Lord of Lies

'That's not all he's looking for, it seems,' Lord Harsha said. He went on to explain that Behira had caught him exchanging whispers with a beautiful woman from Lagash, and she feared that he had made an assignation. 'My daughter is very worried — and so am I.'

Yarashan, eating a cherry almost daintily as if he didn't want its juices to stain his fine face, let loose a little laugh. 'You'd do better to worry that Maram doesn't find his pie. How that man can eat! Hes likely to stuff himself so full that he won't be able to compete this afternoon.'

'If he doesn't present himself soon,' Asaru said, looking up at the sun, 'he'll miss the next round and be disqualified.'

My brother held a plum to his puffy, split lip as if its coolness might soothe it. I rubbed my sore elbow, which had been pulled straight and nearly bent back the wrong way. Master Juwain looked at us with all the compassion he could summon, for he had spent all morning tending such injuries — and much worse. And then he said, 'Disqualification might be exactly what Maram seeks.'

'That would be a pity,' Yarashan said. 'Who would ever have thought that he would do so well? Vanquishing five fine knights, and him taking hardly a scratch.'

In fact, one of Maram's opponents that day had managed to jam a fingernail into Maram's eye, leaving him with a rather serious scratch that Master Juwain had been able to treat only with difficulty. 'Let's look for him then,' I said. 'He can't have gone very far.' 'Unless he's gone back to the Lagashuns' encampment with that woman,' Lord Harsha said. 'But why don't we hope for the best and at least try the pie-sellers first?'

Without waiting for agreement, he clamped his hand around his sword again and pushed off into the crowds. I positioned myself close to him, while Asaru, Yarashan and Master Juwain hurried after us. As quickly as we could, we searched around the stalls of every pie seller, baker and pastry cook in that area of the Tournament Grounds; knowing Maram as we did, we also searched amongst the beer-sellers, vintners and brandy kiosks — to no avail. And then the first warning trumpet sounded from the Sword Pavilion behind us.

'Surely he'll hear that and make his way back to the competition.' Asaru said.

'If Sar Maram is doing what it seems he might be doing,' Lord Harsha said, 'he'll be hearing other trumpets — calling him to his doom.'

So saying, his eyes narrowed, and he drew forth his sword a few inches so that its steel caught the light of the sun.

Finally, following an intuition that flashed through my mind, I led the way toward the edge of the kiosks in that area. And there, at one of the dice stalls, we found Maram standing before a table and casting a pair of cubical, carved bones. A pile of coins was heaped up on the table before him. Many people stood watching him — and his pile of coins — as if they hoped his luck would hold and would magically be bestowed upon them.

A sigh of relief broke from Lord Harsha's tight, old lips as he beheld this sight. But Asaru was less forgiving. He stormed up to Maram and said, 'Didn't you hear the trumpet?'

'Ah, what trumpet?' Maram asked, shaking the yellow dice in his huge hand.

'It's nearly time for the next match. You don't want to be late.'

'Don't I,' Maram said as he glanced at his pile of coins.

'No, you don't,' Asaru said, reaching out to close his hand around Maram's. 'What's wrong with you? Playing dice at a time like this? You're a Valari knight and you shouldn't stoop to such vice.'

'Well it's said that every man needs one vice.'

'Yes, but you drink and make a glutton of yourself. You womanize,' Here Asaru cast a quick look at Lord Harsha whose hand remained clamped around the hilt of his sword. 'And now it seems you gamble as well'

'Ah, I'm still deciding which vice will be mine.'

I couldn't help smiling at Maram's incorrigibleness, and neither could Yarashan. Even Asaru seemed amused by this comment — but he kept his face stern even so. And he told Maram, 'You should concentrate on your virtues instead of your vices. You might point at wrestling, you know.'

Maram looked at his pile of coins and then at the other dice throwers around the table. He rubbed his red eye and said, 'I prefer to gamble gold pieces rather than body parts, which are more precious to me.'

