'What choice did I have?' King Tal called back to him. 'Since you insisted on letting Duke Brayan keep Ilian Island?'
'But Ilian Island is ours, and has been since the Channel War!'
For a while, the other kings at the table watched as the debate among King Tal, King Theodor, King Hanniban and King Aryaman grew ever more heated. Finally, when King Tal warned King Aryaman to keep his raiders away from the important fishing waters off the Northland Banks, King Aryaman lost his patience. He rose to his feet and lifted up his axe. Then he swung it down toward the center of the table. With a thunderous crash, its steel blade bit deep into the white oak as he shouted out, 'But no one can reason with these men! Any alliance of our realms is impossible!'
With King Kiritan glaring at him as he might an errant child, King Aryaman pulled free a purse of coins and tossed it jangling onto the floor.'For your table, King Kiritan,' he said.
He stared at his axe planted only inches from the Lightstone; so did King Kiritan and King Hanniban, and all the other kings seething with their own resentments and doubts.
I gazed across the table at this huge, yellow-haired king steeped in the violence of his long and ancient line. And I said to him, and to everyone else in the hall, 'No, King Aryaman, you're wrong. An alliance is not only possible - it's inevitable.'
I stood up then, and the eyes of all gathered there turned my way. The sunlight streaming down through the dome fell upon the Lightstone and caused it to gleam like a golden jewel. It seemed to sear my lips like fire. The time had finally come, I thought, to tell everyone how the world might be.
Chapter 28
And this is what I said to them: 'All men, even brothers, contend with other men, for that is the way of the world. Each protects his own interests and his own self, and that is right and good. It is thus with all people: each man, woman and child is an island, whole and complete - a glory to the earth. But all islands, beneath the sea, join with each other through the motherland and the very world that gave them birth. So with human beings. Islands we are, yet we are also part of something greater. What man wouldn't stand with his brothers, out of love, to protect their family against brigands who would burn their fields and steal their cattle? And what family wouldn't give its sons to die in battle protecting their kingdom against the armies of an invader? But what is greater than any kingdom? Surely the world we call Ea. If the Red Dragon's armies tear it apart, which of you kings will be left to pick up the pieces of your shattered realms? Which of you loves your people so little? Which of you loves Ea so little? Who will not look beneath the blood-red sea of ancient enmities to behold that which connects us, land to land, brother to brother, heart to heart?'
I paused in my speech to take a quick breath and look at the Lightstone. I drank in its splendor. And it touched into fire all that was within me: my dreams, my hopes, my soul. The longer that I gazed at the golden cup, the brighter and deeper this fire grew. King Aryaman must have sensed it raging through me, for his face had fallen fearful yet softer, almost childlike, as he looked at me strangely. King Hanniban and King Marshayk were looking at me, too. All the kings at the table, I thought, were waiting for me to pass on this beautiful flame. To work this miracle seemed the simplest thing in all the world. I need only open my heart to them.
'King Tal!' I called out. 'Would you not give up arguing over a few fish to see your sons and daughters stand strong and free?'
His cool gray eyes touched mine and warmed with a new light as he nodded his head.
'King Theodor!' I said. 'There are hundreds of islands off Nedu and the Elyssu. Why fight over one of them only to lose all of them?'
'Why indeed?' he said, gazing at me.
I walked around the kings in their chairs at the rim of the table until I came to King Aryaman. I leaned over and grasped the rough wood of his axe's haft. With a quick wrench, I freed it and handed it to him. 'There are greater adventures than raiding merchants' caravels. Did not Thalu's own King Koru-ki build a fleet of lightships to sail up to the stars?'
The wild gleam in King Aryaman's eyes told me that I had guessed right about him, that he shared King Kurshan's dream of setting forth to new worlds. He pushed his axe down into his thick black belt as he stared at me in amazement.
And so it went as I moved around the table, speaking in turn to each of the kings. The fire inside me grew brighter and brighter, like the heart of a star. I sensed that I could wield the Lightstone like some sort of cosmic hammer, to forge a finer sword than the length of silver gelstei I wore sheathed at my side. The Sword of Light, the Sword of Love. Which king, which man, could stand against it?
