Lord of Lies

Chapter 27

On a brilliantly clear morning, with the sun pouring down like liquid gold upon my columns of knights, we passed through Tria's Varkoth Gate. Its immense, iron doors, wrought with the likeness of the great Galadin for which it was named, were flung open, and once again we looked upon the City of Light. Ahead of us rose three of Tria's seven hills, covered with fine marble houses and gardens and palaces — and the Tower of the Sun and the Tower of the Moon. These great spires were cast of living stone, which shimmered in the early sunlight like the whitest and purest of pearls. Indeed, much of the city was raimented in this glorious substance. It seemed to breathe its radiance into the very air so that Tria's thousands of buildings sent streamers of light, like invocations, toward the heavens.

This ancient place, I thought, bespoke humanity's highest aspirations and hopes — as well as our failings. On top of Tria's greatest hill stood King Kiritan's enormous palace, with its nine golden domes gleaming above the emerald trees and lawns of the nearby Elu Gardens. But to reach this lofty abode, we first had to pass through a district of tenements and dark alleys whose rotting timbers suggested that nothing ever built on Ea could attain to the eternal. That was the way of things in Tria, splendor amid squalor, nobles living elbow to elbow with beggars, the perfume of flowering trees tainted with the reek of rubbish and ordure that people dumped into the gutters of the streets.

I who had once beheld the rainbow hues of Alundil, the jeweled City of the Stars high in the White Mountains, knew that much more than this was possible. For I had seen the dwellings of the Star People, there and in my dreams. These, no less the Lightstone, I brought with me toward the conclave of the kings. My spirits soared like a flock of swans. Although the deaths of my five Guardians saddened me, I knew that they had died protecting the Lightstone, even as they had vowed. And now I must live to fulfill my fate.

From the moment that our columns of horses clopped up the street leading from the Varkoth Gate, Trians in their hundreds and thousands came out of their houses and lined the way. Rich and poor dressed in silks or rags, they crowded in close to witness the astonishing sight of Sarni warriors and Valari knights in our diamond armor entering their city together. An old man shaking a tin cup cried out I that the Maitreya had come among them again, as the ancient prophecies had foretold. Well-dressed women bearing baskets of flowers cast rose petals at me and onto the street ahead of me. They clamored for a glimpse of the Lightstone as they ran up to me and laid their hands on my legs or tugged at the fabric of my surcoat.

Liljana gave me to understand that King Kiritan had forbidden such displays. But many of our welcomers were of the houses of the Hastars, Eriades, Kirrilands and Marshans: four of the ancient Five Families who, for thousands of years, had contended with the Narmadas for the throne. And so they ignored the wishes of their king. They opened their hearts to me. And I, who had passed so hopefully through the walls of their city, finally threw open the gates in the walls surrounding my own heart. I drank in the cheering of the multitudes as a parched man might water. It seemed that I could not get enough of this wondrous sound. In the cries of those who swarmed around me was an ageless and beautiful yearning. I felt this great dream inside myself, ennobling me and washing clean all my fears. As the Trians' joy raised me up to the greatest heights, where I could almost lay my hand upon the sun, I felt myself immortal.

For most of an hour we climbed up Hastar Hill, with its fine palaces, and then made our way through Eluli Square and up the higher Narmada Hill overlooking the whole of the city. I gazed out upon miles of gleaming buildings offset by spaces of green. The great Star Bridge, also called the Golden Band, spanned the Poru, which divided the city into east and west. Far out in the glimmering blue bay into which the river emptied loomed the skull-shaped island of Damoom. For all the Age of Law, Morjin had been imprisoned there. I knew that soon he would be thrown down and brought there again — either that, or slain. From the thousands of people crowding the streets, I heard demands for deliverance from Morjin's evil that had lain so heavily upon the world for so long. And so I promised them, and myself, that I would never rest until the Red Dragon was utterly defeated.

At last we crested the hill and came to a gate set into the low wall surrounding the King's palace. A small army of guards dressed in the blue-and-gold livery of the House Narmada met us there, for word ot our arrival had gone ahead. Although these grim-faced guards did not cast rose petals or give voice to cheers, their eyes seemed to sparkle and shower me with hope. But they were watchful and wary, too, at the sight of so many Valari knights and Sarni warriors making their way toward the great dwelling of their king.

