streams of kirtles and flowing garments dyed every color, they converged upon the temple from the south, west and east. There, in a tree-lined square beneath the temple's great, gleaming pillars, they gathered to greet us and witness what to them must have been an extraordinary event.
A tall woman, perhaps forty years of age, accompanied by six younger women, emerged from between the temple's two centermost pillars and slowly made her way down the steps toward us. She was as beautiful of face and form as my mother, and she wore a long white kirtle trimmed with green along the sleeves and hem. A filigree of tiny black pearls was sown into the kirtle's front while a fillet of much larger white ones had been set around her forehead and over her long, black hair. She stopped immediately in front of us. Then Piliri stepped forward, knelt and kissed the woman's hand. Upon straightening again, she said, ' Mi Lais Nimaiu-talanasii nisalu.'
She turned toward me and my companions and continued, ' Talanasii Sar Valashu Elahad. Eth Maramei Marshayk eth Liljana Ashvaran eth.. .'
And so it went until she had presented us all. Then she spoke to Liljana, who stepped closer with her blue gelstei to translate for her.
' Talanasii Lais Nimaiu,' Piliri said, presenting the tall woman to us. She spoke a few more words before nodding at Liljana.
Liljana pressed her little figurine to her head as she smiled at the tall woman. To us, she said, 'This is Lady Nimaiu. She is also called the Lady of the Lake.'
Lady Nimaiu, as Rhysu had, spent quite a few moments examining us. Atara's hair seemed to hold wonders for her as did Master Juwain's complete absence of it. But she reserved her greatest curiosity for me and my accoutrements. Her dark eyes took in the lineaments of my face, and then she rapped her fingernail against the steel of my helmet, which I held in the crook of my arm. With my leave, she touched this same elegant finger to the silver swan and stars embroidered on my surcoat. She gasped as if these shapes might be familiar to her. Her breathing quickened as she examined the hilt of my broken sword. She spent another few moments running her hand over the steel links of my mail and the swan and stars embossed on my father's shield. Finally, she wrapped her fingers lightly around my throwing lance before stepping back and regarding me warily.
With Liljana translating for us, she began conversing with me: 'You bring strange things to our land,' she said. 'Are suchlike common in yours?'
'Yes,' I admitted, 'most warriors, at least the knights, are accoutered thusly.'
Liljana hesitated a moment in her translation because she could find no words in Lady Nimaiu's language for knight or warrior. And so she simply spoke them as I did, leaving them untranslated.
'And what is warrior?' Lady Nimaiu asked me.
'A warrior,' I said, hesitating as well, 'is one who goes to war.'
'And what is war?'
Now the six women attending Lady Nimaiu pressed closer to hear my answer as did Piliri and many other of the Maii. I traded swift, incredulous looks with Master Juwain and Maram. And then I said, 'That might be hard to tell.'
I looked around at the gentle Maii, who stood regarding us with great curiosity but no fear. Could it be possible that they knew nothing of war? That the bloody history of the last ten thousand years had completely passed by their beautiful island?
As I stood there wondering what to say to Lady Nimaiu, she again touched the hilt of my sword. 'Is this an accouterment of war, then?'
'Yes,' I said, 'it is.'
'May I see it?'
I nodded my head as I drew what was left of my sword. Its broken hilt shard gleamed brightly in the light of the late afternoon sun.
'May I hold it, Sar Valashu?'
I did not want to let her hold my sword. Would I so readily give into her hands my soul? Nevertheless, upon remembering why we had come to her island, I fulfilled her request for the sake of a little good will.
'It's heavy,' she announced as her fingers closed-around the hilt. 'Heavier than I would have thought.'
I did not explain that if the blade had been whole, it would have been heavier still.
But Lady Nimaiu, whose bright eyes missed very little, seemed to understand this as she gazed at the ragged end of my sword where it had been broken.
'Of what metal is this made?' she asked me, tapping the blade.
'It's called steel, Lady Nimaiu.'
'What is this thing called, then?'
'It is a sword,' I said.
'And what is sword for?'
Before I could answer, she moved her finger from the flat of the blade and started to run it across its edge. 'Be careful!' I gasped. But it was too late: the kalama's razor-sharp steel sliced open her finger.
'Oh!' she exclaimed, instinctively clasping the wounded tip against her breast to stanch the bleeding. 'It's sharp – so very sharp!'
She gave me back my sword while one of the women dose to her tended her cut finger. To the murmurs of grave disapproval spreading outward among the crowds around us, she explained that although the Mail used their bronze knives to shape wood and shear their sheep, none were so keen of edge that they cut flesh at the faintest touch.
'Oh, I see,' she said sadly as she held up her finger. The white wool of her kittle was now stained with her blood. 'This is what sword is for.'
I felt my own blood burning my ears with shame. I tried to explain a little about warfare then; I tried to tell her that all the peoples of Ea stood ready to protect their lands by going to war.
She spoke her amazement to Liljana, who continued to make her words understandable: 'But what do your lands need protecting from?' she asked me. 'Are the wolves that fierce where you live?'
Behind me Maram muttered, 'No, but the Ishkans are.'
Liljana either didn't hear this or chose to ignore him. And then I took upon myself the task of trying to explain how we Valari had to protect ourselves from our enemies – and each other.
I spoke for quite a while. But what I said made no sense to Lady Nimaiu – and, in truth, little to me. After I had finished my account of the world's woes, she stood there shaking her head as she said, 'How strange that brothers feel they must protect themselves from each other! What strange lands you have seen where men take up swords because they are afraid their neighbors will as well.'
'It… is not as simple as that,' I said.
'But why would men go to war?' Lady Nimaiu said. 'For pride and plunder, so you say. But do your men have no pride in anything other than their swords? Are your men thieves that they would take from each other what is not theirs?'
The Red Dragon is much worse than a thief, I thought. And he would take from men their very souls.
'It is not so simple as that,' I repeated. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and continued, 'What would your people do if two neighbors disputed the border of their lands and one of them made a sword to claim his part?'
While Liljana translated this, Lady Nimaiu looked at me thoughtfully. And then she said, 'We Maiians do not claim land as your people do. All of our island belongs to all of us. And so there is always enough for all.'
'As it was in the ancient days,' Liljana said quietly, pausing a moment in her translating duties.
I took a breath and asked Lady Nimaiu, 'But what if one of your men coveted one of his neighbor's sheep and tried to claim it as his own?'
'If his need was that great, then likely his neighbor would give it to him.'
'But what if he didn't?' I pressed her. 'What if he slew his neighbor, and then threatened others as well?'
What I had suggested plainly horrified Lady Nimaiu – and the other Maiians, too. Her face fell white, and her jaw trembled slightly as she gasped out, 'But none of us could ever do such a thing!'
'But what if someone did?'
'Then we would take his sword from him and break it, as yours is broken.'
'Swords are not so easy to take,' I told her. 'You would have to forge swords of your own to take such a man's sword.'