'King Hanniban!' I said, looking upon this sad, old man. It seemed that he could hardly breathe. 'Will you not pledge to join the Alliance?'
He blinked his red-rimmed eyes as if he could hardly bear to look at me; years seemed to fall away from him as he sat up straighter, made new by a finer elixir than mother's milk. To the gasps of many watching us, he called out, 'I pledge my whole army and all my warships!'
Now a dozen men and women in the mob pressing the guards cried out, 'Maitreya! Lord of Light!' The captain of the guards tried to identify them and cut them out, but even as he began issuing orders to his men, three score peasants and landless knights picked up the cry and shouted, 'Lord of Light! Lord of Light! Lord of Light!' They were too many to drive from the hall unless the guards were willing to spear their own people.
At last I came to King Kiritan. His cool blue eyes were now hot with anger as he glared at me. He seemed still to be waiting for something. And I said to him, 'We make alliance not just for the sake of Ea, but for all worlds. The Lightstone was sent here for a great purpose.'
But I could not move him. He pressed his thin lips tightly together for a moment before snapping out: 'To be placed in your hands?'
'Maitreya!' half a hundred men and women shouted. 'Maitreya!'
As I locked eyes with King Kiritan in a silent battle, Duke Malatam stood and begged permission to speak. King Kiritan broke off staring at me and said to him, 'Speak then, if that is what you wish.' Duke Malatam smoothed his sleek brown beard with his little fingers, all the while turning his ferret's-face right and left toward the many kings and nobles watching him. And in a voice full of both bombast and pleading, he said, 'Many of you know that I have had great success in battle until I met Lord Valashu Elahad and his knights. My defeat has been told of - and Lord Valashu's victory. But the true nature of this victory has not been told. For in the end, it was my victory as well: a victory of the spirit I confess that when I first laid eyes upon the Lightstone, the wanting of it drove me mad. Lord Valashu healed me of my madness, not with steel and death, but with mercy, compassion and new life, for myself and my knights whom he spared. I do not know what the Maitreya is; perhaps no one does. But I do know who he is.'
And with that, with a flourish of his hand, he bowed deeply to me, and then returned to his seat. And many people cried out, 'Maitreya! Healer! Lord of Light!'
But not everyone in the hall shared their enthusiasm. At the nearby table of the Five Families, a lean, wolfish man about King Kiritan's age fixed all his attention on me. Although he affected a casual interest in the shouts of the mob and never actually looked at me directly, I felt his resentment and malice toward me sliding between my ribs like a quick and vicious dagger. His name, I recalled, was Ravik Kirriland. He had unusually colored eyes that I hadn't remembered being quite so vital and dark, like violets.
King Kiritan, even more, could not bear the cries of the multitudes around us. He finally lost his patience as he stood and shouted out 'Silence! Silence, or we will have the hall cleared!'
At once, the chanting ceased as impassioned words died on the lips of hundreds of men and women. The hall grew quiet. Even across the room, I could hear Maram and Master Juwain, and others, gathering in their breaths. And then King Kiritan snapped at me: 'They call you the Maitreya.'
'Yes,' I said, staring at him.
'All
of us have dreams, Valashu Elahad, but we have tried to discourage false hopes until it is known whether you are truly this Shining One who has been prophesied.'
'It is known, as well as it will ever be!' Maram suddenly called out. He looked at me long and deep as if in warning. 'No, it is not,' King Kiritan told him.
'No, it is not,' I agreed, turning away from Maram. Although Atara had no eyes, I felt her staring at me from her table across the hall. 'It must be put to the test.'
A flicker of surprise flashed across King Kiritan's face. Then he said 'Yes, we agree, it must be tested.'
King Hanniban and King Aryaman, as well King Hadaru and every other king at the great, round table, were watching me and waiting. And I called out, 'It is said that the Maitreya will be a healer.'
Now it was King Kiritan's turn to surprise me. With a quick glance toward Joakim sitting nervously at the Narmada table, he said, 'Healing is no measure of a Maitreya. Were it so, we would all bow down to simpletons. Or elevate the Brotherhood's Master Healers to the highest throne.'
