‘I love Atara,’ I said to him. My eyes were now wide open, and much else as well. ‘Will you bless our marriage, King Kiritan?’
In answer, he laughed at me again. And then, as his eyes filled with malice, in a mocking voice, he said, ‘Yes, you may marry our daughter – when you’ve found the Lightstone and have delivered it here to this room!’
I was sure he expected me to cringe like a beaten dog or perhaps protest that the Cup of Heaven might be found only by the One’s grace. Instead, I grasped the hilt of my sword and rashly told him, ‘This I vow then.’
While he stared at me in disbelief, I took Atara’s hand and kissed it. I told him, ‘If you won’t yet bless our marriage, then will you at least give Atara your blessing as you have everyone else so that we may set out on the Quest?’
‘You dare too much, Valari!’ he snapped at me. ‘Should we then give her our own dagger so that she can stab us in the back?’
‘Please, King Kiritan – give her your blessing.’
From somewhere to our side, a woman called out, ‘Your blessing, King Kiritan!’ Others picked up this cry so the hall rang with the sound of many voices, ‘Give her your blessing!’
But the King was the King, and would not be so easily swayed. He stood before his jeweled throne, above the last chest of medallions, staring at both Atara and me as if we were rebellious barons who had dared enter his own hall to defy him.
How is it that we set out with so much love for our fathers, daughters or brothers, ready to make great sacrifices or even die for them – only to see this most sacred gift transmuted by an evil alchemy so that we caused them the greatest hurt and brought them its opposite instead?
As I stood there holding Atara’s hand, I felt both her anguish and adoration for her father surging through her. It was strange, the sense I had that I could touch King Kiritan with either of these. In my dream, Morjin had told me that I would one day strike out at others with the black dagger of my hate; it hadn’t occurred to me that I might also thrust the bright sword of another’s love straight into their hearts.
‘Don’t look at me that way, Valari,’ King Kiritan whispered to me. ‘Damn your eyes – don’t look at me!’
But I couldn’t help looking at him. And he couldn’t help turning toward Atara as a great tenderness softened his face. Few were close enough to see the tears welling in his eyes. And only Atara and Daryana – and I – could feel the great love pouring out of him.
‘We were afraid you were dead,’ he said to Atara.
‘There have been many who tried to make me so,’ Atara told him. ‘But as you always said, Sire, we Narmadas are hard to kill.’
‘Yes we are,’ he said with a grateful smile. ‘And by the grace of the One, as we set out on this Quest, may we continue to be.’
So saying, he nodded at Daryana, who reached into the chest to hand him a medallion. With a gentleness few would have suspected he possessed, he placed this over Atara’s head and told her, ‘Atara Ars Narmada, accept this with our blessing that you might be known and honored in all lands.’
To the cheers of almost everyone in the hall, he clasped her to him, kissed her fiercely on the forehead and stood there weeping softly. But it took him only a few moments to compose himself and put the steel back into his countenance. And the anger, too. He glared at me darkly as he called out to the knights and nobles around us: ‘All who have wished have made their vows and have received our blessing. Now please join us outside that you might help us celebrate this great occasion and our birthday as well.’
And then, with a last, cutting glance at me, he turned and stormed from the hall.
19
For some time after that, I stood off to the side of the throne with Atara. Still stunned by what had just happened, all I could think to ask her was, ‘Why didn’t you tell me who you really were?’
‘That’s just it,’ she said sadly. ‘Atara Ars Narmada is who I was. But now I am Atara Manslayer.’
‘Is that the only reason, then?’
‘No – I was afraid that if you knew, you’d look at me differently. As I’m afraid you’re looking at me now.’
‘Please don’t mistake my astonishment for anything else,’ I told her. ‘There’s only one way I could ever see you. I know who you are.’
As my heart measured out the moments of my life in great, surging beats, I looked for that deep light in her eyes and found it. For a single, brilliant moment, we returned to our star. Then I smiled at her and said, ‘It is astonishing what passed with your father. My apologies if what was said caused you embarrassment.’
‘Please don’t mistake my astonishment for anything else,’ she said, returning my smile. ‘But perhaps you should have asked me first if I would marry you.’
