At this, Sunji touched the blue stones set into the silver of one of his bracelets. Avraym, I saw, wore a pendant fashioned of the same substance, as did Maidro and Laisar. I recalled seeing such jewelry among the gold bangles that Daj had gathered from the dead Masud.
Yago remembered this as well. He looked at me with suspicion eating at his hard face.
'The Elahad,' the droghul went on, 'would use the gelstei to take control of the Lightstone. Each of the conspirators has gained these gelstei and mastery over them.'
How, I wondered, could people ever mistake a lie for the truth? I knew from bitter experience that the truth always spoke with a clear and perfect voice, but too often it spoke too softly. People did not hear it, for they believed what they wanted to believe.
'Valashu Elahad — is this true?' Sunji asked me.
I turned to my right to see Kane's black eyes warning me to silence. But with the judges and everyone else looking at me, I could not keep silent. Neither could I lie.
'Yes,' I said, 'each of my companions and I keep one of the gelstei.'
'Show us these stones, then.'
I saw that Kane trembled to whip out his sword and cut off Sunji's head. Instead, he took out his baalstei and showed it to him and the three judges. At the sight of this black crystal Avraym kissed his own hand and pressed it over his heart. So did Laisar and Maidro theirs. The droghul told that the black gelstei could be used to suck out the very fires of a man's soul and Kane did not dispute this.
'So, it can be used this way,' Kane said, making a fist around his stone. He stared at the droghul with such hate that the droghul finally looked away. 'This thing of Morjin should know this, for Morjin himself has used a much greater baalstei to try to suck at the soul of the whole world and all her peoples.'
As he went on to tell of the Black Jade, the Avari warriors up and down their line kissed their hands and clasped them to their chests, as did the Zuri warriors in their line.
Then the droghul, for the first time seeming to struggle against Morjin's iron-fisted control of him, pointed at Kane and said, 'He, too, is a liar, like the Elahad. Can no one here feel him attacking you with this evil stone?'
With the sun sucking the life out of everyone gathered in this sweltering canyon, and Morjin perhaps wielding the Black Jade from afar, it was easy for Sunji and the judges to believe that Kane strove to lay an evil enchantment upon them. And so Sunji called to Kane: 'Put away your sorcerer's stone!'
Kane tucked away his gelstei, then said to Sunji, 'Ha — you know nothing of what you speak! All the gelstei were made out of the essence of the Lightstone itself. So, the baalstei were meant to control the fires of the tuaoi stones, for good, not ill.'
'The firestones,' the droghul explained. 'Even as ww speak, the fat leper on that hill makes ready to wreak burning sorceries upon us.'
He pointed up the ravine where Maram, with Master Juwain and Liljana, stood watching us.
'The Elahad himself,' the droghul said, 'bears a sword wrought of the evilest of substances. He has used it to slay with all the deadliness of a scorpion.'
Sunji aimed his saber at me, then commanded Laisar, Avraym and Maidro to draw their sabers. He said to me, 'Let us see this sorcerous sword!'
I drew out Alkaladur then. The Ravirii of all three tribes gasped to behold its silvery brilliance. They drew back from it, too, for even as I held it up to the sun, red flames ran up and down its length. Only Kane, I thought, knew how badly I longed to stab its point into Morjin's heart — even into the droghul. But killing this dreadful creature would not kill Morjin. It would serve only to bring down the sabers of the Ravirii upon me and my friends.
'Break it!' The droghul cried out. 'Take this evil thing from the poisoner, and break it into pieces!'
'You take it!' I shouted back at him. I pointed my sword at him, and watched in horror as it blazed with even hotter flames. 'Let us cross swords, the two of us here and now, and let that be the test of things!'
Sunji turned to nod at the Avari warriors backing him up as if making sure they were ready to close in on me at a moment's notice. Then he said to me, 'This is no trial by combat; put away your sword.'
The Sword of Light, Alkaladur was called, the Sword of Truth. It caught me up in its fiery light Then I sheathed it and sat gasping at the torrid air.
