eastern Urtuk at that. And they only honored Atara, as imakla, for gracing their country with her presence. When they studied the dead lion, killed so cleanly, they insisted that Atara return to their camp and share wine with them. They produced knives and quickly skinned the lion. It was their intention to dress the fur and make for Atara a lion- skin cloak so that all might appreciate her prowess.
They were reluctant however, for the rest of us to accompany them. Liljana they might have taken into their confidence, but they looked at Kane, Maram, Master Juwain, Daj and me with the challenge that they reserved for all males. They fired their arrows of suspicion especially at me for I was a knight of Mesh and therefore the Urtuks' ancient enemy.
It cooled their bellicosity not at all thai 1 assured them that our peoples were not at war and that I was only returning homeward. Only Atara's claim that we were great warriors who had killed many of Morjin's men softened these two warriors. Atara also insisted that we remain together, and more, that the Manslayers of the Urtuk provide us escort as far as the Morning Mountains. So great had Atara's reputation now grown -to say nothing of her will – that the two Manslayers took a long look at the blindfold wrapped around her face and agreed to her demand.
Later that day, when we returned with them to their camp, their other sisters met in counsel and decided to honor their decision. They made only a single demand of their own: that Atara remain with them and teach three of the younger sisters her skill with the bow while the older sisters were preparing her lion skin.
And so there, along a stream sheltered by great cottonwoods, we waited for five long days. I felt the passing of time most keenly; an overwhelming sense that I must return home as soon as possible beat like a drum though my blood. Still, I was glad to make friends with these fierce women. At night, we sat around the fire sharing food with them and stories. It amazed them – and us – when one night Flick appeared and entertained them with his dance of silver sparks. We offered them no explanations as to this little miracle. We, ourselves, could only believe that the Lightstone's power had somehow quickened Flick's being and brought forth his colors for all to see.
At last, when the sisters had finished tanning the lion's skin and sewing into it a lining of purest, Galadan satin, they brought it to Atara to put on. With the black fur of the lion's mane framing her blond hair and her white blindfold circling her striking face, she did indeed look like one of the imakil heroes of past ages come to life.
The next morning, we set out to cross the Urtuks' country. Twelve of the Manslayers, acting as escort, rode out before us. After cutting across a little triangle of the steppe for thirty miles, we came to the Diamond River and followed it east.
This band of clear water, flowing down from the Morning Mountains, reminded me how close I was to my home. I prayed that I would reach it without further incident 1 needn't have worried. Although a company of fifty Urtuk warriors rode north from their winter camp father down along the Pom to witness the strange sight of the Manslayers leading seven outlanders toward Mesh, they did not challenge us or offer battle. Indeed, they offered us cheers in the from of their terrible war cries, for they had heard that we had entered Sakai and had slain many of the Red Dragon's men.
A hundred miles, as the raven flies, it is from the confluence of the Poru and Diamond Rivers to Mesh, and we rode nearly as straight. It took us only a day to cover half this distance. By the morning of the eleventh, when we awoke to a few puffy white clouds floating along the sky, the mountains of Mesh were a purplish haze along the horizon. As we urged the horses toward them during that long, long, day, the mountains grew ever greater and more distinct. By noon, I was able to make out the lines of Mount Tarkel's soaring white summit. Although I had never seen it from this vantage, there was only one mountain that stood just south of the Diamond River and overlooking the golden grasses of the Wendrush.
That evening we made camp scarcely three miles from the foothills beneath its western face. The pounding of my heart demanded that we ride up into Mesh even through the falling darkness; but my head told me that it would be foolhardy to brave the wild, rocky approaches to Tarkel at night. And more, such a course would be ungracious and sad beyond thinking because Maram, Master Juwain and I would have little time to say goodbye to the rest of our friends.
It was only during the five hundred miles of our flight from Argattha that I had gradually come to accept the rightness of the breaking of our company, though I hadn't yet made peace with this difficult decision. After we had thanked the Manslayers for their kindness and they had ridden off back toward their camp, the seven of us gathered around the fire that Maram had made for a last council.
It was a cold, clear night of many stars and a moon just past full. Flick spun about against the backdrop of the sky, and his swirling form seemed to match the twinkling lights of the constellations. The wind carried down the scents of my homeland and set my heart to beating more quickly. Before us was a little fire of burning sagosk bricks mat smelled surprisingly sweet.
We spoke of many things; for a while, we told stories of Alphanderry, whose voice we now listened for in the wind and in the music of the stars. We had decided that Kane should inherit his mandolet, which was all we had left of him – except that we had our memories and a song in our hearts, and that was everything. Kane sat plucking at the mandolet's strings and singing to us. When he wished, he, too, had a fine, clear voice, as strong and beautiful as an eagle soaring across the sky. I thought that he was trying to recapture the words of Alphanderry's last song; I knew that someday he would.
'That's a music that should be heard in Mesh,' I said to him. 'Are you sure you won't reconsider your plans?'
Kane put down his mandolet and looked at me; I wondered if he would waver in his decision.
'It would be an honor if you could meet my father,' I said to him. Then I laid my hand on top of the diamond pommel of the sword that he had forged in Godhra so long ago. 'And my brothers, certainly my mother and grandmother. All my countrymen. Your name is still rembered in Mesh.'
'That name you have promised not to speak, eh?' He bowed his head to me in trust that I would keep this promise. And then he said, 'No, I'm sorry but I must return to Tria – I've business there.'
Master Juwain, holding his gnarled hands out to the fire, looked up at him and asked,
'The business of the Black Brotherhood?'
In all our miles together, Kane had said very little about this secret brotherhood of men whom we supposed he led. And he told us only a little more now, saying, 'The Great Beast must be opposed with any weapons we can find.'
'Even assassination?' Master Juwain said to him. 'Even poison, terror deceit?'
Kane looked far off into the star-spangled heavens. Somewhere, unseen, golden bands of light streamed out from their center, touching many of the universe's earths.
'No, perhaps not those things,' Kane finally said. He looked over at me and stared at Alkaladur. 'Perhaps it's time we found other means of fighting.'
'I've said before,' Master Juwain told him, 'that evil cannot be defeated with the sword.'
'No, perhaps not,' Kane admitted. 'But evil people can.'
He cast me a long, sad look, and my hand tightened around Alkaladur's hilt. I feared that fate would once more call me to draw it before the world was rid of such as Morjin. And yet I knew that Master Juwain was right, that even the greatest of swords could never put an end to war.
'There are still battles to be fought,' I said. I drew forth the Lightstone and sat gazing at it. 'Different kinds of battles.'
As I remembered why I had fought so hard for this little cup and why the Galadin had sent it to Ea, it suddenly began pouring out an intense, golden radiance. For a moment, I held in my hands a little sun whose light could perhaps been seen from the mountains to the east of us, if any were looking.
'There will be battles, and soon,' Kane assured us. He nodded his head at the Lightstone and added, 'Now that we've taken this from the Beast, he'll bend all his will toward getting it back.'
'Then you believe he'll recover from his wound?' Maram asked.
'Yes, his kind cannot be killed so easily,' Kane said. 'A sword through the heart, or the severing of the head – that's almost the only way to kill one of the Elijin.'
He went on to say that Morjin would now be forced to accelerate his plans for his conquest.
'So, he's always looked to Alonia and to the Nine Kingdoms, Delu too, for he knows that if they fall, all of Ea falls, too.' He nodded at Atara, Liljana and me. 'But with the Sarni divided and much of the Wendrush held against him, to say nothing of the Long Wall, he can't attack your lands directly, eh? So, first he'll surround you – that's been his strategy all along.'
