'Do you think he'll invade Delu from Galda?' Mararn asked nervously.
'Not yet, he hasn't the strength,' Kane said. 'No, he'll move first against Eanna.'
'But if Surrapam holds,' Maram said, 'then he'll have to -'
'Surrapam won't hold,' Kane said. 'We all saw that.'
'Perhaps not,' I said. 'But the Hesperuks can't consolidate their conquest of Surrapam and attack Eanna.'
Kane nodded his head savagely and said, 'Not by themselves. That's why Morjin needs a backdoor into Eanna. And now he has that, with Yarkona.'
The Lightstone's radiance had now faded, and I gave the cup to Maram to hold. I sat staring at the fire. In its flames I saw the conflagration of the great Library; I saw the hateful eyes of Count Ulanu, as well.
'Count Ulanu,' I said to Kane, 'still isn't strong enough to attack Eanna.'
'He will be soon,' Kane said. 'Morjin will reinforce him.'
'Through Elivagar?'
'Just so – that's the key to his conquest, eh? Once the Ymanir's land is taken, he'll have a road through the mountains to march his armies into Yarkona and so into Eanna. And when Eanna falls, so will Thalu and the whole northwest.' Kane paused to catch his breath, and continued, 'And then nothing will stop Morjin from assembling a fleet and sailing his armies past Nedu and through the Dolphin Channel to attack Alonia.' I watched the fire's flames gather in the Lightstone's bowl; in Maram there now gathered a different kind of fire.
'Then we must,' he said, 'stop Morjin first.'
Again, I gripped my sword as a great bitterness ate at my belly. And I said, 'Perhaps I should have killed him.'
Kane reached over and laid his hand on my shoulder. And then he said a strange thing, 'You did what you did out of compassion, and there's nothing to be sorry for in that. Would that we all had such compassion.'
Atara, who was now holding the Lightstone, faced me from next to Maram and said,
'Not even a scryer can see all ends, you know. If you had died in Argattha, we might never have escaped. And so one of Morjin's Red Priests might be holding this even now.'
It was one of those moments when the Lightstone's gold seemed to reveal a clear light within its depths – as did Atara. She nodded at me and asked, 'Will the Valari come to the Ymanir's aid and fight Morjin?'
'Yes,' I told her. 'If we don't fight each other.'
Maram looked at Kane and then said, 'I couldn't bear it if the Beast ever saw Alundil.
He would destroy it, I think. Is there no way that the Star People might return and send help?'
We all understood that Kane was forbidden to speak of other worlds around other stars, even as he forbade himself to speak of his past. And so he surprised us, saying, 'They did send help, once. But they'll never come again so long as Morjin is free to work his evil. You tell of the glory of Alundil. It's nothing against that of the cities of the Star People and the Elijin. And the Galadin, so, the Galadin. What if Morjin or another were to place the Lightstone in the Dark One's hands? So, they'll not risk the destruction of worlds and a splendor that you cannot imagine.'
Liljana, who had been passed the Lightstone, nodded at Kane and said, 'And that is why we must first and always look to this world. And that is why I must return to Tria. The Sisterhood must prepare for what is to come.'
She said as little about the Maitriche Telu as Kane did his Black Brotherhood. But it gladdened my heart when she looked at Master Juwain and said, 'Perhaps the time has come when our two orders can make our purposes known to each other.'
She gave the Lightstone to him, and his ugly face brightened with the most beautiful of smiles. 'The time has come, I see I would like nothing more than for us to call each other Sister and Brother.'
As Daj next took the Lightstone, his eyes wide with the wonder of it Liljana clasped Master Juwain's hand.
Now Master Juwain took out his varistei and sat gazing at it. Seized with inspiration, he held it in front of Daj's forehead. The Lightstone seemed to pour its radiance into the green stone. Then a green light leaped from the crystal, and its rays seared into the tattoo of the red dragon disfiguring Daj. After a few moments, the crystal grew quiet And we all stared at Daj through the fire's flames to see that the tattoo was gone.
'Is it really?' Daj said, handing the Lightstone to Kane. He scurfed his fingers across his forehead as if feeling for the hated tattoo. 'I want to see! Val, will you show me, in your sword?'
I drew Alkaladur so that he could behold himself in its gleaming silver. But the sword, in the Lightstone's presence, suddenly flared so brightly that for a moment none of us could see. After it had returned to only a mirror- like brilliance, Daj sat looking at himself in wonder.
'It is gone,' he said. 'Now they won't stare at me in Tria.'
We had decided that he would go with Kane and Liljana to Tria, where Liljana would look after him. Atara would accompany them along the mountains facing the Wendrush; she must pay her respects to Sajagax and the Kurmak, she said, before continuing on with Kane and the others to Tria to conclude her business with her father.
'King Kiritan,' she said, 'must be told that the Lightstone has been found and the Quest fulfilled. And I must tell him.'
'That I would like to see,' Kane said, gazing at the cup that he held. His eyes, like the black stone he kept hidden away, seemed to touch upon the fiery light of creation itself. 'Almost as much as I'd like to see his face when Val shows him this.'
He passed the Lightstone on to me and asked, 'Are you sure you won't reconsider your plans?'
I squeezed the cup between my hands and said, 'The Lightstone must first be brought to the Valari. We are its guardians, and we can't guard it if I alone of my people take it into Tria.'
'But, Val,' Maram reminded me, 'King Kiritan is expecting its finder to bring it to him. Our vows -'
'We vowed to seek the Lightstone for all of Ea and not for ourselves,' I said. 'For Ea, Maram – not for King Kiritan.'
'But what about your vow, then?'
Now the gold of the Lightstone suddenly felt as cold as ice in my hands. I remembered too well standing in King Kiritan's hall before thousands of knights and nobles, and promising King Kiritan that I would bring the Lightstone to him and so claim Atara as my bride.
I looked over at Atara sitting rigidly as a statue, and I said, 'That vow is not mine to fulfill. Not mine alone.'
After that, our talk turned toward the remembrance of all that we suffered together, the glories as well as the sorrows. Kane recounted the story of Flick spinning on Alphanderry's nose; this made Daj break open with an easy, boyish laughter that was a delight to hear. We had thought that he would never laugh again. His sudden joy made us weep, especially Liljana, who seemed to have lost her own laughter, even as Atara had warned on the beach of the Bay of Whales. For she had looked too deep into Morjin's mind and seen there an evil so great that her own joy of life seemed forever dimmed. Even the Lightstone's gleaming presence was not enough to restore her peaceable temperament and her lovely smiles.
At last it came time to begin the long and painful rounds of making our goodbyes.
Master Juwain sat telling Daj of the Great White Brother hood and gave him his copy of the Saganom Elu; Daj promised to read it and someday make the journey to Mesh. I gave Kane the sharpening stone of pressed diamond dust that my brother, Mandru, had once given me. Alkaladur's edge never needed sharpening, but the kalama that Kane bore would. In return, he gave me one of the bloodstones that he had taken from Morjin's chambers, and instructed me in its use. Much past midnight, with the moon dropping lower in the sky, I spoke with Liljana about a few of the things she had seen in Morjin's mind.
Still later, I walked with Atara through the swishing grass at the edge of our camp.
Twice she almost stumbled as the long grasses snared her feet. It was one of those times when she was truly blind. I offered her my arm, but she wouldn't take it.
'I must learn to get on by myself,' she told me.
'No one was meant to get on alone,' I said to her. 'If this quest has taught me anything, it's that.'
'Still, you can't walk for me. You can't see for me.'
'No,' I said, touching the mail over my chest where I had returned the Lightstone.
'But now that this has been found, I can marry you.'
