Lord of Lies

by David Zindell

  Lord Dashavay, with perfect timing and sense of distance, aimed another blow at me, and another, and then a whole series of cuts, feints and thrusts. I parried them all. The faster he moved, the more quickly I whipped Alkaladur about to knock his blade aside. As I began to perceive the pattern of his attack, my silver sword wove an impenetrable pattern about me, like a fence of light. Frustration furrowed Lord Dashavay's sweating brow. He gasped from the pain of his burning muscles as his heart pushed hot blood through his veins and he swung his sword at me, again and again. Now his sureness was broken by dismay, and dismay began to give way to a fear that ate into his spine. I took a step toward him and then another. I turned my blade, right and then left, parrying and using the momentum of his sword striking mine to whip my sword around in an arc back toward him. I felt no tiredness, only an inexhaustible strength that my sword drew down from the sun and poured into my arms. Yarashan had warned me to beware of my weaknesses. But here, in this circle of honor, with this bright sword ringing against Lord Dashavay's well-tested blade, I knew that I would make no mistakes.

  I struck with great speed at his head, and he took a step backward. Again I attacked him, and again. Alkaladur flared and flashed like a cloud of light, like entire whirling constellations of stars. The Sword of Light, men called it. And now Lord Dashavay's fear deepened to awe as I showed him something beautiful about this terrible art of ours that he had never hoped to see. The light of my sword pursued him and chased him about the circle; he couldn't escape it any more than he could strokes of lightning. And neither of us could escape our fate. I pressed him ever backwards, pounding at him relentlessly. My heart pounded out bright bursts of joy, for suddenly my fear left me, and I knew that I had the power to score against him rather than to slay. And so, as his sword swept by me for the hundredth time, I thrust forward with a savagery that tore away my breath. And I stopped the point of my blade an inch from his heart.

  'Hold!' Lord Jonasar cried out. 'Match to Lord Valashu Elahad!' I stood there gasping for air as the cries of hundreds of Valari in the stands came roaring into my ears.

  'Lord of Light!' I heard someone call out. 'Maitreya!'

  Lord Dashavay looked down at my bright blade that had stopped him cold. His astonishment burned away in the flame of sudden understanding. He gasped out, 'Brilliant, Lord Valashu! I never knew. Perhaps some day we can make another match.'

  He bowed his head to me then, and I bowed to him. Then we walked out of the circle to rejoin our friends where they sat with the other knights of our respective kingdoms.

  'Champion! Champion! Champion!'

  Maram rose from our bench, threw his arms around me and pounded me on the back. Baltasar, taking care of his wounded hand, joined him in congratulating me, as did Sunjay Naviru and Yarashan.

  Of course, their celebration was premature, for I had won only my first match of the morning. There followed a long day of other matches and other rounds, with Lord Marjay, Sar Siraju of Lagash and others. I vanquished them all even more quickly than I had Lord Dashavay. Between my matches I watched other knights fence. It was a good day of excellent swordsmanship and only one death. Late in the afternoon, I drew my sword for the last time in that tournament and sheathed it scarcely half a minute later, after I had swept away Sar Shivamar's fevered defenses - and nearly his head. The judges awarded me my ten points, and King Waray was forced to drape around my neck the gold medal of the tournament's champion.

  'Lord of Light! Lord of Light! Lord of Light!'

  At the edge of the stands, I stood before King Waray as the many people in the pavilion rose to their feet and cheered me. Lord Viromar, with the Valari kings, bowed their heads to me. And then King Mohan, as blunt and honest as he was contentious, said to me, 'Sar Maram was right about you. That was the finest swordwork I've ever seen. No knight has ever deserved the championship more.'

  'Thank you, King Mohan,' I said. 'Do I then deserve to ask if you will make the journey to the conclave in Tria?'

  'You do.'

  'Will you?'

  His black eyes seemed bright with the light of my sword, and something else. He said, 'Yes, I will.'

  I turned to King Kurshan, and I asked him the same question, as I did Lord Viromar; they both gave their assent. After I had queried King Danashu likewise, he hesitated a moment as he looked to King Waray for sign of what he should say. And then he seemed to find the best of his own will inside himself, and he said, 'Perhaps this is the time to meet in Tria. I won't be the only Valari king to stay behind.'

