Lord of Lies

by David Zindell

  'Surely they sit there no more,' I said. 'You should have seen their faces when they learned that I was not the Maitreya.'

  'That is still not proven!' Lansar Raasharu called out slamming his hand down on the table. 'All we've had are some old verses out of an old gelstei that is now in pieces. Who knows if they really told true? Val must have faith! Perhaps he'll regain it after we've smashed the Dragon.'

  My father looked down the table at Lansar, and then at me. Many things stirred inside him: sorrow, pride, doubt, love. The light of his eyes filled my own like fire. And then he said, 'We must assume that Val is not the Maitreya, unless by some miracle it is proven otherwise. Certainly few now will perceive him as such. Certainly the Valari kings do not.'

  He paused to take a breath, then asked me, 'You say that King Hadaru and the others have left Tria?'

  'They must have,' I said. 'But we rode ahead of them, so it is hard to be sure.'

  My father ran his finger along his jaw, and then said, 'It may be, then, that they have already reached their domains, or soon will. Very well. It was not known how things would go in Tria, and so messengers have already been sent to them, requesting aid. It will take some days for them to return with their answers.'

  'It would be folly,' I said to him, and to myself, 'to place too great a hope on what these answers will be.'

  'Perhaps,' he told me. 'But it would equally be folly to place too little. You say that the Valari kings are cold toward you now. But things build inside men like layers of snow. And even a whisper, at the right moment, can set off an avalanche. Maitreya or no, Valashu, who knows what you've set to whispering in others' hearts?'

  Kane, sitting next to Asaru at the other end of the table, kneaded his hands together as if they ached to grip a sword. Then he growled out, 'So, even if Ishka or Kaash do march to aid Mesh, they might march too late. What if Morjin moves first?'

  Asaru eyed Kane as if he didn't quite like his look. 'The Sakayans sit on the steppe, at the mouth of the Eshur Pass. We've counted seven of the Urtuk clans waiting with them. We don't know what they are waiting for.'

  At the mention of the Urtuk clans, Kane, Maram and I all looked at Atara. It finally came time for her to tell of the battle that she had seen from afar, and this she did.

  'It may be,' she said, 'that Morjin pauses to care for his wounded -the Niuriu's arrows struck down many.'

  'We've had no news of this battle,' my father said. He regarded Atara with that kind off creeping dread that people often feel toward scryers.

  'It may also be,' she said, 'that Morjin awaits reinforcement from the Adirii clans.'

  'That would be bad news, indeed,' my father said. 'We've counted twenty-five thousand Sakayans under Morjin's command, and two thousand Urtuk.'

  'And how many can we field?' I asked.

  'We're hoping that sixteen thousand will answer the call. Perhaps seventeen.'

  At this, Maram began drumming his fingers on the table as he said, 'Then even if Morjin is not reinforced, he would still outnumber us nearly two to one.'

  'One Valari,' Asaru said to him, pointing at Maram's ring, 'is the equal of any two Sakayans who ever lived. Don't forget that you are a Valari knight, now.'

  'In spirit ah, yes I am,' Maram said. 'And it's to be hoped that the Valari fighting spirit will hold off the Red Dragon and keep him from fighting. Why else would he wait before the gateway to Mesh?'

  'We cannot overlook the possibility,' Master Juwain said, 'that he awaits the right moment. Surely he would look to the heavens before so great an undertaking. With Argald conjuncting Siraj in only another ten days, and the Wolf on the ascendent, then ...'

  For a while, he went on to speak of omens and stellar configurations. And then my mother, who was always practical in a way that reminded me of Liljana, brought matters back to earth. 'Perhaps he only waits to bring up more rations and arms. He must be at the end of a very vulnerable and long line of his supplies.'

  My mother, I thought, a woman given by nature to love poetry, music and meditation, had spent too much of her life in the company of warriors and kings.

  My father sighed as he steepled his fingers beneath his chin. Then he told us, 'Any or all of what has been said are good enough reasons. But we must also consider the letter that Morjin sent to my son. He threatened to destroy Mesh if the Lightstone was not returned to him. Well, the Lightstone has now returned to Mesh. Perhaps Morjin had news of this - or deduced this, and has only been awaiting his chance.'

