Diamond Warriors

'My … father,' I gasped out, 'I. loved.. like. '

'Do you see?' Lord Tomavar called out, pointing at me. 'He chokes on his own lies!'

I wanted to kill him, then. He stood glaring at me in his dark, doubting manner, and I wanted to whip free my sword and plunge the point straight through his slanderous mouth. And then I recalled a much darker encounter with a much greater enemy, far away. In Hesperu, with the help of my friends and a great, good man, for one shining moment, I had managed to transmute my hate into something beautiful and bright. I felt this grace still warm and alive somewhere inside me. It made me believe in myself. This certainty of power and purpose had nothing to do with the delusion that I might be infallible or the destined Maitreya, but only that like any man I could keep the evil inside myself at bay and exert my will to do the right thing.

'Lord. . Tomavar!' I gasped out. 'Your … heart…'

I must not, I told myself, regard this man as my enemy. My father had believed in him and trusted him, and so must I. All men, as I knew too well, could be driven mad by hatred and a rage for revenge.

'Your . . heart,' I tried to tell him again.

But my desire to see him healed was not enough. The Ahrim only tightened its hold upon me, and I could not speak. And so I took a step closer to him, holding out my hand. I thought only of resting it upon his chest, and trying to drive away his doubts, as I had with the warriors in Lord Avijan's hall. Lord Tomavar's hatred, though, ran deeper than a gorge cut into the earth; I could touch neither it nor him. The anguish in his black eyes warned me to stay away from him even as he drew his sword from its scabbard, and nearly cut off my hand.

'Stand back, Elahad!' he cried out. 'Don't try your trickery on me!'

'He draws!' Sar Vikan called back from beside me. 'Lord Tomavar draws on Lord Elahad! A challenge has been made!'

According to the laws of the Valari, any warrior who drew his sword on another made an irrevocable challenge to a duel.

'He draws!' Sar Vikan called out again. The thirst for blood I heard in his voice made me sick. 'Let them fight, here and now, sword to sword! Let honor be satisfied!'

His words were like a flaming brand held to spilled oil. Lord Sharad, who had never liked Lord Tomavar, called out, 'Let them fight! Let honor be satisfied!'

And then Sar Jessu and Sar Shivalad and half a thousand warriors standing behind me called out that Lord Tomavar and I must face each other sword to sword, and thousands of Lord Tomavar's own men called out the same thing — along with even many of Lord Tanu's men. So did Lord Ramanu's men call for a duel, and Lord Bahrain's and Lord Kharashan's followers and the mob of free warriors to the north. Their voices thundered out into the square:

'Honor! Honor! Honor!'

'Fight! Fight! Fight!'

Lord Tomavar stared at his long, gleaming kalama as if in horror of what he had done — but also in great gladness, as if relieved of a terrible burden. I tried to give him a way out of the bottomless chasm quickly opening up before us. I gasped out, 'A … mistake. Put. away … your … sword.'

But sometimes there can be no going back. Lord Tomavar's great head swept right and left as he listened to the roar of the warriors: 'Honor! Honor! Honor!'

'Let honor be satisfied!'

'Fight — let them fight!'

'A duel to the death! Let the victor be king!'

At last, Lord Tomavar looked at me. And he shouted out: 'I will not put away my sword! I call upon you to draw your sword, so that we might settle this matter honorably. Let it be as the warriors say: let the victor be king!'

A great cheer seemed to shake the very earth. And I forced out a few, choked-off words: 'But. . I. won't…'

'You must accept the challenge,' Sar Jalval shouted on Lord Tomavar's behalf. 'Or else be called a coward! And if coward you be, then leave this field now, and let no man in Mesh give you salt, bread or fire!'

Now it seemed that almost every warrior or knight gathered about the square shouted out that this must be. I heard the men loyal to me crying out, 'Lord Valashu Elahad — Champion, Champion! The Elahad for King of Mesh!'

This is not my will, I thought. This is not only my will.

Then Lord Avijan stepped forward and said to Lord Tomavar, 'Fight, if you must, but your duel will not settle who sits on Mesh's throne. The warriors still must decide who will be king.'

Lord Tomavar, whose mind could race as swiftly as a greyhound when pressed, considered this only for a moment. 'All right then, let this be the way of things: Lord Elahad will ask your warriors to stand for me if I am the victor in our duel. And if Lord Elahad prevails, my warriors shall be free to stand for him.'

Lord Tomavar gambled like a player rolling the dice. But it was a fair enough game. If I fell beneath Lord Tomavar's sword, then the two thousand men who marched behind my banner, standing for Lord Tomavar, would give him the edge over Lord Tanu. Even if many of them refused this realignment, then Lord Tomavar still might find that most of the free warriors would support him, and give him the numbers he needed. And if I put my sword into Lord Tomavar, then 1 still might hope to win his warriors — and many others.

'All… right,' I choked out, accepting Lord Tomavar's challenge. 'Let… it… be.'

I made it known to Lord Avijan that he should go among our warriors and tell them of what we had decided here. Then, surrounded by my guardians, I walked off the field to return to my pavilion, where I would remove my armor and prepare for the duel. My companions all came with me. When we stood alone beneath my tent's glowing black silk, Kane growled out to me, 'So, it's come to this, then! Well kill him quickly, Val. Ha — I should have killed the Tomavar for you when I had the chance!'

I put on my best tunic and belted it. Then Master Juwain took out his green crystal and held it to my throat. After a while, he sighed out to me: 'I'm afraid my varistei has no power over the thing that attacks you. At least, I can't sense how it might be driven away. Are you any better at all?' No … not… better,' I whispered.

'The Ahrim might indeed choke you to death. Perhaps you should withdraw from the duel.'

'No. . impossible.'

'Then perhaps you should wait until your airways clear and your voice returns.'

I shook my head at this. 'No … time.'

Just then Lord Avijan came into the pavilion and announced: 'The warriors did not want to do as you have asked them. Lord Valashu. But since you asked them, they are willing. Though none of us can bear to see Lord Tomavar become king.'

'Thank… you,' I croaked out.

'How did it come to this?' Lord Avijan said to me. 'This is no time for you to lose your voice! If only all the warriors could but have heard you, they would know that you speak the truth.'

At this, for no reason that I could understand, Liljana drew out her blue gelstei and looked at it strangely.

'Well,' Lord Avijan said, 'things are as they are. The warriors do not believe they will have to stand for Lord Tomavar. Neither do I. Everyone remembers what you did at the tournament.'

At the great tournament in Nar two years before I had defeated Lord Dashavay, the greatest swordsman in the Nine Kingdoms, to become that year's champion.

'I've always said,' Lord Avijan continued, 'that duels are a plague upon our people. This one, it seems, however, must really be fought. And so, may you fight like the heroes of old, Valashu Elahad, and send Lord Tomavar back to the stars!'

With that, he clasped my hand and went back outside to make arrangements with Lord Tomavar's seconds for our duel.

Then I whispered, 'I… must… not… kill.. '

I pressed my hand to my throat, burning as if I had inhaled a lungful of the Red Desert's fiery dust. I seemed