeness that I could find. 'Kane is not given to alarms, and I must hear him out.'

So saying, I stood up and walked with him down to the river. He presented the man he had been speaking with, and I suddenly realized where I had last seen him: in Mesh, after the Battle of the Culhadosh Commons. He wore a suit of steel mail beneath his cloak; his broad, heavily bearded face seemed to bear only hardness and threat. Kane gave his name as Hadrik. He did not have to say outright that Hadrik was a Master of the Black Brotherhood, which Kane employed to oppose Morjin and achieve his deepest purpose.

'Hadrik has come up out of Galda,' he said to me. 'He thought to find me in Mesh, and followed the track of your army here.'

Hadrik bowed his head to verify this. Then, in a voice as raw and rageful as any that I had ever heard, he told me what he had told Kane: 'Morjin left Galda late in Ashte to return to Argattha — I have spent the lives of my last ten men proving this. He moves, the Dragon does! The hour of our doom has finally come.'

As if he could not bear another word of speech, he shook his head as he turned and stalked off down to the very edge of the roaring water twenty yards farther down. He was a strange man, I thought, and one of the deadliest-looking I had ever seen.

'He is the last of his kind,' Kane said, nodding at him. 'All the others perished in Galda's torture chambers or nailed to crosses.'

He hung his head as if staring down through the earth and the turbid sediments of time. Then he looked up at me with his black, blazing eyes. 'So. So, Valashu. This is the hour. On the third of Ashte, Morjin called up the Uskadans to Argattha. On the day that you became king, he ordered the armies of Uskudar and Sakai to march north, toward Alonia. He leads them in the open, as of old! The Zayak and Marituk tribes ride with him, the Janjii, too. He has broken the Long Wall. Perhaps with fire, perhaps by opening up the earth — do not know. As we speak, he marches up the Poru toward Tria.'

My heart drummed at the triple-time against my chest bones. And I gasped out, 'To Tria! But why he would spend his forces against the Alonians when they would do his work for him fighting among themselves? Unless he cannot wait.'

'So — he cannot.'

'Then he will have sent his fleet from Eanna, with the armies of Hesperu, Sunguru and Yarkona embarked upon his ships. Morjin will take Tria, then, and make it safe for them to land.'

'So — he will,'

'Five armies Morjin will then command — and how many men? Four hundred thousand? Five?'

'So,' Kane murmured, gazing at me.

'Then it will be as you said,' I told him. 'Morjin will attack down the Nar Road and invade the Nine Kingdoms.'

'So, just so. And I have worse news to give you. He will try to split the Nine Kingdoms in two, as we discussed in Mesh.'

He told me then the rest of the tidings that Hadrik had ridden so far to tell him: that upon the news of my coronation, Morjin had ordered a great fleet bearing the armies of Galda and Karabuk to prepare to set sail across the Terror Bay and land in Delu. The Dragon Lords would easily defeat Delu's army in battle — or more likely cow King Santoval into surrendering without a fight. And then, after forcing King Santoval to swear allegiance to Morjin, they would incorporate Delu's army into theirs and attack the Nine Kingdoms from the east.

'Your people's lands,' Kane said to me, 'will be caught between a hammer and an anvil. Even if by some miracle you do lead the Valari to make alliance.'

'Who leads the enemy's force?' I asked Kane.

'Karabuk's own king, Mansul the Magnificent.'

'And how many men does he have?'

'With the Galdans, perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand. If he can defeat Delu, he will have eighty thousand more.'

I stood by the gushing river considering this. Then Kane said to me, 'You have been thinking of mounting a raid into Galda and slaying Morjin, haven't you?'

'Yes,' I told him, staring at the river's spray. And then, 'Can we be sure of Hadrik, that Morjin has truly left Galda?'

'We can be sure. Morjin marches on Tria. And then soon, surely by summer's end, he will turn east and south toward the Nine Kingdoms.'

'With his army of half a million men?'

'So, Val.'

'And if I united the Valari and marched against Morjin, then King Mansul's force would attack unopposed across the Nine Kingdoms and take us from the rear.'

'So.'

I pressed my hand against the newly-made scar cutting my forehead as I contemplated what seemed to be an impossible situation. I felt myself trapped, even as King Sandarkan was. But my warriors and I faced an enemy who would never offer us terms.

