to the east of us, Atara told me, were the docks of the King's Fleet and the ancient fortresses that housed the sailors who manned his warships.
We passed onto a broad avenue and drew up before the Urwe Gate. The moon had dipped toward the west; it cast a rain of silver light upon the great iron gate set into the wall before us. We sat on our horses hoping that no spies were watching what we did. The street was lined with windowless houses, and the still air smelled of bread baking and the salty tang of the sea. One of King Kiritan's soldiers, arrayed in full armor, came out of the guardhouse next to the gate, sniffing at the air – and sniffing at us as if trying to suss out our identities. He demanded that we dismount, and this we did.
'The gate is closed!' he snapped at us. Then he drove the iron-shod butt of his spear against it as if to emphasize the law of the city. 'It won't be opened until morning.'
The gates are meant to keep our enemies out,' Atara said to him. 'Not to keep Trians within.'
'And who are you to tell me what the gates are for?' the guard demanded.
Atara stepped forward and threw back the hood of her doak. Then she said to him,
'I'm Atara Ars Narmada.'
Although it was hard to tell in the thin light, it seemed that the guard's face paled like the moon itself.
'Excuse me, Princess,' he said. He turned to peer at Kane and me, and the others,
'I'd heard that you'd taken up with strange companions.'
'Strange, hmmph,' she said. 'But you're right that they are my com-panions. We've vowed to make the Quest together. Will you let us pass?'
'At this hour? The King would have me flayed if I opened the gates before dawn, even for his own daughter.'
Atara pointed at the sally port set into the iron of the gate. This gate within a gate – little wider than a horse and about thirty hands high -was meant to allow the Trians to sally out to attack besieging soldiers. At the guard' discretion, it could be opened for travelers who might arrive at the city after sunset.
'We would never think to ask you to open the main gate,' Atara said. Then she pointed at the sally port. 'But if the King's knights can pass this way, so can we.'
The guard stood staring at the sally port – and at us. He said, 'This is most irregular.
No one has ever made such a request of me.'
'How long have you stood guard here, then?' Atara asked.
'It's almost a year now,' he said. 'Ever since I ws wounded in Tarlan.'
'And before that – how long have you served the King?'
'Twenty two years,' he said proudly.
'What is your name, then?'
'Lorand, they call me.'
'Well Lorand – do you have a family?'
'Yes, Princess. Five boys and two girls. And my wife. Adalina.'
'You've taken wounds in the King's service,' Atara said, bowing her head, 'My father is a great man, but he is not always able to reward his men as they should be. It can't be easy feeding such a large family on a soldier's pay.'
'No, Princess, it's not.'
'Please allow me, then, to reward your loyalty. The House of Narmada won't forget it.'
So saying, Atara shook a dozen coins out of her purse and handed them to Lorand one by one. The gold worked a magic almost as deep as that of Master Juwain's gelstei: it turned the cranky, bleary-eyed guard into an ally anxious to help us leave the city in the middle of the night. He fairly leaped back into the guard house where he found an iron key with which to open the sally port. A few moments later, he swung open its creaking door, and the road to the Blue Mountains lay before us.
'Thank you;' Atara said. 'Truly, thank you.'
While Fire nickered impatiently, Atara touched Lorand's hand and looked him straight in the eye. Then she said, 'You must have heard what happened at the palace three nights ago. There may be more assassin who would follow us, if they could.'
'But how could they, Princess?' Lorand said smiling at her. 'Since the city's gates won't be opened until morning?'
'Well, there is always the sally port,' Atara said, smiling at him. Then she handed him her purse, and closed his fingers around its heavy weight of gold.
'No – I think opening it once tonight is enough,' Lorand said, returning her smile.
Then he looked down at the purse in his hand and added, 'More than enough. Go quickly now, and don't you worry about assassins.'
And with that, he waved us to pass. We led the horses one by one through the narrow sally port and out onto the road leading away from the walls. The port clanged shut behind us. Then Kane turned to Atara and said, 'That was well done. I couldn't have bribed him better myself.'
In the intense moonlight, Atara's face suddenly fell sad. 'It's the same everywhere.
Even on the Wendrush, men love gold too much.'
'So – gold's gold,' Kane said. 'And men are men.'
'Well, I just hope he stays bribed,' Maram said. 'The Kallimun priests must have gold, too.'
'Surely they do,' Atara said. 'But surely there's something that the guard must love more than gold.'
'Eh, what's that?' Kane asked. The King? The House Narmada?'
'No,' Atara said as her eyes gleamed. 'His honor.'
Liljana, who seemed able to scent out false intentions as she might poison, agreed with Atara that Lorand could be trusted. I decided not to worry. With the world opening out before us into the starry night, I felt wild and free as I hadn't for a long time. The wind off the unseen sea to the north carried the scent of limitless possibilities while the moon in the west called with its great, silvery face. I whistled to Altaru then, and we mounted our horses, forming up as before. And so, for the love of a different kind of gold, we rode toward the hills shining on the horizon.
It was a fine, dear night for travel; the moon was waning only three days past full and seemed as bright as a beacon. The road, though not quite so broad as the Nar Road, was a good one, with paving stones set at a contour to shed the rain and mile markers along our way. It led northwest, along the Bay of Belen where there were many fishing villages and little towns.
These were our first miles on the road together as a whole company and the first true night of the quest. For a long while, we spoke nothing of it. Even so, I felt my friends' excitement crackling like lightning along a rocky crag. The moon fell toward the earth as the white towers of Tria grew ever smaller behind us and we rode deeper into the beautiful night. Although each of us might have his own reasons for seeking the Lightstone, we moved as with one purpose, as if our individual dreams were only part of a greater dream. And this dream – as old as the earth and indestructible as the stars – like a perfect jewel shone the more brightly with every facet with which it was cut.
About an hour before dawn, we stopped to take a little rest. We lay -wrapped in our cloaks atop a grassy knoll overlooking the ocean. The sight of this great, shimmering water thrilled me and loosed inside me deep swells of hope. I fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing against rocks. I dreamed of the Lightstone: it sat on a pinnacle arising from the foamy surf. There, from this still point above the world, it poured out its radiance as from a deep and bottomless source. I wanted to open myself to this flowing light, to drink it in until I was full and vast as the ocean itself. I dreamed that I could hold whole oceans inside me, and more, perhaps even the sufferings and joys of those I loved.
When I awoke, the sun was a red disk glowing above the Poru valley behind us, and the sky was taking on the bright blue tones of morning. I sat on the grass looking out at the sea as I remembered my dream. It came to me that my reasons for wanting to find the Lightstone were changing, even as the days of Soldru grew ever brighter and hotter, and spring turned toward summer. It no longer seemed quite so important to gain renown or prove my courage to my father and brothers and the other knights of Mesh. And impressing King Kiritan and thus winning Atara's hand as my wife was certainly as vain as it was hopeless: even if he someday consented to our marriage, I thought it impossible that Atara would ever kill her hundred enemies and be released from her vows. There remained my deep desire to be healed of the valarda with which I had been born. To wish this only for myself now