‘Will you, Atara?’
‘No, I won’t,’ she said sadly. ‘I’ve made my vows, and I must keep them.’
‘But if someday you fulfill them, then –’
‘This is not the time for anyone to marry,’ she said. ‘Should I bear your children only to see them slain in the wars that must surely come?’
‘But if the Lightstone were found and the Red Dragon defeated, war itself brought to an end, then –’
‘Then it would be then,’ she said, smiling at me. Then you may ask me about marriage – if that is still what you desire.’
She squeezed my hand, and turned toward Master Juwain, Maram and Kane, who were fighting the throngs streaming toward the doors. They came up to us, their gold medallions showing beneath their cloaks.
‘This is a kingly gift,’ Maram said, cupping his hand beneath his medallion. ‘I never thought to be given anything so magnificent.’
‘And I never thought to hear you vow to seek the Lightstone,’ Master Juwain told him. ‘But you seem to have a fondness for making vows.’
‘Ah, I do, don’t I?’ Maram said.
‘I seem to remember you were to forsake wine, women and war.’
‘Well, I suppose I’m not very good at forsaking, am I? And that’s just the point, isn’t it? I won’t forsake this Quest.’
Maram’s sudden earnestness made me smile. I clapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘But why make vows at all? Didn’t you set out only so far as to see Tria?’
‘True, true,’ he said. ‘And I have seen Tria. And a great deal else.’
‘We’ve vowed to seek the Lightstone until it is found,’ I reminded him. ‘We can’t do very much of that seeking in taverns or boudoirs.’
‘No, perhaps we can’t, my friend. But maybe we’ll find a few glasses of beer along our way.’ Here he paused to eye a beautiful Alonian woman dressed in a blue satin gown. ‘And perhaps great treasures as well.’
‘We also vowed to go on seeking unless we’re struck down first.’
‘Ah, I am mad, aren’t I?’ he muttered as he shook his head and turned back toward me. ‘But someone is bound to find this cup, and it might as well be us. Do you think I’d let you have all the fun yourself?’
With a brave smile, he clapped me on my shoulder. Then I nodded at Master Juwain and asked him, ‘But what about you, sir? Didn’t you come to Tria to verify the truth of the prophecy?’
‘I did,’ he said, ‘but Kane has already verified it as much as these things can be. I’m afraid I must tell you, though, that my true business was always the finding of the Lightstone.’
We stood there wondering what to do next. All our plans and efforts had been directed toward bringing us to King Kiritan’s palace by the seventh of Soldru; by the slimmest of chances (and more than one miracle), we had succeeded. But there were four points to the world, and five of us, and all directions beckoned with the gleam of gold upon the horizon.
‘I’m too hungry to think about the Quest just now,’ Maram said as he watched the last of the nobles leaving the hall. ‘It’s the King’s birthday – why don’t we help him celebrate it?’
‘I think the King has seen enough of us for one night, eh?’ Kane said. ‘Others hav
e seen us, too. So, we should find a quiet inn where we can sleep safely tonight.’
Kane’s was the voice of prudence, and perhaps we should have heeded it. But before leaving the palace, Master Juwain wanted to use the King’s library, said to be one of the finest in the city. Atara wished to talk with her mother. As for me, now that I had already called attention to myself, I didn’t want to have to slink away like a whipped dog.
‘We’ve come this far through much worse,’ I said. ‘If King Kiritan has gone to so much trouble to honor us, then we should accept his hospitality.’