Waiting with them was a herald named Jasson, who escorted us along the oak-lined road leading to the palace. This small, punctilious man informed us that we had missed most of this morning's proceedings. As we rode with him past lush lawns covered with chirping sparrows, he also warned us not to trample King Kiritan's precious grass; anyone caught hunting the King's deer in the woods of the nearby Narmada Green, he said, would be put to death. This injunction, with all the other rules and protocols that he laid upon us, provoked Sajagax's proud warriors. When we dismounted in front of the white colonnades of the palace, Baldarax and Thadrak stalked about the grail gripping their bows and threatening to shoot arrows into any of the grooms who came to take their horses. I felt their sharp, blue eyes, like daggers, chiseling off the gold veneer from the gleaming domes above us. If it hadn't been for Sajagax's fierce scowls, they might have blundered their way into a battle with the ranks of guards posted on the steps leading up to the palace.

Sajagax looked up at the magnifient dome of King Kiritan's Throne Room that soared above us. 'The Trians have always been great builders,' Sajagax said, 'but the curve of the open sky pleases me more.'

In truth, he hated almost everything about being locked up inside this city within a city. He was loathe to enter the palace and sit in chairs, as he put it, 'With a dungheap of stones piled up above my head.' I noticed his thick finger tracing out zagging signs in the air as if to strengthen any enchantment that kept the palace from collapsing into a pile of rubble.

Jasson informed us that Sajagax's guard and my knights would have to remain outside. He invited our men to encamp on one of the lawns behind the palace. Ten companions only, he said, we each might take with us into King Kiritan's hall. And so Sajagax chose out Baldarax, Zekii, Orox, Thadrak and six other warriors to act as his escort. I asked Lansar Raasharu, Baltasar and Sunjay Naviru to accompany me. And Skyshan of Ki, Sar Shivathar, Sar Jarlath and Lord Noldru the Bold — Sar Juralad and Sar Kimball as well. And, of course, Lord Harsha. Maram was accounted a prince of Delu, and therefore allowed into the conclave on his own right. And so with Liljana, as a scion of one of Tria's oldest families, and Daj as her servant. Master Juwain was honored as were all of his Brotherhood. The herald reluctantly permitted Behira and Estrella, who bore no weapons, to remain with us. And as for Atara, who bore both a saber and her great bow who could think to deny entrance to King Kiritan's daughter and only legitimate child?

And so Jasson led us into the palace and through the southern doorway of King Kiritan's throne room. This immense circular space, with its great dome glowing with sunlight high above, teemed with people, living and dead. The mighty of ages past seemed to haunt the hall like ghosts. Here, in 2736 of the Age of Law, the aged King Eluli had stood before the Council of Twenty and proposed that Katura Ashlan of Delu succeed him and so become Ea's first High Queen. Two centuries later my ancestor, King Julamesh, had brought the Lightstone here from Mesh and had delivered it into Godavanni's hands — only to see Godavanni murdered by Morjin and the Lightstone stolen. I remembered very well standing here myself with three thousand others little more than a year ago and vowing to gain it back. I could almost hear the voices of the many Questers raised up in hope and echoing from the curved, white stones of the walls. I could almost hear, as well, the cheers of the thousands who had come here today to witness the forging of a great new alliance and fill their eyes with the golden radiance of the Lightstone.

Jasson's high, piercing voice rang out like the whine of a saw as he announced us to the throngs of Alonians, Delians, Thalunes and others who crowded the hall. We made our way down the aisle leading to the great, jewel-encrusted throne raised up at the hall's very center, and all eyes turned upon us. In the hall's northern quadrants were gathered brightly-dressed men and women of almost every station: artisans, lordless knights, lesser merchants and even peasants, all of whom stood packed together shoulder to shoulder craning their necks. A long line of guards held back this mob with their rectangular shields locked together.

The hall's southern quadrants were full of many long tables lined up on both sides of the aisle. The favored and the high sat at these in comfort to witness the great proceedings. To my right, at the table nearest the throne, I saw Breyonan Eriades, Ravik Kirriland, Davinan Hastar, Hanitan Marshan and other princes of the Five Families. The great lords of Alonia's domains crowded the table next to them like so many lions growling at each other over a kill: Baron Monteer of Iviendenhall, Baron Maruth of the Aquantir, Duke Ashvar, Count Muar and Old Duke Parran of Jerolin, whose cleft nose and harsh gray eyes reminded all that he was a fighting lord among lords used to battle and death. It shocked me to see Duke Malatam sitting next to him. Why had he come here, I wondered? This little man rubbed his thin face nervously and regarded me like a whipped dog begging me to forgive him for soiling a carpet.

