Diamond Warriors

delight in each other's joy rather than suffering the agony of another's wounds in battle. But I must stand ready to use Alkaladur's double-edged blade to cut, as needed, either way.

'I shall,' I said, nodding at Kane, 'send emissaries into all lands. The Brotherhoods will open new schools again. And the Sisterhood will raise up Temples of Life and teach alongside the Brothers. We shall build roads: from Alonia in the north to Karabuk in the south; from Galda in the east to Hesperu in the uttermost west — and everywhere.'

Then I told the assembled kings of the fate of the Kallimun, which had concerned Ymiru: 'The Red Priests' fortresses and torture chambers shall be torn down, stone by stone. And the Red Priests shall take the lead in cutting new stones and laying down the new roads.'

I summoned to my tent Arch Uttam, as evil a man as I had ever known. Many wished for his death. So, once, had I. But now I forced myself to wish that his life should make that of others better. And so I also summoned Sar Ludar Jarlath to stand with kings. Sar Ludar had been a stonecutter in Silvassu, and he had shaped many of the headstones pushing up from the grass of the battlefield. I asked him to show Arch Uttam his hands. Ludar's knuckles were nicked and bloodied from the hard labor of swinging a mallet against a chisel and, from time to time, inevitably missing and striking iron across flesh.

'You,' I said to Arch Uttam, grabbing hold of his hand, 'have cut a young woman's throat and drunk her blood. Now you shall cut stone instead and give your blood that women and men shall travel freely among Ea's kingdoms.'

Arch Uttam bowed his head at this, and so did Arch Yadom and the other Red Priests whom I had called to my tent. Although they obviously hated being sentenced to such lowly work, they must have expected a painful execution as payment for their terrible crimes.

'And all people shall travel freely,' I went on. I turned and bowed my head to Estrella, standing next to me. 'For a time, the Maitreya will reside in Tria, with the Lightstone. Any and all who wish will make the pilgrimage to stand before the Cup of Heaven. And when it is safe again, the Maitreya will journey with the Lightstone's Guardians into all lands.'

I gazed out at Ea's proud kings and chieftains to see how they received my words. All of them, I thought, even the most murderous of them — especially they — must long for a better world in some quiet chamber of their hearts, even if they still did not quite believe in it. Could I make them believe? No, I thought, I could not. But Estrella could. For her, and just such a purpose, the Lightstone had been sent to earth. The next day, the armies began dispersing to the four corners of the world. Sajagax promised to help provision them and to escort them across the plains of the Wendrush. He assigned warriors from various tribes to march with the various armies, north, east, south and west, to ensure that they did not forget what had happened at the Detheshaloon and did not fall into mischief along the way. By the time morning dawned on the fifth day following the battle, only Sajagax's Kurmak warriors and the armies of Alonia and the Nine Kingdoms remained, encamped along the river.

On a cool, clear afternoon, I called another meeting, this time on top the Owl's Hill. I wanted to take council with my friends, that we might see our way into an unknown world and discuss the hundreds of tasks that must be done if it was ever to take shape. And even more, I wanted to understand what had occurred upon the battlefield.

We gathered in a circle on the torn grass between Bemossed's grave and Morjin's. Atara grasped hold of my arm, and I helped her take her place beside me. Abrasax and Master Juwain, with the rest of the Seven and Ymiru, positioned themselves nearest to Morjin's headstone while I sat across from them, with Atara, Maram and Daj to my right and Estrella, Liljana and Alphanderry on my left. Kane, who had never liked sitting, stood silently just behind me, with his back nearly touching Bemossed's huge headstone. In the days since the battle, he had wandered about the Detheshaloon saying almost nothing to anyone, and I wondered if he might ever speak again.

'Thank you for coming here,' I said, looking out at my friends. 'And thank you. . for everything. If not for each, of you, in a hundred ways, I never would have lived to see this day.'

