Lord of Lies

by David Zindell

  'You lie,' I said to him. 'It's written on your face.'

  Duke Malatam unwittingly rubbed his hand across his bearded cheek as if trying to scrub away the stain of shame that burned there And then he shouted at me, 'You're the liar, Valashu Elahad! Surrender the Lightstone to me, now, or there will be battle between us!'

  'Let there be battle, then!' I shouted, feeling my blood surging hot and wild inside me. Then I took three deep breaths and held the last one for a count of seven seconds as Master Juwain had taught me. In a softer voice I said, 'Or remember what is right and true, and let us pass in peace.'

  'You shall not pass,' he said to me, 'so long as you keep the Lightstone. Surrender it, and you may keep your lives.'

  'Surrender yourselves! Lay down your lances and swords - and your lives will be spared!'

  Duke Malatam looked at me as if I had fallen mad. Then he shouted: 'You Valari! Your day has passed! You fight with everyone, even your Sarni scouts, who have abandoned youl Look at your knights, Lord Valashu! Look how you have betrayed them! You have ridden blindly into my domain, knowing nothing of it. And so you stupidly led your men into a trap.'

  He paused to suck in a fresh breath of air, and he shook his fist at the walls of rock rising up behind us. 'You're caught between an anvil and a hammer. Look at my knights! We outnumber you three to one. We'll fall against you with a great weight of steel, and crush you like worms. No quarter will we give, no quarter! We'll slaughter all of you! We'll strip your bodies of your diamonds and sell them in Tria. And you. You, Lord Valashu. I'll cut off your ears and gut you! And feed your entrails to the wolves!'

  Again he fought for breath as his small eyes fell upon Atara and then moved on to stare at Behira and Estrella behind us. He shouted, 'And I'll give your women to my men, the girl too, and they will...'

  His voice died into the echoes of the rock walls about us as Lord Chagnan looked at him in horror. Duke Malatam seemed suddenly to remember that he was a lord of one of Alonia's greatest domains and not some ravishing brigand. He seemed to realize, too, that he had gone too far. And so he had. At his reference to Estrella, Atara whipped out an arrow and nocked it to her bowstring. Although she did not aim it at Duke Malatam, his face blanched with fear. He cringed and held up his hand as if to ward off a blow. He cursed and shouted out to me, 'All that comes is upon you!' Then he jerked his horse about and dug his spurs into its bloody sides. With Lord Chagnan and his herald, he galloped back to his lines.

  'Well, that's one way to end a parlay,' Maram said to Atara. 'Would you really have shot him?'

  In answer, she pulled back the arrow, sighting on the Duke where he sat between Lord Chagnan and another knight. Her face was fell and cold as she suddenly loosed it. It burned through the air and crossed the two hundred yards separating our forces in the blink of an eye. But Lord Chagnan had covered his Duke with his shield, and the arrow glanced off it with a clack of steel against steel.

  'Oh, Lord!' Maram cried out. 'Oh, Lord! Now there will surely be a battle!'

  'There was no help for it,' Atara said.

  'But what about your grandfather and his warriors?' Maram asked. 'Weren't they supposed to fall upon Duke Malatam's rear by now? And discourage him from giving battle? Wasn't that the whole point of our strategy?'

  I looked off at the rolling, open steppe beyond the mouth of the notch behind the lines of Duke Malatam's men; so did Maram and a hundred and seventy of my knights. There was nothing to be seen there except miles of grass.

  Where is Sajagax? I wondered. To Maram, I said, 'Not quite the whole point. If fight we must, we hold a strong position here.'

  'Strong, you say? We're trapped, my friend, even as that filthy-mouthed duke has said! Truly we are. And three of them to every one of us, and. . .'

  He suddenly fell silent as he noticed Lord Harsha, Lord Raasharu, Skyshan of Ki and Sar Kimball - and many others along our line -staring at him. He gulped and looked at me as he seemed to remember something. Then his deep voice boomed out: ' . . .and we're Valari knights, all of us! One Valari is a match for any three of them! Of course we are! Why did I forget this? Why must I mouth such faithless words when faith blazes so brightly inside me? Truly it does. So what if I'm afraid? Who isn't? But I grow tired of it. As you must grow tired of me. I'm tired of myself. Ah, Maram, my friend, you don't have to be that afraid. "Act as if you have courage, and courage you shall have" - so it says in the Book of Battles. All right, I will! I survived Khaisham and Argattha, and fought the Dragon himself. I've slain better men than these. And I fight with the best men of all! Valari! My friends, my brothers!'

