He took another sip of tea, and stared into the dark liquid of his cup. And he muttered, 'So, my crusade failed, eh? Everyone except myself captured or killed.'
'Everyone?' Maram said, looking at him. 'Do you mean your knights of the Black Brotherhood?'
In answer, Kane just stared at him in a dark, dreadful silence -and that was answer enough.
'Then you had to flee,' Maram prompted him, 'so that you could tell us this news?'
Kane shook his fearsome head. 'With my men held captive and Morjin still on the loose, I would not have fled. But there is something that I learned that overruled these considerations.'
Here he looked straight at me, and added, 'There is something that has been sent to destroy you, Valashu. A dark thing, so damned dark - you cannot know.'
At this, I stared into the corner of the tent, where I could feel an emptiness pulling at me. Then Alphanderry, sitting across from Kane, recounted our battle with the Ahrim in the woods near Lord Harsha's farm and our speculations as to its nature. He said, 'It followed us all the way from the Skadarak, and so we thought it must be some part of the Skadarak.'
'No,' Kane said, 'the Ahrimana is something worse - much worse.'
He moved to take another sip of tea, then looked up at the tent's roof as if his eyes could pierce the black silk to gaze at the heavens.
'So, it came through the Skadarak,' he told us. 'From far, far away it came. The Dark One, Angra Mainyu, sent it from Damoom. It is all his malice and spite, the very shadow of his soul. In a way, his herald.'
'His herald!' Maram cried out. 'But it was so powerful! It nearly killed Val!'
At this, Kane looked at me as he shook his head. 'This you must know about the Ahrimana: it has no power, of its own. But the power you give it, which it seeks out as a leech does blood, that power can burn you like hellfire and utterly destroy you.'
Upon speaking these words, Kane's immense strength finally seemed to fail him. Air bubbled out of his back in a sprinkling of bright red blood as if he could no longer will his veins to keep his life's essence within him. His eyes closed, for a moment, and he seemed ready to topple over.
'That is enough for today,' Master Juwain said, going over to Kane. He positioned his small body against Kane's side to prop him up. 'I don't know how you learned of what you have told
us, or how you could ride four hundred miles with an arrow in your lung. But I've got to draw it, now or even you might be destroyed.'
Kane slowly nodded his head at this. Then I called for a litter, and Kane had to consent to being carried from my pavilion into Master Juwain's smaller and starkly furnished tent. There, with Liljana's help and that of two other healers. Master Juwain went to work with his gleaming steel instruments to draw the barbed arrow from deep within Kane's flesh. This difficult surgery nearly killed the unkillable Kane. Finally, though, with a great spray of blood, Master Juwain pulled free the arrow. He used his green gelstei to stop the ferocious hemorrhaging and heal the terrible wound torn into Kane. Finally, he helped Kane drink a tea that would make him sleep.
'I shall stay with him the rest of today and tonight,' Master Juwain told me. He looked over toward his own bed, where Kane rested with his eyes closed. 'Liijana will stay, too. But there is no need for you to remain here - you must have many things to do.'
I did indeed have matters to attend to, though none so important as seeing Kane restored to himself. I waited by his side all the rest of the afternoon, through dinner and late into the evening. And then as the night deepened and the stars came out, Atara finally returned with news of her own. She stepped into Master Juwain's tent, and came over to kiss Kane's forehead. She smiled sadly as if she had looked upon his still form a thousand times. Then she said to me, 'May I speak with you alone?'
I nodded my head at this. We went outside and walked along the rows of campfires, where warriors gathered drinking beer and telling of deeds at the Culhadosh Commons, and other battles. Joshu Kadar and a few knights kept a vigil outside my pavilion. No one seemed bothered that I should hold council inside alone with Atara. I closed the flaps behind us, and went around this large space lighting the many candles in their stands. They cast little, flickering lights on the long council table and the tent's walls and ceiling. Atara and I sat facing each other on a red carpet at the center of the tent.
'We are as alone as we can be,' I said, gazing at the blindfold that bound her face. 'What is troubling you?'