Just then the second warning trumpet sounded as if from far away.

'Are you ready to withdraw from the tournament then?' Asaru asked.

'What if I am?' Maram said, staring at him. 'I've been injured, haven't I?'

Yarashan scoffed at this, saying, 'If you call a scratch an injury.'

The sudden fire in Asaru's eyes warned Yarashan into silence. And Asaru said to Maram, 'Don't you want to give the lie to King Mohan's insinuation that you are unqualified to judge Val's feats of arms? Don't you want to help Val?'

'Help him be acclaimed the Maitreya?'

'Yes, if that is what it takes — to help all of Ea.'

Asaru stood staring at Maram, and so bright did his eyes become that Maram was finally forced to look away from him. He gripped the dice in his fist and muttered, 'Ah, well, let's go and wrestle, then.'

Angrily, he cast the dice one last time across the table. The six-sided bones tumbled about and then came to a stop. One of the other dice-throwers examined their carved faces and shook his head in defeat as he called out, 'Double dragons! This knight has too much luck!'

After the tables owner took his share of Maram's winnings, Maram scooped up his coins and dropped them into a leather purse. He gave a few of them to some tatterdemalions standing nearby, and then began walking back toward the Sword Pavilion even as the last warning trumpet blared. That afternoon, it seemed that Maram was touched by the angel of fortune herself Four sturdy knights he faced on the wrestling mats, and he sent each of them tumbling down or managed to demonstrate a kill with some vicious strike, or choke hold. Thus d,d he vanquish even Asaru. As Lord Harsha sat in the stands with Estrella and Behira they watched these moves with great concern — and even greater surprise. From my place at the edge of the wrestling ring, I overheard Lord Harsha say to his daughter, 'How is this possible? It would take more than luck alone for Maram to defeat lord Asaru.'

In the final round, however, Maram lost to Sat Rajiru of Kaash. At the ceremony afterward, they stood before King Waray to be honored — along with Yarashan, Asaru and me, for we had won third, fourth and fifth places. It was a great day for the knights of Mesh, and even King Mohan offered his grudging appreciation as he glared at us and shook his head in wonder.

Before dinner that night, Maram, Asaru, Yarashan and I bathed our battered bodies in one the wooden tubs set up at the edge of our encampment. As Maram laved handfuls of steaming hot water over his mountainous frame, Asaru seemed to look beneath his layers of fat, and he said, 'You've grown stronger since you set out on your quest.'

'Fighting dragons,' Maram said, 'will make a man so.'

'So it seems. But that doesn't explain your skill on the mats. Strength alone never prevailed at wrestling.'

'No,' Yarashan added as he poked his finger into Maram's big, hairy belly, 'it seems our guest from Delu must have been practicing.'

'Maram,' I said, 'has given me to understand that he doesn't practice wrestling.'

As we all looked at Maram, his face flushed bright red whether from shame or the heat of the bath, it was hard to tell 'Ah, Val, I said only that I didn't like to practice wrestling. When I was a boy, my father made me drill at hand to hand because he was always afraid that an assassin would jump out from behind a curtain and stick a knife into me.'

Despite the water's permeating heat I shuddered as I thought of how close Sivar of Godhra had come to murdering me. To Maram I said, 'You learned well.'

'Well enough, I suppose. At my father's court, no one could beat me.' Maram held up his knight's ring and shook the water from its two diamonds. 'Then, too, ever since your father gave this to me, I've engaged Ser Garash to renew my skill.'

So, I thought, the mystery of Maram's second in wrestling was finally explained. Old Sar Garash, years ago, had won firsts this savage art many times before retiring from the competitions to teach young knights such as Asaru, Yarashan and myself.

'You've been practicing in secret then?' Asaru asked him. 'But why?'

'Because of Valari pride, that's why,' Maram told him. 'Think of it: if it became known that I was any good at wrestling, every knight in Silvassu would have wanted to challenge me to a match.'