Lord of Lies

unto that of the Red Dragon himself!'

A deathly silence descended upon the hall. For a moment. King Hadaru and King Waray and the other kings sat stunned and staring at King Kiritan in disbelief. Then many things happened at once. King Mohan rose up from his chair and drew his sword. So did King Sandarkan. The sound of other swords slipping from their sheaths rang out into air. King Kiritan called out to his guard captain, who hurried toward our table with a dozen of his men. From the hall's southern door came the sound of rattling mail, boots pounding against stone and shouting. Across the hall, the mob surged against the wall of shields, and in several places broke through- Around the tables lined up on both sides of the aisle, angry men and women began standing up and yelling at each other, some declaring that I must surely be the Maitreya, others crying out: 'Liar! Fool!' Next to Atara's table, two burly merchants had come to blows, and it seemed that the retinues of King Aryaman and King Tal might at any moment draw swords and fall against the nearby Valari knights — or against each other. Resentment and rage filled the air like black clouds just before a thunderstorm.

Then I saw Ravik Kirriland push aside King Kiritan's scribe and chamberlain as he made straight toward Atara's table His lean face and dark violet eyes fixed on her. There was murder in his heart — I was sure of this. Hate knows hate as the blind know the dark. It came to me then that Ravik must be the Skakaman called Noman. Under the cover of the chaos sweeping the room, he would come up beside Atara and slip a dagger into her, quickly and savagely, without being noticed. Thus he would silence the one person who might warn me who Noman was. And then he would come to murder me as well and steal the Lightstone.

'Atara!' I called out. I whipped free my sword. I leaned across the table and swept up the Lightstone, clasping it against my chest. 'Atara!'

There was no time to say more, no time to shove through the crowds and fall upon Ravik, for he was quickly closing in upon her. I wanted to die myself then. My heart swelled inside me with an unbearable pain that nearly choked me and made me gasp for breath. This red-hot anguish of love gathered at my core like a knot of fire. And then the alchemy of evil transmuted love into hate. I hated Morjin for loosing this merciless creature upon Atara — and upon the world. I hated the One for making the world this way, with evil digging its' filthy black claws into all things and dragging even the most beautiful of beings down into despair and death. Most of all, I hated myself. For I should be as clean as new snow and as flawless as a diamond; I should have roses and starlight and life without end. Instead I held within myself pure dragon fire, black as soot, for all the light had burned out of it. As the man everyone called Ravik Kirriland drew up to Atara, this terrible flame built hotter and hotter in my heart until it was like hell-fire itself.

'Atara!' In my left hand, the Lightstone blazed like the sun; with my right hand, I gripped my sword and pointed it at Ravik. It was as if I held a lightning bolt, so brightly did the silver silustria flare. Then, as a dazzling darkness filled my eyes and the world stood still, all my fury poured out of me. It flashed through the air and struck straight into Ravik He cried out in agony, arching his back as he turned toward me and grasped at his chest. Even across the room, I could see the light die in his eyes. Then he fell to the floor with a sickening slap of flesh against cold stone, never to rise again.

'Lord of Light!' someone called out. And then another voice, even louder. 'Lord of Death!'

Across the hall, all eyes not staring in horror at Ravik's body fell upon me. The shock of what had happened stunned nearly everyone into motionlessness. Many of the merchants and nobles at the tables near Atara's were coughing, clasping their chests, bending over and retching from the terrible killing force that had spilled into them. Many looked at me in awe, and in dread, for no one had known that I had the power to slay this way.

'There was death in his eyes!' one of King Kiritan's magistrates called out. 'We all saw it!'

In his eyes, I thought, recalling an old verse, a healing light.

'Murderer!' A thin, pretty woman about Ravik's age stood up from his table and hurried over to kneel above him. I took her to be Ravik's wife. She pointed her finger at me and said, 'Why did you murder him, who only ever spoke praises of you?'

