Diamond Warriors

Then he wept to see Bemossed so helpless against the anguish tearing through him.

'Come!' Morjin suddenly called to Kane and me, with lips stained carmine like his armor. At the sound of his voice, the Red Knights nearby hung back in their assault on us, waiting. 'Come to him now — if you can!'

Bemossed, looking down from his cross, pulled like a madman at the spikes nailing his hands to the crossbeam. More blood ran in rivulets from his palms and down his arms. He stared at the Lightstone in utter desperation, and I felt him burning to take hold of it for just one moment.

'Valashu!' he cried out to me. 'I am sorry! I thought I was so …'

His words died into the spasm of writhing that tore through his naked body. What had he wanted to tell me? That he had thought himself untouchable? And blessed and beloved, of the angels and men?

'I thought I was … beautiful!' he finally gasped out. 'I thought Morjin could see me … and so himself. But I was wrong. I am nothing.'

Another spasm seized hold of him as more blood ran out of the hole in his side. Then, with the last of his strength, he raised up his head like a king so that he could gaze out above the masses of men and horses gathered on the hilltop to meet eyes with me. 'It is all for nothing, Valashu. It is all nothing … so dark.' Those were the last words he spoke to me. I watched the light go out of his eyes. Then, as if an axe had cut the muscles at the back of his neck, his head dropped down toward his chest. So died Bemossed, the man I had called the Shining One and Lord of Light who was no blood of mine, but in spirit was truly my brother. 'NO!' I cried out as my heart broke open. Flame and lightning flashed to the south, from the Hill of Fire. High above us, the spinning black thing blighted the blueness of the sky. It grew vaster and even darker, like a funnel cloud's whirl-. wind about to descend and sweep everything away. A freezing cold fell down upon the earth.

Chapter 23

I could barely keep seated on top of my horse; only Altaru's great hold on life, it seemed, kept me from plunging down to the bloodstained grass and joining Bemossed wherever he had gone. The world before me and everything in it fell black; I had to fight just to go on breathing.

NOOOOOOOO!

The scream inside me, that was me, seemed to go on forever. Then I felt Kane's iron fingers clamping around my arm and pulling at me.

'Let it pass through you!' he said to me. 'Let it go into your sword!'

I raised up Alkaladur then, and I felt all my anguish emptying into it. I swept it out in front of me. The sound of men screaming drove back the blackness filling my eyes, and I beheld an incredible sight: on the hill above us, the Red Knights were clapping their hands to their chests or heads and crying out in their own agony. Many dropped their lances and swords; some fell from their horses and lay writhing on the ground. Closer to Morjin, the Blues howled in pain and weakness, unable to lift up their axes. Just above them, at the foot of the cross, Morjin stood as if stunned by the blow of a hammer. He blinked his red eyes as the lance slipped from his hand and Bemossed's blood dripped down and spattered off his helm. Then he staggered about like a man drunk on too much wine.

'Now is our chance!' Kane shouted out.

Through the waves of grief sickening me, I saw that we did have a chance — but to do what? With Bemossed dead, there could be no hope of ever defeating Angra Mainyu.

'Now, Val — now!'

I nodded my head and clamped my hand more lightly around the hilt of my sword. Then I led forward straight into the Red Knights massed in front of us. I cut down everyone in my path; few managed even to raise up their weapons to defend themselves. My Guardians, those who hadn't been stricken too badly by Bemossed's death, followed. As for Kane, beside me, I had never seen him fight with such a furious will to strike his sword into men and murder them. His black eyes blazed with the heat of madness. He had no pity for the enemy, for they had none for him, or us. With every yard that we battled on, higher up the hill, it seemed that the Red Knights recovered a little more and coun-terattacked us with an increasing savagery and desperation. But it was not enough. Again and again, Kane's sword flashed out to rip through flesh, and so it was with mine. We, and the warriors who rode with us, worked a slaughter upon any and all who opposed us. We slew the Red Knights still seated on their horses, then mowed down the line of men protecting Morjin. The thirty Blues then flung themselves at Kane and me. Their axes, though, were like lead weights in their hands, and their hands and limbs had lost much of their terrible strength. One of them — a man as thick as a bull — managed to work in close to me and let fall his axe against my leg. But the blow failed to penetrate the diamondi sheathing me, or even break my thigh bone. I killed the man with a quick slash to the side of his bare neck. I had never really understood why the Blues went into battle naked. When they failed to chop down men with their fearsome axes, their enemies might work a horrible butchery upon them, as Kane and I did now: swinging our swords to slit open bellies and split their faces, severing arms and heads, slashing and thrusting and cleaving through their cyanine-tinted skin to cut them to pieces. At last, Kane and I, with the help of Lord Avijan and Joshu Kadar, had killed them all. And there, beneath the bloody cross, stood Morjin.