  I bowed my head to hiand then looked at the gaunt, disbelieving King Sandarkan. We locked eyes together for a moment before he looked away. And he said, 'Perhaps we could put our house together, at least for as long as it takes to ride to Tria and then home again.'

  'King Hadaru,' I said, turning toward the old Ishkan bear. 'Do you agree?'

  King Hadaru fastened his hard eyes upon me as he pulled at the battle ribbons in his white hair. 'I do agree, at least to journey to Tria. You've earned your chance to speak there in favor of an alliance.'

  Now only King Waray remained uncommitted to the conclave of all of Ea's Free Kingdoms. I stood beneath the stands as the gold medallion that he had bestowed upon me pulled at my neck. And I asked him, 'King Waray, will you journey to Tria?'

  And without hesitation, this suave, cunning king smiled at me as if I were a son who had honored him, and he said, 'Of course I will. Together we'll make a procession into Tria that hasn't been seen for three thousand years.'

  And with that, the thousands of people in the pavilion let loose a great cheer. Baltasar and the other Guardians stood together in the stands, and they cried out, 'Maitreya! Claim the Lightstone!'

  They made a procession of their own, nearly a hundred and twenty of them, down into the pavilion's floor. Then Sharash of Pushku, whose turn it was to keep the Lightstone that day, approached me, holding high the golden cup.

  'Lord of Light!' he cried out to me. 'Claim the Lightstone!' A hundred voices from the stands called out as well, 'Claim it! Claim the Cup of Heaven!'

  I stood there for a long time looking at this golden cup that showered its light upon the many men and women tiiere. I waited for the pavilion to grow quiet. I looked up at Estrella, who sat with Lord Harsha. She seemed bright and happy as she smiled at me and waited to see what I would do.

  At last, I motioned for Sharash to lower the Lightstone And then I called out as loudly as I could, 'After the conclave is successfully concluded and an alliance is made, then - and only then - I will claim the Lightstone.'

  Out of the silence that fell across the stands. King Waray said to me, 'Is there nothing you would ask for yourself, as is a champion's right?'

  His broad smile hid the churning inside him, and I knew it cost him a great deal to ask me this. And I smiled at Master Juwam before turning back to King Waray and saying, 'I would ask only that the Brotherhood's school be reopened and that Master Juwam be allowed to complete his research there.'

  'Of course,' King Waray said, as his hands clenched into fists. 'It will be my pleasure to grant you this. Now why don't we all retire to our tents to prepare for the feast tonight?'

  As he made his way from the stands and out of the pavilion, many people followed him. Many more, however, came down to congratulate me To Yarashan and Baltasar, to Lord Raasharu, Skyshan and Sunjay Naviru, I showed my champion's medallion. It was a great moment made poignant only by Asaru's absence. But Maram's hand thumping on my back and the deep quiet of Estrella's dark eyes gave me to hope that I would fulfill all my dreams, and soon.

  Chapter 14

  I spent most of the next day in my tent with Asaru, tending his wound and recounting the events of the tournament, especially the sword competition which he had not been able to watch. With Master Juwain filling his torn body with the green gelstei's magic light, he seemed to gain strength every hour. By the time the following morning dawned clear and bright, Master Juwain felt confident of my brother's recovery.
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  'I've done all I can for Asaru,' he said to me as he took me outside. 'Now he'll have to heal of his own light - and by the One's grace.'

  'Thank you,' I said to him as I looked off at the rising sun.

  'And now we should go up to the school. With King Waray's prohibition, it might take many days to search through the thought stones.'

  King Waray, even as I had feared, had forbidden Master Juwain to remove any artifact from the Brotherhood's sanctuary.

  'We don't have many days,' I said to him. 'We should leave for Tria as soon as we can.'

  With time pressing at us, Master Juwain and five others of his Brotherhood organized a little expedition to reopen their school in the hills above Nar. The Guardians and I joined them, for it seemed certain that the Lightstone would be needed to open any gelstei Master Juwain might find. To our numbers was added a company of Taron knights under the command of a Lord Evar. They would escort us to the school and make certain that King Waray's wishes were obeyed.

