Lord of Light

by Roger Zelazny

  Ahead, there was a sound of running water, from where a small stream cut across his way. Shrugging his blood-bright cloak back over his shoulders, he advanced upon a bend in the trail, the ruby head of his scimitar gleaming in his crimson sash.

  Rounding a comer of stone, he came to a halt.

  One waited ahead, standing beside the log that led across the stream.

  His eyes narrowed for an instant, then he moved forward again.

  It was a small man who stood there, wearing the dark garments of a pilgrim, caught about with a leather harness from which was suspended a short, curved blade of bright steel. This man's head was closely shaven, save for a small lock of white hair. His eyebrows were white above eyes that were dark, and his skin was pale; his ears appeared to be pointed.

  The traveler raised his hand and spoke to this man, saying, "Good afternoon, pilgrim."

  The man did not reply, but moved to bar his way, positioning himself before the log that led across the stream.

  "Pardon me, good pilgrim, but I am about to cross here and you are making my passage difficult," he stated.

  "You are mistaken, Lord Yama, if you think you are about to pass here," replied the other.

  The One in Red smiled, showing a long row of even, white teeth. "It is always a pleasure to be recognized," he acknowledged, "even by one who conveys misinformation concerning other matters."

  "I do not fence with words," said the man in black.

  "Oh?" The other raised his eyebrows in an expression of exaggerated inquiry. "With what then do you fence, sir? Surely not that piece of bent metal you bear."

  "None other."

  "I took it for some barbarous prayer-stick at first. I understand that this is a region fraught with strange cults and primitive sects. For a moment, I took you to be a devotee of some such superstition. But if, as you say, it is indeed a weapon, then I trust you are familiar with its use?"

  "Somewhat," replied the man in black.

  "Good, then," said Yama, "for I dislike having to kill a man who does not know what he is about. I feel obligated to point out to you, however, that when you stand before the Highest for judgment, you will be accounted a suicide."

  The other smiled faintly.

  "Any time that you are ready, deathgod, I will facilitate the passage of your spirit from out its fleshy envelope."

  "One more item only, then," said Yama, "and I shall put a quick end to conversation. Give me a name to tell the priests, so that they shall know for whom they offer the rites."

  "I renounced my final name but a short while back," answered the other. "For this reason, Kali's consort must take his death of one who is nameless."

  "Rild, you are a fool," said Yama, and drew his blade.

  The man in black drew his.

  "And it is fitting that you go unnamed to your doom. You betrayed your goddess."

  "Life is full of betrayals," replied the other, before he struck, "By opposing you now and in this manner, I also betray the teachings of my new master. But I must follow the dictates of my heart. Neither my old name nor my new do therefore fit me, nor are they deserved—so call me by no name!"

  Then his blade was fire, leaping everywhere, clicking, blazing.

  Yama fell back before this onslaught, giving ground foot by foot, moving only his wrist as he parried the blows that fell about him.

  Then, after he had retreated ten paces, he stood his ground and would not be moved. His parries widened slightly, but his ripostes became more sudden now, and were interspersed with feints and unexpected attacks.

  They swaggered blades till their perspiration fell upon the ground in showers; and then Yama began to press the attack, slowly, forcing his opponent into a retreat. Step by step, he recovered the ten paces he had given.

  When they stood again upon the ground where the first blow had been struck, Yama acknowledged, over the clashing of steel, "Well have you learned your lessons, Rild! Better even than I had thought! Congratulations!"

  As he spoke, his opponent wove his blade through an elaborate double feint and scored a light touch that cut his shoulder, drawing blood that immediately merged with the color of his garment.

  At this, Yama sprang forward, beating down the other's guard, and delivered a blow to the side of his neck that might have decapitated him.

  The man in black raised his guard, shaking his head, parried another attack and thrust forward, to be parried again himself.

  "So, the death bath collars your throat," said Yama. "I'll seek entrance elsewhere, then," and his blade sang a faster song, as he tried for a low-line thrust.