On my left, also near the throne, was the table of the greatest of Tria's Five Families; the Narmadas. There sat a bull-necked lord named Belur Narmada and the King's cousin, Count Dario, whose cool blue eyes peered out at me from beneath his rings of flaming red hair. There, too, Queen Daryana should have joined him taking morning tea with King Kiritan's other kinsman. But I looked across the room to see. this handsome woman sitting on the other side of the aisle, at the table behind that of the Five Families. As I soon learned, she had quarreled with King Kiritan. A queen, she had argued, when enter-taining guests, should always sit at table with her king. But on this day, at least, King Kiritan had proclaimed that he would sit only with other kings or their heirs. And so he had commanded her to sit next to Count Dario. Because she would not be commanded, she had taken a chair with the dozen chamberlains, scribes, stewards, chancellors and others of King Kiritan's household. She gazed at Atara, and at me, as we made our way down the aisle toward the largest table in the hall. This was a great wheel of white oak set just beneath King Kiritan's throne. King Kiritan had ordered it crafted and carved just for this occasion. Around it were placed massive chairs occupied by the sovereigns of Ea's Free Kingdoms. It was King Kiritan's conceit that at such a table, none could claim precedence by sitting at its head. But I noticed that King Kiritan's chair was positioned precisely in front of the throne. The sculptures of the sacred animals on the steps leading up to it, and the great golden throne itself, thus seemed to frame King Kiritan and to impart to him much of their magnificence. I noticed, too, that the kings he deemed most important were seated closest to him. On his right, next to an empty chair, were King Theodor of the Elyssu and Maram's father, King Santoval Marshayk. And on his left: King Hanniban, King Tal, and King Aryaman of Thalu, who was well-named, for in this yellow-haired giant of a man was said to live again the Aryan sea kings of old. The Valari kings, I saw, had been relegated to the table's southern half, farthest from King Kiritan. Next to King Aryaman sat King Waray. And next to him, around the wheel of the table, sat King Sandarkan, King Danashu and Prince Viromar, who had turned to bow his head to me as I walked nearer. The chair next to my cousin was conspicuously empty; next to it waited King Mohan, also turned toward me, and then King Kurshan and King Hadaru. This old bear of a man fixed his black eyes upon me as if to say, 'Well Valashu Elahad, we Valari have gathered here, as you asked us. Now what will you do?'

At a word from King Kiritan, all the kings at the central table, and the men and women at the other tables, rose to their feet. King Kiritan invited Sajagax to sit next to him; he motioned for me to take the empty chair directly across the table from him In his strong, rich voice, he called out to me: 'You come late to our conclave, Prince Valashu. But we should all be glad that you have indeed finally come. The world might not wait upon laggards, even one who calls himself the Lord Guardian of the Lightstone. We, however, have waited. With great patience. And so, please, sit and unburden yourself.'

As he stood staring at me with his piercing, blue eyes, someone from the mob behind him cried out, 'Maitreya! Lord of Light!'

Two of the guards immediately drove into the mob gripping their heavy spears and using their shields to shove people aside. They closed in on a large, shaggy peasant, whose gray wool tunic was eaten with holes. I could not hear what the guards said to him. But the man suddenly bowed his head as the guards pressed him from either side and escorted him down the line of guards and out of the hall.

King Kiritan did not deign to turn and witness this chastisement. His square, stern face was stamped with his will to order his realm and all that his prideful eyes looked upon. He stood stiffly and almost too straight; his large, well-made head seemed to push the nine points of his golden crown up toward the heavens as if in challenge. He was splendidly attired, in his white ermine mantle and his blue tunic embroidered with gold lions. In his golden hair was a little more silver than I remembered, and his red beard was shot full of gray; even so, he seemed somehow even more vital and powerful, as if the great events of the last year had ignited a fire in him and called him to greatness. I couldn't help staring at the circular scar on his cheek, where Queen Daryana had once bitten him in one of their disputes. She, at least, held no awe for Ea's foremost king.

