Lord of Lies

'Only the greatest of kings,' King Kiritan said.

'Yes, but which king is he?' King Mohan said, looking around the table. 'Which king will the other kings suffer to command them?'

A wicked gleam flared in King Kiritan's eyes as he said, 'Perhaps you, King Mohan.'

At this, King Sandarkan shook his head violently, and King Kurshan's scarred face fell into a scowl. 'Never!' he said. 'The breaker of the rules of sharshan to lead other kings in battles with no rules? Never!'

King Kurshan continued scowling at King Mohan, and for a moment I was afraid that these two enemies might renew their old dispute and draw on each other. It was beneath King Kiritan's dignity, I thought, to so provoke Valari kings into rancor toward each other, for this was too easy to do. But thus did he strive to control the conclave.

'It seems that the Valari,' King Waray said, playing the peacemaker, 'are of a single mind regarding the Alliance's leader: he must be the Maitreya.'

'Must he?' King Marshayk said from across the table. It seemed that he was mouthing words he imagined King Kiritan would wish him to speak. 'What if no Maitreya comes forth? Is there to be no Alliance then?'

And King Aryaman growled out, 'We don't even know what the Maitreya really is.'

He is the lightning in the darkest night, I thought He is the sun that lights up the day.

'It is written,' King Mohan said, 'that the Maitreya will be the greatest warrior in the world. Who is that? The minstrels will sing ten thousand years of Lord Valashu's feat in fighting his way out of Argattha.'

King Aryaman, I noticed, fingered his axe as he glared at me in challenge. I knew that he would have liked to put my prowess to the test.

Here Master Juwain, sitting with other masters of the Brotherhood, rose to his feet and drew forth his battered copy of the Saganom Elu. He thumped his hand against the old leather and called out, 'Your Majesties, may I speak? It is indeed written as King Mohan says. But the Valari have always striven to be warriors of the spirit. Surely the Maitreya would conquer through the force of his soul and not his sword.'

He sat back down, and King Hanniban cleared his throat as if to warn everyone to silence. He said, 'Whether the Maitreya wields soul or sword begs the question. How will he conquer at all if there is no Alliance? I, for one, doubt that an alliance is possible, even led by the Shining One.'

'What is because,' King Theodor said, 'you refuse to risk even a single battalion in defense of any land other than your own.'

'Or any warship,' King Tal said.

'I'm still not convinced of the need,' King Hanniban said. 'But be assured that my shipwrights are building more even as we speak.'

King Aryaman's fingers tightened around the haft of his axe as he called out, 'Yes, warships that can sail toward Thalu as easily as Surrapam, should the Red Dragon's threat prove to have no teeth.'

'Be careful, King Aryaman, of what you say,' King Hanniban warned him. 'During my reign, Eanna has known only peace because peace we have sought. But, at need, that can change.'

'We of Thalu,' King Aryaman said to him, 'have warships of our own.'

'Which you have encouraged to fall on my merchants' caravels!' King Tal called out from next to him.

King Aryaman now turned his bellicose gaze on King Tal as he half-shouted, 'Be careful of what you sty, King Tal! How many times must I affirm that the losses you bemoan were caused by a few rogue raiders?'

'Affirm it all you will, but in doing so, you only admit that you cannot rule your own kingdom.'

'I rule this!' King Aryaman said, drawing his axe and shaking it at King Tal. 'What do you rule?'

As King Tal stared coolly at the shiny steel of King Aryaman's axe, King Theodor called out from across the table, 'How is it that King Tal berates King Aryaman for loosing his sea-raiders when it was King Tal's own barons that forced Nedu's entire fleet to sail against the Elyssu?'

'What choice did I have?' King Tal called back to him. 'Since you insisted on letting Duke Brayan keep Ilian Island?'

'But Ilian Island is ours, and has been since the Channel War!'

For a while, the other kings at the table watched as the debate among King Tal, King Theodor, King Hanniban and King Aryaman grew ever more heated. Finally, when King Tal warned King Aryaman to keep his raiders away from the important fishing waters off the Northland Banks, King Aryaman lost his patience. He rose to his feet and lifted up his axe. Then he swung it down toward the center of the table. With a thunderous crash, its steel blade bit deep into the white oak as he shouted out, 'But no one can reason with these men! Any alliance of our realms is impossible!'

With King Kiritan glaring at him as he might an errant child, King Aryaman pulled free a purse of coins and tossed it jangling onto the floor.'For your table, King Kiritan,' he said.

He stared at his axe planted only inches from the Lightstone; so did King Kiritan and King Hanniban, and all the other kings seething with their own resentments and doubts.

I gazed across the table at this huge, yellow-haired king steeped in the violence of his long and ancient line. And I said to him, and to everyone else in the hall, 'No, King Aryaman, you're wrong. An alliance is not only possible — it's inevitable.'

I stood up then, and the eyes of all gathered there turned my way. The sunlight streaming down through the dome fell upon the Lightstone and caused it to gleam like a golden jewel. It seemed to sear my lips like fire. The time had finally come, I thought, to tell everyone how the world might be.

Chapter 28

And this is what I said to them: 'All men, even brothers, contend with other men, for that is the way of the world. Each protects his own interests and his own self, and that is right and good. It is thus with all people: each man, woman and child is an island, whole and complete — a glory to the earth. But all islands, beneath the sea, join with each other through the motherland and the very world that gave them birth. So with human beings. Islands we are, yet we are also part of something greater. What man wouldn't stand with his brothers, out of love, to protect their family against brigands who would burn their fields and steal their cattle? And what family wouldn't give its sons to die in battle protecting their kingdom against the armies of an invader? But what is greater than any kingdom? Surely the world we call Ea. If the Red Dragon's armies tear it apart, which of you kings will be left to pick up the pieces of your shattered realms? Which of you loves your people so little? Which of you loves Ea so little? Who will not look beneath the blood-red sea of ancient enmities to behold that which connects us, land to land, brother to brother, heart to heart?'

I paused in my speech to take a quick breath and look at the Lightstone. I drank in its splendor. And it touched into fire all that was within me: my dreams, my hopes, my soul. The longer that I gazed at the golden cup, the brighter and deeper this fire grew. King Aryaman must have sensed it raging through me, for his face had fallen fearful yet softer, almost childlike, as he looked at me strangely. King Hanniban and King Marshayk were looking at me, too. All the kings at the table, I thought, were waiting for me to pass on this beautiful flame. To work this miracle seemed the simplest thing in all the world. I need only open my heart to them.

'King Tal!' I called out. 'Would you not give up arguing over a few fish to see your sons and daughters stand strong and free?'

His cool gray eyes touched mine and warmed with a new light as he nodded his head.

'King Theodor!' I said. 'There are hundreds of islands off Nedu and the Elyssu. Why fight over one of them only to lose all of them?'