Lord of Lies

'I'm not sure,' he said. 'I'm not sure I've yet found the way to go where I must inside this. There are whole worlds there — a universe full of worlds.'

'If Kane were here,' I aaid, 'then surely he could show us the way to them. If the ghost spoke truly, then Kane was involved with the War of the Stone from the first.'

'Yes — and it's strange that he was the one to lead in the forging of the first Alkaladur, this Sword of Light.'

'It would be good to know more about that,' I said. 'Why did it take so long to forge it? And why did the Amshahs fail to heal Angra Mainyu?'

Master Juwain sighed as he slid his knotted old hand across the smooth crystal. 'I think the answer to both those questions is dear enough. The Sword of Light was made of the collective compassion of ten thousand Elijin and Galadin. Surely it must have been difficult beyond our comprehension to achieve the attunement of so many. And as for their failure the valarda is a double-edged sword, even as you've discovered. At the moment they struck out to touch Angra Mainyu with their love, when they were most open, he must have struck back in hate.'

'To kill this way with hate,' I murmured, 'could anything be more evil?'

At this, Master Juwain fell silent as he rolled over on his side and looked at me. I drew my sword from its sheath and watched as its silustria took on the tones of glorre. I said, 'Then Kane named this in mockery of the true Alkaladur.'

'Perhaps, Val, perhaps,' he said mysteriously. 'But there is much that we don't know about either sword.'

'And much that we still don't know about Kane.'

'True enough. It seems that he resisted breaking the Law of the One for the longest time. But finally he followed Marsul to war.'

'Our friend ever finds hate inside himself,' I said. 'But ever the opposite, too.'

'Yes — and it took great faith for him, at the last, to surrender the Lightstone to Valakand. Even as in Argattha, he gave it back to you.' I sheathed my sword and brought out the Cup of Heaven instead. The small golden bowl was warm against my hand. 'The touch of this, it seems, drove Marsul mad — as it had Angra Mainyu. But why?'

'Because the Lightstone was made for the hand of the Maitreya, and no other,' he said. 'This much I have discovered. The Elijin, even the Galadin, are not permitted to use it.'

'But why?' I said again. 'What is the secret of this gelstei?'

'That I don't yet know, Val. But it's clear that during the Elijin Satra, all the angels who tried to use the Lightstone failed — and fell.'

The word 'satra,' I remembered, meant 'true age': the great and very long ages of the universe As the rain pattered against the fabric of the tent above us and its interior filled with the sounds of Maram snoring and Lansar Raasharu's heavy breath, Master Juwain told me more about the history of these elder ages. The first of them, he said, in the immense span of time after the creation of our universe, Eluru, was called the Dark Satra. Over ten billion years, on countless worlds, life came forth and strove always towards the highest at last attaining to Mind when the first human beings appeared. These men and women of the earth, the Ardun, gave their name to a new satra that saw all the worlds of Eluru flower with people. The Ardun Satra progressed more quickly than the first, lasting only a tenth as long. But it was long enough to achieve a great civilization on Erathe. On that world, the first Maitreya used the Lightstone to raise up the Ardun to a new order: that of the Valari. This name had originally meant, simply, the 'Star People'; and now, during a glorious age called the Valari Satra, men and women of the stars learned to walk from world to world, bringing to the Ardun peoples the seeds of Civilization. And bringing the Lightstone as well. It became a sacred tradition that the best way to use this golden cup was to give it into the hands of a Maitreya who would then help quicken a world's peoples to a higher order. As there were very many worlds in the universe, however, the whole process progressed rather slowly over a hundred million years.

By the end of the age, when many had achieved World-Mind, it seemed that the design of the One — and the Ieldra — was unfolding much as it should. As time went on and knowledge of all manifestations of the One gradually accumulated, men and women began to gain great powers of body and mind. Finally, on Erathe, oldest of Civilization's worlds, a great king was raised up to the order of the Elijin. His first charge, according to the Law of the One, was to vow never to take human life. His second charge was to help others gain his high estate. And so he journeyed across Erathe and then out into the stars to carry out this noble mission. After thousands of years, as the Elijin Satra progressed, this first immortal was joined by many others. These angels, as they were called, acted as messengers of the Ieldra, visiting troubled worlds and helping them toward Civilization.

But not without a struggle. The Elijin, enjoined never to kill, had to work by the power of persuasion and teaching, as well as touching people's hearts with their great, golden auras. From time to time, one or more of the Elijin would break the Law of the One and fall into murder. Many, too, tried to use the Lightstone to gain still greater powers and become greater beings. But for some mysterious reason, all who tried failed and fell — even as Master Juwain had said. It was only after a great many years that the Elijin laid down a law that only the Guardians of the Lightstone and the various Maitreyas were allowed to touch it.

'If we could learn why the higher orders may not use the Lightstone,' Master Juwain said, pointing at the cup in my hands, 'we might understand how the Maitreya can.'

I squeezed the Lightstone's smooth, glowing gelstei, said to be the hardest and most impenetrable of substances. I whispered to Master Juwain, 'I must know this, sir. Keep searching in your crystal, if you will.'

'I certainly will Val. But I must tell you the search might last years.'

'Years,' I whispered. 'I'm no Immortal, you know.'

Master Juwain looked at ase strangely and said. 'Perhaps not.'

'And the world won't wait forever.'

'That it certainly will not,' he said. His face fell troubled and grave. 'The Cosmic Maitreya, the Great Shining One, must come forth and soon. The age is ending, Val. Not just the Age of the Dragon, here on Ea, but the Galadin Satra itself. There must be a progression, a great progression.'

'What do you mean, sir?'

He sighed and held his hands out from his chest. 'When a man, with the aid of the great gelstei that we call the seven openers, becomes an Elijin, that is a progression. And so with the passage of the Galadin, as when Marsul freed the light inside himself in transcending his human form. But once in every universe there comes a moment toward which all time and history has pointed. This is a Great Progression. The word for this has been carried down as the Valkariad.'

I thought about this name, which was one and the same as the epic preceding the penultimate book of the Saganom Elu. I said, 'I thought that meant 'the passage of the stars' '

'That is one translation. A better one might be. 'the creation of the stars.' For at the moment of the Valkariad, all the Ardun of the universe are raised up to the Valari order, even as the Valari become Elijin and the Elijin advance as Galadin. And the Galadin, as we saw in the amphitheater, transcend themselves in creating a new universe.'

'We did see that,' I said. 'But how can that be possible? The Galadin are only finite beings, yes?'

'True, true. But just as all beings and all things arise from the infinite One, all things contain the seed of the Infinite inside themselves.'

I thought of the bag of timana seeds that Ninana had given me. Each one. if planted in the right soil would magically burst forth into a great astor tree. But even these golden glories were as nothing against the splendor of the stars.

'The Valkariad is coming,' he said to me. 'Angra Mainyu and the War of the Stone have delayed this moment, but it must come, and soon.'

'And then?' I asked.

'And then.' he said simply,'the Age of Light shall begin.'

I lay back against the earth, trying to ignore the discomfort of my armor's diamonds grinding into my back. The tent's air steamed with the smells of wet wool and Maram's beery breath, but I paid this no mind. For inside