The Lightstone Read online

  Thaman's voice suddenly died into the silence of the room. Although he kept his face as cold as stone and stared dry-eyed at the notched edge of his sword, I felt tears burning to break out from my own eyes at the great sorrow he held inside. An image of fish-scaled Hesperuk warriors ravaging the misty lands of far-off Surrapam came into my mind then. But I shook my head back and forth, trying not to let it take hold.

  Duke Rezu refilled Thaman's goblet; bitterness or no, he drank the black beer almost in one gulp. Then he said, 'You speak of having enemies all around you. But for the peoples of Ea, there is only one true enemy, and his name is Morjin.'

  At the sound of this name, I felt the arrow again bite into my side and the kirax burning in my blood* I turned to see Kane staring at Thaman with an even greater intensity than that with which he had attacked his meat.

  'The Red Dragon's armies,' Thaman said, 'will soon control the entire south of Ea except for the Crescent Mountains and parts of the Red Desert.'

  Now Kane's eyes, like black coals, began to burn with the heat of a hatred I couldn't comprehend.

  'My king,' Thaman said, looking at Duke Rezu and then me, 'King Kaiman, has sent me to your land because it's said that the Valari are the greatest warriors in Ea. He hopes that you'll attack Sakai from the east before the Red Dragon swallows up what is left of Surrapam - and perhaps Eanna and Yarkona as well.'

  I felt the sudden pressure of Maram's fat hand squeezing my leg beneath the table.

  Then he licked his lips as he winked at me. This was the very plan that he had proposed in Lord Harsha's field just before Raldu had almost murdered me.

  Duke Rezu, who knew his history as well as anyone in Mesh, said to Thaman, 'Once we Valari fought our way across the Wendrush to attack the Red Dragon. He burned our warriors with firestones and crucified the survivors.'

  At this, Thaman rapped his gold wedding ring against his sword. The thick steel blade rang out like a bell as he said, 'Someday, and sooner than you think, the Red Dragon will do worse than that to all your people.'

  Duke Rezu shook his head sadly. 'This is not the time for the Valari to fight the Red Dragon together.'

  'What would it take, then, to unite you?' 'I'm afraid,' the Duke said, 'that nothing less than an invasion of the tribes of the northern Sarni would unite Anjo. And to unite all the Valari kingdoms? Who can say? Only Aramesh was ever able to accomplish that, and we'll never see his like again.'

  Despite myself, a thrill of pride swelled inside me. Aramesh was the great-grandfather of my grandfathers, and his blood still ran through my veins.

  At that moment, I felt something like a dagger cutting into my forehead. I turned to see Kane staring at me, and his eyes were as hard and sharp as obsidian knives.

  'It doesn't always take the united armies of the Valari to oppose Morjin,' he growled out. He nodded at Yashku and asked him, 'Do you know the Song of Kalkamesh and Telemesh?'

  'Yes, I do,' Yashku said.

  'So - sing it for us, then.'

  It was unseemly for Kane to command Duke Rezu's minstrel, and so Yashku looked at the Duke to gain his assent. Duke Rezu slowly nodded his head and told him, 'We could use a song to hearten us tonight. But let's fill our goblets before you begin - if I remember correctly, it's a very long song.'

  We began passing the big, brown jugs full of beer as I stared at the candles throwing up their bright flames. The Duke's grooms came out of the kitchen to remove the dishes, and the rattle of silverware and plates seemed very loud against the sudden quiet. Then Yashku, a wizened man with worn teeth, began pulling at his long, white hair and whispering to himself. His dark eyes danced with the candles' lights as he called to mind the key mnemonics that would help him remember the many verses of this epic poem.

  The first part of it, which he sang out in a strong, mellow voice, told of the great crusade to liberate the Lightstone from Morjin at the end of the Age of Law. I listened to this history that I knew too well. Yashku sang of the alliance between Mesh, Ishka, Anjo and Kaash, and how these four kingdoms had sent armies across the Gray Prairies to join the Alonian army in assaulting Morjin's fortress of Argattha.

  He recounted the heroics and evil deeds of the Battle of Tarshid. There, against the Law of the One, King Dumakan of Alonia had used a red gelstei against Morjin's armies. But Morjin used the Lightstone to turn the firestones against the Alliance.