Here he smiled thinly and looked right at Master Juwain. Master Juwain took this as a challenge: to himself, and even more, to me. He regarded me for a long few moments. An understanding passed between us. And then, with great dignity, he stood up and walked between the rows of tables toward the Guardians' table immediately across the aisle He came up to Estrella, who sat between Lord Harsha and Behira. He placed his gnarled, gentle hand on top of her head and sighed out, 'Even I, with the aid of a green gelstei, have been unable to heal this girl.'
So saying, he opened his other hand, and many people gasped in wonder at the beauty of his emerald crystal that he showed them.
'What ails her?' Count Muar called out, turning toward me.
'She is mute,' I told him.
Count Muar scoffed at this as his face darkened with doubt. 'Do you propose to heal this girl, who is in your charge, of that which might require no healing at all?'
'What do you mean?' I asked him.
'Is it a miracle to summon forth words from one who perhaps willfully swallows her own words? What kind of test is that?'
'She cannot speak,' I said.
'Cannot or will not?'
'Do you challenge my word?' I said to him.
I commanded my hand move away from the hilt of my sword. And King Kiritan's eyes filled with a dark light as he looked from Count Muar to me.
'In the end, a knight's word is all he has,' he told me coldly. 'Therefore, it is upon us to ask you a simple question: Are you the Maitreya?'
My heart beat three times, like a hammer against hot steel, and I gasped out, 'But that is what must be tested!'
Although I knew he was trying to maneuver for advantage, I did not see the nature of the trap.
'Indeed,' he said, 'and surely this must be the test of things, the only test, that you give us your word, yea or nay.'
He stood up as tall and straight as the carved pillars set into the walls as he gazed across the table at me. And then he spoke words to an ancient verse that I knew too well:
About the Maitreya One thing is known:
That to himself He always is known
When the moment comes
To claim the Lightstone.
'Do you deny, Valashu Elahad,' he said to me, 'that you came to Tria to claim the great gelstei?'
I looked away from him toward the center of the table where the little cup I had sought for so long sat gleaming in the sunlight. And to King Kiritan, I said, 'No, I don't deny this.'
'Very well, then tell us, in truth, what you must know in your heart,' he said to me. 'If you are the Maitreya, then we shall pledge our entire army and all our warships to the Alliance, to be led by you. If you are the great Shining One told of in the prophecies, then we shall ourself place the Lightstone in your hands.'
The sudden shout of a thousand men, women and children shook the stones of the hall - and struck straight into my heart: 'Maitreya! Maitreya! Maitreya! Maitreya! .!.'
This is the moment, I thought. This must be the moment.
My eyes were pure fire as I gazed across the hall at the mob clapping their hands and beating their fists against the guards' long shields. The kings sitting in their chairs were all watching me. Nearby, where many nobles were rising up from their tables, Liljana, Master Juwain and Maram were all looking at me, too. Estrella flashed a bright smile at me, but she had already shown me all that she could. Atara still sat in silence with her beautiful face turned toward me. I felt time boiling away like drops of mist beneath a blazing sun. Inside me, the terrible, hot flame of kirax burned my blood. But it was nothing against my deep, consuming desire to know who I really was. It came to me then, like a lighting stroke, that if only we could ask the right and true questions, with all our hearts, we would be answered.
'Ashtoreth,' I whispered, 'blessed Mother, I must know: am I the one for whom the Lightstone was meant? Should I claim it?'
At this. King Mohan looked at King Kurshan and called out against the noise filling the room, listen, the Elahad calls on the angels!'
'Ashtoreth,' I said again, a little louder, 'am I the Maitreya?' Above the Lightstone, in the wavering air over the center of the table, brilliant colors burst into being. This must be Flick thought, yet never had I seen him shine so vividly. So bright was this radiance, it astonished me that no one seemed to perceive it except myself.
'Ahum Alarama', I whispered, speaking Flick's true name.