  Maram hadn't really meant to make a battle speech, but all at once Lord Harsha and Sar Kimball and all the other knights up and down the line and behind us let loose a great cheer as if they were of one mind and one heart: 'Valari!.Valari!' Maram looked astonished, at them, but at himself most of all. He sat up straighter on his horse. He gripped his lance with a steady hand and pointed it at Duke Malatam's men.

  'It works!' he said, leaning closer to me. His brown eyes were full of fire. 'I'm not afraid any more!'

  I smiled because I was no longer afraid for him. And then one of Duke Malatam's heralds blew a trumpet, and the five hundred knights facing us spurred their horses forward. They quickly built up speed to a full gallop. The Duke had massed his knights in two lines along his center and three deep on either wing. I knew that he planned to crash into our flanks and break them. The Duke himself rode in the second line, leading from the rear, as they say. It seemed a cowardly thing. But he needed the knights in the line ahead of him to act as a shield against Atara's and Karimah's arrows, for these two warrior women fired shaft after shaft as quickly as they could, at the target formed by the black cross over Duke Malatam's chest. It was a target, however, that they could scarcely sight on let alone hit. One of Atara's arrows pierced the gorget of the knight ahead of the Duke, and he fell off his horse even as another knight closed in to take his place. A moment later, Karimah's arrow struck the new knight's shoulder, but glanced off his mail. So it went as Duke Malatam's army thundered closer.

  Where, I wondered, looking at the plains beyond them, is Sajagax? It does not take a galloping horse very long to cover two hundred yards. And so Duke Malatam had little time to perceive the folly of his deployment and correct it. As his knights pushed down through the notch, its angled, rocky walls acted as a funnel driving both rider and horse closer together, packing them into an ungainly mass of snorting beasts and men furiously trying to maintain control of them. The five hundred knights drew nearer to us, and many of their horses collided with each other, in several places stumbling and breaking legs with sickening snaps as their riders flew into the ground and were trampled by the horses behind them. I gritted my teeth against the hideousness of jangling steel, crunching flesh and screams. Another of the Duke's miscalculations worsened this disaster. He had counted on the force of his greater numbers to break our line. But the weight of massed and heavy horse is mostly in the mind. Charging knights can break a wall of infantry - but only if the warriors with their shields and spears panic and flee. For horses are not stupid, and they will not willingly throw themselves onto spears or drive their bodies into anything that appears to them as solid. And so they are likewise loathe to crash straight into other horses.

  And so as my knights steadied their mounts and pointed their lances at the men bearing down upon us, the horses all along Duke Malatam's first line began whinnying wildly and digging their hooves into the ground in a frantic effort to come to a halt. The knights behind them, with Duke Malatam himself, were bunched too close to avoid colliding with them and pushing them toward us. More horses screamed, and men, too, as my knights' lances tore through arms, chests, bellies and faces. A few of the boldest of the Duke's men managed to strike their lances into my knights' shields, which knocked Sar Shagarth and Sar Galajay from their horses. A few more drove their horses through our line in brave attempt to create openings. But they were quickly me
t by the lances of Sar Varald and Sar Shuradar and other knights from our reserve that Baltasar sent forward to close with them. A great noise of clashing steel, ringing shields and men crying out challenges and shrieking pitifully rived the air.

  With great effort, I closed myself to all this fear, agony and death. And then the tide of battle swept me under. A knight bearing a red ram's-head on his black shield tried to spear Atara, who was firing arrow after arrow point-blank through the mail of the knights massed in front of us. I urged Altaru forward to cover her, as Sajagax had commanded me. The point of my lance took the knight through the mail rings covering his chest, killing him instantly - and nearly killing me. Before I could rip my lance free, another knight's horse crashed into his, knocking both horse and knight to the ground. The force of the fall snapped my lance, which I cast down as useless. And yet another knight of Tarlan used that moment to lift high his mace and close with me. Atara shot an arrow straight through his face. And then I drew Alkaiadur. Its gelstei flared like a silver flame. Many of Duke Malatam's men cried out in dismay to see this shining sword; they covered their eyes at its brightness and tried to back their mounts away from me. But two knights, braver than the rest, pressed forward to hack at me with their swords. The first of these, Atara killed with an arrow through the throat. The second, I beheaded. It sickened me to behold how easily my sword cut through the mail protecting his neck even as it sent a shock of fear through the Duke's knights.

