Lord of Lies

The road before us led through a patchwork of canals and irrigated farmland bordering the river. Two men on horses, I saw, were galloping northward along it. I guessed that Lord Halmar must have sent them to alert Duke Malatam that we would be passing through his lands.

Lord Halmar invited us to take refreshment with him in one of the guardhouses built into the base of this side of the wall. But as Sajagax put it, not caring who heard him, 'I've litde liking to set foot inside one of these stone coffins. In any case, we must be on our way'

And so we thanked Lord Halmar for his hospitality and set out down the road after the heralds. A hundred and fifty miles of good roads and peaceful country lay between us and Tria, and I hoped to make this journey in only four or five more days.

Chapter 22

For fifteen more miles that afternoon, we rode north along the eastern side of the Poru. Farms to the right and left of the road had been harked out of the once-open steppe. Instead of grass the Aloniana grew wheat and other grains. An intricate systems of canals carried water from the river and watered these fields, which were broken up into green rectangles and squares. Every half mile or so, we crossed a little bridge spanning one of the larger canals. Sajagax and his warriors hated being forced onto the road in order to make these, crossings — and more importantly, to keep from trampling the fields. And they had nothing but contempt for the men and women who worked stripped to the waist and bent over under the hot sun hoeing and weeding and scattering buckets of manure to feritilize their crops. As Sajagax said to me during a break to water our horses from one of the canals, 'Look at these dirt-scrapers and dung-carriers! They're practically slaves of whatever lord owns this land. They'd be better off if we ended their miserable lives by using them for target practice.'

Here he lifted up his bow and winked at me. Horrified, I placed my hand on his arm and said to him, 'Be strong and protect the weak.'

For a moment, I felt a flame of compassion ignite inside Sajagax. And then he shook his head even as he shook his bow at the tamed countryside around us. 'They're kradaks like everyone else here and they've no right to live on the Wendrush like real men. We should level all of Alonia and convert it to pasturage for our horses.'

I looked at him to see if he was serious. He was. No wonder, I thought, that we Valari had fought these savage Sarni for three long ages.

And then, just as I had given up all hope for this barbarian with his braided gray hair and fierce mustaches, he surprised me. As we were passing through a village whose name I never learned, he stopped to give a gold coin to a blind woman begging alms. When I bowed my head to acknowledge his kindness, he said to me, ' 'Be strong and

protect the weak.' It's a hard law you've laid upon me, Valashu Elahad. There are too many of the weak. But that woman could have have been my own granddaughter.'

The Alonians, sad to say, did not return Sajagax's largesse. We made camp that night on a fallow fold of a wealthy landowner. This was a soft and haughty young knight who it seemed had never been to war. Although he did not charge us for pitching our tents on top of his weedy field, he demanded gold for the bread and beef that he wished to sell us — extortionate prices. After Sajagax had heard him out, he nearly put an arrow through his eye. The knight retreated behind the walls of his estate. And Sajagax bent down to plough his tough old hand into the black soil beneath his boots. He held it out before me and said, 'I'd rather eat dirt than pay for that weakling's food. On the Wendrush, we either kill strangers passing through or give them so much meat and drink that they can't move.'

Our dinner that night was more of the tough, dried sagosk that we had gnawed on our journey and the inevitable biscuits that Valari called battle bread and the Sarni knew as rushk cakes. Our breakfast the following morning wasn't much more appetizing. But it was enough to sustain us on a long day's ride through the sun that baked us and a few hours of rain that drenched us and slicked the paving stones beneath our horses' clopping hooves. Late in the afternoon, we came to a place where the road turned west and crossed the Poru along a great stone bridge. On the other side was the town of Tiamar, a square assemblage of sparkling stone buildings from which Duke Malatam ruled the lands of Tarlan. The Duke, however, was not in residence in his palace above the river. With other nobles, he had fled the summer heat of these sweltering lowlands for his family's old castle in the hills twenty miles to the north.

'It's just as well,' Sajagax said to me when a passing tinker gave us this news. 'If this duke tried to charge us for his hospitality, too, I would put an arrow through him. And then King Kiritan would have to decide if he wished to make war with his own father-in-law.'

None of us wanted to delay our journey by seeking out this great duke in his castle so that we might pay our respects to him But it was he who sought us out instead. We stopped that night outside the city on a short-grassed commons used for grazing sheep. In the morning, with the sun a glowing red disc above the eastern honzon, we were preparing to break camp when a thunder of hooves sounded on the road to the northwest. I came out of my tent to see a company of thirty knights bearing down upon us. A black cross divided their leader's white shield into quarters, and each of these quadrants showed a repeating motif of red roses: the arms of Duke Malatam.

The Duke and his knights drew up their lathered horses on the commons between the Kurmak's camp and that of my men. I walked out twenty yards to greet him. followed by Lamar Raasharu, I ord Hatha, Maram, Atara and others. But Sajagax insisted on mounting his horse and riding the short distance from where his warriors sat around little fires eating their rations of dried sagosk. No Sami chieftain, I thought would bear being unhorsed and looking up to face an Alonian.

'Well, then, I see that the Sarni and the Valari do ride together, after all,' Duke Malatam said. He was a smallish man of middle years. He had a thin face like a ferret, and he sported a sleek brown beard. 'Though you do not camp together, I see. Old enmities are hard to put aside, aren't they? You've done well to come this far in peace, and I must tell you that my domain is a peaceful one where mayhem is not tolerated. But emissaries of peace arce of course welcome.'

To Sajagax's consternation, he dismounted and walked over to clasp my hand warmly. This obligated Sajagax to dismount as well. He climbed down from his horse slowly, and I could feel the aches and pains of old wounds in various parts of his body, which was stiff and cold in the morning air. But Sajagax neither grunted nor winced to give sign of any of these torments. He walked up to us and grasped the Duke's elegant hand. 'We accept your welcome,' he said.

Duke Malatam stood gazing up at Sajagax as he thoughtlessly wiped his moist hand on his white surcoat, which draped over a fine suit of mail. 1 wondered why, if Tarlan was so peaceful, he was wearing armor on such a calm, bright morning.

'We've ridden all night to reach you before you continue north,' he said to us. 'I have business in Tiamar. I'd like to invite you to join me at my estate and enjoy my hospitality. The Kurmak's greatest chieftain should feast on the finest foods before taking to the road. And so should a prince of Mesh.'

So, I thought this little duke had recognized my name where Lord Halmar had not. His soft, little eyes danced over mine as if trying to win my confidence with his obvious good will. But his charm felt hollow to me, like an egg sucked dry of its contents. And Sajagax, though flattered, was suspicious of him as well.

'We must ride, and ride quickly,' Sajagax said, 'or we might miss the conclave.'

'But surely a few more hours spent strengthening yourselves tor your journey won't matter. I can offer you bread, summer lamb and the finest beef in all of Alonia.'

At the mention of this meat taken from an animal that the Sarni regarded with disdain, Sajagax pulled out a strip of leathery sagosk and said, 'We have good food of our own — would you care to join us for breakfast?'

Duke Malatam's nose wrinkled in disgust as he eyed this piece of dried flesh. It was said that the Sarni softened such rations by stuffing them down beneath the saddles of their warm, sweating horses. I knew this to be true.

'I wouldn't want to consume supplies that you'll need on your journey,' the Duke said. 'I think we would all be