The sight of this burning blade seemed to stir something within the droghul. His jaws clamped shut as if he struggled to bite off the words forming in his throat. I sensed Morjin from afar, and too near, driving a heated iron into the droghul's spine to make him speak. And when the droghul finally did, he spoke too much — too much for me to bear: 'With that cursed sword, the Elahad murdered his own father and brothers when they discovered his sorceries and tried to drive him from Mesh!'
So bright did the sun blaze just then that I thought it would burn out my eyes.
'Father-killer!' one of the Red Priests called out. A Zuri warrior next to him repeated this accusation. And then, from both the Zuri and Avari lines came more cries: 'Father-killer! Well-poisoner! Sorcerer!'
The three judges stared at me in a silence even more terrible than these accusations.
He has won, I thought, looking at the droghul for the hidden hand of Morjin. He will always win.
'Father-killer! Father-killer! Father-killer!'
I had told of things as accurately as I knew how, and it seemed that I had only turned my judges against me. But had I really spoken truly? Inside me whispered a deep and beautiful voice that had never failed me; often, now, it called to me as loud and clear as a bell. I knew, though, that I was afraid to make this voice my own and shout it out so that others might hear it. I feared that they would mishear it or misuse it — or use it against me. Even more, I feared wielding the truth as a sword that men could not resist, annihilating their wills so that mine might prevail. That was Morjin's way. As the golden eyes of the droghul fell upon me and I felt Morjin staring me down from far away, I knew that he wished me to fear this and to live in dread of my gift of valarda. In a hundred ways, perhaps even through the Black Jade, he had attacked my will toward all that was good and true. And so I spoke with what honesty I dared, but softly and weakly, in words that were often at least partial lies.
'Father-killer!' the warriors around me called out. 'Sorcerer! Well-poisonerl'
'What else is there to say?' the droghul shouted. It seemed that he had given up struggling against Morjin. 'These men and their kind are well-poisoners! Give them to us that we might give them justice!'
Morjin, I suddenly knew, wished to torture out of me and my friends our knowledge of the Maitreya even more than he wished our deaths. If the droghul and the Red Priests got their hands on us, I wondered how they would be able to crucify us to a land without wood? Perhaps they would settle on cutting apart Daj and Estrella piece by piece, knowing that I could never bear this.
'Well-poisoners! Well-poisoners! Kill the well-poisoners!'
What is truth? It is not merely faultlessness and honesty, the uncovering of facts, but rather the urge toward these things, and much more, the primeval drive to bring forth into the light of existence the deepest designs of the real. It is as clear and perfect as starlight, and it blazes with all the fierceness and power of the sun.
Well-poisoner! Sorcerer! Father-killer! Father-killer! Father-killer!
In the black centers of the droghul's eyes, Morjin sat on his Dragon Throne shouting these words at me. Then, at last, I drew in a deep breath of fiery air and shouted back at him: 'My father died defending our land from your armies! My brothers, too! My mother was nailed to wood by your bloody priests! They put my grandmother next to her! You, with your own fingers, tore out my beloved's eyes! I. . could not stop this! I tried, with all my might, but I could not!'
I drew my sword, and red flames swirled about its shimmering silustria. With tears nearly blinding me, I told the assembled warriors more, things that I did not want to tell anyone, not even myself. I admitted that it was I who had led Atara and my
other friends into Argattha, and so shook my fist at the stars. Although I hadn't slain my family I had brought about their deaths through hubris and hate. I loved the world, yes, and wanted to bring an end to war, but even more I hated Morjin and wanted with every breath to thrust my sword into his heart and make him die.
To the judges staring at me with their black, blurred eyes, to Sunji and Yago and all the warriors looking upon me in awe, even to the sky, I told of things simply as they were. There was no
manipulation in this, no calculation to achieve a certain end. I wanted only that my judges, and the whole world, should know. Sorrow tore the truth from me. I held nothing back: all my anguish, guilt and grief came pouring out of me. Al my love, and all my hate. The sun was a fierce thing in the sky, burning with a white-hot light, but this was more terrible, more beautiful more real.
When I could speak no more, Sunji sat on his horse regarding me from beneath the shawl that covered most of his face. His bright, black eyes shone with a deep lucidty. After glancing at the droghul, he turned to the judges and told them, 'King Morjin is right — what more is there to say?'