I led the way out of the north door of the hall. There we found a broad corridor giving out onto a vast lawn. The King’s thousands of guests easily might have become lost upon it if not directed by a line of torches toward a long pool where many tables had been set with food. Against the backdrop of great, spraying fountains lit up with glowstones, these tables fairly groaned beneath the weight of mutton joints, beef roasts and whole roasted pigs. There were fowls and cheeses and breads, too, pastries and fruits, and many vegetables: buttered lentils with scallions, baked potatoes, asparagus drowning in a sauce made from lemons and eggs – and strange-looking roots called yams that were said to be grown in the Elyssu. This being Tria, the King’s cooks had also set before us braised salmon, smoked herring and huge, insect-like shellfish called lobsters. I couldn’t believe that human beings could eat such things, but the Trians seemed to relish and regard them as a delicacy. The nobles, I thought, were used to feasting on delicacies, and to drinking the finest wines, as well. These were set out in bottles on marble tables around the fountains. The best vintages, it was said, came from Galda before it had fallen and from the vineyards of Karabuk. Although the Alonians were forbidden to trade with this kingdom directly, cargoes of wine – and spices such as pepper, cloves and cinnamon – had somehow found their way into the holds of ships sailing up the coasts of Galda and Delu and then through the Dolphin Channel into Tria.
It was a clear, beautiful night, with a full moon and many stars. The city spread out in all directions below us. Little lights like those of fireflies flickered from the many houses and buildings. Some areas were dark, such as the Narmada Green, a two-mile-long expanse of woods just to the west of the palace grounds. There the King rode to take his exercise and to hunt the few boar and deer that still remained there. To the south, the great Tower of the Sun stood like a silver needle between the Hastar and Marshan palaces, while to the north, arising from Narmada Hill and Eriades Hill, were the Tower of the Moon and the Tower of the Western Sun. East of the palace, on terraces cut into the lower slopes of the hill on which it was built, the Elu Gardens seemed almost suspended in space below us. In the bright light of the moon, I could still make out its many acres of lawns, flower beds and well-tended trees. It formed a great barrier between the palace and the populous districts below it. A little farther to the east, the great, golden Star Bridge – now almost silver in the moonlight – spanned the Poru River and drew the eye out toward the harbor and the gleaming sea to the north.
Following Maram’s lead, we all filled our plates with mounds of food, and found an empty table near some lilac bushes where we could take our meal in peace. But peace we could not have, for even as we finished eating and stood around the table drinking wine, various men and women began coming up to us and presenting themselves. The first of these I was very glad to see for he was a Valari knight whom I knew from my childhood: Sar Yarwan Solaru of Kaash, King Talanu’s third son and my first cousin by my mother, who was sister to the King. Sar Yarwan, a striking man with a great, hawk’s nose, clasped hands with me warmly, and then told me the names of the six other knights who accompanied him. These were Sar Manthanu of Athar, Sar Tadru of Lagash, Sar Danashu of Taron, Sar Laisu, also of Kaash, Sar Ianar of Rajak and Sar Avador of Daksh. These last two knights were the sons of Duke Rezu and Duke Gorador; I admitted to them that I had met their fathers on our passage through Anjo and that I had been told to look for them in Tria. Sar Ianar, who had his father’s sharp features and sharpness of eye, looked at some Alonians milling about a nearby table and said, ‘Sar Valashu Elahad, it’s good to see another Valari here – so few of us made the journey.’
Sar Yarwan rested his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘We all appreciate what you said to the King.’
‘The truth is the truth and must be told,’ I said.
‘Nevertheless, it takes courage to tell it – especially when few wish to listen.’ He bowed his head to me and continued, ‘We didn’t know you would be coming to Tria. It’s too bad you arrived so late.’
Although he was my cousin, I didn’t tell him about the Grays and that we’d had to fight for our lives to arrive at all.
‘We would have asked you to join our company,’ he said to me. His bright eyes seemed to be searching for something in mine. ‘We would still ask you. There are seven of us, and that is good luck and accords with the prophecy. But we’re all agreed that it would be even better luck to have you with us.’
‘You honor me,’ I said. Then I nodded at Kane, Maram, Atara and Master Juwain. ‘But as you can see, we’ve already formed our own company.’
I presented my friends, who each bowed in turn to the Valari knights.
‘Five is too few to make a company,’ Sar Yarwan said. And then in that blunt, outspoken manner of too many of my people, he went on, ‘Kane almost looks Valari, and he would be a welcome addition, too. And Atara Ars Narmada – Atara Manslayer. If any warriors are almost the equal of the Valari, it would be the Manslayers of the Sarni. But as for your other friends, well, we’re a company of knights. Surely they could find other companions who shared their sensibilities and skills.’