  Some of the firestones had exploded, destroying much of the Alonian army. Morjin had then turned his own firestones on the Valan armies, almost completely annihilating them. The survivors he had crucified along the road leading to Argattha.

  Then he and his priests had drunk the blood of their pierced hands in a great victory rite which heralded the coming of the Age of the Dragon. Yashku's words cut like swords into my heart:

  A thousand men were bound in chains

  Along the road where terror reigns,

  And one by one were laid on wood

  Where once Valari knights had stood.

  In breaking of their flesh and bones,

  Priests took up hammers hard as stones,

  And iron spikes they drove through flesh,

  And thus they killed the men of Mesh.

  Their life poured out and reddened mud;

  The Dragon's priests - they caught the blood

  In clutching hands and golden bowls,

  Then made a toast and drank their souls.

  Here Yashku paused to take a sip of beer. Then he began singing about the courage of two men some eighty years after this terrible event. The first of these was Sartan Odinan, Morjin's infamous priest who had burnt the city of Suma to the ground with a firestone. But, in soul-searing remorse for this great crime, he had finally found his humanity and turned against Morjin. And so he made an alliance with a mysterious man named Kalkamesh - who was said to be the very same Kalkamesh who had fought beside Aramesh at the Battle of Sarburn thousands of years before. Vowing to regain the Lightstone by stealth where great armies had failed to take it by force, they had entered Argattha in secret Sartan had led Kalkamesh through dark passageways that wound like worms through the underground city. After many perilous encounters, they had finally found the Lightstone locked away in one of Morjin's deepest dungeons at the very center of the city. Kalkamesh had managed to open the dungeon's iron door, but just as he was about to take the Lightstone in his hands, they were discovered.

  What happened then in Argattha three millennia before, as told by Yashku, brought a gleam to everyone's eyes. While Kalkamesh had turned to fight Morjin's guards with a rare and terrible fury, Sartan had made his escape with the Lightstone. He had fled Argattha with the golden cup into the snowy wastes of Sakai where he and it had vanished from history.

  'Very good,' Kane growled out as Yashku again paused to wet his throat. His eyes were as black and bottomless as I supposed the tunnels of Argattha to be. 'And now for Kalkamesh and Telemesh.'

  The many verses of the poem, to this point had been only a sort of preamble to the poet's true subject. This was the incredible valor of Kalkamesh and Telemesh. As we settled back in our chairs and sipped our beer, Yashku told of how Morjin had captured and tortured Kalkamesh. Believing that Kalkamesh must have known where Sartan intended to take the Lightstone, he had ordered Kalkamesh crucified to the mountain out of which was carved the city of Argattha. He had questioned him day and night, but Kalkamesh had only spat into his face. There, bolted naked to the side of the mountain, he endured every morning the rising of the blistering sun. And every morning as the sun's first rays touched Kalkamesh's writhing body, Morjin had arrived personally to cut open his belly with a stone knife and tear out his liver. He then used a green gelstei to aid this immortal man's already astonishing regenerative powers, and each night Kalkamesh's liver had grown back. It had been the beginning of the Long Torture that would last ten years.

  But Morjin was never been able to break Kalkamesh. The story of his suffering and courage spread into every land of Ea. High in the Morn
ing Mountains, the young Telashu Elahad, who would one day ascend the Swan Throne to become King Telemesh, heard of Kalkamesh's torment and vowed to end his misery. He had set out on his quest and crossed the Wendrush all alone. And then, on a night of lightning and storm, he had climbed Mount Skartaru in the dark to free Kalkamesh from his terrible fate. Yashku's words now rang out like silver bells deep in my soul: The lightning flashed, struck stone, burned white –

  The prince looked up into the light;.

  Upon Skartaru nailed to stone

  He saw the warrior all alone.

  Through rain and hail he climbed the wall

  Still wet with bile, blood and gall.

  Where dread and dark devour light,

  He climbed alone into the night.

  And there beneath the blackened sky,

  He met the warrior eye to eye,

  The ancient warrior, hard as stone -

  He raised his sword and cut through bone.

  The lightning flashed, struck stone, burned red, And still the warrior wasn't dead.

  Where eagles perch and princes walk,

  He left his hands upon the rock.

  And down and down they climbed as one

  To beat the rising of the sun.

