Lord of Lies

Count Muar, 'Are you calling for a battle? Then battle you shall have!'

King Kiritan turned his bright gaze from me to regard the fierce King Mohan and King Kurshan, and the other Valari kings, whose hands also gripped their swords. The knights in their retinues, sitting at their tables, looked toward them for sign that they should draw and set upon Count Muar and his men — or upon anyone who challenged a Valari's honor. On the lawn outside the palace, all my other Guardians stood ready to battle to the death, if only I could call to them. Even Sajagax and his warriors seemed unprepared to see King Kiritan appropriate the Lightstone.

'When the time comes, the Lightstone will be taken by force,' King Kiritan said, gripping the cup between his hands. 'But by the force of reason, fate, even love. Until then, it will be guarded as it has been. No one has suggested otherwise.'

And with that, he glared at me even as he passed the Cup of Heaven to Sajagax. He motioned for Count Muar to take his seat, and we all joined him in sitting back down in our chairs.

Sajagax traced his calloused finger around the contours of the golden cup as he regarded King Kiritan. Although King Kiritan had reserved the place of honor for him, I knew that Sajagax took little honor in sitting to King Kiritan's immediate right. 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer' — this was a cherished Sarni maxim, no less that of the more civilized Alonians. King Kiritan had wed Sajagax's daughter only to blunt the arrows of one of his deadliest, enemies, and he had never ceased treating Daryana as something of a barbarian. Sajagax's love for Daryana, with her still-golden hair and bright, blue eyes full of adoration for her father, was like an arrow piercing my own heart. I wondered if King Kiritan suspected that Sajagax regarded Daryana as too good for him, and not the opposite.

'Reason,' Sajagax said to King Kiritan in his bull's horn of a voice, 'is a great, good thing. It was reason, was it not, that impelled us to ally our lands by marriage when a thousand years of bad blood would have it otherwise. And thus reason should prevail in leading others into alliance with us in order to bring this light that Valashu Elahad speaks of into all lands. And to bring the Law of the One. Why else has the Cup of Heaven come to us? I care not to hear more arguments as to claims and rights. Prince Valashu has spirited this gelstei out of Argattha and guarded it successfully so far. Let him continue to guard it until the Maitreya comes forth.'

So saying, he gave the Lightstone to King Theodor, who rather quickly passed it on to King Santoval Marshayk. This great whale of a man was the largest in the room — indeed, in almost any room. He was the only king besides Kiritan to wear a crown: a splendid working of gold set with large rubies on each of its points. His fingers were heavy with fat and jeweled rings; his jewel-embroidered silks glittered almost like Valari battle armor. Even as he examined the Lightstone, he nibbled on a honey cake, which he washed down with copious amounts of mulled wine. His face was as red as a beet. Jasson had told me that he had brought with him part of his harem, and had taken over several rooms of the palace. He was, I thought, what Maram might have become if not for the grace of the One.

'So this is the little trinket that Prince Maram Marshayk lifted from the Dark City,' he said. Because he was wroth with Maram for taking on the sword of a Valari knight, among other things, he would not look at him or refer to him as his son. But he didn't mind loudly speaking his name, the better to call more glory to the house of Marshayk. 'If the Lightstone remains here in Tria, then surely it will invite the Red Dragon's attack. I would like to say again that should his armies march, Delu stands ready to march to Alonia's aid.'

His blustering speech prompted cheers from his retainers at the Delian table, but from no one else. Everyone doubted his willingness to fight the Red Dragon — and his ability.

With a lingering look, he gave the cup to King Kaiman. At thirty years of age, he was a young king, and a bold one. He had curly red hair and restless blue eyes; he was himself restless, moving about in his chair like a flaming torch aggravated by a hot, southern wind. Some said that he was a king in name only, for with the fall of Surrapam, he had been forced into exile. About him was an air of desperation to return to his land and free his conquered people.

He stared into the Lightstone's mirror-like surface as he said to King Marshayk, 'Would you then pledge to march as far as Surrapam to fight the Dragon's armies there?'

'To march to the end of the world?' King Marshayk said. 'Of course! If we make alliance, of course I will.'

King Kaiman passed the cup to King Hadaru, and it quickly made its way around the table to King Kurshan, King Mohan, and then to me I set the gleaming gelstei in the middle of the table for all to behold.

For the moment, at least, the business of the conclave seemed to have returned to more practical questions. And so King Kiritan fixed King Marshayk with his cold eyes and said, 'As for that, you haven't yet declared how many men you will pledge.'

King Kiritan, I thought, was quite eager to obtain this number. And King Marshayk, like a fish wriggling away from a spear poked at him, said, 'Surely more than five thousand.'

'Indeed, but how many more, then? Two thousand? Ten?'

'Perhaps. Perhaps even more. But a king never knows how many men will muster to his standard until he makes his call.'

King Marshayk, of course, did not wish to commit any great numbers of his army to defending Alonia — or any other realm. But he was even more loathe to understate Delu's strength, and so invite enemies (or friends) to perceive his kingdom as weak. It was a dilemma that all the kings at the table faced.

King Kiritan now looked over at me and said, 'And what of Mesh, Prince Valashu? If we were all to make alliance, how many knights and foot will King Shamesh pledge?'

I felt hundreds of people watching me and waiting for my answer. It was clever of King Kiritan, I thought, to have called for the conclave to be held in public. It was hard not to commit all of Mesh's forces with the eyes of so many upon me.

'When last Mesh and Ishka lined up for battle by the Raaswash,' I said, 'we fielded ten thousand knights and foot.'

'Ten thousand? We had thought that the Valari's proudest kingdom could do better than that.'

'If it came to war with the Red Dragon, perhaps we could.' I waited a moment then cast King Kiritan's barb back at him. 'What of Alonia then?'

'If it comes to war, Prince Valashu, a hundred thousand Alonians await our command.'

'That,' I said, 'is a large army. But probably too many to maneuver effectively.'

'Indeed, too many for an inexperienced commander,' he said, gazing at me, 'to lead into battle.'

Upon hearing this, King Hadaru pulled at the colored ribbons tied to his long, white hair. He held up his hand as if to call for silence, then he said, 'Once again we return to the question of who is to lead the Alliance, if there is really to be one. Commanding larger numbers is no measure of a warlord. Were it so, Duke Malatam would have defeated Lord Valashu's Guardians at the battle they fought only a week ago.'

As Duke Malatam, sitting at his table, bowed his head in shame, King Kiritan addressed King Hadaru. 'Are you saying that this young prince of Mesh is fit to lead all the armie of the Alliance?'

King Hadaru turned to fix me with his lustrous black eyes. I knew that this irascible king still bore me much ill will. So it surprised me when he said, 'Fit? Yes, it would seem so. And even more, fated.'

'But only two days ago,' King Kiritan said to him, 'you claimed precedence over all other kings, even ourself, as having fought the most battles!'

'Two days ago,' King Hadaru said, 'Duke Malatam hadn't arrived to tell of Lord Valashu's victory. And what a victory! A hundred and sixty of the Duke's knights killed against none of Lord Valashu's! As far was we Valari are concerned, that was to be the measure of things, that he prove himself as a warlord.'

'The measure of what, then?'

'The measure of him as the Maitreya.'

Many people in the mob behind King Kiritan began murmuring and vying with each other to get a better look at the great round table. Two men, almost with one voice, cried out, 'Lord of Light!' And King Kiritan's guards quickly escorted them from the hall.

King Mohan waved his hand impatiently as the fine features of his face contracted with fierce concentration. 'As King Hadaru says, we keep circling back to the same question. Who else except the Maitreya could lead the Alliance?'