  Yama unleashed the full fury of that blade, backed by the centuries and the masters of many ages. Yet, the other met his attacks, parrying wider and wider, retreating faster and faster now, but still managing to hold him off as he backed away, counterthrusting as he went.

  He retreated until his back was to the stream. Then Yama slowed and made comment:

  "Half a century ago," he stated, "when you were my pupil for a brief time, I said to myself, 'This one has within him the makings of a master.' Nor was I wrong, Rild. You are perhaps the greatest swordsman raised up in all the ages I can remember. I can almost forgive apostasy when I witness your skill. It is indeed a pity. . ."

  He feinted then a chest cut, and at the last instant moved around the parry so that he lay the edge of his weapon high upon the other's wrist.

  Leaping backward, parrying wildly and cutting at Yama's head, the man in black came into a position at the head of the log that lay above the crevice that led down to the stream.

  "Your hand, too, Rild! Indeed, the goddess is lavish with her protection. Try this!"

  The steel screeched as he caught it in a bind, nicking the other's bicep as he passed about the blade.

  "Aha! There's a place she missed!" he cried. "Let's try for another!"

  Their blades bound and disengaged, feinted, thrust, parried, riposted.

  Yama met an elaborate attack with a stop-thrust, his longer blade again drawing blood from his opponent's upper arm.

  The man in black stepped up upon the log, swinging a vicious head cut, which Yama beat away. Pressing the attack then even harder, Yama forced him to back out upon the log and then he kicked at its side.

  The other jumped backward, landing upon the opposite bank. As soon as his feet touched ground, he, too, kicked out, causing the log to move.

  It rolled, before Yama could mount it, slipping free of the banks, crashing down into the stream, bobbing about for a moment, and then following the water trail westward.

  "I'd say it is only a seven- or eight-foot jump, Yama! Come on across!" cried the other.

  The deathgod smiled. "Catch your breath quickly now, while you may," he stated. "Breath is the least appreciated gift of the gods. None sing hymns to it, praising the good air, breathed by king and beggar, master and dog alike. But, oh to be without it! Appreciate each breath, Rild, as though it were your last—for that one, too, is near at hand!"

  "You are said to be wise in these matters, Yama," said the one who had been called Rild and Sugata. "You are said to be a god, whose kingdom is death and whose knowledge extends beyond the ken of mortals. I would question you, therefore, while we are standing idle."

  Yama did not smile his mocking smile, as he had to all his opponent's previous statements. This one had a touch of ritual about it.

  "What is it that you wish to know? I grant you the death-boon of a question."

  Then, in the ancient words of the Katha Upanishad, the one who had been called Rild and Sugata chanted:

  "'There is doubt concerning a man when he is dead. Some say he still exists. Others say he does not. This thing I should like to know, taught by you.' "

  Yama replied with the ancient words, "'On this subject even the gods have their doubts. It is not easy to understand, for the nature of the atman is a subtle thing. Ask me another question. Release me from this boon!'"

  "'Forgive me if it is foremost in my mind,
oh Death, but another teacher such as yourself cannot be found, and surely there is no other boon which I crave more at this moment.'"

  "'Keep your life and go your way,'" said Yama, plunging his blade again into his sash. "'I release you from your doom. Choose sons and grandsons; choose elephants, horses, herds of cattle and gold. Choose any other boon—fair maidens, chariots, musical instruments. I shall give them unto you and they shall wait upon you. But ask me not of death.'"

  "'Oh Death,' " sang the other, "'these endure only till tomorrow. Keep your maidens, horses, dances and songs for yourself. No boon will I accept but the one which I have asked—tell me, oh Death, of that which lies beyond life, of which men and the gods have their doubts.'"

  Yama stood very still and he did not continue the poem. "Very well, Rild," he said, his eyes locking with the other's, "but it is not a kingdom subject to words. I must show you."

