Lord of Lies (79 page)

At this, my mother grasped his arm, and leaned closer to him as she whispered something in his ear.

'Forgive me,' my father said to Atara. He let loose a long sigh. 'These are bad times, but that is no cause for unkindness. And Elianora reminds me that she, too, was once a stranger in this land.'

Liljana brought out her little blue gelstei and said, 'I
am
a truthsayer, my lord. At least, this stone often gives me to hear truth or lies in what others say. And I agree with Atara: the Manslayer told truly.'

Lansar shook his head as he called out to my father, 'You cannot rely on this!'

'Perhaps not,' my father said, 'But the Manslayer's tidings cannot be ignored, either. If we march to the pass and engage Morjin m battle, the Galdans might fall upon our rear and destroy us.'

Who, I wondered, would ever wish to be a king? Terrible it is to have to make decisions, based on incomplete knowledge, that will determine the life or death of one's people.

'I doubt,' Lansar said, 'that there are any Galdans within a hundred leagues of Mesh.'

'We shall see,' my father said to him. 'We shall send out riders, into the Wendrush.'

'But, my lord, it will take them days to return - if they
do
return. What if this is a ruse, as I believe, and Morjin moves first?'

My father closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply. Then he looked at Lansar and spoke words that gave him much pain; 'From the Eshur Pass, it's hardly two days' march to the Lake Country. We might have to abandon it. Send word that my people are to take refuge in Lashku or flee to the mountain fastnesses.'

'Very well, my lord. But what if the Red Dragon ravages up and down the Sawash Valley?'

'He won't,' my father said. 'But if he does disperse his army, then we
will
march - and destroy
him
.'

That was the end of our council. Lansar Raasharu hurried off to carry out my father's commands. The rest of us tired to go about our business without letting the terror of this new threat undo us.

Later that afternoon, I walked with Atara in my father's garden, which adjoined his rooms to the west of the keep. Walls surrounded us on all sides, giving us a space of quiet and privacy. We paused beneath a cherry tree, and I said to her, 'Perhaps you should leave Mesh, while you still can.'

'Leave for where?' she asked me.

'To the gathering of the Manslayers. To be chosen Chiefess - that would be a great thing.' 'It would,' Atara agreed. 'But the time for that is not now.'

'Then perhaps you should return home. If there is war between the Marituk and Kurmak . ..'

'Are you concerned for my safety?'

'Yes, of course.'

'Then you think to send me into the face of another war?'

I bit my lip as I looked at the butterflies flitting among the honeysuckle that grew over the garden's walls.

'It's all right,' Atara said, squeezing my hand as she smiled at me. 'I
would
be safer there. Likely the war would be over by the time I crossed the Snake. And even if it wasn't, we Sarni rarely war to the death of any tribe.'

The pressure of her fingers against mine told me that we both knew that in the coming war with Morjin, there would be neither quarter nor mercy.

'But the Kurmak,' I said to her, 'are your people.'

'Yes, they are But so are the Alonians. Your mother and brothers, even your father, and everyone else in Mesh -
everyone,
don't you see? All of Ea's peoples are mine, now.'

'Even the Galdans? Even they of Sakai?'

'Yes, Val, even they. We must set them free.' So saying, she brought out a doeskin and unwrapped her two red arrows. She held them pointing west, toward the Wendrush where Morjin was encamped. 'Here is where the critical battle will be.'

In the days after that, I thought about what she told me. It was a dark time for all of us and although we tried to keep busy, our work could not distract us from our dread. As promised, my father sent riders into the country of the Mansurii: seven knights, on the swiftest horses. Waiting for their return was a torment. So was life inside the castle. As each day passed, Meshians fleeing their homes poured into it. I gave up my room to old Lord Rathald and his family, and moved in with Yarashan. Jonathay and Ravar likewise surrendered their quarters to other families and joined us in spreading our mats and sleeping furs on Yarashan's floor. But our accommodations remained luxurious compared with that of the sea of women and children who filled the castle's wards. It got so crowded that it was nearly impossible to cross from the Great. Hall to the Swan Tower without trampling the sleeping mat or possessions of some poor farmer's wife cooking porridge over a little woodfire. It seemed that the castle could hold no more, but my mother couldn't bear to turn anyone away.

