Black Jade

Arch Uttam bent down and brought his horrible face up close to Estrella's. I could almost smell his foul, bloody breath as he said to her with a false kindness: 'Do not be afraid, girl. Close your eyes. Hold the image of Lord Morjin inside you. Concentrate on it! Let it blaze like the sun! The Red Dragon will burn away your muteness more surely than Lord Mansarian's fire.'

Arch Uttam then pressed his palm against Estrella's forehead as if to sear this image into her.

I stood there with Kane on the grass of the square looking up at the box at Arch Uttam, Lord Mansarian and Estrella. I felt my hand aching to grasp the hilt of my sword. I felt my heart aching as well. At last, Estrella opened her eyes and stared at Arch Uttam. She could not hide her contempt for him, or her fear.

'Well, girl?' Arch Uttam asked. 'Does Lord Morjin live inside you?'

Estrella slowly nodded her head. She could not tell him that Morjin, who had taken her speech in the first place, would always dwell inside her like a snake wrapping its coils around her throat.

'Speak, then!' Arch Uttam commanded her. 'Speak now!'

But Estrella only shook her head and held out her hands helplessly.

'Speak, damn you, brat!'

Tears welled up in her eyes.

And then Kane shouted up to the box: 'If the girl is ever healed, it will only be through the Maitreya!'

'She is as whole as you or I!' Arch Uttam shouted back at him.

'No — she is mute and has been so for years!'

'You,' Arch Uttam said, pointing down at Kane, 'lie.'

Arch Uttam made a fist as if to control the trembling of his fingers. And then he added, 'And therefore you are guilty of sedition as well.'

Around the square, many people looked upon this scene intently but did not say anything. I saw Lida gripping King Arsu's hand in silence.

King Arsu said, 'Before crucifying them, we would like to know the truth of things.'

'Indeed,' Arch Uttam said. 'The juggler and the girl must be put to the test.'

Lida's hand tightened around King Arsu's hand, and the King told Arch Uttam, 'It is too fine a day for more torture.'

Arch Uttam considered this. 'If not torture, then a trial — a trial of arms.'

Kane's black eyes gleamed at this. So did mine. I imagined King Arsu sending out Lord Mansarian or some champion to fight Kane sword to sword.

But Arch Uttam, it seemed, imagined other things. He plucked an apple from the bowl of fruit on the long table in front of him. Without warning, he hurled it straight at Kane's face. Kane snatched it out of the air and stood looking at Arch Uttam with loathing.

Then Arch Uttam explained the nature of the trial that he had in mind: Estrella was to go down to the cart and stand before the target with the apple balanced on top of her head. Kane must then throw the knife at the apple.

'If the juggler misses,' Arch Uttam announced, 'it is only because his bad conscience spoils his aim, and we shall know that he is lying. Likewise if he strikes the girl.'

What must it be like, I wondered, to feel so superior to others that one could torment, maim or kill them at will?

I hoped that Lida might somehow persuade King Arsu to put a stop to this barbaric trial. But the King seemed to take a great interest in Arch Uttam's proposal, as he did in all cruel and bizarre things. I watched him pull his hand away from Lida.

'And if he strikes the apple?' King Arsu asked Arch Uttam.

With reluctance, Arch Uttam forced out, 'Then we shall know that he is telling the truth.'

'Let be so,' King Arsu said. 'If the juggler strikes the apple, there is no error, and they will be free to go.'

He pointed down at the cart. 'Put the girl in her place.'

Lord Mansarian now escorted Estrella back down to the cart. He stood her up with her back to the target, facing Kane, and then backed away. Kane stalked forward, squeezing the apple in his hand. He touched her cheek, kissed her brow. Then he set the apple gently on top of Estrella's head. After grabbing up two throwing knives, one in either hand, he returned to his place in front of the target.

I overheard one of the soldiers say, 'Why two knives? Doesn't he know that Arch Uttam will never give him a second chance?'

A second soldier next to him shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Maybe the other knife balances him.'

This was true. Kane would strive for every advantage in this evil trial that Arch Uttam had forced upon him. But I knew that Kane had a deeper reason: if he missed, the second knife would be for Arch Uttam.

I now walked over to the foodsellers' stalls with my friends, so that we would not distract Kane by standing too near the can. I wondered if Bemosscd knew what was about to happen as he dwelled in the darkness inside it.

Out in the square, Kane looked at nothing except the apple perched on top of Estrella's head. She stood almost perfectly still, fixing her gaze upon him. I sensed no fear in her — at least no fear of Kane. Although her face remained quiet and serious, she seemed to be smiling at him from some place deep inside herself.

I knew that Kane could split the apple. He would not let his love for Estrella ruin his aim.

And then, before he could raise back his arm, Arch Uttam cried out: 'We have all seen this man's skill; at this distance, casting the knife will be no trial. Therefore, let the distance be doubled.'

King Arsu, with Lida puiling on his elbow, looked at him as if he thought this last condition was cruelly unfair. Lord Mansarian looked at Arch Uttam this way, too — and so did half a hundred nobles and soldiers. But Arch Uttam would not be defeated a second time that day.

'This is written,' he called out. 'We must always double and redouble our efforts to prove ourselves worthy of the journey toward the One.' Let the Juggler prove himself to us. Lord Mansarian!'

He issued a command to Lord Mansarian, who borrowed a spear from one of his red-caped soldiers. He then walked over to where Earella stood in front of the cart. With hardly a glance at her, he began counting out paces as he stepped out toward Kane and then continued counting until he reached a place on the grass twice Kane's distance from the target. There he stuck the spear into the grass, down into the loamy earth. Kane was to stand behind the spear, facing Estrella.

After Kane had taken his place at this new mark. Lord Mansarian once more retreated nearer to King Arsu's box. Again, Kane fixed the whole of his awareness on the apple gleaming a bright crimson on top of Estrella's head. Arch Uttam had set for him an impossible distance, better suited to archery than the casting of a foot-long knife. Maram stood on one side of me muttering, 'Ah, too bad, too bad!' while Daj waited on the other side almost weeping. Even Atara seemed terrified by the future now about to fall upon us in a whirring of steel. I felt my heart pounding wildly. I did not think that even Kane could make such a throw.

Neither, it seemed, did anyone else. From his chair up in the box. King Angand said to Arch Uttam, 'It is too far and too windy. This is no true trial of arms. No man who ever lived could make such a throw.'

But Arch Uttam only scoffed at this. 'They're magicians, aren't they? They made the minstrel disappear — maybe they can make the wind stop, too.'

While Estrella waited for Kane to make ready, she closed her eyes as if she could not bear to look at him. I felt her enter into an immense, inner stillness. All at once, the splendidly colored banners flapping above the pavilions of King Arsu and King Angand drooped down and the wind suddenly died. Kane's eyes blazed brightly. And then, with a suddenness that astonished everyone, his arm drew back and whipped forward with a blinding speed. The knife flashed through the air in a whirl of bright steel almost impossible to see. Its point drove straight through the apple's center, pinning the apple to the target. Then, and only then, Estrella opened her eyes and smiled at Kane.

'He did it!' Maram cried out, clapping me on the shoulder. 'Oh, my lord — he really did it!'

Kane's great feat caused hundreds of soldiers to draw their swords and strike their pommels against their shields in a tumult of acclaim. Even Lord Mansarian bowed his head to Kane. But Arch Uttam only cast him a hateful look. He stood by his chair up in the box waiting for the thunder of celebration to die down.

'The juggler got lucky,' he finally called out with a sickening peevishness. 'And luck is no part of a true