Lord of Lies

the undiscerning, covered great mounds of muscle and battle-tempered bone. There was about him a growing certainty of his prowess and physical splendor, and this attracted women like flowers to the sun.

Just then Jasmina Ashur, who had lost her husband in the war against Waas, espied Maram and hurried over to him. She was graceful and slender as a stem, barely eighteen, and her adoring eyes fell upon Maram with an almost smothering desire. After greeting us, she began discussing with Maram the poetry-writing session he had promised her.

'Someone,' she told Maram, 'must put the account of your quest to verse. Since you are too modest to hoist your own banner.'

'Ah,' Maram said, the blood rushing to his face, 'I am too modest, aren't I?'

'Yes, you are. Even so, the world needs to be told of your feats, before others make free with your story.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well I overheard Count Dario claiming that you are really Alonian.'

'Why, that's not true! My grandmother was the daughter of the old Baron Monteer of Iviendenhall before King Kiritan's father conquered it and added it to his realm. Does that make me Alonian?'

'They're saying other things, too. About the Maitreya.'

Maram fell silent as my grandmother squeezed his arm and Master Juwain looked at me. Then Master Juwain rubbed the back of his bald head and asked Jasmina, 'And what are they saying about the Shining One?'

'That he has almost certainly been found. In a village near Adavam. They say that he's the son of a blacksmith and has made miracles: healing the blind and turning lead into gold.'

Adavam, I remembered, lay only fifty miles from Tria, and was clearly within the bounds of Old Alonia.

'But have these miracles been verified?' Master Juwain asked. 'In Galda, before it fell, came stories of a shepherd removing growths from people's bodies with his bare hands. We sent Brother Alexander to investigate. It turned out that the shepherd was showing his poor patients sheep offal through sleight of hand.'

Jasmina grimaced as if such trickery disgusted her. Then she said, 'Who can trust the Galdans? Or the Alonians? It seems to me more likely that the Maitreya would be one of those who found the Lightstone.'

Here she smiled at Maram, and again his face flushed bright red. He coughed out, 'No, no — I'm not Maitreya! Do diamonds bleed? Can you make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?'

'Only in Alonia,' Jasmina said with a little laugh. Then she bowed her head to me and laid her hand on my arm. 'But if not Sar Maram, then perhaps you, Lord Valashu. Many are saying this, that you were the first to touch the golden cup, and much of its light passed into you.'

Maram removed Jasmina's hand from my arm and stood holding her questing fingers in his. 'Val, the Maitreya? No, no — he can't be!'

'But why not?'

'Why, ah, because he just can't'. Maram paused to take a deep breath as he looked at me. 'The one you speak of, my lady, would be more like the wind than the mountains and rivers over which it blows. He would have fire in his veins, not blood. And it would be a cold fire, I think, like that of the stars. Too pure, too. . evanescent. How could such a one ever bring himself to slay his enemies or love a woman? I've seen Val's blood, you know, too many times, too bad. It's as red and hot as mine.'

At that moment, Maram's face fell rigid, and he dropped Jasmina's hand as if it were a hot coal. I turned to see Lord Harsha and Behira enter the hall. They made their way straight toward us with surprising speed, considering the lameness of Lord Harsha's smashed leg, which caused him to limp badly. Despite his age, he was still straight and sturdy, and as hard as the rocks in the fields he still plowed with his own hands. A black eye patch stood out against the long white hair that flowed from his square head; his single eye, like a black diamond, gleamed at Maram, upon whom he advanced with his hand gripping the hilt of his kalama.

'Oh, no!' Maram muttered. And then, as Lord Harsha and his daughter drew up to us, Maram called out, 'Good evening, my lord. Behira, I've never seen you look so beautiful.'

Behira, who was as plump and pretty as a well-fed swan, was dressed in a white silk gown that failed to conceal her large breasts and even larger hips. Her raven-black hair spilled over her shoulders nearly down to her waist. Her oval face, usually quite pleasant to look at, was now marred by some of the darker passions. I knew her to be generous of heart and sweet as the honey that Maram loved, but she was also quite spirited, and there was within her more than a little of her father's steel, sharpened to a razor edge.

'Jasmina,' she said, 'has Maram invited you yet to our wedding? We were considering making vows at the end of Soal — what do you think?'

Valari women wield weapons only at times of life and death, but at that moment Behira's black eyes were daggers that tore Jasmina open. Jasmina allowed that Soal would indeed be a good month for marriage. Then she excused herself and moved off toward a table of young knights.

'Ah, Behira,' Maram said as she turned her cutting gaze on him. 'We were just discussing the Maitreya.' He coughed into his hand, twice, and then extended it toward Behira as if to present her to me. Then he said, 'Do you see, Val? Why should one look to the stars when there is such beauty on earth? Do you want heaven? Then I say you'd be more likely to find it in a woman's kiss — at least a woman such as my beloved.'

'Here now,' Lord Harsha said, moving forward between his daughter and Maram. 'We'll not speak of that until we've spoken of a date. What about Soal, Sar Maram?'

'Ah, Soal is a good month,' Maram said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. 'Of course, Ioj might be even better, with the aspen leaves going gold, or even Valte after the harvest is — '

'The question must be asked,' Lord Harsha said, 'are you looking for a better match than my daughter?'

'No, no — of course not!'

'Then why all these flirtations of yours?'

'My flirtations? Ah, Lord Harsha, you don't understand — it is they who flirt with me.'

'Well it must stop.' Lord Harsha was as blunt as a river stone 'Do you wish to wound my daughter's heart beyond all repair?'

Maram turned to look at Behira, whose bright eyes were fixed upon him. 'I would rather,' he said, 'that my own heart were torn out.'

'That can be accomplished,' Lord Harsha said, his fist tightening around the hilt of his sword.

Seeing this Maram blanched and blurted out, 'I love Behira!'

'Perhaps — but how is she to know that?'

'But Lord Harsha, don't you see? It is the very extravagance of the attentions of the widows of your realm that is the measure of my love and devotion to your daughter. It is that way with women, isn't it? That the more a man loves one woman, the more others will see seducing him as a challenge?'

Lord Harsha, who was steady and true of mind, was not especially quick or clever. He stuck to his main point saying, 'Then the sooner you are wed, the better. Today is the sixth of Soldru. The sixth of Marud will not be too soon for the wedding. One month, Sar Maram.'

The look in Maram's eyes just then was that of an animal caught in a trap. He pulled at the collar of his red tunic as if struggling to breathe, then gasped out, 'One month! But Lord Harsha with the news I've just had and all my duties, that is far too little — '

'What duties? Trying to outdrink any man in Mesh? And what news are you speaking of?'

Maram's eyes fell upon me and brightened as if seeing a way out of such sudden — and final — matrimony. He said, 'Why the news about Val. Master Juwain believes that he is likely the Maitreya.'

Lord Harsha had a great respect for authority, and great regard for the Brotherhood and Master Juwain. He listened quietly as Master Juwain recounted the evidence cited earlier in the Adami tower. Master Juwain admitted that his hope for me was not yet proven beyond doubt, and he asked Lord Harsha not to speak of my horoscope to anyone. Like a warrior receiving battle orders from his king, Lord Harsha agreed to this. Then he nodded his hoary head toward me, saying, 'It's always been clear that there is something remarkable about Val.'

'Yes, there is,' Maram said, laying his hand on my shoulder. 'And that is why, my lord, we should not be too quick to set a date. You see, I've allegiance to Val, and who knows where fate might take us if he truly