'All... right,' I choked out, accepting Lord Tomavar's challenge. 'Let... it... be.'
I made it known to Lord Avijan that he should go among our warriors and tell them of what we had decided here. Then, surrounded by my guardians, I walked off the field to return to my pavilion, where I would remove my armor and prepare for the duel. My companions all came with me. When we stood alone beneath my tent's glowing black silk, Kane growled out to me, 'So, it's come to this, then! Well kill him quickly, Val. Ha -I should have killed the Tomavar for you when I had the chance!'
I put on my best tunic and belted it. Then Master Juwain took out his green crystal and held it to my throat. After a while, he sighed out to me: 'I'm afraid my varistei has no power over the thing that attacks you. At least, I can't sense how it might be driven away. Are you any better at all?' No ... not... better,' I whispered.
'The Ahrim might indeed choke you to death. Perhaps you should withdraw from the duel.'
'No. . . impossible.'
'Then perhaps you should wait until your airways clear and your voice returns.'
I shook my head at this. 'No ... time.'
Just then Lord Avijan came into the pavilion and announced: 'The warriors did not want to do as you have asked them. Lord Valashu. But since you asked them, they are willing. Though none of us can bear to see Lord Tomavar become king.'
'Thank .., you,' I croaked out.
'How did it come to this?' Lord Avijan said to me. 'This is no time for you to lose your voice! If only all the warriors could but have heard you, they would know that you speak the truth.'
At this, for no reason that I could understand, Liljana drew out her blue gelstei and looked at it strangely.
'Well,' Lord Avijan said, 'things are as they are. The warriors do not believe they will have to stand for Lord Tomavar. Neither do I. Everyone remembers what you did at the tournament.'
At the great tournament in Nar two years before I had defeated Lord Dashavay, the greatest swordsman in the Nine Kingdoms, to become that year's champion.
'I've always said,' Lord Avijan continued, 'that duels are a plague upon our people. This one, it seems, however, must really be fought. And so, may you fight like the heroes of old, Valashu Elahad, and send Lord Tomavar back to the stars!'
With that, he clasped my hand and went back outside to make arrangements with Lord Tomavar's seconds for our duel.
Then I whispered, 'I... must... not... kill.. '
I pressed my hand to my throat, burning as if I had inhaled a lungful of the Red Desert's fiery dust. I seemed to be losing my power of speech altogether.
'Lil... jana,' I gasped.
I tried to make her understand that she should use her blue crystal to take the words off the top of my mind and speak them for me - but to delve no deeper into my more private thoughts. She nodded her head in agreement with this. Then she positioned her little whale figurine near my temple. We waited for her to speak.
'Val says,' she told everyone, 'that he must not slay Lord Tomavar.'
At this, Daj looked at me, amazed, and then turned to Estrella, who smiled as she nodded her head in agreement. But Master Juwain only seemed puzzled, even as Kane scowled and Maram took hold of my arm.
'You have to kill him,' he told me. 'It's a barbaric thing, and I agree with Lord Avijan, but that's the way of you Valari and your damned duels.' -
'So, Val - so,' Kane said.
I looked at Liljana, who had closed her eyes. And then she told my other friends: 'Val must not come to the kingship over Lord Tomavar's dead body. Meshians must not slay Meshians. And Valari must not slay Valari!'
'But you Valari have always slain Valari!' Maram called out to me. 'Ever since the Star People came to earth and Aryu slew Elahad!'
'Never again,' Liljana said. 'The Valari must be as brothers, and sisters - or else Morjin will destroy us all.'
'As Val has said,' Atara intoned, nodding her head, 'so it must be.'
Although she seemed almost icy cool in her manner, I could sense her terrible fear for me.
'But Val,' Maram said, squeezing my arm more tightly, 'what will you do? You can't just walk back out on that field and cross swords with Lord Tomavar in the hope that he will apologize, or just give up. If you do, he'll destroy you!'
I swallowed hard against the burning dryness in my throat, and I heard Liljana speak my words: 'There must be a way - there is always a way.'
At this, Kane picked up my scabbarded sword where I had set it on the council table. He pressed it into my hand as he growled at me, 'There is a way! Strike this into Tomavar's damn heart!'
'No,' Liljana told him, as I shook my head.
'Do it, damn you! Do what must be done!'
