necks to see it, none tried to touch it, nor would I have let them if they had.
'There are lines from the song I would like to understand better,' Maram said as he came up by my side. 'What does it mean that the silver gelstei seeks the gold?'
'Hmmph, that should be clear,' Atara said. 'Weren't you listening to what Alphanderry said?'
Her eyes fixed on the sword as she sang out:
The silver sword, from starlight formed,
Sought that which formed the stellar light,
And in its presence flared and warmed
Until it blazed a brilliant white.
'Yes, I see,' Master Juwain said, rubbing his shiny pate. 'The lines tell truly. Some believe that the Lightstone, far from merely coming from the stars, is the source of their light. It is known that the silver gelstei was first sought in an attempt to forge the gold. And so it has a deep resonance with it. It's said to love the Lightstone as a mirror does the sun. But whether it flares in its presence as the song has it, I do not know.'
'Why don't we put that to the test?' Kane growled out.
'An excellent idea,' Master Juwain said. 'But how? I believe that the Sea People also told truly: there was a great gelstei on this island. But not the lightstone, it seems.'
I, too, believed what the great whales had said. But I turned to look at the temple even so.
'Why don't you point the sword toward it?' Kane said to me.
I did as he suggested, extending the sword's point directly toward the temple's pillars behind us to the south. But the silver blade, while marvelously full of light, seemed not to brighten even slightly.
'It's not there,' Maram muttered. 'I don't think it's there.'
We all fell silent then, and Liljana took this opportunity to explain our efforts to Lady Nimaiu and the Maiians. And then Master Juwain, still gazing at the sword as he scratched his head, told me, 'It might help if you meditated, Val. This, too, is said of the silustria.' He recited:
To use the silver stone.
The soul must dwell alone;
The mind must be clear,
Unclouded by fear.
As I stood there gazing at the reflection of my dark eyes in the sword's polished contours, I remembered what Master Juwain had once taught me about the silver geistei: that it was the stone of the soul and therefore of the mind which arose out of it. At the moment, with thousands of people staring at me and this unlooked-for blade catching the bright morning sunlight, my mind was anything but clear.
'Why don't you try the seventh light meditation?' Master Juwain suggested.
And so I did. With the bees buzzing in the flower beds down by the lake to the west, I closed my eyes and envisioned a perfect diamond floating in the air. This diamond was just myself. Nothing could mar its incredibly hard substance – certainly not my fear of failing to gain the Lightstone. It was cut with thousands of facets, each one of which let in the sun's rays with perfect clarity, there to gather in its starlike heart: with a brilliant fire that grew brighter and brighter and…
'Well, it seems there's nothing.' -Master Juwain said, his voice coming as from far away. 'Nothing at all.'
I opened my eyes to find the blade unchanged.
'It seems the Lightsone really is'nt on this island,' Maram said. And then he fell despondent and muttered, 'Ah, perhaps it's nowhere perhaps your brothers were right that it's been destroyed '
'No, it can't have been,' I said. 'I can almost feel it, Maram. I know it exists, somewhere on Ea.'
And with that, I held the image of the diamond inside myself again even as I held the sword out toward the Garden of Life to the west. But still its blade grew no brighter.
'Again, Val,' Kane encouraged me. 'Try a different direction.'
I slowly nodded my head. And then I lifted the sword toward the smoking mountain to the north, with as little result.
'Again, Val, again.'
Now I lightened my grip around the swan-carved hilt so that the seven diamonds set into the jade there wouldn't cut my hands so painfully. Then I pointed this sword that men had named Awakener toward that part of the world where the Morning Star arises in the east
'It flares!' Kane called out suddenly. 'Do you see how it flares?'
It wasn't enough, I sensed, merely to clear my mind. And so I opened my heart to Alkaladur as I might to my brothers in a rare moment of trust. And the fire there suddenly blazed hotter, both purifying and reforging the secret sword that I had carried inside myself since my birth. I felt the two swords, the inner and outer, resonate like perfectly tuned crystals chiming out harmonies older than time. It was as if they each quickened each other's essence, aligning with each other, a fiery light passing back and forth, down the length of the sword, up and down the length of my spine and then out through my heart along the line of my arms held pointed out away from me and into Alkaladur.
'It flares!' Kane shouted. 'It flares!'
I opened my eyes to see the silver sword glowing faintly as from a light within. When my arms trembled and the sword's point wavered from slightly south of due east, so did its light.
'So, the Lightstone lies somewhere east of us,' Kane said. 'But it seems it's still faraway.'
To the east of us, I thought, lay the Dragon Channel, Surrapam and the great Crescent Mountains. And farther: Eanna, Yarkona and the ancient library at Khaisham. And beyond that, the even greater White Mountains of Sakai and the plains of the Wendrush. And finally, the Morning Mountains of Mesh.
The Maiians, who had witnessed glories of the earth before but never one like this, gathered around gazing at my sword in wonder. After Liljana had explained to Lady Nimaiu about the silver gelstei, she nodded her head and smiled at me, saying, 'It would seem, Sar Valashu, that you won't leave our island with empty hands.'
'Yes, Lady Nimaiu,' I told her, 'and thanks to you.'
'But you still must leave, mustn't you?'
I looked at Atara and Kane and the others of our company, then turned back to her and said, 'Yes, we must.'
'But first, you'll share a meal with us, won't you?'
I glanced up at the sun, now high in the sky. The Snowy Owl would be sailing tomorrow on the morning tide.
'Yes,' I said, 'we'd be honored to dine with you.'
As the Maii began walking off toward the temple and the feast to be held there, she embraced me warmly. Then she touched her wounded finger to Alkaladur's blade and looked at me with her bright, black eyes.
It came time for me put away my new sword. But first I had to draw forth my old one. This I did, and I stared at the pieces of it with a great sadness in my heart. But there was also great joy there, too, and with Lady Nimaiu's permission, I flung the pieces of my broken kalama far out into the lake. They sank into its dark blue depths without a trace. Then I slid Alkaladur into the sheath. It fit perfectly. Tomorrow, I thought, as I rested my hand on its swan-carved hilt, we would journey east, toward the rising sun.
Chapter 29
With a strong wind blowing at our backs, it took us only a day and a night of fast sailing to cross the Dragon Channel to Surrapam. There, the following morning, at Artram, the last of Surrapam's free ports and therefore crowded with ships coming and going through its bustling harbor, we said goodbye to Captain Kharald and the Snowy Owl. After the horses had been led onto the dock, he stood by us telling of the news that had just been brought to him.
'King Kaiman,' he said to us, 'is making a stand near Azam only forty miles from here. Its seems our wheat is needed very badly.'
I watched the lean, hungry-looking Surrapam dockmen unloading the bags of wheat from the Snowy Owl's holds. From nearby smithies down Artram's busy streets came the sounds of hammered steel and the clamor of