  A few more of them them came at me and Atara, and my sword sheared their armor as if it were quilted cotton. The air became a red haze of spraying blood, cleaved bodies and screams all about me. Up and down the line, a hundred individual battles were being fought. My knights' long kalamas, though not quite the equal of my blade, sliced through shields and rings of steel. And Duke Malatam's knights worked their weapons against us. As the great mass of men and horses behind the front line pushed them onto our lances and swords, the Tarlaners began fighting with the fury of desperation. A mace crashed into Sar Kimball, who cried out in anguish. Steel broke against glittering diamonds. I gasped to see a lance drive into Lord Noldru's chest. His blood spread like a flower of death across his surcoat, and was as red as that of our enemy.

  Where is Sajagax? I wondered. Where is Sajagax? On my right, knights beset Maram from either side. He snorted and bellowed like a bull, crying out: 'Come! Come! Do you think I'm afraid of you?' He panted and puffed as he lunged with his sword then straightened, parried and lunged again. Then he swung his kalama in a quick and furious stroke that cleaved the helm of the closer knight The other knight died as one of Karimah's arrows pierced his eye.

  More arrows suddenly whined through the air. Armor-piercing shafts drove through rings of mail. Ten of Duke Malatam's men cried out almost as one, and then ten more as arrows shattered their spines or transfixed their backs. I looked beyond the snarl of men and horses pressing at me. Fifty yards beyond the killing zone, Sajagax and his warriors sat on their steppe ponies in a line gleefully firing round after round of arrows into Duke Malatam's men from the rear. A panic seized the hearts of these beleaguered knights and spread through them like a shaking illness, for they knew with a sick and sudden certainty that it was they who were caught between a hammer and an anvil.

  'Come!' Maram shouted as swung his sword. 'Come one, come all, and test your courage against Maram Marshayk of the Five Horns!'

  I cut down the last of the knights blocking my way toward Duke Malatam. Altaru seemed to sense my wrath to slay this little man who had brought so much death to this field this day. My raging black stallion charged down upon him. The Duke's white surcoat was stained with sweat, but the only red upon it was that of embroidered roses. He cringed in his saddle, gripping a bloodless sword in his trembling hand. As I steeled myself to slay him and raised back my sword, he suddenly cast down his and cried out, 'Quarter! I beg quarter of you! Mercy, please!'

  Hearing this, all through the mob of men and horses that his neat lines of knights had become, the Tarlaners began dropping their weapons and pleading with us: 'Quarter! Mercy! We surrender!'

  'Hold!' I called out. I commanded my arm to freeze with my bright sword pointing straight up toward the sun. I looked a my knights to the right and left and called out again, 'Hold, now! Quarter has been asked, and quarter will be given!'

  Nearby, Lord Raasharu held his kalama at the ready as the Duke's knights across from him threw down their swords, and thus waited Sunjay Naviru, Skyshan of Ki, Lord Harsha, Sar Shivathar and more than a hundred others. But still the arrow storm raged from the Kurmak warriors' bows, striking down the Duke's men by the dozen.

  I sheathed my sword and cupped my hands around my mouth. As loud as I could, I shouted, 'Hold, Sajagax! Tell your men to hold!'

  Sajagax, caught up in a killing fury, fired a last arrow through the mouth of one of the Tarlaners, who had turned his horse in an attempt to flee. Then he shook his head like a boy who has been told to cease playing a game. He lowered his great bow and shouted to his warriors: 'Hold! Hold now, but let none of the kradak escape!'

  Upon these words, the last of the Duke's men surrendered. I commanded them to dismount their horses. This they did. To Sar Adamar, I appointed the task of organizing a detail to cast the Tarlaners' weapons and shields into a great heap. I sent Sunjay Naviru and twenty other knights to drive their mounts into a herd toward the south side of the notch. At the other side, my knights herded our defeated enemy beneath the points of lances held at ready. The Duke's men stood in their torn and bloody surcoats, with their heads bowed and their eyes cast upon the ground. All across the notch's reddened grass lay the wounded and the dead. A few men still screamed at the agony of chopped bellies and severed limbs. Many more were whimpering and moaning, but most of them would never again utter any complaint.