'There must be a way out,' I said to Kane. 'There must be.'

And with that, I returned to the canopy and sat back down with King Talanu and King Sandarkan. I said, 'As always, we Valari dispute with ourselves while our real enemy endeavors to destroy us.'

Then I related the news that Hadrik had brought.

'Unless we act immediately,' I said, 'the Galdan and Karabuk armies will invade Delu, and Delu will fall.'

King Sandarkan, glad for any distraction from his present woes. stabbed his bony finger into the air as he said, 'If what that rogue knight told is true, Delu will fall no matter how we act. But that is not our business.'

'Not our business!' I cried out.

'No,' he said, 'the Valari must look to the good of the Valari.'

'But Morjin would destroy the Valari!'

King Sandarkan cast his resentful gaze upon me. 'The Red Dragon would certainly destroy you — and Mesh. But that is not really Waas's business either, is it?'

My throat choked up with such anger that I shouted at him: 'How can you be so blind? Perhaps Morjin will fall against Mesh first. And then after he slaughters my countrymen, he will turn toward you. And Ishka and Taron, Anjo and Athar, Lagash and Kaash. The whole world, King Sandarkan!'

'That has always been your claim,' he said to me. 'Beneath the spur of such terror, you sought to elevate yourself as the Maitreya to gain lordship over the Valari. And when that failed, you put forth an outlander slave as the Shining One.'

How he stabbed his finger at Bemossed, waiting with the Seven behind us.

'I have put forth no one,' I told him. 'Bemossed is who he is, and his calling does not depend on what we do or do not do.'

'What shell we do then, King Valamesh?' he said to me. 'The Red Dragon has sent envoys to each of the Nine Kingdoms. Gifts of diamonds and gold they have brought. They have brought, too. Morjin's assurance that his dispute is with Mesh and Valashu Elahad alone. He gives a pledge of friendship to any kingdom who supports him in war against Mesh — or at least pledges in return not to intervene in that war.'

I could not believe the words that I was hearing. I fairly shouted at King Sandarkan: 'But Morjin is the Lord of Lies! Don't tell me you believe him!'

King Sandarkan looked to his left, at the lines of the Kaashan army still standing in the warm sun. and then to his right, at my warriors. He said, 'At such times as these, one must believe what one must believe. In any case, the Valari, even in alliance, do not have the power to stand against Morjin. Therefore each Valari king must come to terms with Morjin and arrange a peace.'

'A peace?' I cried out. 'For a month or a year, until Morjin decides to turn on you and nail all your countrymen to crosses?'

'What do you propose then.. King Valamesh?'

'To fight! Now, that we have been given such a rare chance! We know the Galdan fleet's plans, but they do not know that we know.' I pointed east, past the Rajabash at the pointed white peaks gleaming in the distance. 'We have three armies gathered here. Just over those mountains lies Delu. We can march across them and take our enemy by surprise.'

King Sandarkan laughed at this. 'That is a desperate chance, a fool's chance. What if we are discovered? And even if we are not, King Mansul's armies will still outnumber us five to one.'

'We can still win!' I called to him. I turned to my uncle and said, 'King Talanu — if Mesh were to march for Delu tomorrow, will Kaash join us?'

My uncle looked at me for a long time, and the deep creases cutting his forehead and face made him seem a thousand years old. Then he told me, 'King Sandarkan is right: what you propose is a desperate chance.'

He sighed as he grasped the hilt of the sword that he had set down by his chair. 'But it is our only chance. If we can defeat Morjin's eastern armies, then perhaps the other Valari kingdoms will join us in facing Morjin's main force as they come at us from the west.'

This, too, was my hope. For a long time I had known that I must win a great victory to have any chance of uniting the Valari.

'You dare too much,' King Sandarkan said to King Talanu. 'Even as your nephew does.'

'I do dare,' King Talanu told him. 'In truth, I like the thought of Kaash marching to Delu's rescue. And having the Delians be in our debt.'

'But you can't defeat Morjin's eastern armies! You will die with the Elahad on the march — or at the end of your road, in a desperate battle.'

'I will die soon in any case,' King Talanu said, shrugging his great shoulders. 'And it is good for a warrior to die in battle.'

'An old warrior can say that with good courage. But what of your men? Are you willing to see your young men cut down?'

