then? The one your heart has always burned for?'
It was not Maram's heart that usually flared with his fierce desire for a woman. But. now, with death so near, he closed his eyes to look for that glorious and fiery place Within him. And then, a few moments later when he opened them to gaze at his red gelstei, a great gout of flame streaked out of it like lightning to fill up the sky.
'The signal!' someone cried out. 'Sar Maram gives the signal!'
Above the beach, the sky itself seemed to have caught fire, as its blueness burned away to an incandescent crimson. Tens of thousands of our enemy jerked their heads back to gaze up in wonderment and fear.
'Bells on!' I heard someone call out from the columns of warriors behind the cavalry. There came that eerie jangle of thousands of men fastening their silver bells about their ankles.
Now Maram's crystal finally fell quiet again. But King Talanu and his knights on the other side of the hill could not have failed to see its fire.
'Attack!' I shouted, pointing my long lance straight ahead of me. 'For your brothers who fell at the Culhadosh Commons, for Mesh, for Ea — attack!'
As I put my heels to Altaru's flanks and urged my huge horse forward, I noticed that Bemossed had disobeyed my command to ensure his safety and had come up from our encampment. He stood up on the side of the hill, out of the army's way. From this perch between two gnarled oak trees overlooking the beach, he would have sight of the entire battlefield.
It took only moments for Altaru to pound across the rough terrain between the hills and come out of the trees upon a stretch of grassy ground that fronted the beach. The wind whipped through my helmet and vibrated the swan feathers forming its crest. I led my hundreds of knights veering left toward the center of the army stretched out ahead of us, even as Lord Avijan and his knights moved off in a flanking maneuver to our far right. From out of the woods between Urza and Tirza a mile away, I saw King Talanu burst forth in a gallop toward the beach. The white tiger emblazoned on his surcoat shone in the sun. He, too, led his knights on a charge toward our enemy's center.
The Galdans and Karabukers now began running in every direction, colliding with each other and cursing, shouting and grabbing for their armor and weapons. I could feel waves of terror washing across the beach.
'Valari!' I called out as loudly as I could. 'Today the Valari fight as one!'
Soon my knights and I came to the upper reaches of the beach. Our pace slowed as our horses' hooves worked for purchase against the soft, shifting sands. Sar Galajay, riding near Joshu Kadar who held up my standard with its swan and stars, seemed discouraged at this — and surprised. This man of mountains might have looked upon the beach from afar, but he had never tried to run across one or make his horse do so. He must have realized, in a moment, that this beach would not be a perfect place after all to engage a battle.
'The Valari!' came the cry from across the beach. 'Arm yourself! The Valari are upon us!'
Arrows loosed by our enemy's archers whined through the air; one of them clacked against the diamonds covering my chest and another pinged off my helm. And still another found a Joint in Viku Aradam's armor and stuck out of his shoulder. He bore the shock of it in silence. But these feathered shafts flew at us in sparse numbers, for most of the Galdan and Karabuk archers scrambled to find arrows at all and had time for only a couple of volleys before we pounded right up to them.
'The Valari!' I heard men shouting. 'Form up against the Valari!'
But we gave our enemy no time to form up; we galloped straight toward the disorganized mass of men frantically trying to bring spears or shields — or even hammers — to bear against my knights.
'The Diamond Warriors!' someone cried out. 'They come! Look! listen!'
From behind me came the ringing of hundreds of thousands of silver bells. I turned quickly about in my saddle to see the Kaashans and Lord Tomavar's battalions deploy across the beach, exactly as we had planned. I smiled to see the black tower emblazoned on Lord Tomavar's white shield. He led his warriors in a near-run to close ranks with Lord Tanu's force spreading out from between Urza and Magda. And then my knights and I fell upon our enemy, and I had no time to look at anything except the spears, axes and swords sweeping toward me in a circle of death.
I lost my lance almost immediately through the chest of a huge Galdan soldier, who stood naked except for one boot that he had managed to pull on. He screamed and cut at the lance with a short sword that he had found in the heaps of weapons around him. I screamed, too, silently, at his terrible, piercing anguish, and I nearly fell from my horse even as the soldier fell ripping the lance from my hands. I drew Alkaladur then. Its flaring silustria cast a bril-liant silver radiance across the beach. It made the Galdans gasp out in fear even as it gave me strength to endure the agony being wreaked upon men all around me.