  One of Sajagax's warriors, a thick-armed giant named Trallfax, was going about slashing his saber through the throats of the wounded Tarlaners. I urged Altaru toward him as I cried out, 'Hold your sword! There's been enough killing today!'

  Trallfax shot me a savage look and then nearly chopped off a wounded knight's head. He moved quickly over to another knight, who was writhing on the grass. Seeing this, Sajagax whipped his horse forward toward Trallfax. The great Sarni chieftain leapt off his horse and grabbed Tralifax by the arm.

  'Hold, nephew!' Sajagax said to him.

  'But uncle,' Trallfax shouted, pointing at the Tarlaners strewn about the ground, 'these kradak are all wounded, and it is the law.'

  'There is a new law!' Sajagax thundered. His voice fell off the rock wails around us like a bolt from the heavens. 'An old, old law that will seem as new: "Be strong and protect the weak." '

  The fire in Sajagax's eyes seemed to chasten Trallfax. He bowed his head to his uncle and chieftain, and Sajagax let him go so that he could sheathe his sword.

  'You came late,' I said to Sajagax as I looked at the carnage all about us.

  'Better late than not at all,' he told me. 'After we had put some miles

  between us, Thadrak said that we would be ill-fated to make battle on the side of the Valari, and Baldarax called for an omen. So we had to sacrifice a mare, that her entrails might be read.'

  I stared at Sajagax, not quite knowing what to make of him. Who could trust these savage and superstitious Sarni?

  Soon after that, Lord Raasharu came up to me with a count of those who had fallen that day. It seemed that in the span of only a few minutes, with the Kurmak's help, we had killed more than hundred and sixty of Duke Malatam's knights and wounded half as many.

  'And what of the Valari? I said to Lord Raasharu. 'How many of my men were killed?'

  'None, Lord Valashu. And only twelve wounded, none to the death.'

  None killed! I thought. It seemed a miracle. None killed!

  Lord Noldru, whom I had given up as dead, walked slowly up to me. Master Juwain had removed his armor and bandaged his chest. It turned out that the lance that had pierced it had driven through armor, sk
in and muscle but had gone no deeper.

  'Eight score of the enemy killed and none of us!' he called out to me. 'A great, great victory, Lord Valashu! Who has ever heard of such a thing?'

  And then Baltasar rode his horse forward and cried out, 'Lord of Battles! Lord of Light!'

  As one, all of my knights upon that killing field drew their swords and held them toward me as they shouted: 'Maitreya! Maitreya! Maitreya!'

  It came time to deal with Duke Malatam. I rode over to where he stood huddled with his knights. I dismounted and stepped up to him. I looked around at the bodies of his wasted knights, and I had to command my fist, covered with its diamond-studded gauntlet, not to strike his face.

  I said to him, 'You may keep all the provisions that you brought with you; we will give you extra bandages, for it seems that you have not brought enough. Two of your horses you will be allowed to keep so that you might send heralds back to Tiamar for help with your wounded. The others we shall drive off, that you cannot follow us where we must go. Your lances and swords -'

  'Please, Lord Valashu,' Duke Malatam broke in, 'allow us to keep our swords! On our honor, we will-'

  'You have no honor,' I told him. 'To attack wayfarers to whom you have offered your hospitality is an ignoble thing. Your armor you may keep, your shields, as well. And your lives. But your swords shall be broken.'

  At this, the Duke bowed his head, and so did the knights gathered around him. Across the field could be heard the terrible sound of snapping steel as my men carried out my command.

  'Your armor you may keep,' I told the Duke. 'Your shields, as well. And your lives.'

  Duke Malatam looked at me, and his eyes filled with tears. 'You are merciful, Lord Valashu. I see now what I should have seen before. Forgive me, but the sight of the Lightstone - the very thought of it I drove me mad. But you have taught me compassion. They call you the Maitreya. I believe this, now, with all my heart. If you'll let me, I would take up a new sword and ride with you to Tria, as part of your guard.'