'To me!' he shouted out. 'To me!'

Around the curve of the hill, to the left, men pushed their horses galloping up toward him. Zahur Tey led fifty Red Knights, and with them rode the Red Priest known as Igasho.

'To me!' Morjin shouted again, this time in my direction. 'Come to me, Elahad, and I will make you my ghul!'

Now Morjin stood up straight and found the strength to draw his sword. I could feel the power returning to him, as pulsing artery fills a limb with life. With Bemossed dead, it seemed that nothing could keep Morjin from wielding the Lightstone to command all the other gelstei — and the world. He thrust this small golden cup out to me as if to seize control of my sword. 'Do not let go!' Kane shouted at me. 'Alkaladur is yours!' It seemed, however, that Morjin hadn't fully recovered or gained enough power to work his will though my sword's silver gelstei. As at the parlay before the battle, he could not make me use my sword to do his evil deeds. And neither could he keep me from wielding it.

And so I called Altaru to charge forward, and in almost a single motion of my bounding horse and my own inflamed body, I leaned out and swept my sword against Morjin's outstretched arm. The blade's silustria, hardest substance on earth, cleaved through a great ruby affixed to the gauntlet protecting Morjin's hand and wrist. I heard it crack, like a lightning bolt. My sword drove down through Morjin's wrist, severing muscles, tendons and bones, and the force of the blow struck off Morjin's hand and sent the lightstone flying from his fingers. I watched in amazement as Kane, coming up quickly, reached out and snatched the golden cup from the air.

'To Lord Morjin!' Zahur Tey called out from twenty yards away as he and his Red Knights charged toward us. 'Protect our king!' Blood spurted from the arteries I had opened at the end of Morjin's arm. He gasped from the shock of it, and staggered. I swung my sword again, this time to kill him, but by some miracle or terrible instinct for survival, he got his sword up in time to parry mine. Steel rang out against silustria, once, twice — and then Zahur Tey came up and pushed his horse almost straight into Altaru. I had to sweep out my sword against Zahur Tey's stabbing lance, or he would have impaled me. And then, with a splintering of wood, immediately to beat back the lances of two other Red Knights as they fell against me, too. I killed one of these with a thrust through the throat, and the other by splitting open his forehead. I turned back toward Morjin then, but it was too late: the Red Knights had closed in on him to protect him and bear him back away from me. I saw Salmelu pull him up onto the saddle of a riderless horse, even as another man twisted a cord around Morjin's arm.

'BEMOSSED!' I cried out.

I nudged Altaru over to the foot of the cross, and I reached out to lay my hand on the spike piercing Bemossed's feet. His flesh, exposed to the blazing sun, was still warm. His head hung down upon his chest; I could not bear the sight of his empty eyes. I lamented then that I had lost a friend while all the world had lost a Maitreya.

'Sire!' Lord Vikan shouted at me from ten yards down the hill. He pointed back toward the center of the battlefield. 'They have

broken us!'

I turned to see a great mass of Hesperuk spearmen pushing through a huge fracture in the Alonian and Eannan lines. All our reserves, it seemed, had been thrown in to stop this advancing block of bronze and steel to no