'No, I must not kill him,' I heard myself say - and Liljana, too.
Then Daj, afraid for me, stepped up to Kane and said, 'But Val has advantages. He is younger than Lord Tomavar, and quicker.'
'So what if he is?' Kane snapped. 'Tomavar is older and more experienced.'
'But Val has the better sword!'
'And Tomavar the longer reach.'
'But Val was Champion! I saw King Waray put the gold medal around his neck.'
'Did you see Val fight Lord Tomavar at that tournament?' Kane asked, looking down at Daj. 'When men cross swords, who lives or dies can turn on a glint of the sun off of cold steel.'
'But Val can't die!' Daj said. ''He can't! He's the best swordsman on all of Ea, and no one has ever stood up to him.'
Kane, of course, had stood up to me, and more, but Daj did not need to comment upon this, as Kane had no vainglory that must be fed.
'Val has faced many in battle,' Kane agreed, 'and most of them no longer move. But none of his enemies, save Salmelu, has been Valari. As most of the men Tomavar has killed have been.'
'But I know Val can kill Lord Tomavar!'
'And I know it, too,' Kane told him. 'But he must fight to kill. If he only defends against Tomavar's attack, trying to tire him, he'll throw away all his advantages. So, his life, too. Sooner or later, Tomavar's sword will cut its way through. Then he'll kill Val, and that is that.'
The tent grew quiet then, for it seemed that Kane had pronounced a sentence of death. I could only shake my head at this, and whisper, 'There ... must... be ... a ... way.'
As I clasped my hand to my throat, I prayed that this might be so.
Chapter 8
After that, I swept up my sword and led the way back out into the square. When we reached its center, the various knights and lords gathered there had already formed themselves into a great circle. Lord Harsha stood there waiting for me, and Lord Sharad, Lord Manthanu and my other counselors. Sar Jonavar and Sar Shivalad took their places there, too, as with the rest of my guardians. They joined Lord Vishand and those who followed Lord Tomavar. At the edge of the circle, I bowed my head to Lord Eldru, Lord Ramjay, Sar Shagarth, and Lord Manamar, who had accompanied Lord Tanu. Lord Tanu himself had agreed to oversee the duel. He stood inside the ring of honor with Lord Tomavar, and his seconds: Sar Jalval and Lord Arajay Solval. Lord Avijan would act as my second, as would Maram, who bitterly regretted this honor, saying to me, 'I had to stand by once in this capacity as Salmelu nearly cut your head off. Don't make me watch Lord Tomavar put his sword into you!'
Despite his protests, he stayed close to me as Lord Sharad and Lord Noldashan stepped aside for us to enter the circle. My other companions - Kane and Atara excepted - had to stand outside it since they were not warriors. Although Daj objected to this, citing his deeds in battle, Lord Tanu directed him to wait farther out on the grass with Liljana, Master Juwain and Estrella. No child, he said, could be part of the ring of honor, and I breathed deeply in relief to see him walk over to Estrella and take her hand as they waited for the duel to begin. 'A challenge has been made!' Lord Tanu called out in his crabby high-pitched voice.
Maram and I, with Lord Avijan, stood facing him on his left, while beside us to his right gathered Lord Tomavar, Sar Jalval and Lord Arajay
Solval. Lord Tomavar had already drawn his kalama, which he passed on to Maram. It took Mararn only a few moments to wipe down the long, shining blade with a brandy-soaked cloth. Then I unsheathed Alkaladur, whose shimmering length of silus-tria needed no cleansing. Even so, I handed it to Lord Avijan, who gave it to Lord Arajay so that the rituals could be completed.
When our swords had been returned to us, Lord Tanu directed us to close our eyes for a few moments of meditation. Then he called out to the ring of knights surrounding us: 'Are the witnesses ready?'
I watched as many grim-faced men nodded their heads,
'Are the combatants ready?'
Lord Tomavar's eyes grew as fold as balls of obsidian. 'I am ready to live or die.'
'And I, too,' I said, looking at him.
Lord Tanu now motioned for Maram and the other seconds to rejoin everyone else in the circle, and he did so as well. And then he called out: 'A challenge has been made and accepted. You must now fight to defend your honor. In the name of the One and all of our ancestors who have stood on this earth before us, you may begin.'