Following his lead, we all sat at his round table, and the others in the hall took their places. Liljana and Daj walked over to a table in the third row to my right, behind a table of King Kiritan's retainers and in front of a dozen richly dressed merchants. Maram contented himself with joining Lansar Raasharu, Baltasar and the other Guardians at a table that had been set aside for them along the aisle back toward the hall's southern doors. They were in good company though, for the knights in the retinues of the Valari kings shared the tables nearby. On the opposite side of the aisle, Master Juwain greeted others of his Brotherhood whom King Kiritan had summoned to the conclave. Atara might have shared a table with Orox and Sajagax's warriors or taken an empty seat next to Count Dario and the other Narmadas; instead, she decided to sit with her mother. Many people watched with amazement as she strode straight down the lane between the tables. And then, suddenly, her second sight seemed to fail her, and she was reduced for the last few paces to feeling her way with her unstrung bow, tapping its horn-hard end against the floorstones and the edges of the tables.

King Kiritan glanced at his daughter without compassion, and then returned to staring straight at me. He called out, 'We have heard that you have brought the Lightstone here, as you vowed to do. Let us see it, then!'

The hall grew quiet. And so I stood and drew it forth. I held it high above my head.

'It is the Lightstone!' someone cried out. 'Truly it is!'

I saw that King Aryaman was staring at me as a wolf might his prey. King Hanniban, a thickset and ruthless man renowned for his cunning in having survived Kallimun plots for most of his seventy years, regarded me as he pulled at his snowy beard. It was said that he thought about death too much, and feared it mightily. It was said, too, that he drank mothers' milk at his meals in order to forestall the ravages of old age. His greed to lay his old hands upon the Lightstone sickened me. I could almost hear him calculating how to relieve me of my burden.

'We must congratulate you,' King Kiritan said to me, 'on stealing this from the Red Dragon's throne room. Now, deliver it to us, as you also vowed.'

I moved not an inch as I stared right back at him. And then I told him, 'I made no such vow. None of us did who entered Argattha or undertook the Quest.'

'You swore to seek the Lightstone for all of Ea and not yourself!'

'And here it is,' I said, 'brought through mountains, steppes and forests, guarded by great knights from brigands and treacheries, for Ea, and not for myself.'

'That is not what we have heard,' King Kiritan told me. 'Even now, here in this hallowed house of Ea's High Kings, the safest of all places, you grip the golden cup as if it were an heirloom of your house that you claim by right.'

I glanced at Baron Monteer and then Count Muar, a rapier-thin man whose deadly stare gave one the impression that he could strike as quickly as a snake. Absent from the table of these great lords was Baron Narcavage, who had been killed the year before on King Kiritan's own lawn in a plot to assassinate King Kiritan — and me. I looked farther out into the room, at the heavily armored guards lined up behind the throne and posted by the four doors. Any one of these, I thought, any one of the knights and nobles sitting at the tables or the tradesmen standing and staring at me might be the Skakaman, Noman, in disguise. How many hundreds of men and women, in their coverings of cloaks, bright tunics, armor and flesh were gathered in this great hall, the safest of all places?

'Nothing has yet been claimed,' I said once again, turning back to King Kiritan. 'And I am the Lord Guardian of the Lightstone, and so it is upon me to see that it is placed in the hands of the Maitreya.'

'Maitreya,' he snapped out. 'Lord Guardian. Who appointed you so? By what right? And from whom do you guard the Lightstone? King Marshayk? King Kaiman? Ourselves?'

Next to King Hadaru, King Kaiman nodded his red-haired head toward me. And next to him, King Santoval Marshayk, who looked much like an older and even fatter Maram, flashed a jolly smile at me, showing his brown, sugar-eaten teeth.

Without warning, from behind me, Baltasar suddenly leapt up from his table and pointed his finger at Duke Malatam. He cried out, 'We guard the Lightstone from your own back-stabbing lords, King Kiritan!'

Duke Malatam's face flushed bright red. Count Muar's hand fell upon the hilt of his sword. Lansar Raasharu, without rising, reached out to grasp his impetuous son's arm and pull him back to his seat. And King Kiritan barked out, 'Duke Malatam has journeyed here to make apologies for his misjudgment. He shall himself be judged at the appropriate time. In any case, we are not in Tarlan but in Tria.'