Atara cocked her head as if listening for eavesdroppers along the walls. 'It might be better if we took a walk in the hills.'
I laughed softly at this, and told her, 'Joshu Kadar and Shivalad, to say nothing of Lord Avijan, would never allow that. Now that the gathering has begun, they look for assassins everywhere. They don't even like me to walk around our own encampment alone.'
Atara smiled grimly at this, then her deep, dulcet voice grew even lower. 'It is beginning, Val. At last, this terrible, terrible future that I have seen for too long is upon us.'
I moved even closer to her, and covered her hot, long hand with mine. Outside the tent came the sound of crickets chirping and men chanting out the ancient epics. Inside, it was nearly so quiet that I could hear the drumbeat of Atara's heart - and my
own.
'Kane,' I whispered to her, 'said that in Galda, people spoke of a great crusade. I didn't think Morjin could be ready to order forth his armies so soon.'
She drew out her scryer's crystal, and she pressed this sphere of white gelstei against her forehead. 'I don't know that he is. But he makes ready something. Out on the Wendrush. Karimah told me that the Zayak have crossed the Blood River, the Janjii, too. It can only be that they have gone to join with the Marituk. From the south, there have come reports that the Tukulak are making common cause with the Danyak and Usark.'
'Kane always said,' I murmured, squeezing her hand, 'that Morjin would try to unite the Sarni before falling against the Nine Kingdoms.'
Atara smiled sadly as she cupped her clear crystal in her free hand. 'He will never unite all the Sarni - not so long as my grandfather can pull a bow. Sajagax has called for the tribes to join with the Kurmak in alliance against Morjin.'
'Is this the news that Karimah brought you?'
'Yes, in part.'
'Sajagax,' I said, remembering, 'is a great man. But most of the tribes favor Morjin, do they not?'
'Yes, most,' she told me, nodding her head. 'But not the Niuriu, nor the central Urtuk. Nor the Adirii, most of the clans, and probably not the Danladi. And then there are the Manslayers.'
At the mention of these most willful of warriors, drawn from every Sarni tribe, I gazed at Atara ai®i waited for her to say more.
'My sisters,' she told me, 'will not keep allegiance with their tribes - this has been decided. The Manslayers are to be a tribe of our own. But what my sisters could not decide when they met at the council rock a year and a half ago was whether to go to war against Morjin. Only a chiefess, my sisters say, can lead them against such an enemy.'
I listened to her deep breathing for a few moments. Then I said, 'But the Manslayers have no chief ess.'
'No, they do not - not yet. But there is to be another gathering, in the Niuriu's lands, where the Diamond River joins with the Poru. We are to choose a chiefess.'
I bowed my head to her. 'You, then?'
'That is Karimah's hope. And Sonjah's, and Aieela's - and others.'
I looked over at the long table where my father had once sat at council with his most trusted lords. And I said, 'For you to be Chiefess of the Manslayers - that would be a great thing.'
'That is what Karimah tells me,' Atara said with a sad smile. 'If the Marituk, with the Zayak and Janjii, attack my grandfather, we could ride to his aid.'
I looked around for a pitcher of water so that I might ease the aching in my throat. And I said to her, 'Then you have already decided, haven't you?'
She slowly nodded her head. 'I cannot allow the Kurmak to be trampled under. We cannot,
Val.'
'I cannot let you go,' I said, wrapping my hand around her hand even more tightly. 'I need you here, beside me.'
She brought my hand up to her lips, whose softness seemed to burn against my fingers. Then she told me, 'I shall stay with you until you become king.'
'Will I become king, then?'
'Only you know that. Isn't that what you want?'
'Does it matter what I want?' I asked her. I gazed into her gelstei as if I could see within its sparkling clarity not only the shape of future events but the calamities of the past. 'Once, I wanted nothing more than to climb mountains and play the flute in the company of my family. And to marry you.'
'And now?'