  And so later that day we left Yarashan, Lord Harsha, Behira and Estrella behind with Asaru, and we rode out from the Tournament Grounds. With the fifty Taroners in the lead, we made our way through the smoky Smithy District up into the green hills overlooking the city. The Brotherhood school - a collection of old stone buildings spread out across the top of one of these broad hills - rose up before us as if the very bones of the earth had been exposed by wind and weather and the relentless wear of time. I liked the feeling of this ancient site. As with other Brotherhood schools, there was a quiet magnificence here and a harmony with heaven and earth that suggested an eternal quest for mysteries. The library formed the center part of the Brother's sanctuary. It was fronted by perfectly proportioned columns beyond which loomed its great wooden doors. Lord Evar, a tall man almost as gaunt and grim as King Sandarkan, drew forth a great iron key and made a show of formally unlocking these ancient doors.

  While the five other masters went off to attend to various duties and the Guardians stood watch before the doors, Master Juwain showed Maram and me into the library. It was nothing so grand as the immense Library of Khaisham and collection of books that had perished in flames. But with its many aisles and shelves of musty, leather-bound volumes and manuscripts resting in the quiet beneath its great dome, I guessed that it held more books than all of Silvassu. Along its curved walls were many cabinets containing relics that the Brothers had rescued over the ages. Master Juwain, with a key that a Master Tavian had given him, approached one of these cabinets and unlocked one of its long, flat drawers. He slid it out halfway to reveal many opalescent stones which rested in pockets scooped into the wood. In front of each pocket was inscribed a number. Each stone ran with shifting colors that ranged from ruby to bright violet; each of them seemed nearly identical to the stone that Master Juwain had opened in my father's castle and which he now drew forth.

  'Do you see?' he told Maram and me as he turned the stone between his fingers. 'It's as I said: there were too many to remove to Mesh.'

  I looked deeper into the drawer and saw that there were ten rows of ten stones - or should have been, for near the back of the drawer, one stone was missing from the ninth row.

  'But how did you choose this stone?' Maram asked him.

  'By chance,' Master Juwain said. He tapped his finger against the three drawers below the opened one. 'These, too, contain gelstei believed to hold knowledge of the Lightstone. 1 had to pick one of them and test it.'

  'Four hundred stones,' I said, shaking my head.

  'Three hundred and fifty-three, to be precise,' Master Juwain told me. 'The fourth drawer is only half full.'

  'Even so, to open and read all of them would be like reading as many books, wouldn't it?'

  'Yes, but it may be that the knowledge in the stones is indexed and cross-referenced, as in the books of the better libraries. If so, then I might be able to follow a stream of knowledge to the: one we seek.'

  'Any knowledge about the Lightstone, you should seek,' I said to him. 'About the Maitreya. Now, if you will, please begin.'

  As in the great hall of my father's castle, Master Juwain used his varistei to prepare his head and heart for the task before him. Then I brought forth the Lightstone. Master Juwain set his thought stone back into its place in the drawer and removed another one. His gnarled fingers squeezed it tightly as he held it before the Lightstone. This time, he had much less trouble opening it. The Lightstone flared with a sudden radiance as the thought stone's colors seemed to catch fire. I saw these colors swirling in bright patterns in the black circles at the centers of Master Juwain's eyes. So intently did he stare at this little gelstei that it seemed he might never move again.

  'I see, I see,' he whispered. And then, after some moments, while my heart beat quickly, he said, 'Brother Maram, please give me number nineteen.'

  Without turning his head, he handed Maram the little stone, which Maram set back in its place before retrieving the one that Master Juwain had requested. He pressed it into Master Juwain's hand. And for what seemed a long time, Master Juwain stared at this thought stone, too.

  'Number eighty-two!' Master Juwain finally called out. 'Third drawer!'

  And so it went for the rest of the day and far into the night, Master Juwain calling for specific thought stones and Maram delivering them faithfully - even as I stood in front of Master Juwain holding up the brilliant Lightstone.