'Better that than mounted on crosses when Morjin burns and ravages through the Nine Kingdoms.'

I caught King Sandarkan's gaze and said to him,'At the Culhadosh Commons, Morjin's forces badly outnumbered us, and we still prevailed.'

'At great cost. But it was a great victory, even so.'

King Sandarkan looked at me more deeply. I felt doubt working at his insides and the slow burn of an awe that he seemed to fight down.

'In Delu,' I said to him, 'we can win an even greater victory. We can. King Sandarkan. With Waas's army joining those of Kaash and Mesh, we might just have enough strength.'

I felt this as a blazing certainty deep within my blood. I sensed it all hot and fiery within King Sandarkan, too. Did my most urgent passion communicate itself to him through my eyes and the pounding of my heart? Or more tangibly, through the valarda? Or did King Sandarkan, along with many Valari, hold his own gift sleeping inside him?

And then I felt King Sandarkan turn away from himself and his innate greatness as his face tightened with calculation. 'You ask for Waas's aid. What is Mesh willing to give in order to have it?'

'What can I give you other than hope for the future? And a chance for life?'

He smiled thinly at this. 'Perhaps I should have asked you this: what is King Valamesh willing to give up in the way of demands here today?'

He might as well have slapped my face, so keenly did I feel the blood burning my cheeks. I immediately hated myself for shouting at him: 'Mesh could demand of Waas levies to march to Delu! Instead of asking for an alliance!'

'Could Mesh demand this of Waas?' King Sandarkan said, his own face growing hot. 'If we cannot come to terms here, then battle there must be. And you will certainly prevail here, King Valamesh. But tell me: are you willing to spend your men's lives for such a victory?'

I looked behind me at Lord Harsha, whose bright single eye stared at King Sandarkan; Lord Avijan and Lord Sharad regarded him, too. I looked out toward the gleaming lines of my men still standing in the sun. I knew that I could not hide very much from Waas's crafty king.

'No, I am not willing,' I told him. 'I will never again be the cause of any Valari killing another Valari.'

I took a deep breath, and held it for a count of ten as Master Juwain had taught me. Then I said to King Sandarkan, 'If you are to march with us, it cannot be because of what I have demanded — or not demanded. It can only be because you know it is the right thing to do.'

The glimmer in King Sandarkan's dark eyes told me that he did know it was right. All that was good and noble within him urged him in this direction. But still he hesitated.

'King Sandarkan,' I murmured to him.

With my deepest sense, I reached out to feel inside his heart for that unbearable tension where fear and fearlessness, weakness and will, hung poised in a delicate balance. I had only, I knew, to touch him lightly in order to push him one way or the other.

'King Valamesh!' he suddenly shouted at me.

When I wielded the valarda to open others' hearts and brighten their spirits, my gift became a sacred sword named Alkaladur. But what should I call this terrible force when desperation drove me to seize hold of a man's heart and choke his very soul?

No, I told myself, I must not make men into ghuls!

But it was too late. Like a whisper setting off an avalanche, I felt my will to move King Sandarkan to a right action loose a cascade of raging emotions within him. His own will to push back at me suddenly hardened and grew as unmovable as a mountain.

'King Valamesh,' he asked me, 'do you then offer me a free choice of marching with you to Delu, or not?'

I gritted my teeth against the pain I felt stabbing through my throat. Then I told him, 'Yes, a choice — I do.'

'Then freely,' he snarled at me, 'I tell you this: I will not put my men at such peril. What king who loved his warriors would?'

With a look at King Talanu and then again at me, he said, 'Now, unless you do have additional terms to demand of me, I should like to lead my men off this field and begin the march back to our home.'

'No, I have no terms to demand,' I told him. 'Go back to Waas.'

King Sandarkan made no farewell either to King Talanu or myself. He stood up with a jolting abruptness. With his captains, he rode back toward his army still standing in its square formation at the center of the field.

And then my uncle said to me: 'Some men, even Valari kings, are ignoble.'

I took in the gleam of King Sandarkan's emblem, with its two silver swords. What would it be like, I wondered, truly to see my enemy as myself?

Then I said, 'No, King Sandarkan is noble enough, even if he doesn't know it. But how should I expect him to call up his nobility when I can't even find my own?'

In the face of the great defeat that I had just suffered, I knew that this question would torment me on the long road to Delu, and beyond.