He continued staring at the Lightstone as he addressed me, 'If you truly guard this for all of Ea, Valashu Elahad, then allow all of Ea to behold it — and to hold it in our hands, even as you do.'

So saying, he nodded at Prince Viromar, sitting to my right, and at King Danashu next to him.

It seemed that I had no choice but to pass on the Lightstone, and so this I did. Prince Viromar took the cup from me and studied it for a few moments before giving it to King Danashu. The Valari kings were no strangers to its radiant warmth, and they did not linger over it. Quickly the cup made its way to King Sandarkan and King Waray, who hesitated only a moment before setting it into King Aryaman's hands. It seemed lost there. King Aryaman was bigger even than Sajagax, with a bushy red beard, yellow hair and eyes as blue and cold as ice. His arms were as thick as most men's thighs, the better to swing the axe that was buckled to his waist. An old wound to his lip made him seem that he was sneering at others, even when he was not. He was the strong king of an island people ravaged and weakened by centuries of blood-feuds, and I could feel in him a raging desire to make Thalu great again.

'The Cup of Heaven!' he called out in a voice like rolling thunder 'What a great weapon has been given us, if only we have the wit to use it.'

He gripped the little cup so hard that it seemed he might crumple it. But one might as well try to crush a diamond. With a heavy sigh, he passed the cup to King Tal, said to be a great scholar of the gelstei and perhaps the most intelligent of Ea's kings. He looked at it for a long while, turning it around and around in his long, lithe hands. Then he gave it to King Hanniban. This old man held it close to his mouth as if he could drink in its light with his bluish lips. It took all his will, it seemed, to turn it over to King Kiritan.

The moment that this aspiring King of Kings touched the lightstone, I nearly whipped out my sword and lunged across the table at him. For I felt his will to claim the Lightstone for himself as surely as I did the wild beating of my heart against my ribs. All of his vainglory and lust for power — and his malice toward me — beat against me like a battering ram. It crushed the air from me, and for a moment I could not draw breath.

'Very good, Valashu Elahad,' he said to me. His blue eyes were now lit up like glowing sapphires. 'Very good.'

He glanced toward the hall's west door at a tall, scarred graybeard decked out in full armor and gripping the hilt of his sword. 1 took him to be the captain of the guard. The way that King Kiritan looked at him sent a thrill of fear shooting through me.

'Indeed,' he said, speaking to King Aryaman, and to everyone present, 'the Lightstone has been given us to be used for a great purpose — the greatest of purposes.'

His rough, strong hands folded around the golden cup as if making a prayer. It seemed that he was waiting for something.

My attention was drawn to a young man sitting at the Narmada table and I knew without being told that this must be Joakim, the blacksmith's son. He was about my age, and his hamlike hands were blackened from coal dust. He seemed uncomfortable in a new tunic stretched too tight across his massive chest and shoulders. His thick forehead, broad face and dull, brown eyes gave him something of the appearance of an ox. His easy smile was full of longing and wonder as he gazed at the Lightstone.

I sensed King Kiritan's awareness of him, and I expected that he might turn and address him. But he ignored him. Instead, he gripped the Lightstone even more tightly, and called out into the hall: 'Surely it is the will of the One that the Lightstone has returned to Tria, where it belongs. Its promise has drawn Ea's free kings here, to make alliance. What a great thing this is! When we called the Quest a year ago on our birthday, we knew that fate would deliver it into our hands. Many of you made vows to regain the Lightstone for all of Ea — but how is all of Ea to use this greatest of all the gelstei? Surely one, and only one, can wield it in Ea's name.'

'The Maitreya!' Baltasar suddenly cried out again leaping up from his chair. Only Lansar Raasharu's steely grip on his arm kept him from drawing his sword. 'This we all know: the Lightstone is for the Maitreya!'

'Indeed, indeed,' King Kiritan said, 'but until he comes forth, others must use it as best they can.'

Now I pushed back my chair with a harsh, stuttering of wood against smooth stone, and I stood up, too. I called out to King Kiritan: 'No, others may not use the Lightstone as you say.'

'You say this, who has used it to draw your Valari kings here?'

'It is one thing,' I said, 'to call others to gather around a great light. It is another to wield this light oneself.'

The sound of another chair scraping over the floor broke out into the quiet of the hall. And Count Muar stood and called out, 'Prince Valashu confuses the issue! By what right do the Valari keep the Lightstone? By force, I say, they keep it — as I've said before. And by force alone they will be compelled to surrender it!'