  'But what sort of chance is this?' Asaru said. 'We're agreed that he cannot defeat us.'

  'Are we?' my father said to him. 'Your confidence and courage befit a king, and yet a king should never forget the uncertainty of battle.'

  'Morjin faces the same uncertainty. Perhaps now that he has come this far, he hesitates to come the final miles. Perhaps he hopes that glowing us his army will make us give him what he wants.'

  'Now, it seems, we come closer to the truth of things,' my father said. 'Morjin made a threat to us, and may have made it known to others. He may have marched, in part, to keep true to his word.'

  At this, Kane threw back his head and let loose a howl of laughter so loud that not even the books along the walls could soften the savage sound of it: 'Morjin, a man of his word - ha! The Lord of Lies, he is. So. So. King Shamesh. You know that Morjin hates the truth as the night does the sun. But you are right that he wants to be seen as keeping his word. A dragon that threatens a village with fire is scorned if he fails to burn it.'

  My father studied Kane for a few moments, and then said, 'You seem to know a lot about the Red Dragon.'

  'That I do. I've fought him in Yarkona and in Argattha. And in other places.'

  'And what places would those be?'

  'Faraway places,' Kane said. 'Dark places.'

  Kane, I thought, was an even greater mystery to my father than he was to me. At Kane's request, I had said nothing of his origins to my family, or to anyone. My father knew of him only as a matchless old warrior who had fought with me side by side in Argattha, cutting and slaying without mercy to face down Morjin and seek his revenge.

  'Very well,' my father said to Kane, and to everyone. 'The Red Dragon has made his threats. Asaru is right that his marching on us may only be another. Therefore it follows that he may send envoys demanding the Lightstone's return.'

  'But you can't gamble on that!' Kane snarled out. 'You can't wait upon these envoys and leave your realm open to invasion!'

  My father cast Kane a cold, hard look. He did not tolerate presumption, and Kane could be the most presumptuous of men.

  'No one is suggesting that we do,' my father told him. 'The kel keep at Eshur Pass has already been reinforced from the garrison at Lashku. They could hold back Morjin's army for a day, possibly two. As soon as my warriors and knights are assembled, we'll make forced march to the pass. And there intercept Morjin's envoys - or his army.'

  Neither Asaru, Lord Raasharu or I could fault my father's plan. But Atara sat in silence, twisting her scryer's sphere around and around in her long hands. And Kane glared at a brazier full of coals near his corner of the table. His black eyes seemed as hot as coals as his jaw muscles worked beneath his taut skin.

  'Do you have an objection to make?' my father asked him.

  'So, there's something here that we do not see.'

  'And what is that then?'

  'How should I know? How can anyone see. . . what he cannot see?'

  'But you have a sense of things, yes?'

  'So, a sense. I smell a trap. The Red Dragon has set many such before.'

  My father sat drawing in deep breaths of air, and then releasing them slowly. He finally said, 'If you perceive the nature of this trap please inform me. But until then, there's much to be done. Now, if no one has anything to add, let us all go about our duties.'

  After we left the library, I took Maram aside and told him, 'I'm sorry I led you to this. You might have returned home to marry Behira instead of making
war.'

  And he told me: 'Ah, well, don't distress yourself, my friend. It's sad, in a way, that the events in Tria have postponed my plans. And now this. But the truth is, I'm still not fit to be anyone's husband. If you had claimed the Lightstone and learned to wield it, I had hoped . . . ah, that things might have been different. And some day they might be. But until then, I'll need to claim my own sword and wield it more wisely, if you know what I mean.'