  They stood, so, for a moment; and then the man in black swayed. He threw his arm across his face, covering his eyes, and a single sob escaped his throat.

  When this occurred, Yama drew his cloak from his shoulders and cast it like a net across the stream.

  Weighted at the hems for such a maneuver, it fell, netlike, upon his opponent.

  As he struggled to free himself, the man in black heard rapid footfalls and then a crash, as Yama's blood-red boots struck upon his side of the stream. Casting aside the cloak and raising his guard, he parried Yama's new attack. The ground behind him sloped upward, and he backed farther and farther, to where it steepened, so that Yama's head was no higher than his belt. He then struck down at his opponent. Yama slowly fought his way uphill.

  "Deathgod, deathgod," he chanted, "forgive my presumptuous question, and tell me you did not lie."

  "Soon you shall know," said Yama, cutting at his legs.

  Yama struck a blow that would have run another man through, cleaving his heart. But it glanced off his opponent's breast.

  When he came to a place where the ground was broken, the small man kicked, again and again, sending showers of dirt and gravel down upon his opponent. Yama shielded his eyes with his left hand, but then larger pieces of stone began to rain down upon him. These rolled on the ground, and, as several came beneath his boots, he lost his footing and fell, slipping backward down the slope. The other kicked at heavy rocks then, even dislodging a boulder and following it downhill, his blade held high.

  Unable to gain his footing in time to meet the attack, Yama rolled and slid back toward the stream. He managed to brake himself at the edge of the crevice, but he saw the boulder coming and tried to draw back out of its way. As he pushed at the ground with both hands, his blade fell into the waters below.

  With his dagger, which he drew as he sprang into a stumbling crouch, he managed to parry the high cut of the other's blade. The boulder splashed into the stream.

  Then his left hand shot forward, seizing the wrist that had guided the blade. He slashed upward with the dagger and felt his own wrist taken.

  They stood then, locking their strength, until Yama sat down and rolled to his side, thrusting the other from him.

  Still, both locks held, and they continued to roll from the force of that thrust. Then the edge of the crevice was beside them, beneath them, above them. He felt the blade go out of his hand as it struck the stream bed.

  When they came again above the surface of the water, gasping for breath, each held only water in his hands.

  "Time for the final baptism," said Yama, and he lashed out with his left hand.

  The other blocked the punch, throwing one of his own.

  They moved to the left with the waters, until their feet struck upon rock and they fought, wading, along the length of the stream.

  It widened and grew more shallow as they moved, until the waters swirled about their waists. In places, the banks began to fall nearer the surface of the water.

  Yama landed blow after blow, both with his fists and the edges of his hands; but it was as if he assailed a statue, for the one who had been Kali's holy executioner took each blow without changing his expression, and he returned them with twisting punches of bone-breaking force. Most of these blows were slowed by the water or blocked by Yama's guard, but one landed between his rib cage and hipbone and another glanced on his left shoulder and rebounded from his cheek.

  Yama cast himself into a backstroke and made for shallower water.

  The other followed and sprang upon him, to be caught in his impervious midsection by a red boot, as the front of his garment was jerked forward and down. He continued on, passing over Yama's head, to land upon his back on a section of shale.

  Yama rose to his knees and turned, as the other found his footing and drew a dagger from his belt. His face was still impassive as he dropped into a crouch.

  For a moment their eyes met, but the other did not waver this time.

  "Now can I meet your death-gaze, Yama," he stated, "and not be stopped by it. You have taught me too well!"

  And as he lunged, Yama's hands came away from his waist, snapping his wet sash like a whip about the other's thighs.

  He caught him and locked him to him as he fell forward, dropping the blade; and with a kick he bore them both back into deeper water.

  "None sing hymns to breath," said Yama. "But, oh to be without it!"

  Then he plunged downward, bearing the other with him, his arms like steel loops about his body.