His words caused all the Guardians to spring up and clasp the hilts of their swords. And Baltasar shouted at Count Muar, 'Are you calling for a battle? Then battle you shall have!'

King Kiritan turned his bright gaze from me to regard the fierce King Mohan and King Kurshan, and the other Valari kings, whose hands also gripped their swords. The knights in their retinues, sitting at their tables, looked toward them for sign that they should draw and set upon Count Muar and his men — or upon anyone who challenged a Valari's honor. On the lawn outside the palace, all my other Guardians stood ready to battle to the death, if only I could call to them. Even Sajagax and his warriors seemed unprepared to see King Kiritan appropriate the Lightstone.

'When the time comes, the Lightstone will be taken by force,' King Kiritan said, gripping the cup between his hands. 'But by the force of reason, fate, even love. Until then, it will be guarded as it has been. No one has suggested otherwise.'

And with that, he glared at me even as he passed the Cup of Heaven to Sajagax. He motioned for Count Muar to take his seat, and we all joined him in sitting back down in our chairs.

Sajagax traced his calloused finger around the contours of the golden cup as he regarded King Kiritan. Although King Kiritan had reserved the place of honor for him, I knew that Sajagax took little honor in sitting to King Kiritan's immediate right. 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer' — this was a cherished Sarni maxim, no less that of the more civilized Alonians. King Kiritan had wed Sajagax's daughter only to blunt the arrows of one of his deadliest, enemies, and he had never ceased treating Daryana as something of a barbarian. Sajagax's love for Daryana, with her still-golden hair and bright, blue eyes full of adoration for her father, was like an arrow piercing my own heart. I wondered if King Kiritan suspected that Sajagax regarded Daryana as too good for him, and not the opposite.

'Reason,' Sajagax said to King Kiritan in his bull's horn of a voice, 'is a great, good thing. It was reason, was it not, that impelled us to ally our lands by marriage when a thousand years of bad blood would have it otherwise. And thus reason should prevail in leading others into alliance with us in order to bring this light that Valashu Elahad speaks of into all lands. And to bring the Law of the One. Why else has the Cup of Heaven come to us? I care not to hear more arguments as to claims and rights. Prince Valashu has spirited this gelstei out of Argattha and guarded it successfully so far. Let him continue to guard it until the Maitreya comes forth.'

So saying, he gave the Lightstone to King Theodor, who rather quickly passed it on to King Santoval Marshayk. This great whale of a man was the largest in the room — indeed, in almost any room. He was the only king besides Kiritan to wear a crown: a splendid working of gold set with large rubies on each of its points. His fingers were heavy with fat and jeweled rings; his jewel-embroidered silks glittered almost like Valari battle armor. Even as he examined the Lightstone, he nibbled on a honey cake, which he washed down with copious amounts of mulled wine. His face was as red as a beet. Jasson had told me that he had brought with him part of his harem, and had taken over several rooms of the palace. He was, I thought, what Maram might have become if not for the grace of the One.

'So this is the little trinket that Prince Maram Marshayk lifted from the Dark City,' he said. Because he was wroth with Maram for taking on the sword of a Valari knight, among other things, he would not look at him or refer to him as his son. But he didn't mind loudly speaking his name, the better to call more glory to the house of Marshayk. 'If the Lightstone remains here in Tria, then surely it will invite the Red Dragon's attack. I would like to say again that should his armies march, Delu stands ready to march to Alonia's aid.'

His blustering speech prompted cheers from his retainers at the Delian table, but from no one else. Everyone doubted his willingness to fight the Red Dragon — and his ability.

With a lingering look, he gave the cup to King Kaiman. At thirty years of age, he was a young king, and a bold one. He had curly red hair and restless blue eyes; he was himself restless, moving about in his chair like a flaming torch aggravated by a hot, southern wind. Some said that he was a king in name only, for with the fall of Surrapam, he had been forced into exile. About him was an air of desperation to return to his land and free his conquered people.

He stared into the Lightstone's mirror-like surface as he said to King Marshayk, 'Would you then pledge to march as far as Surrapam to fight the Dragon's armies there?'

'To march to the end of the world?' King Marshayk said. 'Of course! If we make alliance, of course I will.'