Sar Yarwan’s artless words seemed not to perturb Master Juwain in the slightest. But Maram stood there biting on his mustache and blushing. For once, he was speechless. And so I spoke for him instead, saying, ‘Thank you, Sar Yarwan – we would certainly welcome your company, to say nothing of your swords. But we journeyed here together, and we’ll journey from here together as well.’
‘As you wish, Sar Valashu,’ he said. He glanced at his companions again and nodded at me. ‘We wish all of you well, wherever your journeys take you. May you always walk in the light of the One.’
I said the same to him, and Atara did, too. Then she looked over toward one of the fountains and her face brightened. I turned to see Queen Daryana walking toward us accompanied by a large knight bearing the crest of two oaks and two eagles on his green tunic.
‘Mother,’ Atara said as she greeted the Queen, ‘may I present Sar Valashu Elahad? I was hoping you might be able meet him in less difficult circumstances.’
I bowed to Queen Daryana, who smiled at me before glancing at the fountain where the King stood talking with two of his dukes. Then she said to me, ‘It seems that all circumstances will be difficult so long as you remain in Tria.’
And with that, she motioned toward the knight standing next to her; with a wry smile, she said to me, ‘This is Baron Narcavage of Arngin. The King has sent him with me to make sure that you don’t attack me.’
I nodded my head slightly to this great Baron, who reluctantly returned the bow. He had a deep chest and great arms, and his large head was sunk down into a thick neck swollen with muscle or fat – it was hard to tell which on account of his thick, blond beard. His little blue eyes seemed the only small thing about him; they were almost lost beneath his overhanging forehead and bushy eyebrows. But they peered out at me with a sharp intelligence all the same. There was cunning and resentment there – and the wit to hide them as well.
‘Sar Valashu Elahad,’ he said to me, ‘the King sends his regrets that he is too busy to further make your acquaintance. But he has also sent his finest wine to thank you for honoring him tonight.’
So saying, he showed everyone a large green bottle that he had held in the crook of his arm. ‘This comes from the Kinderry vineyards of Galda. May I pour you a glass?’
‘Perh
aps in a moment,’ I said. ‘We haven’t finished making the presentations.’
I told the Queen the names of my friends, then presented Sar Yarwan and the Valari knights. She cast them, and me, a wary look. We were Valari, after all, and she was still the daughter of a Sarni chieftain.
As the moon rose higher over the cool lawns and bubbling fountains, we stood talking about the quest. Sar Yarwan announced his plan to journey to Skule in the wilds of northern Delu. He would search among the ruins of that once great city for any sign that Sartan Odinan might have brought the Lightstone there.
‘Skule lies on the other side of the Straights of Storm,’ Baron Narcavage said to him. ‘If you’ll be crossing them from Alonia, you’ll have to pass through Arngin. Which you may do with my blessing.’
‘Thank you, that would be the most direct route,’ Sar Yarwan agreed.
‘And the safest – to go back down the Nar Road and skirt along the Alonian Sea would take many months. You’d have to cross through most of Delu, which is now nothing more than a dozen savage provinces practically ruled by their warlords.’
‘No, you’re wrong about Delu,’ a strong voice called out. Here Maram stepped forward and looked Baron Narcavage in the eye. ‘Delu is certainly much more than you have said.’
‘Forgive me. Prince Maram,’ the Baron said, ‘but I’ve journeyed through what is left of your father’s kingdom while you’ve been off learning your dead languages at the Brotherhood’s school.’
‘Delu has its troubles,’ Maram admitted. ‘But it wasn’t so long ago that Alonia had worse.’
To cool their rising tempers, I came between them and said, ‘We live in a time of troubles.’
‘We do indeed,’ Baron Narcavage said, smiling at me. ‘We’ve all heard that we can expert war between Ishka and Mesh.’
‘That hasn’t been decided yet,’ I told him. ‘We can still hope for peace.’
‘How can there ever be peace in the Nine Kingdoms when each of your so-called kings insists on coveting his neighbors’ lands?’
The Lightstone: The Ninth Kingdom Page 43