  Through rain and ice and wind that wailed,

  With strength and nerve that never failed.

  They came into a healing place

  Beneath Skartaru's bitter face.

  And there, the One, the sacred spark,

  Where love and light undo the dark.

  The lightning flashed, struck stone, burned clear.

  The prince beheld through rain and tear

  The hands that held the golden bowl,

  The warrior's hands again were whole.

  'Very good,' Kane growled out after Yashku had finished reciting the poem. 'You sing well, minstrel. Very well indeed.'

  Kane sat sipping his dark beer, which he had asked Duke Rezu's grooms to serve him hot like coffee. He was a hard man to read and an even harder one to look at.

  There was a heart-piercing poignancy beneath the brilliance of his black eyes, and he might have been considered too beautiful but for the harsh, vertical lines of a perpetual scowl that scarred his face. A server, it is said, with the aid of a crystal sphere can look into the future. There was something about him ageless and anguished as if he could look far into the past and recall all its hurts as his own. I wondered if he, like Thaman, had lost his family to the depredations of the Red Dragon. How else to explain the volcanic love and hate that threatened to erupt from him at every mention of Morjin's name?

  'So,' he said, 'Kalkamesh and Telemesh - Sartan, too - defied Morjin. And shook the world, eh? I think it's shaking still.'

  We all agreed that this was so, and we thanked Yashku for singing us the poem.

  Then Maram turned to Master Juwain and asked, 'What befell Kalkamesh after Argattha?'

  'It's said that he perished in the War of the Stones.'

  Thaman turned to Kane and regarded him coolly. 'And what of Sartan Odinan? He might have spirited away the Lightstone, but to where? The Song doesn't say.'

  'No,' Kane agreed, 'it doesn't.'

  'Surely, then, Sartan must have perished himself trying to make his escape. Surely the Lightstone must lie with his bones somewhere buried in the snows of Sakai or in the sands of the Red Desert.'

  'No,' Kane said, shaking his large head. 'If Sartan was strong and cunning enough to enter Argattha, then surely he must have been resourceful enough make his escape unharmed.'

  'Then why,' Thaman asked, 'do none of the epics tell of this?'

  At this, Kane fell silent as he took a draw of his hot beer. And then Master Juwain interjected, 'But, of course, some of the epics do.'

  We all turned to regard him with surprise. It was the first time on our journey from Silvassu that he had spoken of the Lightstone's fate.

  'There is the Song of Madhar,' he said. 'And the Lay of Alanu. The first tells of how Sartan brought the Lightstone to the islands of the Elyssu and founded the Kingdom of Light early in the Age of the Dragon. The second tells that he hid the Lightstone in a castle high in the Crescent Mountains and studied its secrets. It's said that Sartan, too, gained immortality, and used the Lightstone to create an order of secret Masters who have journeyed across Ea for thousands of years opposing the Lord of Lies.

  And there are other legends, almost too many to mention.'

  'Then why aren't these songs sung in Surrapam?' Thaman asked. He looked around the table at the curiosity on all our faces. 'Why aren't these legends told?'

  Master Juwain rubbed the back of his bald head with his knotty hand. Despite his ugliness, he had a glowing presence that commanded respect. Maram, especially, regarded him proudly.

  'Do you read ancient Ardik?' he asked Thaman. 'Do any of your countrymen?'

  'No - we've no time for such indulgences anymore.'

  'No,' Master Juwain agreed, 'it's been over three hundred years since your King Donatan closed the last of the Brotherhood schools in the west, hasn't it?'

  Thaman took a gulp of beer and then grimaced in shame. He obviously didn't like it that Master Juwain knew so much about his country. I smiled proudly along with Maram because Master Juwain knew more about almost everything than anyone I had ever met.

  'I read ancient Ardik,' Duke Rezu suddenly announced to everyone's surprise. 'And I've never heard of these legends, either.'

  It was a victory for ignorance, I thought, that some of the Valari king-doms had stopped sending their sons and daughters to the Brotherhood schools. But Anjo, at least, for all its troubles was not one of these.

  'If you'd like,' Master Juwain told the Duke, 'later I'll show-you a couple of books of the Lightstone legends that I've brought with me.'

  'Yes, thank you,' Duke Rezu said, 'I'd like that very much.'