As Lord Tomavar drew back his sword and faced me across twenty feet of crushed grass, the thousands of warriors and others gathered around the square grew so quiet that I could almost hear their breathing. My breath came hard and heavy, forced through the painful chute of my throat. I drew back my bright blade behind my head, waiting. I felt my heart driving at my chest like a great, mailed fist. The kirax burning along my blood sent shoots of fire into every part of my body. I did not know which I feared more: Lord Tomavar killing me or me killing him.
For a while we circled each other, measuring distances and feeling each other out. Lord Tomavar moved with a practiced grace that chilled me. Though he might be a complicated man, with his willingness to sacrifice himself for his warriors in battle at odds with his overweening conceit, none of this conflict or any other showed in the easy, natural way that he stepped right or left, or shifted his sword about. Indeed, even his torment over his missing wife seemed to have melted from his mind. I had rarely seen anyone so relaxed, as if he didn't care if he lived or died. He flowed over and around the little bumps of the lawn almost like water.
Then something inside him suddenly tightened, as with the pull of a man's body on the rope of a grappling hook. He sprang at me in a whirl of bright and furious steel. I jumped back a few paces to avoid the slice of his sword. It was barely enough, for his long arms and legs gave him a great reach, and his sword's point streaked through the air only an inch from my face. Again, he cut at me, and again I moved out of the way, and then we met each other in a clash of his steel blade against Alkaladur's shimmering crystal. Middling old he might be, but the years hadn't robbed him of his strength. The shock of the blows that he struck against me ran through my sword with a terrible force and nearly shattered my arm bones. I struggled to turn my blade right or left and beat aside his ferocious attack. The sound our swords clanging against each other rang out into the morning air like bells.
'He is cut!' someone at the edge of the circle called out, pointing at me. 'The Elahad has been cut!'
'First blood to Lord Tomavar!'
As if a signal had been given, Lord Tomavar stood back from me, breathing hard. He stared at my face. I pressed my hand to my forehead, wet with blood. By wild chance, it seemed, his sword must have reopened the lightning bolt scar etched into my skin. So intent had I been on keeping myself from getting killed that I hadn't even felt the wound.
'Val!' Kane called out to me. 'Val!'
He didn't have to say anything other than my name for me to know what he meant: I could not go on fighting like this. In a way, I was not really fighting at all, but only fencing with Lord Tomavar. He certainly sensed this. He stared at the blood dripping down my forehead. And then, like a wolf incited to kill, he came at me again.
And again we cut and thrust and moved across the grass in a frenzy of whipping arms and straining legs. Once, twice, thrice, we came together in a clash of steel against silustria, sprang apart, then clashed again. My breath burst from my lungs and nearly caught in my throat. My arms ached with a smoldering flame. Ten times I avoided the edge of his blade by a hair; ten times its point burned past my neck, my chest, my eyes, by the whisper of a breath. Each time his muscles tightened and bunched to unleash his fury at me, I felt the pain of it in my own body a moment before he moved. But my gift of valarda would not save me forever. Sooner or later, as Kane had said. Lord Tomavar's sword would cut its way past the silvery arc of mine, and that would be that.
'Val!' Kane cried out again. I could feel Kane's savage soul calling for me to kill Lord Tomavar But even as Lord Tomavar's kalama nearly cleaved my head in two, I knew that I could not kill him. I could not even wound him and then break off fighting, as I had with Salmelu in King Hadaru's hall, for that unwanted mercy had only brought down upon me shame and King Hadaru's wrath. All duels were to the death - so said the ancient codes of the Valari. Only the life's blood could satisfy honor, unless of course the challenger had a change of heart and formally apologized to the challenged. But such miracles were as rare as the rising of the sun at midnight. 'Val!'
We battled on and on beneath the heat pouring down from the sky and the eyes of thousands of warriors. I could only hope to exhaust Lord Tomavar so that he collapsed and broke. But it seemed that I must break first. My sword, once so light, now grew as heavy as a mallet made of lead. Every muscle in my body burned with a terrible, deep fire. My belly knotted and spasmed as I fought for breath. I coughed, hard, against the dark thing choking my throat. Most duels lasted only seconds, but my desperate combat with Lord Tomavar had already gone on longer than any duel in living memory - so I heard someone cry out from afar.
'He is cut again! The Elahad is!' another knight shouted. 'Second blood as well to Lord Tomavar!'
