Lord of Lies. David Zindell

      He smiled at me knowingly and said, ‘Well, perhaps just a little. Let’s just say that a journey to Nar will give me a little more time to make sure that Behira is truly the one meant for me.’

      ‘But what did she say when you told her you were going away?’

      ‘Ah, well, she wept, of course, too bad. But I believe that I was able to make her understand that duty called me to your side in your time of need. I promised her that if I were to win any of the competitions, I would bring back the gold medal and give it to her.’

      I nearly coughed in astonishment. ‘Are you really thinking of entering the tournament?’

      ‘I? I? Go galloping about trying to cross lances with Valari knights? Do you think I’m mad? The point is, Behira believes I will be competing. This will soothe her. If I’m kept busy, you see, I’ll have less time for dalliances. But when we actually reach Nar, I can always, ah, be incapacitated with a bad back or the flux, do you understand?’

      I did understand, and I promised Maram that I would keep secret this little dishonesty. He seemed very happy with his plan, and gave thanks that fate always seemed to rescue him from Lord Harsha’s wrath just when things looked darkest for him. But this one time, fate betrayed him. At the evening feast, when it came time for the rounds of toasting, Lord Harsha stood upon his game, old leg and called out, ‘Tomorrow Lord Valashu and Mesh’s finest knights will leave for the tournament in Nar. My daughter has just told me that Sar Maram Marshayk will be joining them and competing as an honorary Valari knight! We should all honor his courage! Let us all drink his health!’

      Maram, sitting at Lord Harsha’s table beneath Lord Harsha’s upraised goblet, cast me a quick, sharp look from across the room as if to ask me if I had divulged his plan after all. I shook my head at him. And he shook his head at me in silent resignation and drank his beer even as two hundred lords and knights cheered him and wished him well.

      Lord Harsha had yet another surprise for him. He was not an especially clever or imaginative man – except perhaps when it came to protecting his daughter. So it vexed Maram greatly when Lord Harsha clapped him on the back and announced, ‘As many of you know, Sar Maram is to be my son-in-law. Since it is distressful for my daughter and me to see him ride off at this time, we’ve decided to journey to the tournament as well. We’ll see to it that no harm befalls this brave knight!’

      At this, Maram choked on his beer. His fat face reddened as he groaned and looked across the room at me for help. But it was all I could do to keep from laughing at this much-deserved plight that he had brought upon himself.

      And so it seemed that all preparations for the expedition to Nar and our roster were complete. Yet one more addition remained to be made. Later that night, I met with my father and my family in his rooms. Estrella, whom my mother had practically adopted, took warm milk while the rest of us had brandy. When I told her that I would not be returning to Mesh for perhaps several months, she threw her arms around my legs and would not let go. She wept and seemed disconsolate, even when my mother promised to teach her the art of weaving and my grandmother sang her a comforting song. I knew then that I must take her with me, for our fates were somehow joined together. If I left her here in Mesh, I was afraid that the beautiful thing that had come alive inside her upon our meeting would wither and die.

      ‘She’s like a sister to me,’ I said as I laid my hand upon her dark, curly hair. Her little triangle of a face, all quicksilver and wild, brightened to see me smiling down at her.

      ‘Yes,’ my father said, looking at us, ‘but would you take your sister, and one so young, upon a dangerous journey?’

      ‘She will have a hundred Valari knights to protect her,’ I said. I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword. ‘And myself.’

      ‘Even so, she would be safer here.’

      ‘Would she truly? With a ghul still on the loose? How do we know that this man wouldn’t seek to complete Salmelu’s evil work?’

      My father thought about this as he studied Estrella’s lively face. Then he said, ‘But, Valashu, it’s a hundred and fifty miles to Nar. And four times that distance to Tria.’

      ‘Estrella,’ I said, ‘has come out of Argattha, and that is the greatest distance of all, for the road from hell is endless.’

      I went on to tell of my sense that Estrella still carried much of this hell inside her, in her nightmares of memory, if not in her soul.

      ‘You cannot know what an abomination Morjin has worked upon that place,’ I said, to my father and to my family. ‘Morjin has made children … to do unspeakable things. I would make for this child, at least, happier memories.’

      My father’s eyes grew deep as oceans. It sometimes seemed that he had the power to look straight through me. ‘You wish to heal her of her affliction, don’t you?’

      ‘Yes,’ I said, touching Estrella’s long, delicate neck. ‘There’s nothing wrong with her that she shouldn’t speak. Nothing wrong that Morjin hasn’t somehow made wrong. If I am the one … whom many think I am, then with the aid of the Lightstone, it may be that I can give her back her voice – and perhaps much else as well.’

      My father nodded his head at this, then said, ‘And if you could work this miracle, then your healing of her would be that which showed you the Maitreya – is that right?’

      ‘Yes,’ I admitted. ‘But even if she doesn’t show me what it seems she must, she might show me another. Whoever the Lord of Light truly is, he must be found for the sake of all Ea.’

      ‘For the sake of Ea and not your own?’

      ‘One can only hope so, sir.’

      In the end, it was decided that such a journey, on good horses over good roads, under the escort of a hundred knights, should not prove too arduous for this tough and resourceful girl. She wanted to come with me so badly that she locked the tips of her long, tapering fingers through the rings of my mail. If fate was moving us along the same road together, who was I to go against it?

      One last matter regarding our expedition still had to be decided. By law, no knight or warrior of Mesh was allowed to leave the Nine Kingdoms wearing the marvelous diamond battle armor of the Valari – except on expeditions of war. This was meant to protect a lone knight against brigands who might murder him in order to divest him of the glittering treasure that encased him. So it was that I had journeyed across Ea and back wearing only my steel mail. But not all knights could afford two suits of armor; at least half of the Guardians were not so fortunate. Therefore, they must leave Mesh either unarmored or raimented in diamonds.

      ‘It won’t do to leave my knights unprotected,’ my father said to me. ‘The Red Dragon has spoken of sending armies against Mesh and has brought murder into my house. Very well, then – let it be as if you are riding to war.’

      Early the next morning, on the 9th of Soal, all who would journey to Nar assembled in the castle’s north ward. It was a day of drizzle and low, gray clouds that smothered the sky and promised only more rain. This stole some of the sheen from the knights’ usually-resplendent diamond armor. At least, I thought as we all formed up, diamonds do not rust. I ran my finger across the misted, white stones affixed to the hardened leather along my arm. Diamond being lighter than steel, it was joy to move about unburdened, with nearly as much freedom as had a man wearing only woolens or a leather doublet.

      I sat astride my great, black warhorse, Altaru, and I urged him past some squawking chickens toward the front of the formation. There, Asaru and Yarashan gathered, too. They wore, as did I, great helms with curving steel face plates and silver wings sweeping up from the sides. Black surcoats showing the silver swan and the seven stars of the Elahads draped cleanly over their shoulders and chests. Their triangular shields were embossed with the same emblem. These bore as well, near the point, marks of cadence that distinguished my brothers and me from each other. Asaru had chosen a small, gold bear while Yarashan displayed a white rose. My mark was that of a lightning bolt. It was burned into