Black Jade

'Karimah!' I called out, motioning this sturdy woman over to us. Despite her bulk, she came at a run, gripping her strung bow. 'Would you be willing to appoint two of your warriors to escort Master Juwain and the children into the mountains, a few miles perhaps, until they find a safe place?'

'I will, Lord Valashu,' she agreed. She pulled at her jowly chin as she looked at me. 'But no more than two — we shall need the rest of my sisters here before long.'

She turned to choose two of her sister Manslayers for this task. I quickly said goodbye to Master Juwain, Liljana and Daj. And so did Maram, Atara and Kane. I watched as a young lioness of a woman named Surya led the way up the stream between the Ass's Ears. My friends, walking their horses beside them, hurried after her and so did another of the Manslayers whose name I did not know.

A few moments later, they disappeared behind the curve of a great sandstone buttress and were lost to our view. Then I turned back toward the Wendrush to complete our preparations for battle.

Chapter 4

To the sound of battle horns blaring out on the grasslands that we could not quite see. I called everyone closer to me. Karimah and Atara crowded in close, with Kashak and two Danladi warriors, between Maram and Kane. And I said to them, 'The Zayak are fifty in number, and Morjin will appoint at least three dozen of them to ride against Bajorak's men along the ridge, keeping them pinned with arrows. The rest of the Zayak, with his forty Red Knights, he will send up along this stream.'

Here I pointed at the water cutting between Bajorak's ridge and the one that we hid behind. 'He will try to flank Bajorak and come up behind him. But we shall meet him here with arrows and swords.'

So saying I drew Alkaladur; Kashak's men and many of the Manslayers gasped to behold its brilliance, for they had never seen a sword like it.

Kashak, fingering his taut bowstring, asked me: 'How do you know that is what Morjin will do?'

Now I pointed behind us, where the Ass's Ears rose up above what I presumed was the way to the Kul Kavaakurk. And I said to Kashak, 'Morjin cannot go into the mountains until he clears Bajorak from the ridge.'

'Then he might decide not to go into the mountains. Or to besiege our position.'

'No, he will be afraid that I and my companions will escape him,' I said. 'And so, despite the cost, he will attack — and soon.'

Kashak's bushy brows knitted together as he shot roe a suspicious-look. 'You seem to know a great deal about this filthy Crucifier.'

'More than I would ever want to know,' I said, watching the slow smolder of flames build within my sword. He looked at the rocky, sloping ground over which Morjin's men would charge, if they came this way, and he said, 'Why did you ask Bajorak for me and my squadron to stand with you, when I spoke in favor of abandoning you?'

'Because,' I said, smiling at him, 'you did speak of this. And having decided to remain even so, you will fight like a lion to prove your valor.'

Kashak's eyes widened in awe, and he made a warding sign with his finger. He stared at me as if he feared that I could look into his mind.

'I will fight like a pride of lions!' he called out, raising up his bow.

I smiled at him again, and we clasped hands like brothers. One either believes in men or not.

A horn sounded, but the swells of earth separating us from the steppe beyond muffled the sound of it. The two forces of our enemy, I thought, would be meeting up on the grassy slope below the ridges and preparing to attack us.

'We should see how they deploy,' Kashak said to me. He pointed toward the ridge above us. 'We could steal up to those rocks and see if you are right.'

I nodded my head at this. And so leaving Kashak's men behind with Kane, Atara, Maram and the Manslayers, Kashak and I picked our way up the ridge running in front of the second of the Ass's Ears. As we neared the crest, we dropped down upon our bellies and crept along the ground for the final few yards like snakes. With the taste of dirt in my mouth, I peered around the edge of a rock, and so did Kashak. And this is what we saw:

Out on the steppe, a quarter mile away, some forty of the Zayak warriors were arrayed in a long line below the ridge to the left of us where Bajorak had set up with his Danladi. They gripped then-thick, double-curved bows in preparation for a charge and an arrow duel. The ten remaining Zayak, dismounted, gathered along the stream with the two score Red Knights, who would also fight on foot. I looked for the leader of these knights, encased in their armor of carmine-tinged mail and steel plate, but I could not make him out.

'It is as you said!' Kashak whispered to me. 'It is as if you can look into Morjin's mind!'

No, I thought, I had no such gift. But Liljana did. At my request she had used her blue gelstei one last time, seemingly to seek out the secrets of Morjin's mind — and his intentions for the coming battle. And she had, in this invisible duel of thoughts and diamond-hard will, with great cunning, let him see our intentions: our company's flight into the mountains with the Manslayers as an escort. That Kane, Maram, Atara and I remained behind, lying in wait with Kashak's men and the rest of the Manslayers, she had not let Morjin see, or so I hoped. It was a ruse that might work one time — but one time only.

Then one of the Red Knights below us raised up his arm, and another horn rang out its bone-chilling blare. The forty Zayak on their horses began their charge toward Bajorak and his warriors. And the Red Knights — bearing drawn maces or swords — began moving at the double-pace up between the two ridges.

'They come!' Kashak whispered to me.

I remained frozen to the ground, gripping a rock with one hand and my sword in the other. The entire world narrowed until I could see neither mountain nor sky nor rocks running along the edge of the gray-green grasslands. I had eyes for only one man: he who led the Red Knights up along the stream cutting between the two ridges. His yellow surcoat blazed with a great red dragon. I felt the fury of the sun heating up my sword and a wild fire inside me, and I knew that this man was Morjin.

'Lord Valashu, they come!' Kashak whispered more urgently.

He pulled at my cloak, and I nodded my head. We scuttled crablike down the slope a dozen yards before rising to a crouch and then running back down to join our companions.

There were too few trees here to provide cover for all the Sarni. Kashak's warriors grumbled at being ordered to hide behind them, while Karimah's Manslayers almost rebelled at being asked to lie down behind some raspberry bushes. I stood with Kane, Maram and Atara behind a rock the size of a wagon. We waited for our enemy to appear in the notch down and around the curve of the stream.

'Oh, Lord, my Lord!' Maram sighed out to me. He fingered the edge of his drawn sword: a Valari kalama like the one that Kane held to his lips as he whispered fell words and then kissed its brilliant steel. 'That Kashak was right, wasn't he? It seems always to come to this.'

I looked up to my left past the stream, at the ridge where Bajorak waited with his warriors. The curve of the ground obscured the sight of most of his small force, but I knew they were ready because I could see three of the Danladi nearest us. They pulled back their bowstrings as they sighted their arrows on the Zayak who would be riding uphill against them.

'Why, Val why?' Maram murmured to me. 'I should be sitting by a stream in the Morning Mountains, preparing to eat a picnic lunch that my beloved has made for me. Look at this lovely day! Ah, why, why, why did I ever consent to leave Mesh?'

'Shhh!' Kane whispered fiercely to him. 'You'll give us away!'

I smiled sadly, for Maram was right about one thing: it was a beautiful day. In the hills behind us, birds Here singing. The sun rained down a bright light upon the reddish rocks and the silvery green leaves of the cottonwood trees. Below us, along either bank of the stream and up the rocky slopes, millions of small white flowers grew. Atara called them Maiden's Breath. A soft breeze rippled their delicate petals, which shimmered in the sunlight. It occurred to me that I should be picking a bouquet for Atara, rather than gripping a long sword in which gathered reddish-orange flowers of flame.

We heard our enemy before we saw them, for as they advanced up the stream, they made a great noise: of