Lord of Lies

'Forgive me. Lord Valashu, but might not the Lord of Lies make use of one so young even more easily?'

'No!' I said. And then, 'Yes, perhaps he could — but not this one, Lord Raasharu. She's no more a ghul than you are.'

The fire in my eyes just then must have convinced him of what my heart knew to be true. He bowed and took a step back, even as the awe with which he had earlier regarded me returned to his face He seemed ashamed to have doubted me. 'Forgive me, Lord Valashu, but it was my duty as your father's seneschal to ask.'

'It's all right, Lord Raasharu,' I said, clapping him on the arm. 'This has been a long night, and we're all very tired.'

But this, it seemed, was not good enough for Lord Tanu. He marched straight up to us as his suspicious old eyes fixed on Estrella. 'If she's not a ghul, then perhaps she's a spy that Salmelu left behind. She came out of Argattha! How do we know that her true loyalties won't always lie with the Kallimun priests and the Red Dragon.'

My mother slipped her shawl around Estrella's bare shoulders. Then she gathered her closer, and stood holding her protectively. 'If this girl is a spy, then fair is foul and I'm as blind as a bat.'

Lord Tanu opened his mouth as if to gainsay her, but my father suddenly stepped forward and called out, 'Enough! The Red Dragon has set traps for us tonight, but it's not to be believed that this girl is one of them. Now, haven't we other concerns?'

We did haw. For it seemed that there was still a ghul hiding somewhere in the castle. The thirty Guardians continued their unnatural sleep. And I still struggled to solve the great mystery of my life. While the search continued, my father sent one of his fastest riders to the Brotherhood's sanctuary to retrieve a book about the lesser gelstei that Master Juwain requested. Master Juwain believed the sleeping men sprawled below the dais would awaken naturally in good time. But if they did not, he wanted to search in his book for mention of some tonic or tea that would rouse them.

'There must be some specific that will counteract the effects of the sleep stone,' he said. 'Just as there must be some specific sequence of thoughts that will open this.'

So saying, he drew out the opalescent little thought stone that he had brought from Nar. In the presence of the Lightstone, its colors seemed to swirl more vividly.

'Try, sir,' I said, urging him toward the dais.

He yawned and said, 'I'm afraid I would have a fresher mind if we waited until tomorrow.'

'Tonight is nearly tomorrow,' I told him. 'Haven't we waited long enough?'

Master Juwain's eyes flared with a new light. He loved nothing in life so much as delving into the mysteries of the mind.

And so we both went up upon the dais. The Guardians there made room for us. Master Juwain stepped straight up to the Lightstone, holding the little gelstei in the open bowl of his hands. I stood by his side as he closed his eyes. He fell so still that it seemed he was sleeping, too. And so I waited to see if Master Juwain might discover some proof of my fate. What a great mystery the gelstei were! The secret of their making had been almost completely lost. But why, since there were still many ancient books describing how naked matter — the base elements of the earth — might be transmuted into these glorious crystals?

I remembered Master Juwain once explaining the answer to this puzzle: 'Because the gelstei are living crystals, and the knowledge that goes into their forging is individual and spiritual and alive.'

They could not, he had told me, be forged as if by recipe. And they could not be used that way, either.

And as it was with the lesser gelstei, so it was even more with the greater gelstei: the silustria of my sword, the healing varistei, the blazing firestones. And most of all, the Lightstone itself. It was said that the golden cup gleaming on its stand three feet away from me had been, forged by the Galadin around a distant star many ages ago — but no one really knew. Certainly no one on Ea, for twice ten thousand years, had succeeded in creating another like it, for almost everything about the gold gelstei remained a mystery. All through the Age of Law, the Brotherhoods had tried to unlock its secrets, with only partial success. As Master Juwain had said to me, it was one thing to hold the Lightstone in one's hands, but quite another to wield it.

It was near the first hour of the new day — Moonday, I thought — when Master Juwain finally opened his eyes. He sighed as he squeezed the little gelstei in his hand. 'I'm afraid I've failed, Val. The conundrum? remains: this crystal might contain knowledge about the Lightstone. But it seems we still need the Lightstone to open it.'

I gazed at the golden cup that we had fought through hell to bring to this place. It quickened the powers of each of our gelstei — and so quickened our individual gifts that enabled us to use them.

Master Juwain went on, 'I've tried all the formulae and incantations, in ancient Ardik, in Lorranda and Uskul, even the Songlines, but nothing has availed.'

My father's words rang in my head: that we must believe, for believing in a thing, we make it be. Then an old verse flashed in my mind:

The deeper dance of head and heart,

The angels' grace, mysterious art,

To weave lights thread so lucidly:

True mind's resplendent tapestry.

The sacred fire of heart and head

Where sense and thought are sweetly wed.

Through ancient alchemy is wrought

A higher sense, a deeper thought.

After I had recited these lines, Master Juwain looked at me and asked, 'Where did you learn that?'

'From a book in your library, years ago,' I said 'Perhaps you might find these thoughts that are deeper than words, since as you say, none of your words has availed.'

'But, Val thoughts are words. Language is.' He held up his little crystal. 'And this is called a thought stone — not a heart stone.'

I gazed off at our family's table, where my mother sat with Estrella tending her bruised and bloodied feet. Something about this mute girl, so wild and free, called forth the grace of an animal. An animal I was sure, had thoughts and mind, ordered not with words, but with the deeper logic of life. Estrella, not being able to talk to others, had somehow learned to communicate a blazing intelligence as if unfolding a fireflower from out of the depths of her being. The smile on her face as my mother finished her work and kissed her, spoke more clearly and purely than words ever could.

'But, sir,' I said to Master Juwain, 'doesn't thought arise from the deeper intelligence of the heart? Doesn't mind merely translate this intelligence into words, and then manipulate it and permute it?'

Master Juwain remained silent as he looked at me.

'And didn't you once teach me,' I went on, 'that the head and heart are two horses that draw the same chariot? And that the ancients made no such war between mind and body as do we?'

Master Juwain sighed as he nodded his head. 'Yes, yes, I know very well what you say is true. But, you see, sometimes I don't know. . what I know.'

I pointed at the pocket of his robes and said, 'The varistei is a healing stone, yes? What if it could heal this rent in the soul? Why don't you try using it on yourself?'

He looked appalled as if what I had suggested to him was more painful than taking a knife to his own chest to perform a surgery. But he slowly nodded his head as he removed the emerald crystal from his pocket. He stood fulling it in his hand in front of him.

The deeper dance of head and heart…

The healing stones, the green gelstei were called. And yet their powers ran much deeper than merely mending flesh together. Used in harmony with the natural forces of the earth, the varistei could awaken and strengthen the very fires of life itself.