  Maram seemed almost relieved that the urgency of the situation might occupy his other talents and keep him out of trouble. For my father had been right in what he had told us: thousands of tasks must be accomplished, and soon, to make the castle and kingdom ready for war. My mother took charge of the castle's domestic affairs, finding rooms or sleeping space for the many new people taking shelter there. Asaru rode off to see to the assembly of the army. His would be the critical command of the right wing of heavy cavalry, if my father kept to the usual order of battle. Lansar Raasharu, as my father's seneschal, would act as his closest counselor in all matters of strategy as well as logistics. Since Kane, Atara, Master Juwain and Liljana were guests of Mesh, my father required nothing of them. But he expected a great deal. They did not disappoint him. Master Juwain went to work with the other healers to prepare the army's field infirmary to care for the wounded. As at Khaisham, Liljana would assist him, along with Behira and others. Kane, prowling the castle like a caged tiger, threw himself into whatever work came to hand: drawing water, helping the blacksmiths pound hot iron into extra shoes for the horses, giving newly arrived knights lessons with the sword. My father asked me, and Maram, to make sure that the castle was ready to withstand siege. We were to report on how many hundreds of bushels of wheat had been added to the already considerable stores of food in the great vaults beneath the keep. And more importantly: how many sheaves of arrows had the fletchers sent up from Silvassu and how many barrels of oil ready to be heated to boiling and poured down upon any poor Sakayans assaulting the castle's walls? As for these great sweeps of granite, I was to walk along every inch of the battlements, testing mortar and stone, making sure that the archers knew their places and the warriors stood ready to repel ladders or fight off the enemy's siege towers.

  For three days we thus busied ourselves. Each night at the end of our work, I climbed the Swan Tower and looked out to the south of the city where the army gathered along the river. Their cooking fires grew night by night from hundreds into thousands of flickering orange lights. On the morning of the fourth day since my return home, my father announced that sixteen thousand warriors had answered his call to battle, with more trickling in from the faroff mountain fastnesses. He strapped on his armor, and prepared to ride down from the castle to join them. But then, toward noon, there came a commotion from the West Gate. Ten knights rode into the west ward escorting two Sarni warriors under heavy guard. The knights' captain, Sar Barshan of Lashku, asked to speak with my father. After my father was summoned and heard what Sar Barshan had to say, he called for an immediate council in his library.

  When I entered the library, I was amazed to see Atara standing and talking familiarly with the two Sarni warriors. For she knew them well, as did I. They were Aieela and Sonjah, two of the Manslayers of the Urtuk who had aided us in crossing the Wendrush the year before. It was they, with their sister warriors, who had made Atara's lionskin cloak. Accoutered in their studded leather armor and golden torques, with their quick blue eyes looking wildly about the library at the books and chairs and other objects that they had never seen before, they seemed agitated and out of place My father did not ease their disquiet. He presented them with cold formality to Asaru and Lord Raasharu. And then he left them standing next to Sar Barshan as he invited everyone else to sit at the table.

  'Sar Barshan,' my father announced, nodding at this grim, young knight guarding the Manslayers, 'has hurried here at Lord Manthanus command. Three days ago, these women presented themselves at his keep with tidings that we all should hear.'

  So saying, he nodded at Sonjah, who was the taller and older of the two women. She had an air of gravity, which was enhanced by her considerable substance: heavy arms and jowls and great, wide hips that a Sarni pony might have had troubling holding up. Her voice was heavy, too, with anger, as she looked at my father and said 'Well tell our tidings, King Shamesh, for Atara's sake if not yours. But it is hard to speak in the face of so little hospitality.'

  'Forgive me,' my father said, swallowing the anger in his own voice.

  'But when I was a boy, my brother, Ramshan, was sent to the Urtuks on a mission of peace. Your people showed their hospitality by sending back his head.'

  'That was not the doing of the Manslayers or of my clan,' Sonjah said. 'Itwas the Yarkuts who did this. Always they have shamed themselves, even as they do now.'

  Lansar Raasharu slapped his hand on the table and broke in: 'Why should we believe anything these women say? They are Sarni.'

  'You may believe what you wish to believe,' Sonjah said. 'Men always do. I care not. I've come here to speak with the imaklan, Atara.'

  'How did you know that she had come among us?' Lansar asked her.

  In answer, Sonjah gave back his dark gaze with an evil look of her own.

  'Let her speak,' my father said to Lansar. 'Then we will judge and decide what must be done.'

  Again, he nodded at Sonjah. She gripped her unstrung bow and said to Atara: 'Our Kurmak sisters have sent word that there is war between the Marituk and the Kurmak. They told us, too, that we would find you in Mesh. You are needed, Atara. All the Manslayers, from all the tribes, are uniting against Morjin - and against any tribe or clan that would ally with him. You are called to speak at council. Many speak of you as Chiefess of all the Manslayers'

  I had never heard that the Manslayers had ever had a single chiefess before. Neither, it seemed, had Atara. She sat facing across the room toward Sonjah and Aieela as she said, 'It would be a great thing for the Manslayers to unite this way, and those are truly great tidings. But that is not why Lord Manthanu has sent you here under guard, nor why King Shamesh has called this meeting, is it?'

