'No, we would never do that,' she said. 'We would simply surround him until he couldn't move.'
'But then many of your people would die.'
'Yes, they would,' she admitted. 'But such a price would have to be paid if one of us fell shaida.'
Now it was my turn to be puzzled as Liljana mouthed this Maiian word that had no simple translation into our tongue. After some further discussion between Lady Nimaiu and Liljana, I was given to understand that shaida meant something like the madness of one who willfully disregards the natural harmonies of life.
'But what would you do with such a shaida man once you had disarmed him?' I asked. 'Slay him with his own sword then?'
'Oh, no – we would never do that!'
'But if you didn't, he might just make another sword and more of your people would die.'
I started to tell her that once war between peoples had begun, it was very hard to stop. And then Lady Nimaiu said, 'But it could never come to war, don't you see?
Such a man would be given to the Lady, and all would be restored.'
I stood there confused. I didn't know what she meant by 'given' to the Lady.'
Wasn't she Lady Nimaiu, the Lady of the Lake? And what would she do with such a murderous man?
After some rounds of Liljana passing our words back and forth to each other. Lady Nimaiu smiled sadly and said to me, 'I am the Lady of the Lake, as you've been told.
But I am not the Lady, of course. It is to Her that we would give your sword-making man.'
So saying, she pointed above the temple at the smoking mountain across the lake.
She said that anyone who fell shaida would be dropped into its fiery cone.
'The Lady takes back everyone into herself,' she explained. 'But some sooner than others.'
'Is this Lady the mountain, then?' I said, trying to understand.
My question seemed to amuse her, as it did many of the other Maii, who gathered around laughing softly. And then Lady Nimaiu smiled and told me, 'Oh, no, the mountain is only the Lady's mouth – and only her mouth of fire at that. She has many others.'
She went on to explain that the wind was the Lady's breath and the rain her tears; when the ground shook, she said, the Lady was laughing, and when it quaked so violently that mountains moved, that was the Lady's anger.
'The Maii,' she said, stretching out her wounded finger toward her people, 'are the Lady's eyes and hands. And that is why none of us would ever make a sword.'
I paused to look at the many men and women all around us, And then I asked, 'And does this Lady have a name?'
'Of course she does,' Lady Nimaiu said. 'Her name is Ea.'
At the utterance of this single word common to both our languages, the earth seemed to tremble slightly. Smoke continued pouring out of the cone of the mountain above us, but whether this signaled the Lady Ea's gladness at our arrival or displeasure, I couldn't tell.
We had a hundred questions for Lady Nimaiu and the Maiians, as they had for us.
They wanted to know everything about our peoples and the lands from which we came. They were fascinated with Liljana's blue figurine and her ability to shape the words of one language into that of another. But they saved their greatest wonder toward the answering of single question.
'Why,' Lady Nimaiu said to me, 'have you come to our island?
My first impulse was simply to blurt out that we had joined the great quest to find the Lightstone. But Maram, fearing my artlessness, moved up behind me and whispered in my ear, 'Be careful, Val. If the Lightstone is here, it's surely inside the temple. If we tell them that we're seeking what must be their greatest treasure, they'll likely give us to this bloodthirsty Lady of theirs.'
He advised telling Lady Nimaiu that we were on a mission to aid the besieged Surrapam and that we had stopped on the Island of the Swans to hunt for fresh meat to replace our dwindling stores. We should wait, he said, and contrive a way to enter the temple. Then we could determine if it really did house the Lightstone and devise a plan for its taking.
Maram was more cunning than I, yet not every situation called for this virtue. The Maiians, sensing something devious in Maram's quiet speech, which Liljana failed to translate, began murmuring among themselves and shifting about the square restlessly. I was reluctant to tell Maram's little lies and even more so to say anything that might get us pushed into a pool of fire. And so I looked at Lady Nimaiu and said, 'We're on a quest.. '
A low groan from Maram behind me made me pause in my answer. And then I continued, 'We're on a quest to find truth, beauty and goodness. And the love of the One that is said to find its perfect manifestation somewhere in the world.'
My words, after Liljana had rendered them into the Maiians' tongue, seemed to please them. Although I had spoken only vaguely of the Lightstone's essence, what I had said was true enough.
Lady Nimaiu, who was now smiling, slowly nodded her head. And then she asked,
'But why should you think that you would find these things on our island, where none but the Maii have walked since the Lady stepped out of the starry night at the beginning of time?'
Liljana needed no prompting from me to answer this question. With more than a little pride flushing her intelligent face, she recounted the finding of her blue gelstei and her conversation with the Sea People.
Again, Lady Nimaiu nodded her head slowly. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to her that a woman should speak with whales.
'Thank you,' she said to Liljana. 'You have told us much about yourselves, though much more needs to be told. And perhaps tomorrow it shall be. Until then, we invite you to remain here as our guests.'
When a king extended such an invitation, it was really a command. But as Liljana had told us, the Maii had no kings, nor even queens. I sensed that Lady Nimaiu was giving us the freedom to go or remain as we pleased. And so we decided to remain.
After that, Lady Nimaiu dismissed the crowds of her people with a few kind words.
We said goodbye to Piliri, who returned home to eat her evening meal with her family. Lady Nimaiu then took her leave of us, and went back into the temple with five of her attendants as she had come. The sixth attendant, a rather homely but voluptuous young woman named Lailaiu, was charged with the task of settling us in for the night.
She showed us to one of the out-buildings adjoining the west side of the temple but not really part of it. There we were given spacious rooms in the guest quarters. We were given food and drink as well: hot bread and white ewe's cheese, blackberries and plums and sweet salmon which the Maiians pulled from the rivers near the sea and smoked in juniper and honey. Our wine was rich, dark and red. After our feast, served by other temple attendants, Lailaiu returned to fill the sunken marble bath with hot water. She brought us herb-scented soaps and insisted on using them to lather up our worn flesh. All of us, even Kane, yielded to such an unexpected delight.
Everything about the Maiians' dwellings and handiworks seemed designed to delight the senses. No corner of our rooms was unadorned, from the marble moldings carved with bold traceries to the tapestries and carpets that lined the walls and floors. Even the blankets that covered us that cool night, woven from the marvelously soft underhair of the Maiians' goats, were embroidered with brightly colored threads showing roses and violets, the two flowers most beloved of the Lady Ea.
'Ah, this is a fine place,' Maram said, after he had collapsed onto his bed with his seventh glass of wine. 'I've never seen a fairer land. So rich, so sweet.'
'Even Alonia isn't as rich as this island,' Liljana agreed. 'At least not outside the nobles' palaces.'
'Yes,' I said bitterly, 'the Maiians have time for creating such beauty since it seems they spend none of it waging war.'
'Who would have war when he could have beauty and love instead?' Maram wondered. 'And love, mark my words, is at hand here. Did you see the fire in Lailaiu's eyes as she sponged the soap from me?'
'Be careful,' Master Juwain warned as he settled onto his bed with his book in his hand. 'Fire burns.'
'Ah, no, no, not this,' Maram said thickly. 'It's the sweetest of flames; it's the radiance of the sun on beautiful summer day; it's the fire of a young, red, full-bodied wine and finest and fruitiest blush; it's…'
He might have gone on in a like vein for quite a while. But then Kane, pacing the room like a caged tiger, scowled at him and said, 'Your Lailaiu looks a fruit that's never been picked. What do you think the Maiians do with men who take such from the vine before it's ripe? Likely they give them to the Lady. Now there's a fire you won't
