Diamond Warriors

'Too many,' Lord Harsha told me, 'still believe that you abandoned the castle out of vainglory. And then told the baldest of lies.'

'But that itself is a lie!' Joshu Kadar called out. His hand passed against his chest as if his brandy had stuck in his throat and burned him. 'Everyone who knows Valashu Elahad knows this! I have spoken of this everywhere! Many of my friends have, as well. Lord Valashu, they say, led us to victory in the Great Battle and should have been made king.'

'He should have,' Lord Harsha agreed with a sigh. 'But on the battlefield, five thousand warriors stood for Lord Valashu, and eight thousand against, and that is that.'

'That is not that!' Joshu halt-shouted. It must have alarmed him, I sensed, to speak with such vehemence to a lord knight who might become his father-in-law. 'If the warriors were to stand again, they would acclaim Lord Valashu — I know they would!'

Lord Harsha sighed again, and he poured both Joshu and himself more brandy. And he said, 'If the warriors were free to gather and stand, it might be so. But we might as well hope that horses had wings so that we could just fly to battle.'

He told us then that Lord Tomavar had made many of the knights and warriors who followed him swear oaths of loyalty in support of his kingship. In order for them to stand for another, he would have to relieve them of their oaths. So it was with Lord Tanu and Lord Avijan, the two other major contenders for Mesh's throne. 'Lord Avijan!' I called out, shaking my head. This young lord resided in his family's castle near Mount Eluru just to the north of the Valley of the Swans. 'My father was very fond of him and trusted no man more.'

'And no man is more trustworthy,' Lord Harsha said. 'Of all Mesh's lords, none has spoken more forcefully in favor of your becoming king. But when you went off with your friends and did not return, he thought you must be dead, as everyone did. He never wanted to put himself forward against Lord Tomavar and Lord Tanu, but we persuaded him that he must.' 'We, Lord Harsha?' I said to him.

I felt the blood and brandy heating up his rough, old face as he said, 'Myself, yes, and Lord Sharad and Sar Jessu — and many others. Almost every warrior around Silvassu and the Valley of the Swans.'

'Then have you taken oaths to support Lord Avijan?' Lord Harsha rubbed at his face to hide his shame. 'We had to. Otherwise we would have come under Lord Tomavar's boot or Lord Tanu's. In any case. . '

'Yes?'

'In any case, only one can become king, and we ail agreed that no one deserves the throne more than Lord Avijan.'

I remained silent as I squeezed the hilt of my sword, and I felt Maram, Master Juwam and Liljana looking at me.

'No one, of course,' Lord Harsha went on. 'except yourself. But we all thought you would never return.'

I gazed at him and said 'But I have returned.'

'That you have, lad,' he said. 'And Lord Avijan would release us all from our oaths and be the first to stand for you. But Lord Tomavar commands six thousand warriors, and another four thousand follow Lord Tanu, and they will surely oppose you if you come forth.'

Although Atara, sitting near the middle of the table, kept her face still and stern, I could almost feel her heart beating in time with my own. I wondered if she had foreseen this moment in her scryer's crystal sphere or what might befall next.

'Will Lord Tanu and Lord Tomavar,' I asked Lord Harsha, 'oppose me so far as to go to war?'

I would rather die, I thought, than see Meshians slay Meshians.

'Who can say?' Lord Harsha muttered. 'These are bad times, very bad. And since the Great Battle, Mesh is weaker, much too weak. New trees we need to stand in the ranks and face our enemies, but we'll be a whole generation growing them. Our enemies know this. Already, it's said, the Waashians are looking for a way to attack us. And the Urtuk already have: they invaded through the Eshur pass last fall. They weren't many, only a thousand, and they might have been just testing our strength — and so Lord Tomavar's army threw them back easily enough. And then there is Anjo.'

'Anjo!' I said. 'But Anjo has never threatened us.'

'No, and that is exactly the point: Anjo hasn't had a real king in two hundred years, and can threaten no one. Her dukes and barons still battle each other bloody. You will not have heard that only two months ago, the Ishkans annexed Adar and Natesh. And King Hadaru still looks for other of Anjo's domains to bite off. Lord Tanu has vowed that this must never happen to Mesh.'

'And it must not!' I told him.

'No — and so Lord Tanu has said that Mesh must have a new king, and soon, if we don't want to wind up like Anjo. Lord Tomavar has said the same thing. They have each demanded that the other stand aside, and have made threats.'

'But if they make war upon each other,' I said, 'then they would make Mesh like Anjo!'

Lord Harsha shrugged his shoulders as his face fell sad and grave. He muttered into his cup of brandy: 'These are bad times, the worst of times, so who can blame an old man for wanting to see his daughter well-wed and give his grandson his first sword? Now, in your father's day, and your grandfather's, no one would ever have thought that — '

'Lord Harsha,' I said, with greater force. 'Will Lord Tomavar and Lord Tanu take up arms against me?'

With a jerk of his head, Lord Harsha downed the last of his brandy and sighed out 'I don't know. Lord Tanu will be cautious, as always. Once he makes up his mind about something, though, he can strike fast and hold on like a bulldog. And Lord Tomavar …'

'Yes?' I said.

'Lord Tomavar is burning for vengeance now. Full of the blood madness, do you understand? His warriors captured thirty of the Urtuk — and Lord Tomavar accused them of helping Morjin escape across the steppe with Vareva. And so he had them hacked to death.'

'But that is not our way!'

'No, it is not,' he said. He let loose an even deeper sigh. 'And so what will he do when you come forth to claim your father's crown? That I don't want to know, lad.'

The sound of steel forks against earthen plates full of pie rang out into the narrow room, and echoed off the stone walls. I noticed Liljana concentrating all her attention on Behira and Joshu, while Master Juwain looked at me as if admonishing me to find a way of peace in a world full of hate and vengeful swords.

'What needs to be decided,' Lord Harsha finally said to me, 'is what you will do. Will you go to war for your father's throne, Valashu Elahad?'

Would I draw my sword against my countrymen, I wondered? I sat considering this while I gripped Alkaladur's hilt. As Lord Harsha had said, only one man could be king of Mesh.

'There must be a way without war,' I said to Lord Harsha, and everyone. 'If I could step aside and see Lord Avijan crowned king, I would. Or even Lord Tomavar or Lord Tanu. But from what has been said here tonight, this is not possible.'

'No,' Lord Harsha agreed, 'such a grace on your part might only make the situation worse.'

Atara, who had said little all during dinner, now drew forth her sparkling crystal, and told us: 'Neither Lord Tanu nor Lord Tomavar will ever be king. Nor Lord Avijan. It must be Val — or no one.'

I tried not to smile at Atara's seeming assurance. Most of the time, she refrained from saying such things. I could not tell if her words were a true prophecy or whether she wished the mere force of her statement to bring about the future that she willed to be.

I drew my sword a few inches out of its scabbard, and the flash of silustria warmed my blood. And I said, 'It must be me. I never wanted this, but what other choice is there?'

'But Val,' Maram said, 'what will you do? Coming forth now will be dangerous- even more dangerous than we had thought. And what if Kane's worries prove out, and you find that some of your countrymen have joined the Order of the Dragon?'

At the mention of this secret society of blood drinkers and murderers who followed Morjin, Lord Harsha said. It is bad enough to know that Prince Salmelu went over to the Red Dragon, and is now a filthy priest who calls