Lord of Lies

'We have decided that we cannot decide, I'm sorry. We are still of many minds, many, many.'

I felt the air explode from my lips as if someone had punched me in my belly. I said, 'Then no decision is a decision.'

'If you could stay here longer, perhaps a moonful of days, or two, then we could discuss this further, yes?'

I thought of the great conclave in Tria that would begin in only two more weeks, and I said, 'We cannot remain here. But even if we could, what would change your people's minds?'

'Many look for the wisdom to make this decision in the lights of the Timpum. Many of us look for a sign.'

I, too, looked for a sign of what to do. My friends could not help me. Master Juwain brought out his journal and stood writing down the few words of the angels' language as if he might never hear spoken any others. Atara rolled her scryer's sphere between her hands, but her face remained as blank as the white cloth that covered her eyes. Maram stared greedily at the akashic crystal as a pirate might regard treasure. I was afraid that he might counsel me to seize the crystal and fight our way off the island. And Estrella simply smiled at me as if to ask why I concerned myself with glittering gelstei when all I needed to know dwelled like a bright light within my heart.

At last I brough out the Lightstone and held it toward the akashic crystal. In its presence, the colors of the translucent disc began swirling and flaring with greater radiance.

'A sign,' I whispered. 'A sign.'

A vivid light flashed in my mind then, and, to Master luwain, I cried out, 'Lais — the Galadin's word for sign is lais!'

Even as my voice died off into the sounds of the wind and the distant song of a nightingale, Flick blazed into being and whirled above the akashic crystal. The lights of his fiery form rippled in a pattern that seemed at once familiar and utterly strange, I could almost read these colors of crimson, silver and glorre as I might letters on a page of a book. Two spots of a deep brown, like eyes, formed up out of this swirl and seemed to gaze at me. And then, to my astonishment — and that of Master luwain Ninana, Aunai and all those gathered around us — from Flicks luminous center, a beautiful music poured forth. It rose and swelled in perfect syncopation with the pulses of radiance he gave to the night. In its lovely harmonies was the sweetness and clarity of water running over smooth rocks and all the brilliance of a star, it sounded almost like the song of the angels, in which music and words were as one.

'A sign,' Ninana murmured. 'A sign.'

'The Timpirum sings!' Aunai cried out. 'I hear him! I hear him!'

We all did, and that was very strange, for no one in the Lokilani's wood had ever heard any of the Timpurn utter the slightest sound.

'A sign,' Ninana said again, this time more loudly. 'This is surely a sign that this Timpirum belongs with the Jewel of Memory.'

'And that the jewel belongs with the Timpirum,' Aunai added. 'As the Timpirum belongs with Vala'ashu.'

'A sign, a sign!' Taije and Kielii cried out with one voice. Now the entire tribe of Lokilani rose to their feet and rushed over to us, shouting, 'It is a sign! The Timpirum sings — listen, listen!'

For a while, we all did listen to this marvelous music that hung in the air like the sky's constellations. And then Master Juwain recited part of the verse that had led us here:

And they forever long to wake,

To praise, exalt and music make,

Breathe life through sacred memories,

Recall the ancient harmonies.

Beneath the trees they rise and ring,

And whirl and play and soar and sing

Of wider woods beyond the sea

Where they shall dwell eternally.

I finally put away the Lightstone, and Flick fell silent as a deep peace spread outward through the grove. Then Ninana stepped forward. She lifted up the akashic crystal from its cairn and set it into my hands. It was lighter than I had thought it would be.

'But not all of your people have spoken,' I said to her.

Ninana looked out into the circles of Lokilani gathered around us. Their eyes were nearly as bright as the lights of the Timpum.

'No, we have spoken,' she said to me, 'with our hearts. Can you not hear what we say?'

Twelve hundred hearts beat as mine did, and those of my friends, joyfully and with great hope. And with great trust that 1 would use this precious jewel wisely.

'The Lokilani,' Ninana said to me, 'do not protect the Forest only for the Lokilani. A day will come — soon, soon — when the Matri'aya will light the way back to the Forest. It will grow again even in the deserts. The trees, Vala'ashu! Our children, who take their life from flower and leaf, and give it back in joy and song. This is more precious to us than any jewel.'

So saying, she drew forth a small bag woven of silklike fibers. She pressed it into my hand, inside it were many tiny black seeds: the timana's seeds, from which would grow great astor trees.

After that there was much singing and dancing. Maram whirled about with a pretty young woman as hundreds watched. Estrella played with the Lokilani children; her delight was sweeter to me than any of the Forest's fruits. Even Atara, for a few hours, emerged from her palace of ice. Ninana, and four other Lokilani women, brought out green gelstei crystals like unto Master Juwain's and tried to heal her blindness. They failed. It seemed that no new life would ever grow in the sacred soil of her face which Morjin had blackened. It didn't matter. For as Atara told me, 'I've seen you gain what you hoped to find — and the children of the Galadin. What could make me happier than that?'

She smiled at me and squeezed my hand; the warmth of her fingers remained with me far into the night, when it came time to try to sleep. But I could not sleep. After Maram stole off into the woods, I lay on my cloak gazing at the akashic crystal which I had set down into the moss beside me. I gazed at the still forms of Atara, Estrella and Master Juwain, and all the Lokilani spread out nearby beneath the golden gloze of the astor trees. Most of all 1 gazed at the Timpum. And listened. For the woods around me seemed to fill with a ringing like bells as the Timpum came alive in their blazing millions and sang songs of glory as old as the stars.

Chapter 20

We spent most of the next day walking through the great woods back to our boat. On the beach, with the lake's waters lapping gently against coarse sands, we said goodbye to Ninana and Aunai and the several dozen Lokilani who had accompanied us. We launched our boat and rowed straight out toward the mist with a fair wind at our backs. When we reached this wall of cold gray cloud, a swift current caught us up and bore us away from the island. Our strenuous work at the oars further speeded us along, for we did not wish to spend any great time beneath this wet blanket that blinded us. After what seemed less than a mile, we broke free from the mist, out into the sunshine of a hot summer day. It did not take us very long to make our way back to the lake's northern shore and find the little village of the Dirt Scrapers.

Tembom was very glad to see us, for he had given up his boat — and us — as lost. Baltasar and the Guardians met us by the shore, as did Karimah and the Manslayers. It was very good to see my men formed up on their great warhorses; the diamonds of their armor sparkled brightly in the sun, almost as brightly as theTimpum of the mist-shrouded island across the lake.

'Baltasar!' I called out as I greeted my friend. 'Sunjay! Lord Harsha! Lord Raasharu!'

Skyshan of Ki held the reins to my horse, and I greeted Altaru with as much gladness. I climbed onto his back and said to Baltasar, 'You seem ready for a journey.'

'That we are,' he said. 'As soon as your boat was sighted, we broke camp. It was thought that with such a