I took a step toward the place where Ravik lay crumpled on the floor, and everyone standing in my way moved aside as from a rabid dog. To the woman, I said. 'That is not your husband. He is a Skakaman, an evil thing sent by Morjin to assassinate King Kiritan's own daughter — and myself.'

'It is my Lord Ravik!' the woman shouted, bursting into tears as she stroked his face. 'What's the matter with you? He's the King's own friend — Atara's, too!'

As 1 moved closer to them, one of King Kiritan's chamberlains, an elegantly-dressed man with warm, honest eyes, attested that Ravik used to play chess and other games with Atara when she was a child. He looked up at me and said, 'Ravik loved Atara as if she were his own daughter. If he was rushing upon her, it was only to protect her from the violence you brought here this morning.'

I hesitated, looking down at Ravik's still form. In death, all his malice toward me had bled away.

Then Atara, still sitting in her chair above Ravik and his wife, turned her blindfolded face toward me And she said to me, 'Oh, Val! What have you done? What have you done?'

Now I wanted to retch myself, but there was nothing inside my belly except bitterness and pain. 1 reached my sword out toward Ravik's body, and I said, 'He is the Skakaman. He must be.'

Just then the commotion outside the hall's southern door grew louder. A voice I knew as well as my own called out to the guards there: 'Let me through, I say! Do you not see this medallion? So, I stood before the throne a year ago to make vows with everyone else, and I will stand here again. Let me through!' I looked over then to see Kane brazen his way into the hall. My mysterious friend made his way straight down the aisle toward the round table where King Kiritan stood staring at him in alarm. His white hair, thick as a snow tiger's fur, was cropped close, as I remem-bered. Although he was as old as the stars, he moved like a young tiger stalking his prey. His large body rippled with a barely-contained fury; beneath his travel-stained cloak and steel mail, his muscles bunched and relaxed with an almost palpable power. His bold face turned right and left as his black, blazing eyes scanned the people standing about him. As he strode closer, he seemed more kingly than any of the kings standing about watching him.

He turned past a row of tables and came up to me. He looked down at Ravik and said, 'He is not the Skakaman.'

'Are you sure?' I said. 'How can you be sure?'

But Kane didn't answer me. He returned to drilling his hard, black eyes into the nearby knights and nobles, one by one.

'I thought he was a monster,' I explained to Duke Parran, who was standing nearby.

He, and many others, cast me evil looks as if it were I who was the monster. They made warding signs with their fingers; a few even spat at me. They regarded my sword — and even the Lightstone — with loathing and dismay. Their fear of me made me sick.

'Then he was innocent,' I whispered, sheathing my sword. Then, much louder, 'Innocent!'

'What man, born of the world,' Kane growled out, 'is truly innocent?'

Maram came up to me and laid his hand on my shoulder as he shook his head. Then he repeated the words of Kasandra's prophecy: 'The blood of the innocent will stain your hands.'

I put away the Lightstone then. I stood looking at the hand that had pointed my sword at Ravik couldn't bear the sight of it I raised it to my mouth and bit my palm as hard as I could. My teeth ripped through my skin; I tasted blood. Then I pressed my hands against my face and stood there weeping.

'So,' Kane said, grasping my arm. 'So.'

When I finally drew my hands away and looked out through the veil of tears clouding my eyes, I saw Kane scrutinizing the kings at the round table, one by one. Finally his gaze fell upon King Kiritan. Something violent like lightning, passed between them. And Kane shouted out to the hall: 'Ravik Kirriland was not the Skakaman! But he is.'

'You're mad!' King Kiritan shouted back at him as he motioned to his guards.

'Noman!' Kane called out to him. 'Did you think that you could hide behind that face you stole?'

King Kiritann — or Noman — turned to his guard captain and barked out: 'Seize those liars! Slay that madman and that murderer where they stand!'

But the guard captain and his men were reluctant to follow such a command. Seeing this, King Kiritan drew his sword and charged toward me. Twelve of his men, shamed at allowing him so expose himself, suddenly rushed forward, too. One of these cast his spear at me. With a dash of steel against diamond, its point struck me beneath