Lord of Lies

their companions still waiting on the rise toward the north. They knew, even as I did, that their smaller ponies could always outdistance our heavy warhorses. That is, they could could either gain upon us or escape us over long distances.

Altaru, my fierce, black stallion, like the other horses along our charging line, was a sprinter. His great muscles gathered and exploded to the rhythm and beat of his driving legs. He snorted and sweated as we fairly flew through the air with my sixty companions a scant few yards behind us. Wind whipped into my face. I felt the fear of the Sarni warriors ahead of us, and smelled the blood of their wounded. We had the advantage of momentum and rushing upon them at a full gallop even as they were still building speed from their abrupt halt. We gained on them quickly. Many of them turned in their saddles to fire off quick shots at us; one of these sizzling arrows crashed into my hip with a sharp, piercing pain that enraged me. It enraged Altaru, too. He bore down upon the Sarni like a black fury ready to smash our enemy into the bloody grass with his great, pounding hooves.

BA-ROO! BA-ROO! BA-ROO!

One of the Sarni's warhorns blared out three times, and again, they halted and wheeled about. They had no intention of letting us ride them down and putting our lances through their backs.

'Death to the Valari!' their leader cried out. He was a large man with long blond hair flowing out beneath his shining helm and blue diamonds painted on his cheeks and forehead. 'Death to the Elahad!'

The Sarni faced us at close range over the trampled grass. Some shot arrows straight at us, and they killed three more knights. Many, though, had run out of arrows. These drew their curving sabers and clutched their little leather shields. Then, to their leader's command, they screamed as they spurred their horses toward us.

'Death to the Valari! Kill them all!'

They were a hundred to our sixty — now fifty-seven — but we were Valari knights, and so now the odds favored us. All along our charging line, one by one, my knights came up against the Sarni warriors. A dozen lances tore through leather armor and through the bodies or our enemies. Blood and froth sprayed the air as the screams of the dying shook the earth. A Sarni warrior shot an arrow straight into the mouth of Sar Jonawan; three others fired arrows at me that broke upon my armor. Two more warriors — one a huge man whose blue paint couldn't hide the scars on his face — charged at me screaming out their battle cry. The scarred man reached me a moment before the other and him I cleaved through the neck, splitting the gold gorget there and sweeping of his head in a single stroke. And on the backstroke, I turned in my saddle and lunged out toward the other side of me in a furious thrust that split open his friend's chest and pushed Alkaladur's point clean through his back. As I wrenched free my sword, it was as if my own heart had been wrenched from me, I screamed in agony. My enemies, in their last pulse of malice, seemed to grab my ribs from the inside and pull me down with them into death. Only Alkaladur saved me. My shining sword connected me so the sky and drew upon the deep currents of the earth. It drove back the icy nothingness, for a time, and filled me with new life.

'Sar Jarlath!' someone cried out.

I turned to see this large knight beset by four Sarni warriors. I whirled Altaru about and charged into them. I struck out to the right and left trying to protect him. My sword split open leather and skin and sent founts of blood spraying into the air. When the four warriors lay dead in the grass, Sar Jarlath raised his red-tipped lance toward me in gratitude for saving his life.

'Lord Valashu — behind you!'

In the melee of our two forces crashing together, a Sarni warrior on a dappled mare tried to sneak up behind me Lansar Raasharu raced forward and intercepted him with a savage lance-thrust that tore through the man's eye. Other warriors screamed and descended upon us. Lord Raasharu, now shieldless, stabbed out with his lance again and again, even as I cut and lunged with my sword. A rage to kill leapt along my blood like fire. I felt it touch Lord Raasharu — or perhaps it was his own fury that burned into me. So it went all about us, my Guardians thrusting with their lances or whipping free their long kalamas in a rare rage to protect me and destroy our ancient enemy. Soon many of the Sarni lay hacked and pierced on the grass. Our horses trampled their bodies; to the sound of steel clanging against steel was added the sickening crunch of iron shod hooves breaking skin and bones. Those Sarni warriors not immediately engaged began racing back toward the position that the main body of their company still held on the rise. And then, one by one, any of these blue-faced savages who could broke off their engagements and joined the retreat. And we, of the long swords and the Morning Mountains, slaugntered the rest.

