Black Jade

We gathered on a little shelf of rock on the side of the mountain. A cold wind whipped at our faces. Spread out before us, to the north and east, was some of the most forbidding country I had ever seen. Far out to the horizon gleamed nothing but great jagged peaks covered with snow and white rivers of ice that cut between them. No part of this terrible terrain seemed flat or showed a spray of green.

'This can't be the Valley of the Sun!' Maram cried out. 'No one could live here!'

In truth, even a snow tiger or a marmot would have had a difficult time surviving in this ice-locked land. Snowdrifts covered the road before us; this little span of stone seemed to dip down along the spine of a rocky ridge before rising again and disappearing into the rock and snow of another mountain.

'We must have made a mistake,' Maram said. 'Either that or the Rhymes misled us.'

'No, we made no mistake,' Master Juwain huffed out into the biting wind. 'And the Rhymes always tell true.'

And Maram said:

And through the long dark into dawn

The road goes down, yet up: go on!

'Well,' he continued, 'we went through that damn tunnel and if we go on any farther, we'll freeze to death. There's nothing left of this road, and I wouldn't follow it if there were. And there are no more Rhymes!'

But there were. As Kane again warned Maram to silence, Master Juwain said, 'Yes, be quiet now — we have little time.'

And then he recited:

Through mountains' notch, a golden ray:

The rising sun will point theway.

Before this orb unveils full face

Go on into a higher place.

'Into that? Mararm cried out, pointing at the icy wasteland before us. 'I won't. We cant. And why should we hurry to our doom, anyway?'

'Shhh, quiet now,' Kane said to him. 'Quiet.'

He watched as Master Juwain lifted his finger toward two great peaks to the east of us. The notch between them glowed red with the radiance of the sun about to rise.

'This is why we were to come here near Ashte's ides,' Master Juwain said. 'You see, on this date, the declination of the sun, the precise angle of its rays as it rises …'

His voice died into the howling wind as the first arrows of sunlight broke from the notch and streaked straight toward us. So dazzling was this incandescence that we had to shield our eyes and look away lest we be struck blind.

'And so,' Master Juwain went on, 'the sun's rays should illuminate exactly that part of this land leading on to our destination. Let us look for it before it is too late.'

'I can't look for anything at all,' Maram said, squinting and blinking against the sun's fulgor. 'I can't see anything — it's too damn bright!'

'Hurry!' Liljana said to Master Juwain. She stood by her horse gripping its reins. 'If these Rhymes of yours have any worth, we must hurry. What did you say are the next verses? The last ones?' And Master Juwain told her:

If stayed by puzzlement or pride

Let Kundalini be your guide;

But hasten forth or count the cost.

Who long delays is longer lost.

'The Kundala always rises,' Master Juwain said. 'Rises straight to its goal. But I can see no way to go up here, unless it is over the top of that mountain.'

Still shielding his eyes, he pointed straight ahead of us. And Liljana asked him, 'Are you sure you've remembered the verses correctly?'

'Are you sure your name is Liljana Ashvaran?'

I had rarely heard such peevishness in his voice — or pride. And then, as the sun pushed a little higher above the mountain's notch and flared even brighter, a sick look befell Master Juwain's face. I saw it drain the color from his skin, and so did Liljana,

'Well?' she said to him, 'What is it?'

And Master Juwain, who honored truth above almost all else said, 'There is a small chance I may have rendered the lines inexactly. But it doesn't matter.'

'Oh, doesn't it? Why not, then?'

The lines may have been:

If stayed by puzzlement or pride

Let sacred serpent be your guide.

He cleared his throat as he looked at Liljana, and said, 'To my order, of course, the sacred serpent and the Kundala are one and the same.'

'But what if the verses' maker knew the deeper way of things?' Liljana asked him. 'What if his sacred serpent was instead Ouroboros?'

'Impossible!' Master Juwain called out.

Now the sun had risen like a red knot of fire almost entirely above the notch. We could not look upon its blazing brilliance,

'Impossible!' Master Juwain said again.

He turned around toward the mountain behind us. Although the dawn was lightening it seemed to me to be growing only darker, for our hope of finding our way was quickly evaporating before the fury of the sun.

And then I heard Master Juwain whisper the words that Alphanderry had sung to us on a magical night;

The dazzling heights light deep desire;

Within the heart, a deeper fire.

The road toward heavens' starry crown

Goes ever up but always down.

'Back!' Master Juwain suddenly cried out. He pointed at the mouth of the tunnel and the snow of the mountain around it. The sun's fiery rays had set the whole of it to glowing, 'Back. now before it's too late!'

He turned his horse to lead him into the runnel. And Maram shouted, 'Are you mad? It's black as night in there! I'm not going back inside unless we find a way to relight the torches!'

I reached out and snatched the reins of his horse from his hand, and followed after Master Juwain. Atara grabbed Maram's empty-hand to pull him after us. Then, quickly, came Liljana, Estrella and Daj. Kane, as usual, guarded our rear.

And so we went back into the tunnel. The moment we set foot within, it came alive. The glassy walls glowed, changed color to a translucent white and then poured forth a milky light. It was more than enough with which to see. There were few features, however, to catch the eye. The tunnel's floor seemed the same cut-stone road that we had trod before. The air was cold, and lay heavy about us as we pushed on through this long scoop through the earth.

'Val, I feel sick!' Maram said to me. 'My head is spinning, as if I'd drunk too much wine.'

I felt as he did, and so did the others, although they did not complain of it. But there seemed nothing to do