The Diamond Warriors. David Zindell

truce barely rippling in the soft wind. ‘We could die here today, as easily as anywhere. Your Sar Vikan and Sar Jessu seem eager enough to draw swords.’

      ‘It will not be a day for swords’ I reassured him as I patted Alkaladur’s scabbard, slung on my back. Then I added, ‘At least, not kalamas.’

      ‘Well, if it is,’ he said, staring at Jessu the Lion-Heart, ‘I won’t be of much use. Not against Valari knights. And they know that.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘I mean, your countrymen all see me as a complainer and a coward.’

      ‘No, you are wrong – it is just the opposite,’ I told him. ‘You have succeeded in two great quests. And taken a second in wrestling at the tournament and a third in archery. And above all, you slew half a dozen Ikurians at the Culhadosh Commons. To my people, you are a true Valari knight. They regard you as a hero, Maram.’

      Maram thought about this as he studied Sar Shivalad, Sar Kanshar and Viku Aradam, who sat bunched together and looking back at him. And he muttered, ‘Well, if they don’t see me as a coward, they should. It can’t be long, you know. Today, or tomorrow, or at the next urgent situation, whatever it is, I’ll finally have had enough. I’ll turn my back and flee, as any sane man would, and then your people will finally see what Sar Maram Marshayk is made of.’

      ‘No, Maram, you are –’

      ‘It is too much!’ he said to me. ‘Do you understand? Too, too damn much! I don’t want to be anyone’s hero.’

      And with that, he wheeled his horse about, and rode slowly back to rejoin the others.

      Then I took my place again at the head of the column of knights jammed into the pass. After perhaps a half an hour, I caught sight of a sparkling light ahead of us. Soon the knights of Lord Tanu’s vanguard came closer, and the sun’s reflection off their diamond armor shone with an eye-burning brilliance. I could not, at this distance, make out Lord Tanu’s face, but I could see quite clearly his black, double-headed eagle banner held high and the same emblem emblazoned on his surcoat. As well I made out the charges of his two greatest captains: the red bull of Lord Eldru and Lord Ramjay’s white tiger. I estimated the number of knights riding behind him at three hundred, which accorded with our reports. And behind this mass of mounted men with their long lances and triangular shields marched the rest of Lord Tanu’s warriors, some four thousand strong. I could see practically the whole of the army, strung out around the curve of the lake like a mile-long strand of diamonds.

      Lord Tanu, of course, had an equally good view of us. He must have seen Sar Vikan’s white banner clearly enough, for he made no move to deploy his warriors into a battle formation, nor did he change his slow and relentless march toward us. The silver bells tied to the boots of the thousands of warriors that he led sent a high-pitched jingling into the air. This eerie sound, tinkling out with a terrible beat, had often unnerved the enemies of the Valari. And sometimes the Valari themselves. I remembered hearing it before on the battlefield of the Red Mountain in Waas. I reminded myself that we faced no enemy, but only proud Meshian warriors who should be as brothers to us.

      I could almost feel Maram sweating in his saddle behind me and the hearts of my companions beating more quickly as Lord Tanu rode forward. For a moment it seemed that he and his entire vanguard might keep on going and try to sweep us from the pass down into the lake. At the last moment, however, at a distance of only ten paces, he stopped his horse and held up his hand to call for a halt. The three hundred knights behind him ceased their march, as did the thousands of warriors behind them.

      ‘Lord Valashu Elahad,’ he called out to me formally in his sawlike voice, ‘we had heard that you had returned to Mesh, though we hoped you never would.’

      Lord Tanu sat on a big horse as he regarded me with his small, black, deep-set eyes. At nearly sixty years of age, he still retained the suppleness and strength of a much younger warrior. Although not large in his body, his fighting spirit and skill at arms had almost always led him to prevail against his foes. He had a tight, sour face that did nothing to hide his irascible temperament. I had known this man all my life. I remembered my father telling me why he had chosen Lord Tanu as one of the two greatest captains of his army: because he was quick of mind and fearless in battle and as steady as a rock. My father also had counted on Lord Tanu always to tell him the blunt and painful truth.

      ‘It would have been better,’ he said to me, ‘if you had stayed in exile in whatever land you found to give you shelter. Your presence here is only a disturbance. And your purpose is vain – and in vain. We have heard of your call for men to gather to your standard. Promises to defeat the Red Dragon you have given, and people believe you. You remain a firebrand who incites impossible dreams.’

      I could feel the knights near me waiting for me to gainsay him. But I did not wish to dispute him word for word and assertion with counter-assertion. And so I said to him, ‘My father always valued your counsel, Lord Tanu, hard though it sometimes might be to hear. But he would not have appreciated your claim to his throne.’

      I sensed Lord Tanu’s face flushing with a hot surge of blood as he lowered his eyes in shame. Then, at his right side, Lord Eldru angrily shook his head. Long white hair flowed out from beneath his winged helm, and his stern, wrinkled face showed a great round scar where an enemy spear had pierced his jaw down through his throat and nearly killed him at the Culhadosh Commons. Finally, he spoke for Lord Tanu, saying, ‘Would your father have thought you more worthy of the crown? You, who deserted the castle in defiance of your father’s command?’

      Next to him sat the iron-haired and iron-faced Lord Ramjay, and Sar Shagarth, a large master knight sporting a thick mustache and black beard rare among the Valari. They nodded their heads in agreement as Lord Eldru recited the same indictments that had been made against me after the Great Battle: that five years previously, in Waas, I had hesitated in slaying the enemy, and so could not be trusted to lead men. And that two years ago, in Tria, in a fit of wrath, I had slain the innocent Ravik Kirriland, who was not my enemy, and so I should be doubly mistrusted. And that on the Culhadosh Commons, my taking command of Lord Eldru’s reserve and waiting to attack had put the entire army at risk and should be taken as a proof of my recklessness.

      ‘A year ago,’ Lord Eldru said to me, ‘you left Mesh for lands unknown, and in that time, nothing has changed.’

      Because I had previously defended my actions to these men, to little effect, I decided to let the past remain the past. But I must, I thought, at all costs speak for the future.

      ‘Everything has changed,’ I told them. ‘To begin with, we have found the Maitreya.’

      Lord Tanu finally looked at me again as his harsh voice whipped out: ‘So you say, Lord Valashu. As you said once before when you claimed to be the Maitreya.’

      ‘Every man,’ I told him, ‘deserves a chance to be wrong once in his life. But I am not wrong about Bemossed.’

      As I went on to tell of this man who had worked miracles of healing and other wonders, Lord Tanu listened intently. I held nothing back in my description of how Bemossed had given new life to a dying boy and had faced down Morjin’s ghul – and so overcame Morjin himself; I spoke with all the power and truthfulness that I could summon. My love for Bemossed, I thought, if not my words, touched something inside Lord Tanu and cracked open a hidden door. But he immediately tried to slam it shut again.

      ‘Maitreya or not,’ he said, ‘your claim for your latest quest has little to do with the problems that Mesh faces – nor does it help men to see the way clear to their solution.’

      At this, Lord Avijan took umbrage, pointing at the knights behind Lord Tanu and calling out, ‘Is this, then, your solution to a divided realm? That you should march uninvited into my lands at the head of an army?’

      ‘If I had made request,’ Lord Tanu countered, ‘would you have made invitation?’

      I felt the steel inside Lord Avijan heating up, as with a sword plunged into a