And then on the last day of Soal, one of the riders returned to tell the worst of tidings: an army of Galdans was indeed nearing the mountains of Mesh. He placed their numbers at forty-one thousand. They were making toward the very wide Sky Pass, he said, and should be encamped at its mouth within two days.

I was with my father, in the armory, when he learned of this. I felt the doubt that tore through him like a knife ripping open his belly. After the knight had gone, he stood beneath the racks of spears and swords lining the room's walls, and he told me, 'In what I said after you read Morjin's letter in my rooms, I was both right and wrong. I did not think that he could move in full force so soon
.
And these two armies are
not
his full force. But they might prove great enough to defeat Mesh.'

Even as he spoke, however, his face hardened with resolve and a fierceness lit up his eyes. And he said to me, 'No, Valashu, we mustn't let that be. There
is
a way to defeat the Dragon. There is always a way.'

My father did not believe in needlessly alarming people. But neither would he keep from them the terrible truth that they all must face. He announced the coming of the Galdan army that evening in his hall. Some of Mesh's greatest lords - Lord Tanu, Lord Tomavar and Lansar Raasharu - favored sending a force against both the passes and trying to keep the enemy's armies from invading Mesh. But my father would not divide
his
army. As he said, 'If either half were defeated, the other half would face annihilation from an attack against their rear.'

He said that Morjin's main objective was surely the recapture of the Lightstone. In order to besiege the Elahad castle, Morjin would first have to destroy Mesh's army. Therefore my father determined to maneuver for good ground on which intercept both of Morjin's armies, and there give battle.

The first of Ioj dawned clear and warm. By noon, the sun was like a glowing coal in the sky. The castle's wards heated up like ovens; thousands of boots and horses' hooves pulverized the dried-out ground and sent up choking clouds of dust. I could scarcely breathe. Although the time hadn't quite come to don my battle armor and ride forth to face Morjin, my long tunic, emblazoned with swan and stars, was hot enough. And the robe of fire pulled ever tighter around me, crushing my limbs and burning through my flesh into my blood.

For the next two days, we all prayed for rain. But the sky remained as clear as a sheet of blue steel. And then, on the third of Ioj, storm clouds moved in from the west: in the form of Morjin's envoys pounding up to the castle on their large, lathered horses. Their leader was the Red Priest who called himself Igasho. But I still called him by his given name, Salmelu, and 1 could not believe that this murderer of old women and young girls had dared to show his face once again in Mesh.

When my father learned of his arrival, he called for him to be brought to the Great Hall. I stood next to my father beneath the dais, with my brothers and friends. Lansar Raasharu came hurrying into the room, along with Lord Harsha and Lord Tanu. Even my mother and grandmother came to hear what Salmelu would say..

The company of knights that had escorted him and the other Red Priests across Mesh brought him into the room. According to my father's orders, Salmelu's hands had been bound behind his back. A length of rope had been tied around his neck. One of the knights pulled at it, as on a dog's lead, practically dragging him before my father.

'King Shamesh!' Salmelu choked out, 'is this how you treat Lord Morjin's emissary!'

Salmelu's ugly face was beet-red, whether from the constriction of the rope or his rage, it was hard to telll. The rutilant color nearly obscured the scarlet dragon tattooed onto his forehead. He wore his yellow priest's robe, emblazoned with a much larger dragon. His eyes were small, black marbles, sheeny with hate, and they rolled first toward my father and then toward me.

'You,' my father said, pointing at him, 'are no emissary and have not been accepted as such into Mesh.'

'I
am
Lord Morjin's emissary!' Salmelu said again. 'I speak for the King of Sakai!'

'You may be Morjin's mouth - and eyes - but that is all you are.'

'Remove these ropes, King Shamesh!'

My father pointed at the braided hemp tied around Salmelu's wrists, and he said, 'Thus do we bind condemned men in Mesh.'

'Condemned! For what crime?'

'For the murder of the scryer named Kasandra and your own servants.'

Salmelu smiled then, first at my father, and then at Atara. 'Was it a crime to put an old woman who had seen too much out of her misery? And as for the girls, they were slaves, mine to do with as I wished.'