King Kaiman passed the cup to King Hadaru, and it quickly made its way around the table to King Kurshan, King Mohan, and then to me I set the gleaming gelstei in the middle of the table for all to behold.

For the moment, at least, the business of the conclave seemed to have returned to more practical questions. And so King Kiritan fixed King Marshayk with his cold eyes and said, 'As for that, you haven't yet declared how many men you will pledge.'

King Kiritan, I thought, was quite eager to obtain this number. And King Marshayk, like a fish wriggling away from a spear poked at him, said, 'Surely more than five thousand.'

'Indeed, but how many more, then? Two thousand? Ten?'

'Perhaps. Perhaps even more. But a king never knows how many men will muster to his standard until he makes his call.'

King Marshayk, of course, did not wish to commit any great numbers of his army to defending Alonia — or any other realm. But he was even more loathe to understate Delu's strength, and so invite enemies (or friends) to perceive his kingdom as weak. It was a dilemma that all the kings at the table faced.

King Kiritan now looked over at me and said, 'And what of Mesh, Prince Valashu? If we were all to make alliance, how many knights and foot will King Shamesh pledge?'

I felt hundreds of people watching me and waiting for my answer. It was clever of King Kiritan, I thought, to have called for the conclave to be held in public. It was hard not to commit all of Mesh's forces with the eyes of so many upon me.

'When last Mesh and Ishka lined up for battle by the Raaswash,' I said, 'we fielded ten thousand knights and foot.'

'Ten thousand? We had thought that the Valari's proudest kingdom could do better than that.'

'If it came to war with the Red Dragon, perhaps we could.' I waited a moment then cast King Kiritan's barb back at him. 'What of Alonia then?'

'If it comes to war, Prince Valashu, a hundred thousand Alonians await our command.'

'That,' I said, 'is a large army. But probably too many to maneuver effectively.'

'Indeed, too many for an inexperienced commander,' he said, gazing at me, 'to lead into battle.'

Upon hearing this, King Hadaru pulled at the colored ribbons tied to his long, white hair. He held up his hand as if to call for silence, then he said, 'Once again we return to the question of who is to lead the Alliance, if there is really to be one. Commanding larger numbers is no measure of a warlord. Were it so, Duke Malatam would have defeated Lord Valashu's Guardians at the battle they fought only a week ago.'

As Duke Malatam, sitting at his table, bowed his head in shame, King Kiritan addressed King Hadaru. 'Are you saying that this young prince of Mesh is fit to lead all the armie of the Alliance?'

King Hadaru turned to fix me with his lustrous black eyes. I knew that this irascible king still bore me much ill will. So it surprised me when he said, 'Fit? Yes, it would seem so. And even more, fated.'

'But only two days ago,' King Kiritan said to him, 'you claimed precedence over all other kings, even ourself, as having fought the most battles!'

'Two days ago,' King Hadaru said, 'Duke Malatam hadn't arrived to tell of Lord Valashu's victory. And what a victory! A hundred and sixty of the Duke's knights killed against none of Lord Valashu's! As far was we Valari are concerned, that was to be the measure of things, that he prove himself as a warlord.'

'The measure of what, then?'

'The measure of him as the Maitreya.'

Many people in the mob behind King Kiritan began murmuring and vying with each other to get a better look at the great round table. Two men, almost with one voice, cried out, 'Lord of Light!' And King Kiritan's guards quickly escorted them from the hall.

King Mohan waved his hand impatiently as the fine features of his face contracted with fierce concentration. 'As King Hadaru says, we keep circling back to the same question. Who else except the Maitreya could lead the Alliance?'

'Only the greatest of kings,' King Kiritan said.

'Yes, but which king is he?' King Mohan said, looking around the table. 'Which king will the other kings suffer to command them?'

A wicked gleam flared in King Kiritan's eyes as he said, 'Perhaps you, King Mohan.'

At this, King Sandarkan shook his head violently, and King Kurshan's scarred face fell into a scowl. 'Never!' he said. 'The breaker of the rules of sharshan to lead other kings in battles with no rules? Never!'

King Kurshan continued scowling at King Mohan, and for a moment I was afraid that these two enemies might renew their old dispute and draw on each other. It was beneath King Kiritan's dignity, I thought, to so provoke Valari kings into rancor toward each other, for this was too easy to do. But thus did he strive to control the conclave.