As I held my breath, the colors brightened even further, and deepened to a splendid glorre. And out of this marvelous hue, Alphanderry's face and form took shape. My old friend, shimmering with a secret light, seemed to stand on air. He smiled at me, and in his lovely eyes was all of his old grace and joy in being human - and something more.
And then his lips parted, and I did not understand why no one else could hear the words that he spoke to me: 'The Lightstone was meant for the Maitreya, and you are not he. The Shining One is always of the Ardun, never the Valari. He is the one who forsakes the path of the angels to die from the world: willfully, joyfully, triumphantly.'
I looked up into the light of Alphanderry's eyes, which were bright as stars. A terrible, wild fear ripped through me. And I whispered, 'What is the Maitreya then? Is he not the one who will vanquish death?'
'Listen,' someone called out as if from far away, 'the Elahad talks with the angels.'
And Alphanderry said to me, 'Angra Mainyu once held the same dream as do you. He, too, wanted to end death, suffering itself. He deceived himself, as have you, Valashu.'
And someone else, from behind me, said, The Elahad talks to the air! Or talks to himself. Surely he is mad.'
I am not he; I am not he; I am not he . . .
I had a hundred more questions that I wished to ask Alphanderry. But then he smiled at me in silence one last time, and his eyes filled with sadness, compassion, warning and hope. And thenjhe vanished into a swirl of sparks that soon burned themselves out, leaving behind only darkness. 'Lord Valashu,' King Kiritan called out to me in his sternest voice,
'Did you hear what we said?'
I could hardly hear King Kiritan even now, for Alphanderry's words shrieked like shattered steel in my mind. I knew that all he had told me was true. I denied it. The voice whispering inside me, forever it seemed, told me much the same thing. I didn't listen, I didn't want to listen. How could I, with Atara still sitting broken in her chair and waiting to be made whole again, with Estrella and all the other chi dren in the hall and in the world, waiting to die beneath the spear, and nails of the Red Dragon's armies - or simply to die upon the fiery cross of life: horribly, meaninglessly, agonizingly?
'Lord Valashu,' King Kiritan said to me, 'we must ask you to tell us what is in your heart.'
Blackness was in my heart bitterness and blame I looked around the table at Ea's kings who waited upon my answer. If I denied that I was the Maitreya, they would lose hope, and there would be no Alliance. King Kiritan might lead Delu and the
Elyssu in a separate and smaller coalition of their realms, for a while, but in the end Morjtn would defeat them, as he would the Valari kingdoms, one by one. He would free Angra Mainyu from the hell of Damoom, and unleash hell on earth - and everywhere - and that would be the end of all things. And as Kane had warned me, that must never be.
'Valashu Elahad,' King Kiritan said again, 'we must ask you formally, before all the sovereigns of Ea's Free Kingdoms, before the witnesses gathered here today, before the entire world: are you the Maitreya?'
I am he who must find him to place the Lightstone in his hands.
I looked straight at King Kiritan and opened my mouth to tell him this. But 1 spoke only the first three words, 'I am he -' For just then, a great tumult shook the hall as many people began crying out as one:
'Lord of Light! Lord of Light! Lord of light! Lord of Light! ...'
'I am he,' I whispered to myself. A thousand men and women had heard this as my affirmation. 'I am he.'
For a moment, I gazed at the Lightstone and felt within myself a great power still to realize all my dreams. I looked over at Atara whose lips were silently forming the words: 'No, no, no, no.. .' Yes, I thought, yes. I knew it was wrong for me to blind myself this way. I knew, too, that I could not escape the evil of it. Evil had seeped into the pores of my skin in the sickening stench of Argattha and into my blood in the kirax upon the arrow that Morjin's priest had fired into me. It had poisoned my mind in the black ink of the words of Morjin's letter. And most of all, it had stricken my soul with the screams of all the men that I had put to the sword. All that I could do now, I thought, was to choose a lesser evil over a greater. And so I, too, retreated into silence, letting stand my lie.
Then King Kiritan called out to me in a voice like thunder: 'No, you cannot be the Lord of Light!'
Lord of Lies Page 53