Kane, to my side, had already drawn his kalama. His face had fallen into a mask of fury. The Galdans, almost all on foot, tried to flee from him, but they had nowhere to run. He swung his sword, once, twice, thrice, and then again and again. More men screamed, and founts of blood reddened the air. A single Galdan knight, who had donned a helmet but no other piece of armor, rode at Kane across the powdery sand, and he tried to impale Kane with his lance. Kane easily parried his thrust, then almost casu-ally cut off the knight's arm. A good kalama, if wielded with skill, can cut through steel mail, and what it could do to unarmored flesh was terrible to behold.
Some of the Galdans grabbed up pikes and tried to stab me or knock me off the back of my horse. Maram killed one of these with a vicious lance thrust through the eye. The Black Knight, Hadrik, riding behind him, killed another with his lance. Then Sar Shivalad, Sar Kanshar and a few other of my Guardians came up closer and worked a quick slaughter with their swords. Our enemy, hacked and hopelessly disorganized, fell in tens and twenties all around us.
After a short while of such bloody, frenzied work, Joshu Kadar pointed toward the northern part of the beach and cried out an alarm, 'Sire, the Karabukers! Beware!'
I swung my sword and cut right through the shaft of a pike that one of the Galdans thrust at me; then I cut off his head, and I turned to look up the beach.
'To the King!' Joshu cried out. 'Protect King Valamesh!'
Thirty Karabuk knights, in tight formation, had appeared as if from nowhere, and were forcing their way through the mass of their own companions as they made their way straight toward me. They were long of form and both graceful and powerful in their movements; their hard black hands gripped lances even longer than the ones my knights wielded. They wore a heavy armor of mail and plate. It seemed a miracle that they had found the time to accouter themselves so completely; I guessed that they must be knights of King Mansul the Magnificent's Black Guard, who stood always ready to guard King Mansul or cut down his enemies.
Although I had hundreds of my own knights at my call, my charge across the beach had carried me too far into the Galdan's ranks, and so too few of my knights could quickly come forward to meet this new threat. The Karabukers might have ridden down Maram and the half dozen Guardians nearby me, perhaps even Kane. But their greater weight of armor, both encasing their bodies and fastened to their mounts, slowed them and caused their horses to sink more deeply into the white sands. And even as Joshu Kadar cried out once again, 'To the King! To the King!' another king and his knights rode to my defense. I looked to the left through a fence of flashing weapons to see King Talanu and Zandru the Hammer — and fifteen other Kaashan knights — working their way forward. They intercepted the Karabukers moments before our enemy fell upon us.
'We meet, King Valamesh!' my uncle cried out to me through the tangle of men, horses and crates between us. 'Now let us fight our enemies together!'
So saying, he pushed his lance point straight through the face of the Karabuk knight nearest to him. I heard the point embed itself in bone and snap off. Old my uncle might be, and slow of movement, but he still possessed great prowess at arms and retained most of his old strength. He was cunning as an old wolf, too; he had not survived ten bloody battles solely by chance.
'Careful, Sire!' Lord Zandra called out to him. 'Stay close to us!' Lord Yarwan, too, seemed concerned at his king's wild attack of the Karabukers. But King Talanu was in no mood to be cautious. He cast down his broken lance and drew out his kalama. Then he pointed this long sword at the largest of the Karabuk knights, and cried out, 'Forward, forward all, and fight! This is the day! This is the day! Do you not
The urgency in his voice caused me to look at his adversary more closely. This huge knight bearing down on him looked as if he must stand seven feet tall. Black ostrich feathers crested his shining helm; within this steel covering, his implacable black face and dark brown eyes seemed intent upon destroying King Talanu. In his huge hand, he bore a great lance, the longest I had ever seen a knight wield.
'Sire!' the sharp-eyed Joshu Kadar called out to me. 'Look at his emblem! The dragon!'