I could barely feel the new wound where the edge of Lord Tomavar's blade, as we locked together face to face, pushing and sweating and straining, had bloodied me. Amazingly - unbeliev-ably - the steel had cut open my forehead again. Drops of blood flew out into the air as I twisted my head out of the way of one of Lord Tomavar's vicious thrusts; more blood found it way into my eye, stinging and half-blinding me. I knew that I could not go on this way much longer.
'Fight, Lord Elahad!' I head Joshu Kadar cry out, 'Kill Lord Tomavar, if you would be king!'
His words seemed to enrage Lord Tomavar. And shame him, too, for he would gain little honor in slaying an opponent who refused to slay him. And his shame touched upon some deep guilt, whether of his failure to prevent Morjin from ravaging my father's castle or his betrayal of my father in trying claim his throne, I could not say. But I felt building inside him a guilt and grief so terrible that he desired death - and wanted to kill me in order to drive it back. Up to this point, he had fought with a cool and fluid fury, as flawless in execution as any Valari warrior could hope for. But now hate broke through his blood and poisoned his eyes. He swung his sword at me, again and again, as might a madman, in I shocking burst of anger and steel; he attacked with such recklessness and rage to kill that there could be no defense - other than to attack him back.
'Valashu!'
Then, in the slash and burn of Lord Tomavar's sword, his immense anguish cut me to the heart, and his hate became my hate - and something more. Deep beneath my throat built an immense, black storm, as within a small room and wholly contained by it. At its center raged a whirlwind.
'Strike, now!'
At last, when I opened the door to hate's brilliant reflection and its ultimate source, lightning flashed and drove away the dark thing choking me. As Kane had called for, I struck Alkaladur straight into Lord Tomavar's heart: but not the gleaming length of silustria that I gripped in my sweating hands, only the blade made of a finer and brighter substance that men called the Sword of Truth. I found my voice again, and shouted out to him words that rang out like thunder: 'I did not usurp my father! I did not betray the castle to Morjin! And I am sorry about
your wife! You have my promise that I will do all that I can to help get her back!'
Lord Tomavar stood ten feet away from me across the blood-dewed grass. He gasped for breath, and pressed his free hand to his chest as if he might drop of a blood stroke. His sword dipped down toward the ground. The madness, I saw, had gone out of his eyes. Then he called back to me in amazement: 'You speak truly, Lord Elahad! I know you do!'
In the ring around us, the knights and warriors stared at him, stunned.
'I was wrong to say what I did to you!' he shouted. 'I should not have challenged you! I give you my apology, freely, that all should hear and know: I, Gorvan Tomavar, have wronged you, and am in your debt!'
Now Lord Vishand, Lord Avijan and Lord Harsha - and many others - looked at Lord Tomavar as if struck dumb with shock. Hundreds of warriors gathered around the square closest to us, as they finally understood what was happening, let loose cheers of relief and wonderment. I saw Maram choking back tears and Atara smiling mysteriously. Kane simply stood like one of the shining mountains to the east. Above all of us, the hot morning sun blazed down. 'And I should not have challenged you for your father's throne!' Lord Tomavar continued. 'Please forgive me!'
And with that, he cast his sword upon the grass. He stepped up to me. Then he knelt down, and bowed his head as he broke out sobbing. All standing around him stared at this extraordinary sight as if they could not believe what they saw.
'A challenge has been made, and a challenge has been withdrawn,' Lord Tanu finally cried out, stepping inside the ring. 'Honor has been defended and satisfied. The duel is over.'
As the knights surrounding us broke apart and regrouped into twos and threes and Master Juwain came up to bandage my cut head. Lord Tomavar looked up at me through his dark, moist eyes. And he asked me, 'Will you really help me find my wife?'
Before I could answer him, even as the warriors picked up his words and passed them back through the ranks edging the square, a tall figure dressed in a hooded traveling cloak stepped onto the field. A glint and jangle of metal hinted at steel mail concealed beneath woven wool. I wondered at the audacity of this person. By the agreement of the truce, only Lord Tanu's or Lord Tomavar's counselors, or my own, were to be allowed into the square. At the quick approach of this intruder, who might have been a rogue knight, Sar Jalval drew his sword and stepped in front of Lord Tomavar as if to protect his lord.
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