'It seems that the Valari,' King Waray said, playing the peacemaker, 'are of a single mind regarding the Alliance's leader: he must be the Maitreya.'

'Must he?' King Marshayk said from across the table. It seemed that he was mouthing words he imagined King Kiritan would wish him to speak. 'What if no Maitreya comes forth? Is there to be no Alliance then?'

And King Aryaman growled out, 'We don't even know what the Maitreya really is.'

He is the lightning in the darkest night, I thought He is the sun that lights up the day.

'It is written,' King Mohan said, 'that the Maitreya will be the greatest warrior in the world. Who is that? The minstrels will sing ten thousand years of Lord Valashu's feat in fighting his way out of Argattha.'

King Aryaman, I noticed, fingered his axe as he glared at me in challenge. I knew that he would have liked to put my prowess to the test.

Here Master Juwain, sitting with other masters of the Brotherhood, rose to his feet and drew forth his battered copy of the Saganom Elu. He thumped his hand against the old leather and called out, 'Your Majesties, may I speak? It is indeed written as King Mohan says. But the Valari have always striven to be warriors of the spirit. Surely the Maitreya would conquer through the force of his soul and not his sword.'

He sat back down, and King Hanniban cleared his throat as if to warn everyone to silence. He said, 'Whether the Maitreya wields soul or sword begs the question. How will he conquer at all if there is no Alliance? I, for one, doubt that an alliance is possible, even led by the Shining One.'

'What is because,' King Theodor said, 'you refuse to risk even a single battalion in defense of any land other than your own.'

'Or any warship,' King Tal said.

'I'm still not convinced of the need,' King Hanniban said. 'But be assured that my shipwrights are building more even as we speak.'

King Aryaman's fingers tightened around the haft of his axe as he called out, 'Yes, warships that can sail toward Thalu as easily as Surrapam, should the Red Dragon's threat prove to have no teeth.'

'Be careful, King Aryaman, of what you say,' King Hanniban warned him. 'During my reign, Eanna has known only peace because peace we have sought. But, at need, that can change.'

'We of Thalu,' King Aryaman said to him, 'have warships of our own.'

'Which you have encouraged to fall on my merchants' caravels!' King Tal called out from next to him.

King Aryaman now turned his bellicose gaze on King Tal as he half-shouted, 'Be careful of what you sty, King Tal! How many times must I affirm that the losses you bemoan were caused by a few rogue raiders?'

'Affirm it all you will, but in doing so, you only admit that you cannot rule your own kingdom.'

'I rule this!' King Aryaman said, drawing his axe and shaking it at King Tal. 'What do you rule?'

As King Tal stared coolly at the shiny steel of King Aryaman's axe, King Theodor called out from across the table, 'How is it that King Tal berates King Aryaman for loosing his sea-raiders when it was King Tal's own barons that forced Nedu's entire fleet to sail against the Elyssu?'

'What choice did I have?' King Tal called back to him. 'Since you insisted on letting Duke Brayan keep Ilian Island?'

'But Ilian Island is ours, and has been since the Channel War!'

For a while, the other kings at the table watched as the debate among King Tal, King Theodor, King Hanniban and King Aryaman grew ever more heated. Finally, when King Tal warned King Aryaman to keep his raiders away from the important fishing waters off the Northland Banks, King Aryaman lost his patience. He rose to his feet and lifted up his axe. Then he swung it down toward the center of the table. With a thunderous crash, its steel blade bit deep into the white oak as he shouted out, 'But no one can reason with these men! Any alliance of our realms is impossible!'

With King Kiritan glaring at him as he might an errant child, King Aryaman pulled free a purse of coins and tossed it jangling onto the floor.'For your table, King Kiritan,' he said.

He stared at his axe planted only inches from the Lightstone; so did King Kiritan and King Hanniban, and all the other kings seething with their own resentments and doubts.

I gazed across the table at this huge, yellow-haired king steeped in the violence of his long and ancient line. And I said to him, and to everyone else in the hall, 'No, King Aryaman, you're wrong. An alliance is not only possible — it's inevitable.'

I stood up then, and the eyes of all gathered there turned my way. The sunlight streaming down through the dome fell upon the Lightstone and caused it to gleam like a golden jewel. It seemed to sear my lips like fire. The time had finally come, I thought, to tell everyone how the world might be.