He drew in a deep breath of air as he called out to everyone: 'The well-poisoner, and those who helped him, must be served justice. Laisar, what do you say?'
Laisar's old eyes grew hard with judgment as he pointed at the droghul and shouted, 'I say that this man, whether he is King Morjin or his mind-slave, is the poisoner!'
'I say this, too!' Maidru called out.
'And I,' Avraym said. 'Let the poisoner be served!'
All at once, the Avari warriors up and down their line began shouting out:. 'Well-poisoner! Well-poisoner! Kill the well-poisoner!'
But the Zuri warriors, trapped between the Avari and the rocks where Maram and my other companions stood, kept their silence. It is one thing to hear the truth, and another to act upon it.
All eyes now fell upon the droghul, who held up his hand and cast his dreadful gaze to the right and left. He cried out: 'You must listen to me! The Elahad lies! It is he, not I, who is the-'
'Sorcerer! Well-poisoner! Well-poisoner! Kill the well-poisoner!'
Sunji, having heard from the judges, swept his sword from the droghul to Oalo, and then out to the Zuri warriors as he pronounced their doom: 'You have heeded too well the words of this sorcerer and poisoner, and those of his priests. But we have all heard the power of these words — the power of these lies. I cannot believe that you knew of the poisoner's deeds. Therefore you shall be spared his punishment. Lay down your swords, and you shall be free to go back to your home!'
'We won't lay down our swords!' Oalo shouted, drawing his saber. Its polished steel flashed in the sun. 'We wont make it easy for you to slaughter us here!'
'Truce-breaker!' Avraym called out to him, 'Drop your sword now, or die along with the Poisoner and his priests!'
'Throw down!' Laisar shouted at Oalo. He turned to the Zuri warriors and told them, 'All of you — throw down your swords!'
The sixty Zuri warriors hesitated for a moment. They looked from the droghul and Maslan at the center of the field to the four other Red Priests waiting with them in their line. It seemed that they feared these men more than they did Sunji and the Avari. And so they drew their swords and pointed them at the Avari rather than throwing them down.
'Damn you!' the droghul cried out to Sunji as he drew his sword. Torment ate at his eyes as he seemed for a moment to struggle against his distant master. But then his face hardened once again as he screamed out, 'Damn you, Avari! I'll poison your wells! I'll send armies to crucify your women and children, and make you drink their blood!'
As he screamed out even more vile threats, Laisar, Avraym and Maidro drew in closer to Sunji; with battle now imminent, ten Avari warriors galloped out from the line to join Sunji and the judges. They positioned themselves facing Oalo, Maslan and the droghul, forming a sort of wall protecting Kane, Yago and me.
'This is no trial by combat!' Sunji called out again to the Zuri. 'Throw down your swords!'
The droghul, however, pointed his sword straight at me. Only his hatred of Morjin's control of him, I thought, had so far kept him from trying to ride me down and hack me apart in full fury. But now he and Morjin were as one.
'Damn you, Elahad! You killed my daughter!. My only girl! I executed your family, and so destroyed your past, but you have taken from me my hope for the future!'
'It was you who took this!' I called to him. 'You killed Jezi when you touched her with your foul hands!'
'Damn you!' he screamed at me. 'This time you die!'
And then, even as the Red Priests goaded the Zuri warriors to attack the advancing Avari line, the droghul spurred his horse straight at me.
Chapter 22
Two of the ten Avari warriors that Sunji had called forward moved to stop him. But the droghul, with a thrust of his sword quicker than a striking snake, stabbed one of these warriors through the throat. His sword flashed out a moment later, cleaving the other warrior's skull. Then Sunji, the three judges and the other eight Avari closed in on him.
As the warriors of these two tribes came crashing together in a riot of gleaming sabers and darting horses, it seemed impossible that the Zuri could hold against the Avari. The Avari sat higher on larger horses, and their swords were longer, too. I had never seen warriors wield their swords with such prowess — no warriors except my own people, that is. In each of many individual duels, with saber clanging against saber, an Avari warrior slashed through his foe's defenses again and again. In truth, few of these duels remained individual, for the Avari were merciless and fell upon the outnumbered Zuri in twos and threes. Bright steel sliced through cotton garments, skin and bone. Men screamed in agony. The hardpacked earth of the desert ran red with blood.
