Lord of Lies

'Come, Braggod!' Yaggod called out, 'drink it down!'

'Drink him down!' a nearby warrior called back.

'No one has ever outdrunk Braggod before.'

'And no one ever will.'

'Especially not some fat kradak. Look at that belly!'

It took Braggod and Maram slightly longer this time to drain their horns. When they had finished, Maram stood staring at Braggod, whose eyes were glazing and losing their focus. The big warrior seemed a little unsteady on his feet.

Again their horns were refilled, and again they were emptied

'Do you see?' Maram said, patting the ball of fat pushing out above his belt. 'A belly is a great, good thing. In form, like unto a globe like … ah, the world itself. And so it is a reservoir of great strength. It centers a man. And more to the point of this fine sport of yours, it gives a man a greater capacity to enjoy your fine beer.'

He began reciting verses that extolled the beauty of the belly. I could not tell if he was composing these in the moment. I appreciated his strategy: rather than immediately calling for another horn, he seemed happy to let the beer bubble in Braggod's belly and do its work.

'Bring on another horn!' Tringax finally said. 'No one has ever finished a fourth horn.'

Now both Maram and Braggod were weaving and shifting about, trying to find their balance. Freshly filled horns were pressed into their hands. Again, they began to drink.

'Down, down, drink it down!' the Sarni warriors called out. And my Valari knights standing with them picked up the chant: 'Down, down, drink or drown!'

Maram and Braggod stood with their horns thrust out toward each other as they eyed each other and drank. Somehow, to the amazement of Yaggod and Urtukar and others who were expert at these contests, they both managed to drink their beer to the last drop. When they lowered their horns, both of them seemed sick, as if they stood above a precipice on slippery rocks.

'Ah, that was very good,' Maram said with a belch. 'A very, very brew. Ah, I mean, a very fine brew. Very fine, indeed.'

He began rambling on about his liking of the Kurmak's beer, all the while watching Braggod. This great captain now began staggering, lurching forward and checking himself desperately trying to pull himself erect before staggering again.

'Ah, had enough, have you, Braggod, my drinking man?' Maram took a step closer to him. He looked around at the warriors watching him. 'I do believe he's about to fall. May I help him?'

'You may not lay your hands upon him,' Sajagax told him. 'That would be wrestling.'

Maram belched again and muttered, 'May not lay my hands upon him, so you say. Well, I won't then. But he must go down.'

Maram stepped even closer to Braggod, whose eyes were almost rolling back into to head. Suddenly, Maram let loose a tremendous belch. The blast of his breath seemed further to stagger Braggod. 'Down, down, like a drunken clown!' Maram called out Then he pushed out his belly against Braggod, nudging him slightly. It was just enough to make Braggod teeter and lose his balance altogether. With his arms flailing, he finally collapsed, falling down into his pile of cushions. All present laughed wildly and cheered to see such sport.

'Down, down to carpet-covered ground!' Maram rambled on. He stood weaving above Braggod and smiling at him. 'Well, my good man, I think you have had enough to drink, too bad. But Maram Marshayk has not. Bring on your best beer! Fill my horn! Fill your eyes and watch how a Valari knight and a prince of Delu drinks. Behold!'

Once again, one of Sajagax's young wives poured a stream of dark beer into Maram's horn. This time, it took Maram much longer to drink it, but drink it he did. Proud Sarni warriors stood dumbfounded at this feat; they knocked their bows together with a fearsome clacking. Never in living memory had any of them heard of a man finishing five horns of beer. And so Tringax called out: 'A five-horned man! Maram of the five horns!'

'Five horns?' Maram said. 'Why not make it six? Yes, I like the sound of that better: 'Six-Homed Maram'!'

So saying, he held out his horn yet again. But when Sajagax's wife came forward to refill it, Maram's face fell sick and he shook his head as he thought better of his impulse. 'Ah, enough, enough — I think I've had very enough.' And to the cheers of hundreds of warriors, both black-haired and blond, he fell backwards down to his cushions, too.

Braggod lay close-eyed and moaning as if felled by an axe, but Maram still had his wits — and his pride. As everyone looked on, he smiled at Sajagax and said, 'Do you see? Do you see, great chieftain? And you thought we Delians weak!'

No one could challenge Sajagax thusly and expect such a man to keep his silence. Sajagax nodded at Maram and said, 'You're not weak in the belly, I'll give you that. Nor in the mouth. If you weren't so drunk, we'd put the strength of your arms to the test as well.'

'My arms are as strong as those of any Sarni.'

'You think so, fat man?'

'As strong as yours, old man.'

Sajagax's eyes flared with anger. He said, 'Prove it then.'

'Gladly. How?'

In answer, Sajagax stood up and leaned his body into his bow he bent it and strung it. He handed it to Maram and sat back down. 'Let's see if you can draw this, then,'

Although Maram was unused to working a bow from a sitting position, he held the great bow out before him with his stiffened arm. He grunted and groaned and exerted all the power of his arms and black

to pull the bow's string to his ear. Then a moment later, he relaxed

the string and called out. 'There!'

Yaggod and Urtukar nodded their heads at this feat, Tringax, too. And Sajagax said to Maram, 'You're stronger than anyone would think I'll give you that. That was more than most of my warriors can manage But that is not what we mean by drawing a bow.'

'What is, then?'

Sajagax handed him an arrow fletched with raven feathers, one of the heavy ones used for piercing armor. He said to Maram, 'You must hold this at full draw for a count of at least five.'

'Only five? Can Five-Horned Maram do any less?'

And with that, he knocked the arrow and again drew the string back to the side of his head. Sajagax tried not to blink as Maram pointed it past his head toward the roof of the tent.

'One!' Sajagax cried out.

Maram grunted and seemed to swallow back a belch. He gripped the arrow between his sweating fingers with a fierce concentration.

'Two!' A hundred voices cried this out together.

Beads of sweat rolled down Maram's face as he gasped for breath. Both his arms began trembling with the strain of pulling the great bow.

'Three!'

'Look at him!' a warrior called out. 'Five-Horned Maram is going to hold the count!'

'Four!'

But even as everyone in the tent, myself included, shouted out this number, Maram's arm buckled and he lost his grip on the bowstring. With a loud crack, it sent the arrow whining through the air. A dozen warriors ducked low their heads. And three hundred more looked up to witness the neat hole thatihe arrow had punched through the silk of Sajagax's tent.

Seeing this ruin, three of Sajagax's wives looked at Sajagax and cringed. Everyone else looked at him, too. The great chieftains face grew as red as the Marud sun. His eyes fixed on the hole like arrows of his own. Even Yaggod and Tringax dared not speak.

At last, like the sky breaking open during a storm, Sajagax let loose a tremendous laugh. He threw back his head and pounded Maram's shoulder, all the while pealing out a huge, happy thunder. We all laughed with him. And then Sajagax dried his eyes and took back his