From the top of the hill, I had a clear view across the golden Wendrush for miles in every direction except to the northwest, where the rocks of the Detheshaloon blocked out a good part of the sky. On almost a straight line with this skull-like mass and our hill, to the southeast I could plainly make out the dragon rock on top of the Hill of Fire. I marveled yet again that Maram had somehow slain Yormungand. Even as I marveled at him. Estrella's magic touch had restored his burnt hand and face to his usual ruddy hue, and the beginning of a heavy new beard shaded his chin and cheeks. He seemed happy. And proud. He took advantage of the moment to recount his great deed.

'Ah, Val,' he said to me, looking toward the southeast, too. 'I wish you could have seen me! I stood my ground on top of that damn hill, though any sane man would have run away. And I wanted to run, a thousand times, as you must know. But a thousand times more, I wanted to kill that damn dragon. For if I hadn't, he surely would have killed you.'

He told me, and all of us, that during his battle with Yormungand, the dragon kept trying to burn Maram's mind even as he flew at Kim spitting out fire. Yormungand, Maram said, hoped to terrify Maram into dropping his red gelstei so that he might incinerate Maram and then turn upon me.

'That thought consumed him,' Maram said. 'He wanted to see you — ah, please excuse me, my friend — he wanted to watch you fry like a chicken. For your slaying his mother, yes, but also because Morjin commanded him to. The Red Dragon had some kind of poisonous hold over the real dragon's heart. I felt it, as surely as I did the dragon's flames. Yormungand would have burned you, or crushed you to a pulp. And then turned on Estrella. I saw this in Yormungand's mind! When Estrella rode up to you in the middle of the battle, Morjin must have realized that she was the Maitreya — and commanded Yormungand to kill her, above all others on the field.'

As everyone looked at Estrella, Daj slapped his hand against Maram's arm, and said, 'But the dragon couldn't get to her, could he? He didn't dare to! Tell us how you kept Yormungand away from Estrella and burned the dragon's wings!'

Daj, I thought, perhaps many times over the past few days, had heard Maram tell his story. But I had been too busy to sit down with my friend over a horn of beer and listen to him.

'Well,' Maram continued, showing everyone his red crystal, 'for a long while, I couldn't lay any fire at all upon the dragon. He kept circling above the hill, flying away and then coming back to dive at me. Each time he did, I cast a thunderbolt at him — at his damn wings! His scales are hard to burn through, but his wings are no tougher than leather. My plan was to burn them off entirely, and then finish the dragon after he fell. But with each bolt of fire, just before I took aim, Yormungand saw it in my mind — I know he did. And so he veered, right or left, up or down, and pulled his damn wings out of the way.'

'And each time you tried to burn the dragon,' Daj said, 'the dragon tried to burn you!'

'Ah, so he did,' Maram said. He made a motion as if to pull at his beard, and then seemed to remember that the dragon had singed the hairs from his face. 'And he did burn me, too bad. If I hadn't cast down my knight's shield on the way up to the top of the hill and picked up a great shield dropped by some poor Waashian infantryman, he would have burned me to the death. As it was, the dragon fire melted the steel right off my shield — and nearly melted the skin off me. I was sure, then, that he was going to kill me.'

Maram paused in his story and looked at me as if in expectation that I might ask him what had happened next. I obliged him, saying, 'What saved you, then?'

'Liljana did,' Maram said, glancing across the circle to bow his head to her. 'She put some fire of her own into the dragon's mind.'

Liljana's soft, round face lit up as if in remembrance. She showed us her little blue figurine. 'Oh, I would hardly call it fire. I only had to distract the beast at a critical moment.'

'And distract him she did,' Maram told us. 'Then I burned the wings off that dragon! It was the fall I think, that killed him.'

He paused to turn his head back and forth as if shaking himself out of a bad dream. Then he looked over at me as he cried out: 'We won, Val! We really won!'

With a loud grunt, he pushed himself up to his feet and crossed the circle to stand before Liljana. With a great puff of air, he leaned down to plant a loud kiss upon her forehead. He smiled so hugely that I wondered if it