'Val, are you all right?' Maram gasped out as he rode up to me. His sword was red, and his face was white as he gazed at the carnage all about us. 'Oh, Lord, what a day! These Sarni have courage — but no care for their brothers.'

He pointed toward the hundred and twenty Sarni warriors watching from the rise, and he shook his head as if he couldn't understand why Trahadak the Elder, whoever he was, didn't order his men forward to aid their brethren. But if Trahadak had commanded such an advance of his reserve, so would I have done — as I still could.

I turned back toward the two lines of Guardians still waiting behind us across the sun-streaked steppe. I cupped my hand around my mouth and shouted, 'Archers mount! First line, to us, and charge! Second line follow at half speed!'

I nodded at Maram and at Lord Raasharu. To Baltasar and Sunjay Raviru and all the other knights who gathered about me in the middle of that bloody field, I called out, 'Let's break them!'

Again, I urged Altaru to a gallop, and fifty of my finest knights charged with me toward the rise. The remnants of the Sarni that we had butchered reached their line in a confusion of shouting men and bounding horses. As we surged up the slope, arrows rained against us and off of us; a few found their marks and killed my men. And all at once, the Sarni broke. The entire company turned their horses to the north and galloped off as quickly as they could.

'After them!' Baltasar shouted from my side as we pounded up the rise then reached its crest. His face was red from the heat of battle and bloodlust. 'Let's kill them all!'

'No, hold!' I shouted at him. I reined Altaru to a halt, and called to all my other knights as they crested the hill as well. 'Hold here and reform our lines!'

Our rearguard, with Sar Adamar, Sar Jarlath, Sar Hannu and Skyshan of Ki, finally arrived and joined the rest of us. Lord Harsha and Master Juwain were with them. My heart surged with relief as I met eyes with Estrella; she remained unharmed, as did Behira. The Sarni do not slay women or girls any more than they do horses. As before, we arrayed ourselves along the top of the rise in three lines facing north across the steppe. Our enemy had now halted about four hundred yards away. Their steel helms glistened in the last light of the day as they regrouped themselves and faced us.

'Look!' Maram called out as he waved his sword at them.'Why don't they just go away? Don't they know when they're beaten?'

We had lost sixteen Guardians killed and almost as many wounded; some forty of the Sarni lay dead or dying on the grass behind us. And yet, our enemy was certainly not beaten. They still had a good one hundred and eighty effective warriors, as did we. They still had their bows and arrows and their swifter ponies, and all the advantage of fighting in the open. I watched as they brought up their packhorses bearing sheaves of fresh arrows.

'They are beaten, aren't they?' Maram said. 'If they attack us again, we'll ride them down again, cut them to pieces. Won't we?'

I hated to utter any words that might dispirit my men, but the truth had to be told. And so I said to Maram, 'No, they won't come so close again. If we charge, they'll hold back and cut us down with arrows.'

'So many dead, too many — too bad,' Maram said as he glanced behind us. His blustery optimism suddenly drained from him like blood into the ground. 'What have we gained, then?'

'Time,' I told him. I looked along the rise where my Guardians made ready for another round of battle. I looked out into the sweeps and undulations of the Wendrush where our enemy gathered. 'And now we hold the high ground.'

'Time to do what?' Maram muttered. 'Wait here on this rise and behold our doom?'

I leaned over in my saddle and grasped his arm. 'Do not speak so. Do you remember Argattha?'

'Ah, how could I forget?'

'There's always a way,' I told him. 'Always a chance.'

Just then the wind rose and seemed to carry on its currents a soul-shivering sound, like the cry of a hawk. My sword's silvery gelstei, now shaken clean of blood, caught the day's last light and cast it into my eyes. I turned away from its dazzle, turned to look out at the Sarni in the depression below us, and then beyond. Something