Lord of Lies

to hand: drawing water, helping the blacksmiths pound hot iron into extra shoes for the horses, giving newly arrived knights lessons with the sword. My father asked me, and Maram, to make sure that the castle was ready to withstand siege. We were to report on how many hundreds of bushels of wheat had been added to the already considerable stores of food in the great vaults beneath the keep. And more importantly: how many sheaves of arrows had the fletchers sent up from Silvassu and how many barrels of oil ready to be heated to boiling and poured down upon any poor Sakayans assaulting the castle's walls? As for these great sweeps of granite, I was to walk along every inch of the battlements, testing mortar and stone, making sure that the archers knew their places and the warriors stood ready to repel ladders or fight off the enemy's siege towers.

For three days we thus busied ourselves. Each night at the end of our work, I climbed the Swan Tower and looked out to the south of the city where the army gathered along the river. Their cooking fires grew night by night from hundreds into thousands of flickering orange lights. On the morning of the fourth day since my return home, my father announced that sixteen thousand warriors had answered his call to battle, with more trickling in from the faroff mountain fastnesses. He strapped on his armor, and prepared to ride down from the castle to join them. But then, toward noon, there came a commotion from the West Gate. Ten knights rode into the west ward escorting two Sarni warriors under heavy guard. The knights' captain, Sar Barshan of Lashku, asked to speak with my father. After my father was summoned and heard what Sar Barshan had to say, he called for an immediate council in his library.

When I entered the library, I was amazed to see Atara standing and talking familiarly with the two Sarni warriors. For she knew them well, as did I. They were Aieela and Sonjah, two of the Manslayers of the Urtuk who had aided us in crossing the Wendrush the year before. It was they, with their sister warriors, who had made Atara's lionskin cloak. Accoutered in their studded leather armor and golden torques, with their quick blue eyes looking wildly about the library at the books and chairs and other objects that they had never seen before, they seemed agitated and out of place My father did not ease their disquiet. He presented them with cold formality to Asaru and Lord Raasharu. And then he left them standing next to Sar Barshan as he invited everyone else to sit at the table.

'Sar Barshan,' my father announced, nodding at this grim, young knight guarding the Manslayers, 'has hurried here at Lord Manthanus command. Three days ago, these women presented themselves at his keep with tidings that we all should hear.'

So saying, he nodded at Sonjah, who was the taller and older of the two women. She had an air of gravity, which was enhanced by her considerable substance: heavy arms and jowls and great, wide hips that a Sarni pony might have had troubling holding up. Her voice was heavy, too, with anger, as she looked at my father and said 'Well tell our tidings, King Shamesh, for Atara's sake if not yours. But it is hard to speak in the face of so little hospitality.'

'Forgive me,' my father said, swallowing the anger in his own voice.

'But when I was a boy, my brother, Ramshan, was sent to the Urtuks on a mission of peace. Your people showed their hospitality by sending back his head.'

'That was not the doing of the Manslayers or of my clan,' Sonjah said. 'Itwas the Yarkuts who did this. Always they have shamed themselves, even as they do now.'

Lansar Raasharu slapped his hand on the table and broke in: 'Why should we believe anything these women say? They are Sarni.'

'You may believe what you wish to believe,' Sonjah said. 'Men always do. I care not. I've come here to speak with the imaklan, Atara.'

'How did you know that she had come among us?' Lansar asked her.

In answer, Sonjah gave back his dark gaze with an evil look of her own.

'Let her speak,' my father said to Lansar. 'Then we will judge and decide what must be done.'

Again, he nodded at Sonjah. She gripped her unstrung bow and said to Atara: 'Our Kurmak sisters have sent word that there is war between the Marituk and the Kurmak. They told us, too, that we would find you in Mesh. You are needed, Atara. All the Manslayers, from all the tribes, are uniting against Morjin — and against any tribe or clan that would ally with him. You are called to speak at council. Many speak of you as Chiefess of all the Manslayers'

I had never heard that the Manslayers had ever had a single chiefess before. Neither, it seemed, had Atara. She sat facing across the room toward Sonjah and Aieela as she said, 'It would be a great thing for the Manslayers to unite this way, and those are truly great tidings. But that is not why Lord Manthanu has sent you here under guard, nor why King Shamesh has called this meeting, is it?'

'No, it is not,' Sonjah said as she looked from Atara to my father.

'Then,' Atara said, 'why don't you tell us the rest of your news?'

Sonjah stared straight at my father, and then with the savagery for which the Sarni are famous, she fired these words like flaming arrows at him: 'A Galdan army marches upon Mesh. They are commanded by one of Morjin's priests, a man named Radomil Makan. In five or six more days, they will be upon you.'

'The Galdans!' Asaru cried out. 'Here, in Mesh? Impossible!'

In truth, what Sonjah had told us did seem impossible. Galda was still in chaos after the wars fought to otherthrow her king. And it was nearly four hundred miles from Ar to Mesh, with the most impassable terrain of the Morning Mountains to cross. And half of those miles lay in the sere, cruel country of the Mansurii, who would kill Galdans as gladly as they would Meshians or Kaashans or any other peoples.

When Atara questioned Sonjah about this, Sonjah shrugged her shoulders and said, 'The Red Dragon has sent chests of gold to the Mansurii. He has bought safe passage for the Galdans.'

'But he has not bought the Mansurii's bows and arrows?'

'Not as far as we've heard.'

'How many are the Galdans, then?'

'Forty thousand, it's said.'

'Forty thousand!' Maram cried out. 'Oh, my lord — it will be like Khaisham!'

My father sat regarding Sonjah and Aieela. His face seemed to have taken on the color of the old, leatherbound books all around him.

'If true,' Lansar Raasharu said, 'this will be very bad. But why should we believe it is true? Why should these women risk so much to aid their enemy?'

Sonjah brushed back her thick, blonde hair and said, 'We care not what befalls Mesh. We came here to warn Atara and take her away from what will surely be slaughter.'

I rubbed the seven diamonds set into the black jade of the hilt of my sword. I said, 'Slaughter is not certain. You speak of the Manslayers uniting against the Red Dragon. Why not ask your sisters to fight with us?'

'Ally with men?' Sonjah said to me. 'We slay men.'

'But the Manslayers rode with us against the Adirii clans, who were bought by the Red Dragon.'

'True, but we are Urtuk, not Kurmak. We are too few, and we will not waste ourselves in a hopeless battle — not to aid Valari.'

'But all of the Manslayers,' I persisted, 'would not be too few.'

Sonjah shrugged her shoulders again. 'Even if the Manslayers will unite, it would take a month to gather all of us together.'

'Too late to be of any help to us,' Lansar said.

Sonjah smiled at him, and her eyes were as sharp as knife points. 'You will help us. You Valari will not die cheaply, this we know. You will weaken the Red Dragon. And then we will harry him along his retreat to the Black Mountain. Perhaps we will slay him, and burn his liver in memory of you.'

Kane glared at her and snapped out, 'Fool! If you think you can so easily outmaneuver Morjin, then you're a fool.'

Sonjah tried to ignore him, but that was something like ignoring a mountain of fire about to erupt. Finally, she managed to turn toward Atara. 'Will you come with us, my imakla one?'

'No,' Atara said without hesitation. 'Not now. I will fight along with Val, and his people.'

Sonjah looked atme sadly and said, 'You are the one Valari I would ride with. Perhaps another time.'