highest bidder?'
It was well, I thought, that Atara had fled her home at the young age of sixteen. I saw that she vexed King Kiritan even more than did her mother. Again, his hand closed into a fist as he ground his teeth and his whole body trembled with rage. Because I couldn't allow him to strike her, I readied myself to rush forward and stand between them. But the King's guards saw my concern, and readied themselves to stop me.
King Kiritan saw this, too.
'When did the sanctity of marriage come to be so little regarded?' he said to Atara.
He cast me a dismissive look, then glowered at Maram and Kane. 'Is it right that you should forsake such a blessed union to take up with a ragtag band of adventurers?'
'Hmmph,' Atara said, 'you may call them that, but my friends are -'
'A bald, old man, a fat lecher, a mercenary and a knight of little name.'
Atara opened her mouth to parry his careless words. But warrior of the Manslayers though she might be, I could not allow her to fight my battles for me. I threw off my cloak then so that the King could see my surcoat and the silver swan and seven stars shining from it.
'My sires were kings, even as yours were, King Kiritan,' I said. 'And their sires were kings when the Narmadas were still warlords fighting the Hastars and Kirilands for the throne.'
Now the hands of Count Dario and Baron Belur snapped toward the hilts of their swords. A dozen other knights grumbled their resentment of what I had said. It was one thing for the King's own wife and daughter to dispute with him, but quite another for an outland warrior to shame him with the truth.
'Sar Valashu Elahad,' the King huffed at me. 'It's said that your line is descended, father and son, from the Elahad. Well, it's also said that the Saryaks claim descent from Valorem himself.'
'Many things are said, King Kiritan. And one of these is that a wise king will be able to tell what is true from what is false.'
'We tell you this then. You Valari are as prideful as you ever were.' His eyes flicked toward Atara, and he added, 'And as bold.' 'It's boldness that wins battles, is it not?'
'We haven't heard of any notable battles you've won of late,' he said. 'It would seem that you're too busy fighting among yourselves over diamonds.'
'That might be true,' I said bitterly. 'But once we fought for other things.'
'Yes, for a golden cup that does not belong to you.' 'At least the cup was won,' I said, recalling the white stones I had found on the Hill of the Dead the day before.
'At the Sarburn – you will have heard of that battle.'
'Indeed we have,' the King said. 'Eighty-nine Narmada knights fell there that day.'
'Ten thousand Valari are buried there!' I said.. 'And their graves aren't even marked!'
'That is not right,' the King said with surprising softness. And then a note of bitterness crept back into his voice. 'But you can't blame my people for not wanting to honor outland warriors who invaded their land for plunder.' 'The Valari did not die for plunder,' I said.
'Nevertheless, Aramesh did take the Lightstone for his own. Just as he took for himself the crown of Alonia.' At mis, many grumbles of anger rolled through the room. 'He ruled, it is true, but for three years only until the Red Dragon's work was undone and he saw the kingship restored. It's nowhere recorded that he took the crown.'
'What right does any but an Alonian have to rule Alonia?'
'Some might say that if he hadn't ruled,' I said, looking around the hall and up at Kiritan's jewel-encrusted throne, 'there would have been nothing left for your sires to have ruled.'
'What was left of the Alonians' great sacrifice at the Sarburn,' King Kiritan asked,
'after Aramesh took, the Lightstone back to Mesh and kept it behind his mountains?'
'He did not keep it for himself,' I said. 'He invited all to come and behold it. And in the end, Julumesh surrendered the cup to Godavanni, even as you have told of here tonight.'
'We have told of how the cup was lost. By Valari selfishness and pride.'
'The cup was lost,' I said. 'Which is why some of us have vowed to regain it.
'We do not see many Valari here tonight,' the King said, looking out at the masses of people packed into the hall. 'And why is that?'
Because our hearts have been broken, I thought.
The King, answering his own question, said. 'Your land is long past its time of greatness. Now you Valari care for little more than your diamonds and your little wars. It's almost savage the way you glorify it: every man a warrior; your duels; meditating over your swords as if they were your souls. No, we're afraid that the Valari's day is done.'
Because I had nothing to say to this, I stared up through the dome at the stars. Then Atara touched my shoulder, and we looked at each other in a sudden, new understanding.
'Well, what's this, then?' the King said, glaring at us.
But neither Atara nor I answered him; we just stood there before three thousand people looking into each other's eyes.
'You' the King said to Atara, 'will remain here now that you've returned.'
'But, Sire,' Atara said, turning toward him, 'I've made vows to seek the Lightstone.
Would you have me break them?'
'You'll do your seeking in Alonia, then.'
Atara looked at me as she sadly shook her head. Then, to her father, she said, 'No, I'll go on the Quest with Val, if he'll have me.'
'If he'll have you!' the King thundered. 'Who is he to take you anywhere? To take you off to oblivion or death?'
'He has saved my life, Sire. Twice.'
'And who has given you life?' the King shouted. Quick as a cat, he turned to me and pointed his finger at my chest. 'Tell us the truth about what you want of our daughter!'
The first thing a Valari warrior is taught is always to tell the truth. And so I looked at King Kiritan and told him what my heart cried out even though I had never said the words to anyone, not even myself: 'To marry Atara.'
For a moment, King Kiritan didn't move. It seemed that no one in the hall dared breathe. And then he shouted, 'Marry our daughter?'
'If she'll have me,' I said, smiling,. 'And with your blessing.'
King Kiritan laughed at me then: a series of harsh, cutting sounds that issued from his throat almost like the barking of a dog. Then his face purpled and he began raging at me: 'Who are you to marry her? An adventurer who hides himself in a dirty cloak? A seventh son who has no hope of ever becoming a king? And a king of what? A savage little kingdom no bigger than many of my barons' domains! You think to marry our daughter?'
In that moment, as King Kiritan's outraged voice thundered from the stone walls of his hall, I pitied him. For I saw that he resented having had to marry beneath himself, as he surely thought of his union with Daryana. And now he hoped to ennoble his line more deeply by marrying Atara to the crown prince of Eanna or possibly Prince Jardan of the Elyssu. Even Maram, I supposed, as a prince of the strategically important Delu, would have been considered a more suitable match than I if not for his lustful ways and friendship with me.
I saw another thing, too: that the King, unlike lesser men, was not at the mercy of his terrible rages. Rather, he summoned them from some deep well inside him like a conjuror, and more, wielded his wrath precisely as he might a sword to terrify anyone who stood against him. But I had lived with swords all my life. And I had one of my own.
'I love Atara,' I said to him. My eyes were now wide open, and much else as well.
'Will you bless our marriage, King Kiritan?'
In answer, he laughed at me again. And then, as his eyes filled with malice, in a mocking voice, he said, 'Yes, you may marry our daughter – when you've found the Lightstone and have delivered it here to this room!'
I was sure he expected me to cringe like a beaten dog or perhaps protest that the Cup of Heaven might be found only by the One's grace. Instead, I grasped the hilt of my sword and rashly told him, 'This I vow then.'
While he stared at me in disbelief, I took Atara's hand and kissed it. I told him, 'If you won't yet bless our marriage, then will you at least give Atara your blessing as you have everyone else so that we may set out on the Quest?'
