Black Jade

trial.'

'A trial is a trial,' King Angand said.

'This trial,' Arch Uttam said, 'is not over. Let the distance be doubled again!'

So saying, he grabbed up a second apple from the bowl. Again-he hurled it out toward Kane. But almost before the apple left his hand, Kant cast his second knife, left-handed, straight at the apple. The knife struck it in midair, and the greater weight of its steel carried the apple back toward Arch Uttam so that the knife buried itself quivering in the table with the apple transfixed upon its blade.

'Was that luck, too, priest?' Kane called to him. He grinned like a wolf, showing his long, white teeth.

Arch Uttam stared at the knife planted in the table as if he couldn't believe what he had just seen. I, myself, had always thought that striking a moving target in the air was impossible.

With a great sigh and groan. King Arsu heaved himself up from his chair. He looked straight at Arch Uttam and said, 'The trial is over. The juggler and the mime are deemed to have told the truth and shall be free to perform where they will, even as we have said.'

At this, Estrella ran forward toward Kane and leaped into his arms. She wept and laughed silently, all at once. And then the wind began blowing fiercely again.

'Sire!' a voice called out. This came from Lord Rodas, who began advancing across the square toward King Arsu's box. It seemed that we might not be so very free, after all. 'Sire, my players have forfeited their prize in payment of their error, but what about my portion of it?'

Now Lady Lida stood up, too, and whispered something in King Arsu's ear. And King Arsu pointed at Lord Rodas as he called down to Lord Mansarian: 'There is something vexing about this New Lord and his insistence on gaining gold. Take him to be questioned, and his men, too.'

Lord Mansarian hurried forward to carry out this command. He grabbed the outraged Lord Rodas's arm, while other knights of his red-caped company closed in upon Lord Rodas's six hirelings and escorted them from the square. It seemed that we really were free.

Then Arch Uttam cast us one final, poisonous look that promised death, and stalked off toward his pavilion. We hurried over to the cart, which we began making ready for the next leg of our journey, out of Hesperu and into the vast, forested miles of the mountains that lay beyond.

Chapter 39

We left the army's encampment as quickly as we could without giving the impression that we were fleeing from it. When we reached the Avrian Road, we turned north toward Orun, only two miles away. We soon stopped at the edge of a cotton field. I opened the cart's door so that Bemossed could finally come out of his prison and join us in the sunlight. He embraced Estrella and ran his hand through her curly hair as he told her, 'I knew that Kane would not cut off a single lock.'

He embraced Kane, too, and stood there as if wondering what we would do next.

Although I wanted to unhitch Altaru and gallop back through Orun and across the Black Bridge to escape the men who had almost murdered us, I felt the need for council even more. And so I called for everyone to gather close by the cart.

'Liljana,' I said, looking at this stout woman who had kept her calm through the whole of our ordeal. 'You seemed almost familiar with Lady Lida, and she saved us, more than once. Why?'

Liljana nodded her head into the gusting wind. And she said simply, 'Lida is Maitriche Telu.'

This news surprised all of us, especially Master Juwain. He said to Liljana, 'I had thought that King Arsu's grandfather. King Taitu, had destroyed the Hesperuk Maitriche Telu.'

'I had thought this, too,' Liljana said. 'But it seems that at least one sanctuary must have remained undiscovered.'

'And in all those years, they have sent you no communication?'

'They wouldn't know how, or whom to send word to. You see, even within the Maitriche Telu, we have our secrets — and so we survive.'

For the course of two long quests across Ea, Liljana had told us very little of the ancient Sisterhood that she led. And now, she would explain only that the Maitriche Telu was composed of secret sanctuaries in all lands. The sisters of individual sanctuaries knew each other and the identity of their mistresses only, and the mistresses each reported to a single matriarch in charge of several sanctuaries, and so on. This gave great protection in case any sanctuary was discovered and its sisters tortured, for they could betray only the next highest sister in the net that connected them to the great sanctuary in Tria and the Materix herself. But if enough knots in this net were destroyed, it could also leave them isolated and ignorant of the workings of their own order.

'But then how did you recognize Lida?' Master Juwain asked.

'There are signs we use,' Liljana said. 'Secret signs that others see as normal expressions and gestures. It is its own language.'

I bowed my head to this woman whom I had come to respect more than almost any other. I asked her, 'Can Lida help us, then? It will go badly for us if Arch Uttam sends assassins after us or if King Arsu changes his mind.'

Liljana shook her head at this. 'Lida has only so much influence over King Arsu. As for Arch Uttam, she lives in mortal peril of him.'

'We are ourselves in mortal peril,' Maram said. He looked about the field as if Arch Uttam's spies might be hiding among the white, wind-whipped bolls of cotton. 'We must go on as quickly as we can. That traitor Salmelu, who now calls himself Mar Igasho, is riding toward King Arsu's encampment.'

'We know,' I said to him. 'While you were in the courtesans' tent, King Arsu announced that King Orunjan was coming to a conclave along with a master priest.'

'He did?' Maram said. 'But did he also tell that Morjin rode with them?'

'What?' I said, looking down the road toward the south. 'Morjin? Here, in Hesperu? How do you know?'

'Ah, I don't really know,' Maram admitted. 'But while I was with the courtesans. King Arsu's messenger came into the tent for a little comfort after his hard ride, or so he said. He liked to talk, that man did. He said that Morjin rode with King Orunjun in secret. Well, very soon, I think, it will be a secret that is no secret that Morjin has come to Hesperu — to meet with the other kings to plan the conquest of Eanna, if not the whole damn world.'

Now I stared hard at the road's gray paving stones as if they might tell me if my enemy was pounding down them toward us. I said to Maram: 'Surely it can't be Morjin, himself. Surely it must be the third droghul that Atara told of.'

At this, Atara turned her blindfolded face toward me and said, 'I assumed he was a droghul, but I can't see that, Val. The one who comes — it could be Morjin.'

I waited while a farmer plodded along with a wagon full of manure, and I let him pass by. Then I drew forth my sword and pointed it down the road. Its silvery blade seemed to burn with a blue fire but gave little light. If Morjin himself had come from Argattha, he would surely bear the Lightstone with him, wouldn't he? And so wouldn't my sword flare in resonance with the golden cup as it once had?

Master Juwain saw the thrust of my reasoning, which hadn't changed since the first droghul had pursued us across the plains of the Wendrush. He said to me, 'I'm afraid you can't use your sword as a test this way any more, Val.'

I watched as the flames running along Alkaladur's length grew hotter. I said to Atara, 'If we knew it was really Morjin, I could wait for him and put an end to things, here and now. And the rest of you could take Bemossed to safety.'

I looked at Kane as if to ask if he would give up everything for this final vengeance; his eyes burned with a dark fire of their own, and I saw that he dwelled with death.

'But we don't even know if Bemossed is the Maitreya!' Maram said. 'And without you and Kane with us, we'll never live to reach home!'

Master Juwain nodded his head at this and said, 'There are other considerations as well. If you kill Morjin and fail to reclaim the Lightstone, it will pass to Arch Uttam or King Arsu. Or to another high priest if Morjin has left it in