  'No, it is not,' Sonjah said as she looked from Atara to my father.

  'Then,' Atara said, 'why don't you tell us the rest of your news?'

  Sonjah stared straight at my father, and then with the savagery for which the Sarni are famous, she fired these words like flaming arrows at him: 'A Galdan army marches upon Mesh. They are commanded by one of Morjin's priests, a man named Radomil Makan. In five or six more days, they will be upon you.'

  'The Galdans!' Asaru cried out. 'Here, in Mesh? Impossible!'

  In truth, what Sonjah had told us did seem impossible. Galda was still in chaos after the wars fought to otherthrow her king. And it was nearly four hundred miles from Ar to Mesh, with the most impassable terrain of the Morning Mountains to cross. And half of those miles lay in the sere, cruel country of the Mansurii, who would kill Galdans as gladly as they would Meshians or Kaashans or any other peoples.

  When Atara questioned Sonjah about this, Sonjah shrugged her shoulders and said, 'The Red Dragon has sent chests of gold to the Mansurii. He has bought safe passage for the Galdans.'

  'But he has not bought the Mansurii's bows and arrows?'

  'Not as far as we've heard.'

  'How many are the Galdans, then?'

  'Forty thousand, it's said.'

  'Forty thousand!' Maram cried out. 'Oh, my lord - it will be like Khaisham!'

  My father sat regarding Sonjah and Aieela. His face seemed to have taken on the color of the old, leatherbound books all around him.

  'If true,' Lansar Raasharu said, 'this will be very bad. But why should we believe it is true? Why should these women risk so much to aid their enemy?'

  Sonjah brushed back her thick, blonde hair and said, 'We care not what befalls Mesh. We came here to warn Atara and take her away from what will surely be slaughter.'

  I rubbed the seven diamonds set into the black jade of the hilt of
my sword. I said, 'Slaughter is not certain. You speak of the Manslayers uniting against the Red Dragon. Why not ask your sisters to fight with us?'

  'Ally with men?' Sonjah said to me. 'We slay men.'

  'But the Manslayers rode with us against the Adirii clans, who were bought by the Red Dragon.'

  'True, but we are Urtuk, not Kurmak. We are too few, and we will not waste ourselves in a hopeless battle - not to aid Valari.'

  'But all of the Manslayers,' I persisted, 'would not be too few.'

  Sonjah shrugged her shoulders again. 'Even if the Manslayers will unite, it would take a month to gather all of us together.'

  'Too late to be of any help to us,' Lansar said.

  Sonjah smiled at him, and her eyes were as sharp as knife points. 'You will help us. You Valari will not die cheaply, this we know. You will weaken the Red Dragon. And then we will harry him along his retreat to the Black Mountain. Perhaps we will slay him, and burn his liver in memory of you.'

  Kane glared at her and snapped out, 'Fool! If you think you can so easily outmaneuver Morjin, then you're a fool.'

  Sonjah tried to ignore him, but that was something like ignoring a mountain of fire about to erupt. Finally, she managed to turn toward Atara. 'Will you come with us, my imakla one?'

  'No,' Atara said without hesitation. 'Not now. I will fight along with Val, and his people.'

  Sonjah looked atme sadly and said, 'You are the one Valari I would ride with. Perhaps another time.'

  Lansar glowered at her as he fingered the hilt of his sword. Then he said to us, 'At best, this woman hopes to slay Morjin and claim the Lightstone for herself - after he has plundered it from us. At worst, she is a spy. She is Urtuk, and we have seen the Urtuk clans gathering to Morjin's standard.'

  'True,' Asaru said, 'but we haven't seen the Manslayers.'

  Lansar waved his hand toward Asaru as if sweeping away the voice of reason. 'Even if the Manslayers haven't been bought by Morjin's gold, these women might have been. Or bought by pain: what if Morjin holds hostage their families and threatens them with torture?'