Lord of Lies

Lansar glowered at her as he fingered the hilt of his sword. Then he said to us, 'At best, this woman hopes to slay Morjin and claim the Lightstone for herself — after he has plundered it from us. At worst, she is a spy. She is Urtuk, and we have seen the Urtuk clans gathering to Morjin's standard.'

'True,' Asaru said, 'but we haven't seen the Manslayers.'

Lansar waved his hand toward Asaru as if sweeping away the voice of reason. 'Even if the Manslayers haven't been bought by Morjin's gold, these women might have been. Or bought by pain: what if Morjin holds hostage their families and threatens them with torture?'

'Toward what end?' Asaru asked.

'Toward deceiving us about the Galdans. If we believe that they are marching against Mesh, then we might be led to fear taking the field against Morjin.'

'Our Mansurii sisters told us of the Galdans!' Sonjah called out, shaking her bow at Lansar. 'Do you call everyone a liar?'

'The truth is sometimes hard to bring forth,' he said. 'Perhaps a heated iron, held to your face, would help sort the truth from the lies.'

For as long as it took for my heart to beat five times, no one said anything. Master Juwain touched his ruined ear; Atara readjusted her blindfold. The rest of us all looked at Lansar in horror.

And then my father called out, 'Lansar! You forget yourself!'

Lansar's face filled with blood, and he rubbed his eyes. He bowed his head and stared at the edge of the table. Then he looked at my father and said, 'Forgive me, my lord, but since Baltasar died, by another of Morjin's deceptions … you see, how can we let such things happen again? And now, not just my son but all the sons of Mesh, our daughters, too — it would be madness to trust the word of these manslaying women.'

Sonjah clasped her hand to her cheek as if Lansar's words, if not a hot iron, had burned her. Then she looked at Aieela and said, 'Come, my sister, it's time we went home Unless King Shamesh would shackle us and keep us in his dungeons.'

In truth, my father's castle held neither shackles nor dungeons. Freely these women had come to us, and freely they would be allowed to leave. My father said to Sar Barshan, 'See that they are well cared tor, and escort them from Mesh.'

After Sar Barshan and the two Manslayers had left us, my father turned to Atara and said, 'What do you make of their tidings?'

Atara pulled her black-maned cloak more tightly around her shoulders. Then she said, 'Sonjah tells truly.'

'Are you speaking as a scryer or as a Sarni who knows these people?' 'I'm speaking as Val's friend,' Atara said to him. Some of the room's coldness seemed to have seeped into her voice. 'And as yours.'

'Much may depend upon whether or not we believe them.'

'You must believe them,' Atara told him. Her words, even to my ears, seemed less an affirmation than a demand.

My father stared at her and said, 'Must the fate of Mesh turn on the word of outlanders, and Sarni at that? Are you a truthsayer, then?'

At this, my mother grasped his arm, and leaned closer to him as she whispered something in his ear.

'Forgive me,' my father said to Atara. He let loose a long sigh. 'These are bad times, but that is no cause for unkindness. And Elianora reminds me that she, too, was once a stranger in this land.'

Liljana brought out her little blue gelstei and said, 'I am a truthsayer, my lord. At least, this stone often gives me to hear truth or lies in what others say. And I agree with Atara: the Manslayer told truly.'

Lansar shook his head as he called out to my father, 'You cannot rely on this!'

'Perhaps not,' my father said, 'But the Manslayer's tidings cannot be ignored, either. If we march to the pass and engage Morjin m battle, the Galdans might fall upon our rear and destroy us.'

Who, I wondered, would ever wish to be a king? Terrible it is to have to make decisions, based on incomplete knowledge, that will determine the life or death of one's people.

'I doubt,' Lansar said, 'that there are any Galdans within a hundred leagues of Mesh.'

'We shall see,' my father said to him. 'We shall send out riders, into the Wendrush.'

'But, my lord, it will take them days to return — if they do return. What if this is a ruse, as I believe, and Morjin moves first?'

My father closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply. Then he looked at Lansar and spoke words that gave him much pain; 'From the Eshur Pass, it's hardly two days' march to the Lake Country. We might have to abandon it. Send word that my people are to take refuge in Lashku or flee to the mountain fastnesses.'

'Very well, my lord. But what if the Red Dragon ravages up and down the Sawash Valley?'

'He won't,' my father said. 'But if he does disperse his army, then we will march — and destroy him.'

That was the end of our council. Lansar Raasharu hurried off to carry out my father's commands. The rest of us tired to go about our business without letting the terror of this new threat undo us.

Later that afternoon, I walked with Atara in my father's garden, which adjoined his rooms to the west of the keep. Walls surrounded us on all sides, giving us a space of quiet and privacy. We paused beneath a cherry tree, and I said to her, 'Perhaps you should leave Mesh, while you still can.'

'Leave for where?' she asked me.

'To the gathering of the Manslayers. To be chosen Chiefess — that would be a great thing.' 'It would,' Atara agreed. 'But the time for that is not now.'

'Then perhaps you should return home. If there is war between the Marituk and Kurmak..'

'Are you concerned for my safety?'

'Yes, of course.'

'Then you think to send me into the face of another war?'

I bit my lip as I looked at the butterflies flitting among the honeysuckle that grew over the garden's walls.

'It's all right,' Atara said, squeezing my hand as she smiled at me. 'I would be safer there. Likely the war would be over by the time I crossed the Snake. And even if it wasn't, we Sarni rarely war to the death of any tribe.'

The pressure of her fingers against mine told me that we both knew that in the coming war with Morjin, there would be neither quarter nor mercy.

'But the Kurmak,' I said to her, 'are your people.'

'Yes, they are But so are the Alonians. Your mother and brothers, even your father, and everyone else in Mesh — everyone, don't you see? All of Ea's peoples are mine, now.'

'Even the Galdans? Even they of Sakai?'

'Yes, Val, even they. We must set them free.' So saying, she brought out a doeskin and unwrapped her two red arrows. She held them pointing west, toward the Wendrush where Morjin was encamped. 'Here is where the critical battle will be.'

In the days after that, I thought about what she told me. It was a dark time for all of us and although we tried to keep busy, our work could not distract us from our dread. As promised, my father sent riders into the country of the Mansurii: seven knights, on the swiftest horses. Waiting for their return was a torment. So was life inside the castle. As each day passed, Meshians fleeing their homes poured into it. I gave up my room to old Lord Rathald and his family, and moved in with Yarashan. Jonathay and Ravar likewise surrendered their quarters to other families and joined us in spreading our mats and sleeping furs on Yarashan's floor. But our accommodations remained luxurious compared with that of the sea of women and children who filled the castle's wards. It got so crowded that it was nearly impossible to cross from the Great. Hall to the Swan Tower without trampling the sleeping mat or possessions of some poor farmer's wife cooking porridge over a little woodfire. It seemed that the castle could hold no more, but my mother couldn't bear to turn anyone away.

And then on the last day of Soal, one of the riders returned to tell the worst of tidings: an army of Galdans was indeed nearing the mountains of Mesh. He placed their numbers at forty-one thousand. They were making toward the very wide Sky Pass, he said, and should be encamped at its mouth within two days.