  'Books, legends,' Thaman spat out. 'It's not words we need now but men with strong arms and sharp swords.'

  Master Juwain's bushy eyebrows suddenly narrowed as he pointed his gnarly finger at my side. He said, 'Strong arms and swords we have in abundance here in the Morning Mountains. But without the knowledge of how to use them, they're worse than useless.'

  'Use them against Morjin, then.'

  'The Lord of Lies,' Master Juwain said, 'will never be defeated by the force of arms alone.'

  'Then you think to defeat him by finding this golden cup that your legends tell of?'

  'Does knowledge defeat ignorance? Does truth defeat a lie?'

  'But not all the legends in your book can be true,' Thaman said.

  'No,' Master Juwain agreed, 'but one of them might be. The trick is in discovering the right one.'

  'But what if the Lightstone has been destroyed?'

  'The Lightstone,' Master Juwain said, 'was wrought of gold gelstei by the Star People themselves. It can't be destroyed.'

  'Well, then, what if it's lost forever?'

  'But how can we know that?' Master Juwain asked. 'We can only say that it is lost forever if we stop seeking it and declare that it is forever lost.'

  At this fencing of words, Thaman finally gave up and returned to his beer. He took a long drink of it and then asked, 'What do you think, Sar Kane?'

  'Just Kane, please,' Kane said gruffly. 'I'm no knight'

  'Well,' Thaman asked him, 'will the Lightstone ever be found?'

  Kane's eyes flashed just then, and I was reminded of lightning bolts lighting up the sky on a hot summer night. 'The Lightstone must be found,' he said. 'Or else the Red Dragon will never be defeated.'

  'But defeated how?' Thaman asked, pressing him. 'Through knowledge or through the sword?'

  'Knowledge is dangerous,' Kane said with a grim smile. 'Swords are, too. Who has the wisdom to use either, eh?'

  'There's still wisdom in the world,' Master Juwain said stubbornly. 'There's still knowledge aplenty for those who open their minds to it.'

  'Dangerous, I say,' Kane repeated, looking at Master Juwai
n. 'Long ago, Morjin opened his mind to the knowledge bestowed by the Lightstone, and he gained immortality, so it's said. So - who on Ea has benefited from this precious knowledge?'

  As Duke Rezu's grooms arrived to bring out fresh pitchers of beer, Master Juwain sipped from the cup of tea that he had ordered. He regarded Kane with his large, gray eyes, obviously considering how to respond to his arguments.

  'The Lord of Lies is the Lord of Lies,' he finally said. 'If he's truly the same tyrant who crucified Kalkamesh so long ago, then he makes a mockery of the immortality that is the province of the Elijin and Galadin.'

  At this mention of the names of the angelic orders. Kane's eyes grew as empty as black space. I felt myself falling into them; it was like falling into a bottomless black pit.

  'So,' Kane finally said, pinning Master Juwain with the daggers of his eyes, 'it's knowledge of the angels that you ultimately seek, isn't it?'

  'Isn't that what the One created us to seek?'

  'How would I know about that, damn it!' Kane growled out.

  His vehemence startled all of us, and Master Juwain's voice softened as he said,

  'Knowledge is power. The power to be more than animals or men of the sword. And the power to do great good in the world.'

  'So you say,' Kane told him. 'Is that why you seek the Lightstone?'

  Master Juwain forced a smile to his lips and looked at Kane with all the kindness he could muster. 'It's said that the Lightstone will bring infinite knowledge to him who drinks its golden light.'

  'Is it really?' Kane said, showing his long white teeth in another grim smile. 'Isn't the true prophecy that the Lightstone will bring knowledge of the infinite?'

  For a moment, I thought that the puzzled look on Master Juwain's face indicated that he had misremembered this particular bit of knowledge. Then, with a slow and measured motion, he removed a small copy of the Saganom Elu from the pocket of his robe and began thumbing through its dog-eared pages.

  'Aha!' he finally said. From his other pocket, he had produced a magnifying glass, which he held over the pages of the opened book. 'The lines are here, in the seventy-seventh of the Trian Prophecies. And also, in the Visions, chapter five, verse forty-five. And if my memory serves, we'll find it written as well in the Book of Stars. Would you like to see?'