I blinked against the burning in my eyes, and turned away from her crystal because I could not bear what I saw there. And I said, 'After Morjin murdered my mother and grandmother, and my brothers, everything seemed to burn away. Everywhere I looked, at myself most of all, I could see only fire. I was this fire, Atara. You know, you must know. I thought only of murdering Morjin, in revenge. As I now think only of destroying him. Everything that he is - even his memory in the hearts and minds of those he has deluded. I can almost hear the wind calling me to do this, and the birds and the wolves and every child that Morjin's Red Priests have ever nailed to a cross or put to the sword. Sometimes, it seems the very world upon which we sit cries out for me to put my sword into him.'
She positioned her head fully facing me, then she said, 'Do you remember the lines from the Laws?'
She drew in a breath, and then recited from the twenty-fourth book of the Saganom Elu:
You are what your deep, driving desire is:
As your desire is, so is your will;
As your will is, so is your deed;
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
I smiled at this, as Kane might smile at a whirlwind sweeping down upon him. And I asked her, 'Have you seen my destiny then?'
'I have seen your desire,' she said to me, taking hold of my hand again. 'I have felt it, Val - I can't tell you how deeply I've felt it, this beautiful, beautiful thing that burns me up like the sweetest of fires. It is not to do this terrible deed that you dream of. Not just. A marriage you would make with me, you have said. A child we would make together, I have said. But I will not see him born into this world.'
I stared down by my side where I had set my sword. 'But what other world is there?'
'Only the one that you dream of even more than you do Morjin's death.'
'Oh, that world,' I said, smiling. 'That impossible world.'
She smiled back as if she could really see me. 'What was it that your father used to say?: "How is it possible that the impossible is not only possible but inevitable?"'
'He was a wise man,' I told her. 'He would have wanted me to believe it is inevitable that I will marry you. That this is not just my own desire, but the will of the world.' 'That is a beautiful, beautiful thought,' she told me.
'But it will never be, will it? Not unless we defeat Morjin. And that will never be if I keep you from aiding Sajagax.'
She held up her clear gelstei before me. 'Very little of the future is set in stone, but I can tell that you cannot prevail against Morjin alone, without the help of the Sarni tribes.'
I considered this as I drew out the handkerchief that I always kept close to me. I unfoldedg and I gazed at its center, at the single long, coiled, golden hair, no different from any of Atara's other hairs. And I whispered to her, 'One chance for victory, you said, as slender as this hair. And one chance only that I will marry you.'
'One chance,' she said, squeezing her crystal. 'And I must make it be. And so must you.'
I felt a stream of fear burn down my throat as if I had swallowed molten silver. And I asked her, 'Will I ever see you again?'
She smiled in her mysterious way, and said, 'The better question might be: will I ever see you again? As the king you must be?'
'Tomorrow will be the test of that,' I told her.
'No,' she said with a wave of her hand, 'I do not mean King of Mesh, but King of the World. And not this world, as Morjin wishes to rule, but a true king, of starfire and diamond, such as has never been before on Ea.'
I considered this, too, then said, 'I am not sure I know what you mean.'
'I am not sure that I do either,' she said. 'But I once told you that I can never be the woman I have hoped to be until you become the man you were born to be. The one I have always dreamed of.'
Because her words cut at me, I pressed my fist against my chest. 'But I am who I am, Atara. And I am just a man.'
'And that one I have always loved, with all my heart, with all my soul,' she told me. 'The man who is just a man - and an angel, too.'
At this, I looked off at the walls of the tent, hoping that no one was listening in on our words. 'You shouldn't speak that way of anyone, not even me.'
'No, I shouldn't, should I?' she said. 'But I can't help myself, and never have been able to. Most people take too little upon themselves; a few take too much. They look in the mirror and behold a giant, immortal and invincible. I was always afraid of being one of these. I wanted to make everything perfect. Or, at least, to see things come out as they should. And that is why, when I look at my fate, and yours, I want to laugh or cry, and sometimes I don't know which.'
'But why, then?' said, not fully understanding her.
And she grasped hold of my hand and said, 'Because that is the strange, strange thing about our lives, Val. It might really be upon us to save the world.'
