Diamond Warriors

town and a much smaller road that ran across the rounded green pastures toward King Kurshan's realm of Lagash.

'It is fate,' he said, smiling bitterly at me. 'My fate, and Athar's.'

Athar's dispute with Lagash also went back to the Age of Swords — and perhaps farther. It had continued on and on through the centuries in one bloody war after another. Only thirty years before, both Athar and Lagash had accused each other of violating the rules of Sharshan: the formal battles that we Valari waged against each other as a lesser evil than total war. More recently, after I had failed to unite the Valari in Tria two years ago. King Mohan and King Kurshan had drawn swords on each other on their journey home.

'You come too late,' King Mohan told me. 'King Kurshan and I have already agreed to meet in battle ten days hence on the field of Arantu outside of Osh.'

'You must make a new agreement, then! I have sent envoys to King Kurshan. Surely once he has learned of what Morjin intends, he will join with us to oppose him.'

King Mohan shook his head at this. 'Your envoys will not reach him. It is said that he has gone to meditate in the mountains, and will speak with no one until the day of the battle.'

'Not even myself? If I were to ride up into Lagash?'

'Can you afford to waste so much time?'

I thought about this as I felt the world beneath me whirling around the sun. 'All right — then you must send envoys to King Kurshan informing him that you have marched with us. They will reason with King Kurshan when he comes down from the mountains.'

Now King Mohan slammed his sword back into his scabbard and called out, 'But King Kurshan will not reason! He will declare that Athar has once again broken Sharshan — then he will use that as an excuse to ravage and burn Athar!'

'He will not!' I called back to him. 'He is a man of honor. And he is Valari. When he learns that you have led your warriors out to meet Morjin, and why, he will follow with Lagash's army.'

'So you dream, King Valamesh. But how can I take such a risk? For my kingdom? For my people?'

'How can you risk letting Morjin crucify your people?'

King Mohan's black eyes filled a wild ferocity, like that of a leopard trapped by hunters on all sides. Then he snapped out: 'Morjin has never made a threat against Athar — and King Kurshan has never stopped making threats!'

'Morjin's very existence is a threat — you face none worse. Come! Help me to end it!'

I nudged my horse closer to his and extended my hand to him. But he shook his head and kept his hand clamped around the hilt of his sword.

'How can you ask me to do this?' he called to me.

Because, I thought, feeling the fire of his eyes, I know what is in your heart. And you know what is in mine.

At that moment, with my hand still held open in midair, with Bemossed looking on with all the ardor of the sun, I felt something deep and irresistible rend King Mohan apart. It was, I knew, the valarda. I had always sensed that this mysterious power lay waiting to be awakened in everyone.

'Come with me!' I called to him again. 'Let us throw down Morjin!'

All my warriors lined up behind me down the road seemed to echo my plea to King Mohan; so did his warriors, waiting to either side of us, in the silence of their eyes and the drumming of thousands of hearts. How could King Mohan turn away from this terrible but beautiful force?

'What is it you want?' I said to him.

'You know what I want!' he shouted back. 'You and yours go forth to fight the battle of the ages! And what a fight you will make! The minstrels will sing of you, for ages! You will lose, but so what? Your warriors will die, but that is war. In dying for each other, though, they will feel their spirits blaze like the stars, and they will know they are alive. And that, King Valamesh, is what I truly want.'

He removed his hand from his sword, and regarded it with his fierce, dark eyes. 'But it is what I may not have. Kings, if they love their lands, do not do as they want to do, but only as they must.' And what King Mohan thought he must do, as he had said, was to protect his land by marching off to the wrong battle. And his warriors must follow his will, even as he submitted himself to his own sense of honor and duty.

Two roads, north and west, lay before him, and as with King Sandarkan, I wanted to push out with the force called Alkaladur and nudge him onto the one leading to the meeting with Morjin. But I could not bring myself to commit this violence. I could only look at him and tell him what my father had once told me: 'King Mohan — your heart is free!'

'Yes,' he said with a seething bitterness, 'free to follow this will of the world that you have spoken of, but never my own.'

'No — always your own,' I said to him. 'Don't you see? In the end, they are one and the same.'

I waited for him to apprehend this, to feel it like a fire deep in his heart. Instead, he inclined his head to me and forced out: 'I am sorry, but I have given my word. I must go where I must. I wish you well on your journey, King Valamesh.'

I did not want to believe that King Mohan had refused to join with me; why, I wondered, had I failed yet again? There seemed nothing to do now except to continue on, as King Mohan had said. I could only hope that he would change his mind and follow after me.

And so I returned to my vanguard, and then led my army up the road between the assembled lines of King Mohan's warriors. As we marched past, the Atharians began striking their spears against their shields and crying out acclamations to honor us. I did not want to think that even King Mohan would punish them for breaking discipline that day.

Later, after we had passed through Gazu, with its many build-ings of ironwood and white granite, Master Juwain rode up beside me. He must have doubted the success of what I intended to accom-plish, as many in the columns behind us now must have as well. Even more, he must have questioned Abrasax's decision that the Seven should help me to wage war. But he refused to dwell in the dark. And so he pointed up the Nar Road and said,'There are other Valari kings.'

I clenched my teeth as I squinted against the late sun. Then I said, 'I came so close.'

'King Mohan,' he said, 'is a hard man, and even more a willful one. But it may be as you said, that in the end he will see where his will should lead him. Give it time, Valashu.'

'But that is just it, sir,' I said to him. 'I have no more time.' That, however, was not quite true, for some three hundred miles and many days of hard marching still lay between my army and the plain of the Detheshaloon. We crossed over into Taron early the next afternoon. At a bone-jolting pace, we passed through a rich countryside of apple orchards and farms growning barley and rye. We bought supplies fom the Taroners who were generous with their prices. Then, nearly a week after my meeting with King Mohan, we made our way up into the Iron Hills outside of Nar. This ancient city, largest in the Nine Kingdoms, spread out on the other side of these red hills to the north and west. Its many smithies cast a bitter black smoke into the air. The stinging of my eyes and the reek of hot iron made me instantly recall the three other times that I had journeyed to Nar, where King Waray for many years had plotted to make himself the greatest king and Taron the greatest kingdom in the Morning Mountains.

King Waray arranged for my army to encamp near Nar's northern outskirts, on the Tournament Grounds laid out on a greenway of many acres. Then he invited me and my friends, though not my captains, to a meeting at his palace, which was built on the side of a hill overlooking the city's southern districts. He invited as well King Viromar. Although Taron had never been particularly friendly with Kaash, King Waray must have wished to charm Kaash's new king, as he had so many others. He would be glad to have Kaash's help against Waas. for he had long had ambitions against King Sandarkan's domain.

King Waray received us on a lawn giving out onto a stream flowing down through a wild green past the palace. Some of us sat on rocks above the stream; others stood to appreciate the view of the city below. Three of King Waray's advisors joined us: Lord Jurathar, Lord Marjun. and the very tall and very muscular Lord Stavaru. King