  Later, much later, as the wet figure stood beside the stream, he spoke softly and his breath came in gasps:

  "You were—the greatest—to be raised up against me—in all the ages I can remember. . . . It is indeed a pity . . ."

  Then, having crossed the stream, he continued on his way through the hills of stone, walking.

  Entering the town of Alundil, the traveler stopped at the first inn he came to. He took a room and ordered a tub of water. He bathed while a servant cleaned his garments.

  Before he had his dinner, he moved to the window and looked down into the street. The smell of slizzard was strong upon the air, and the babble of many voices arose from below.

  People were leaving the town. In the courtyard at his back, preparations for the departure of a morning caravan were being made. This night marked the end of the spring festival. Below him in the street, businessmen were still trading, mothers were soothing tired children and a local prince was returning with his men from the hunt, two fire-roosters strapped to the back of a skittering slizzard. He watched a tired prostitute discussing something with a priest, who appeared to be even more tired, as he kept shaking his head and finally walked away. One moon was already high in the heavens—seen as golden through the Bridge of the Gods — and a second, smaller moon had just appeared above the horizon. There was a cool tingle in the evening air, bearing to him, above the smells of the city, the scents of the growing things of spring: the small shoots and the tender grasses, the clean smell of the blue-green spring wheat, the moist ground, the roiling freshet. Leaning forward, he could see the Temple that stood upon the hill.

  He summoned a servant to bring his dinner in his chamber and to send for a local merchant.

  He ate slowly, not paying especial attention to his food, and when he had finished, the merchant was shown in.

  The man bore a cloak full of samples, and of these he finally decided upon a long, curved blade and a short, straight dagger, both of which he thrust into his sash.

  Then he went out into the evening and walked along the rutted main street of the town. Lovers embraced in doorways. He passed a house where mourners were wailing for one dead. A beggar limped after him for half a block, until he turned and glanced into his eyes, saying, "You are not lame," and then the man hurried away, losing himself in a crowd that was passing. Overhead, the fireworks began to burst against the sky, sending long, cherry-colored streamers down toward the ground. From the Temple came the sound of the gourd horns playing the nagaswaram music. A man stumbled from out a doorway, brushing against him, and he broke the
man's wrist as he felt his hand fall upon his purse. The man uttered a curse and called for help, but he pushed him into the drainage ditch and walked on, turning away his two companions with one dark look.

  At last, he came to the Temple, hesitated a moment and passed within.

  He entered the inner courtyard behind a priest who was carrying in a small statue from an outer niche.

  He surveyed the courtyard, then quickly moved to the place occupied by the statue of the goddess Kali. He studied her for a long while, drawing his blade and placing it at her feet. When he picked it up and turned away, he saw that the priest was watching him. He nodded to the man, who immediately approached and bade him a good evening.

  "Good evening, priest," he replied.

  "May Kali sanctify your blade, warrior."

  "Thank you. She has."

  The priest smiled. "You speak as if you knew that for certain."

  "And that is presumptuous of me, eh?"

  "Well, it may not be in the best of taste."

  "Nevertheless, I felt her power come over me as I gazed upon her shrine."

  The priest shuddered. "Despite my office," he stated, "that is a feeling of power I can do without."

  "You fear her power?"

  "Let us say," said the priest, "that despite its magnificence, the shrine of Kali is not so frequently visited as are those of Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Shakti, Sitala, Ratri and the other less awesome goddesses."

  "But she is greater than any of these."

  "And more terrible."

  "So? Despite her strength, she is not an unjust goddess."

  The priest smiled. "What man who has lived for more than a score of years desires justice, warrior? For my part, I find mercy infinitely more attractive. Give me a forgiving deity any day."

  "Well taken," said the other, "but I am, as you say, a warrior. My own nature is close to hers. We think alike, the goddess and I. We generally agree on most matters. When we do not, I remember that she is also a woman."

  "I live here," said the priest, "and I do not speak that intimately of my charges, the gods."