I looked around the hall, with its many empty tables, and I was glad that Estrella wasn't present to hear such lies.

'You brought blood into my house,' my father told him. 'Your death shall wash it clean.'

'You wouldn't dare to harm me!'

In answer, my father whipped out his sword and took a step toward Salmelu. It seemed that he might behead him then and there.

'Slay
me,'
Salmelu cried out, 'and when Lord Morjin has defeated
you,
all your warriors will themselves, be slain!'

My father froze, with his gleaming kalama held back behind his head.

'Put
me
to the sword, and all your people shall be put to the sword,' Salmelu added. Against the pull of the rope, he turned his head to stare straight at my mother. 'Those of you, that is, who aren't put upon crosses of wood.'

At this, the swords of my brothers flew out of their sheaths. So did mine. But my father lowered his kalama, and held out his hand to stay us. To Salmelu, he said, 'Speak your master's demands.'

Again, Salmelu smiled.. He looked up at the dais where Sunjay Naviru and Lord Noldru and fifty other Guardians stood ringed around the stand holding up the Lightstone.

'My
king's
demands are simple,' he said, pointing past Sunjay. 'Surrender the golden bowl that your son stole from Lord Morjin, and he shall withdraw from Mesh - the Galdans, too. Between our realms, there shall be peace.'

My father stood tall and straight, and so bright did his eyes blaze then that the two priests to either side of Salmelu cringed and looked away from him.

'Go,' my father said to Salmelu, pointing toward the door. 'Go tell your master that the sons of Elahad will surrender the Lightstone to the Maitreya and no other. If it is war he wants, war he shall have.'

'War is it? You are outnumbered more than four to one!'

'That is true,'
my
father said to him. I felt him struggling to control his rising wrath. 'But you forget one thing.'

'And what is that?'

The look of scorn on my father's face would have wilted a brass flower. And then he told Salmelu:
'We
are Valari.'

And with that he turned his back on Salmelu, and did not look at him again. But Samelu looked at me, turning his spite on me as his small eyes promised me torment and death. He said, 'I do not see your reckless friend here. Please give Baltasar my regards when you see him again. . . soon.'

At this, I had to grab Lansar Raasharu's arm to keep him from drawing his sword and killing Salmelu. Then the knight holding fast to Salmelu's rope pulled on it and dragged him from the room.

After the Red Priests had gone, we all stood in silence considering Salmelu's words. Old Lard Tanu, whose family had taken refuge in the keep, gazed upon the lightstone, and there was great doubt m him. He said to my father, 'It will take at least two days for the priests to return to Morjin, and more for Morjin to march upon us. Kaash and Ishka, at least, might march to our aid first.'

His was a hope that we all shared; but later that afternoon, one of the messengers that my father had sent out came galloping up to the castle with more bad news: King Talanu Solaru, my mother's own father, could not send even a company of knights to aid us. It seemed that King Sandarkan had indeed returned from Tria, and threatened Kaash with war over the Arjan land.

The next day -the fourth of Ioj - more messengers returned to the castle and gave my father their tidings. After my father had heard them out, he sent word that Kane, Maram, Atara and I should meet with him and Lansar Raasharu in the library.

Despite the heat outside, it was cool in that quiet space of flaming candles and musty books. My father bade us all to sit at the table. Then, without wasting a moment, he told us: 'There will be no help from any of the Nine Kingdoms.'

I stared down at a copy of the
Saganom Elu
lying on the table as my heart drummed inside my chest Then Maram, next to me, said, 'No help even from Ishka?'

'No,' my father said. 'King Hadaru tells me that Ishka must move to punish King Waray for conspiring against him. He has already sent emissaries to Taron to arrange a time and place for battle.'

'Fools!' Kane snarled out. 'They fight over honor at a time where the only honor lies in fighting the Red Dragon!'

'And what of Athar, then?' Maram asked. 'And Lagash?'

'The messengers sent there have not returned,' my father said. 'But it's told in Ishka that on the road home from Tria, King Mohan and King Kurshan drew on each other. It's likely that they will carry their dispute back to their realms and arrange for battle, too.'