She started laughing then, and so did I: deep, belly laughs that shook the whole of my body and brought tears to my eyes. I drew Atara closer, and kissed her lips, her forehead and the white band of cloth covering the empty spaces where her eyes used to be. And I whispered to her ear: 'I will miss you so badly - as the night
does the sun.'
'And I will miss you,' she told me. 'Until I see you again in the darkest of places, where it seems there is no sun - only Valashu, the Morning Star.'
She kissed me then, long and deeply, and I didn't think she would have cared if anyone had heard the murmurs of delight and fear within our throats or had seen us sitting with our arms wrapped around each other for what seemed like hours. At last, though, we broke apart. Atara said that she had to go feed her horse and prepare for a long journey. And I must prepare to meet say fate - or make it - when the sun rose on the morrow.
Chapter 7
On the twenty-first day of Soldru, early on a morning of blue skies and brilliant sunlight, I put on my diamond armor and girded my sword at my side. When I came out of my pavilion, my companions and counselors stood on the crushed grass of our encampment's central lane waiting for me. I nodded at Lord Avijan, tall and grave, and resplendent in his blue surcoat emblazoned with its golden boar. Likewise I greeted Lord Harsha, Lord Sharad, Lord Noldashan and others. Maram also had donned a suit of diamond armor, as had Kane. My invincible friend stood between Atara and Liljana as if ready to ride on a pleasant outing in the countryside - or to go to war. His harsh face radiated anticipation, wrath, joy and his fiery will to crush anyone who opposed him. I had thought that he must spend the next few days or weeks recuperating from his dreadful wound. I should have known better. According to what Liljana later told me, Kane had awakened before dawn calling for a haunch of bloody meat. He had drawn great strength from this savage meal, hour by hour regaining his nearly bottomless vitality. With a new adventure now at hand, he seemed ready to battle any or all of Lord Tomavar's knights on my behalf. 'So, Val,' he said to me with a nod of his head, 'this is the day.' With Sar Shivalad, Sar Jonavar, Sar Kanshar and Joshu Kadar acting as my guardians, I led forth down the lane and into the square. The two thousand warriors and knights who had originally pledged to Lord Avijan stood drawn up in full battle armor along its eastern side. The sun poured down upon their neat, sparkling ranks. So it was with Lord Tanu's men and Lord Tomavar's, at the southern and western edges of the square. Along the nort
hern perimeter, the Lords Ramanu, Bahram and Kharashan had arrayed their smaller forces in three separate groupings, next to a veritable mob of the two thousand free warriors. Into the square's four corners crowded the women, children, old men and a few outlanders who had come to witness the day's events. I reminded myself that they must be evacuated from the field at the first sign of trouble.
I walked straight out to the center of the square with my companions, and so it was with the other lords who would be king. I paid little heed to either Lord Bahram or Lord Ramanu, or even Lord Kharashan, a thick, bullnecked old warrior whose square face showed little guile. Lord Tanu stood to my left with Lord Eldru, Sar Shagarth and the grizzled Lord Ramjay slightly behind him. A small, dark, dangerous-looking man, Lord Tanu's cousin, Lord Manamar, had joined them as well.
Straight across from me waited Lord Tomavar. I had not seen him since the year before at the Culhadosh Commons, and he still looked much the same: very tall, with great broad shoulders and long arms used to swinging a sword. His white surcoat, draped over his heavily-muscled body, showed the black tower of his line. Grief still tormented his long, horsey face, which he positioned facing me square-on as if in challenge. I liked his eyes, for they were deep and quick and shone with a ready courage. My father had valued him greatly as the finest of tacticians and a warrior who inspired his men to fight with a terrible ferocity. And I knew that he had esteemed my father, though it seemed he held only grievance and suspicion toward me.
'Lord Valashu Elahad,' he said, greeting me formally, 'I should like it made known from the beginning of this gathering that you do the warriors great insult in asking them to stand for you again, where they have already stood against you.'
His words, carried by his loud, deep, powerful voice, blasted out into the square. His rage and deep anguish stunned me. So did the fury that darkened his black eyes. He took advantage of my silence to try immediately to preempt my bid to become king.
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