I hoped to stay out of this battle, leaving matters to the Avari and Zuri. I sat on top of Altaru, holding back with Kane and Yago at my sides. I waited for Sunji to bring the droghul to justice: either slaying or capturing him. It should have been an easy thing for Sunji and the three judges, backed up by the eight Avari warriors, to cut him down. But two of the Red Priests and six Zuri warriors, with Oalo, rode forward to aid the frenzied, murderous droghul.
And then the droghul seemed to summon up some secret torment from within himself as he cried out in a voice ringing with a fell, new power: VALARIIII!
I felt a hundred daggers, like ice, pierce every part of me and seize hold of my limbs. So it was with Sunji and the Avari. Many of them lifted them lifted their swords with a dreadful slowness-many more Simply froze altogether in terror.
VALARIIII!
Now Avraym dropped his saber and pressed his hands to his ears, even as Oalo plunged the point of his saber into his back. Sunji could hardly lift his saber to defend himself against the Red Priest attacking him. In the sea of screaming horses and men all around me, it seemed that the Avari were losing their will to slay the Zuri, while the Zuri warriors struck back at their executioners with a renewed fury. I did not know why the Zuri seemed immune to the droghul's terrible cry:
VALARIII!
All across the burning canyon, Avari warriors began dropping their swords or clinging to their horses. Now it was the Zuri who showed them no mercy. Their sabers slashed out like lightning as the Avari's screams became one with the droghul's.
'Damn you, Elahad! Damn the Valariii!'
The droghul cut down the last of the men drawn up in front of me. He ignored Kane, off to my right, who desperately battled two Zuri warriors. The droghul spurred his horse closer, then slashed his sword toward my face. I barely parried it, and its shiny steel clanged against Alkaladur's silustria and struck out flaming sparks. Again and again he tried to cleave me in two. My skin, with no armor protecting it, fairly twitched with a deep, sick fear. I moved slowly, so terribly slowly, as if trying to lift my sword through a raging stream of ice water. I knew that the droghul would kill me, and soon.
And then, from out of nowhere, it seemed, Yago came galloping for
ward in a whirl of dusty white robes and flashing steel. With perfect coordination, he swerved his horse and closed in just as the droghul raised back his sword to decapitate me. Yago leaned forward in his saddle, and quick as the wind sliced his saber through the droghul's throat. This vicious cut opened up the droghul's windpipe and the great artery there. Blood spurted, and a red froth flowed from the droghul's mouth. Although he could not speak to howl out his paralyzing cry, his eyes remained full of hate. They fixed on my eyes like red-hot nails. They told me that I had murdered him, Morjin's droghul, but that I could never touch the one who moved the droghul's limbs and mind. One day, and soon, Morjin would come to take a terrible vengeance. This the droghul promised me in his last moment of life. Then Yago's saber flashed out again, and this time cut clean through the droghul's neck and struck off his head.
After that, the battle did not last very long. The Avari warriors regained their wits and strength. Their terror at the droghul caused them to fall upon the remaining Zuri with great wrath. They killed them cruelly, down to the last man. Sunji himself put his saber through Oalo. Then he went about the field making sure that all the Zuri were dead.
I sat on top of Altaru, gasping for breath and staring down at the droghul's body. The bodies of warriors, Zuri and Avari, lay everywhere, baking in the hot sun. Already the flies had gone to work on their hideous, gaping wounds, and vultures came from afar to circle in the air.
Kane nudged his horse over to me. His black eyes flashed at me as if in joy that we had survived another battle, in one way the worst yet. He asked Yago how it was that the droghul's voice had left him untouched. Yago couldn't hear him. He moved closer to Kane, and threw his hands up to the sides of his head. His fingers dug free two sticky, red barbark nuts. It seemed that at the very beginning of the battle, he had used them to stop up his ears.
'The voice-of that thing,' he said, pointing down at what was left of the droghul, 'could have frozen the sun itself. By what sorcery can a man stop another solely through his voice?'
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