Diamond Warriors

toward you. And Ishka and Taron, Anjo and Athar, Lagash and Kaash. The whole world, King Sandarkan!'

'That has always been your claim,' he said to me. 'Beneath the spur of such terror, you sought to elevate yourself as the Maitreya to gain lordship over the Valari. And when that failed, you put forth an outlander slave as the Shining One.'

How he stabbed his finger at Bemossed, waiting with the Seven behind us.

'I have put forth no one,' I told him. 'Bemossed is who he is, and his calling does not depend on what we do or do not do.'

'What shell we do then, King Valamesh?' he said to me. 'The Red Dragon has sent envoys to each of the Nine Kingdoms. Gifts of diamonds and gold they have brought. They have brought, too. Morjin's assurance that his dispute is with Mesh and Valashu Elahad alone. He gives a pledge of friendship to any kingdom who supports him in war against Mesh — or at least pledges in return not to intervene in that war.'

I could not believe the words that I was hearing. I fairly shouted at King Sandarkan: 'But Morjin is the Lord of Lies! Don't tell me you believe him!'

King Sandarkan looked to his left, at the lines of the Kaashan army still standing in the warm sun. and then to his right, at my warriors. He said, 'At such times as these, one must believe what one must believe. In any case, the Valari, even in alliance, do not have the power to stand against Morjin. Therefore each Valari king must come to terms with Morjin and arrange a peace.'

'A peace?' I cried out. 'For a month or a year, until Morjin decides to turn on you and nail all your countrymen to crosses?'

'What do you propose then.. King Valamesh?'

'To fight! Now, that we have been given such a rare chance! We know the Galdan fleet's plans, but they do not know that we know.' I pointed east, past the Rajabash at the pointed white peaks gleaming in the distance. 'We have three armies gathered here. Just over those mountains lies Delu. We can march across them and take our enemy by surprise.'

King Sandarkan laughed at this. 'That is a desperate chance, a fool's chance. What if we are discovered? And even if we are not, King Mansul's armies will still outnumber us five to one.'

'We can still win!' I called to him. I turned to my uncle and said, 'King Talanu — if Mesh were to march for Delu tomorrow, will Kaash join us?'

My uncle looked at me for a long time, and the deep creases cutting his forehead and face made him seem a thousand years old. Then he told me, 'King Sandarkan is right: what you propose is a desperate chance.'

He sighed as he grasped the hilt of the sword that he had set down by his chair. 'But it is our only chance. If we can defeat Morjin's eastern armies, then perhaps the other Valari kingdoms will join us in facing Morjin's main force as they come at us from the west.'

This, too, was my hope. For a long time I had known that I must win a great victory to have any chance of uniting the Valari.

'You dare too much,' King Sandarkan said to King Talanu. 'Even as your nephew does.'

'I do dare,' King Talanu told him. 'In truth, I like the thought of Kaash marching to Delu's rescue. And having the Delians be in our debt.'

'But you can't defeat Morjin's eastern armies! You will die with the Elahad on the march — or at the end of your road, in a desperate battle.'

'I will die soon in any case,' King Talanu said, shrugging his great shoulders. 'And it is good for a warrior to die in battle.'

'An old warrior can say that with good courage. But what of your men? Are you willing to see your young men cut down?'

'Better that than mounted on crosses when Morjin burns and ravages through the Nine Kingdoms.'

I caught King Sandarkan's gaze and said to him,'At the Culhadosh Commons, Morjin's forces badly outnumbered us, and we still prevailed.'

'At great cost. But it was a great victory, even so.'

King Sandarkan looked at me more deeply. I felt doubt working at his insides and the slow burn of an awe that he seemed to fight down.

'In Delu,' I said to him, 'we can win an even greater victory. We can. King Sandarkan. With Waas's army joining those of Kaash and Mesh, we might just have enough strength.'

I felt this as a blazing certainty deep within my blood. I sensed it all hot and fiery within King Sandarkan, too. Did my most urgent passion communicate itself to him through my eyes and the pounding of my heart? Or more tangibly, through the valarda? Or did King Sandarkan, along with many Valari, hold his own gift sleeping inside him?

And then I felt King Sandarkan turn away from himself and his innate greatness as his face tightened with calculation. 'You ask for Waas's aid. What is Mesh willing to give in order to have it?'

'What can I give you other than hope for the future? And a chance for life?'

He smiled thinly at this. 'Perhaps I should have asked you this: what is King Valamesh willing to give up in the way of demands here today?'

He might as well have slapped my face, so keenly did I feel the blood burning my cheeks. I immediately hated myself for shouting at him: 'Mesh could demand of Waas levies to march to Delu! Instead of asking for an alliance!'

'Could Mesh demand this of Waas?' King Sandarkan said, his own face growing hot. 'If we cannot come to terms here, then battle there must be. And you will certainly prevail here, King Valamesh. But tell me: are you willing to spend your men's lives for such a victory?'

I looked behind me at Lord Harsha, whose bright single eye stared at King Sandarkan; Lord Avijan and Lord Sharad regarded him, too. I looked out toward the gleaming lines of my men still standing in the sun. I knew that I could not hide very much from Waas's crafty king.

'No, I am not willing,' I told him. 'I will never again be the cause of any Valari killing another Valari.'

I took a deep breath, and held it for a count of ten as Master Juwain had taught me. Then I said to King Sandarkan, 'If you are to march with us, it cannot be because of what I have demanded — or not demanded. It can only be because you know it is the right thing to do.'

The glimmer in King Sandarkan's dark eyes told me that he did know it was right. All that was good and noble within him urged him in this direction. But still he hesitated.

'King Sandarkan,' I murmured to him.

With my deepest sense, I reached out to feel inside his heart for that unbearable tension where fear and fearlessness, weakness and will, hung poised in a delicate balance. I had only, I knew, to touch him lightly in order to push him one way or the other.

'King Valamesh!' he suddenly shouted at me.

When I wielded the valarda to open others' hearts and brighten their spirits, my gift became a sacred sword named Alkaladur. But what should I call this terrible force when desperation drove me to seize hold of a man's heart and choke his very soul?

No, I told myself, I must not make men into ghuls!

But it was too late. Like a whisper setting off an avalanche, I felt my will to move King Sandarkan to a right action loose a cascade of raging emotions within him. His own will to push back at me suddenly hardened and grew as unmovable as a mountain.

'King Valamesh,' he asked me, 'do you then offer me a free choice of marching with you to Delu, or not?'

I gritted my teeth against the pain I felt stabbing through my throat. Then I told him, 'Yes, a choice — I do.'

'Then freely,' he snarled at me, 'I tell you this: I will not put my men at such peril. What king who loved his warriors would?'

With a look at King Talanu and then again at me, he said, 'Now, unless you do have additional terms to demand of me, I should like to lead my men off this field and begin the march back to our home.'

'No, I have no terms to demand,' I told him. 'Go back to Waas.'