  At last, Maram patted his rumbling belly and suggested that we should take our evening meal. Master Juwain then broke off his researches. He looked across the large, circular room at the blazing candles that he had only grudgingly permitted Maram to light. And then he told us, 'The thought stones were indexed, perhaps thousands of years ago. But the system has been lost - until today.'

  He began to explicate this system but I held up my hand to stop him. 'Excuse me, sir, but we've little time. What did you discover?'

  'Much less than we'd hoped, I'm afraid,' he said. 'That is, the thought stones do contain a great deal of knowledge. But most of this is recorded in the Saganom Elu.'

  'Is there nothing new, then? Nothing that might be able to help us?'

  'Only bits and pieces,' he said. 'Only hints.'

  'Tell me, then.'

  'Well, there this,' he said. 'There are passages indicating that the Maitreya is one who must make a great sacrifice.'

  'Of his life?' I asked.

  Master Juwain's news did not accord with the Saganom Elu's Book of Remembrance, where it was written that: 'The Maitreya will gain the greatest prize; he will reach out and take the whole world in his hands.'

  Master Juwain shook his head and told me, 'No, I had no sense that the Maitreya must die for others, not exactly. Only that he must forsake some great thing.'

  'Is it love, then? Marriage?'

  'No, I don't think so. It has something to do, rather, with the Lightstone.'

  I squeezed the golden cup that I still held In my hand. 'But the Lightstone was meant for the Maitreya. How, then, should he give it up?'

  'I'm not sure he must. I'm not sure he can.'

  'What do you mean?'

  'Do you remember the passage from the Beginnings? ' "The Ughtstone is the perfect jewel within the lotus found inside the human heart." '

  'A beautiful metaphor,' I said.

  'Beautiful, yes - and perhaps something more.' Master Juwain gazed above us at the dome's clear windows that let in the light of the stars. 'You see, there are the infinities.'

  'Sir?'

  He looked back at me and showed me the thought stone. He said, 'This little gelstei is a finite thing, as is the knowledge it contains - as are all things. The One, of course, is infinite. But the Lightstone, somehow, is both.'

  Now all of us, even Maram, stared at the golden contours of the Lightstone as if seeing it for the first time.

  'And as with the Lightstone,' Master Juwain continued, 'so with the Maitreya. We know that he is the one who has a perfect resonance with it. There is a sense that in orde
r for this to be so, he must sacrifice his finiteness - his very humanity.'

  I gripped the Lightstone so tightly that it hurt my fingers. I shook my head because I did not know what Master Juwain s words could mean. I said, 'If only there was more.'

  'I'm afraid that's all I gleaned from this first pass. But if I'd had more time .. .'

  His voice died off into the library's half-light.

  'Yes?' I said to him.

  'Well you see,' he said, 'there was one stream of recordings, more like a rill, actually, that I might have followed. A hint of a hint about some great store of knowledge concerning the Lightstone.'

  I looked out the window at the great constellations wheeling slowly about the heavens. I said to him, 'We have all of tonight - and tomorrow, too, if need be. If you are willing, sir.'

  The gleam in Master Juwain's luminous eyes told me that he was more than willing. When Maram groaned that we could not possibly go on without sustenance, I sent him to retrieve a loaf of barley bread and some goat's cheese from the stores that the Guardians had shared out for their dinner. And then, after we had eaten, Maram returned to retrieving thought stones for Master Juwain as our old friend set to work.

  Thus we passed the rest of the night. As Master Juwain gained proficiency at opening and reading the stones, this strange business went more quickly. At times he called out the numbers of new stones so suddenly that Maram was hard put to replace the old one before drawing forth the new. He puffed and sweated as drawers slid open and slammed shut and the marble-like thought stones rattled in their wooden pockets. Finally, near dawn, Master Juwain gave back to Maram the last of a long sequence of stones. He looked at us and smiled. Although his eyes were red with weariness, he was almost hopping with excitement.

  'I believe,' he told us, 'that there is a gelstei containing the true knowledge of the Lightstone. A gelstei unlike any other. It's called an akashic crystal.'

  'That name is unfamiliar to me,' I said.

  'Akashic is a word meaning "great memories". It seems that the knowledge contained in this crystal, compared to an ordinary thought stone, is as an ocean to a pond.'