The Lightstone Read online

  'No,' Kane told him. 'I try not to read such books.'

  Kane might as well have told him that he tried not to smell the perfume of flowers or took no joy in the light of the sun. It was one of the few times I had ever seen Master Juwain moved to want to humble an opponent. He looked straight into Kane's unmoving eyes as he said, 'It would seem that you're wrong, wouldn't it?'

  'So it seems,' Kane said. Although his words were agreeable enough, nothing in his tense, large-boned body suggested that he was yielding the point The Duke was used to battles, but not in his own hall. After lifting up his goblet and making a toast to the courage of Telemesh and Kalkamesh, he nodded at Kane. 'I think we're all agreed, at least, that we must oppose Morjin, however we can.'

  'That I will agree to,' Kane said. 'I'll oppose Morjin even if it means seeking the Lightstone myself, and if I find it, letting the Brotherhoods take from it what knowledge they can.'

  It was a noble thing for him to say, and his words warmed Master Juwain's heart.

  But not mine. I found that I could no more trust Kane than I could a tiger who purred softly one moment and then stared at me with hungry eyes the next.

  'As it happens,' he told Master Juwain, 'I've business in Tria myself. If you'll let me, I'll accompfny you there.'

  Master Juwain sat sipping his tea as he slowly nodded his head. I sensed that he relished the opportunity to reopen his arguments with Kane, and he said, 'I would be honored. But the decision is not mine to make alone. What do you think, Brother Maram?'

  Maram, who was busy making eyes with Chaitra, tore his gaze away from this lovely woman and looked at Master Juwain. He was more than a little drunk, and he said,

  'Eh? What do I think? I think that even four is too few to face the dangers ahead that I don't even want to think about. The more the merrier!'

  So saying, he turned back to Duke Rezu's widowed niece and flashed her a winning smile.

  Master Juwain smiled too, in exasperation at the task of taming . Maram. Then he said to me, 'What about you, Val?'

  I turned toward Kane, who was staring at me with his unflinching gaze. It hurt to look at him too long, and so instead I glanced at the dagger that he still held in his large hands. And then I asked, 'What is your business in Tria?'

  'My business is my business,' he growled at me. 'And your business, it would seem, is in reaching Tria without being killed. I'd think that you'd welcome the opportunity to increase your chances.'

  Truly, I would, but did that mean welcoming this stranger to our company? I glanced at the sword sheathed at his side; it looked like a kalama. I tought that we might all welcome its sharp edges in fighting the unknown dangers that Maram was so afraid of. But a sword, as my grandfather used to say, can always cut two ways.

  'We've come this far by ourselves,' I said to Kane. 'Perhaps it would be best if we continued on as we have.'

  'So,' Kane said, 'if Morjin's men hunt you down in the forest of Alonia, you think to make it easy for them, eh?'

  How, I wondered, had Kane sensed that Morjin might be pursuing me? Had Maram, in his drunken murmurings, blurted out clues that Kane had pieced together? Had the story of Raldu nearly murdering me somehow reached this little duchy of Rajak ahead of us? 'There's no reason,' I said, 'for the Lord of Lies to be hunting us.' 'You think not, eh? You're a prince of Mesh - King Shamesh's seventh son. Do you think Morjin needs any more reason than that to kill you?'

  Kane spoke Morjin's name with so much hate that if words were steel, Morjin would now be dead. Watching Kane's neck tendons popping as he ground his teeth together, I couldn't doubt that he was Morjin's bitter enemy. But the enemy of my enemy, as my father liked to say, was not necessarily my friend.

  'My apologies,' I said to him, 'but perhaps you can find other company.'

  'Other company, you say? The outlaws who've taken over the wild lands beyond Anjo? The bears that infest the deeper woods?'

  At the mention of Maram's least favorite beast, my love-stricken friend suddenly broke off his flirtation with Chaitra and said, 'Ah, Val, perhaps we should considering taking this Kane with us. To, ah, protect him from the bears.'

  Kane's black eyes turned toward me to see what I Would say. They were like enormous boulders used to crushing the will out of others.

  'No,' I said, struggling to breathe. 'The bears will leave him alone if he leaves them alone. Surely he has enough woodcraft to avoid them.'

  Both Master Juwain and Maram, while not agreeing with my decision, knew me well enough not to try to dissuade me. Master Juwain smiled at Kane and said, 'I'm sorry, but perhaps we can meet in Tria and continue our discussion about the prophecies.'

  'So,' Kane snarled out. He ignored Master Juwain and continued to stare at me. 'You insist on making this journey alone, eh?'

  'Yes,' I told him, trying not to look away from his blazing eyes.

  'So be it then,' he said with all the finality of a king pronouncing a sentence of death.

  After that, Duke Rezu tried to return our conversation to the legends of the Lightstone. But the mood was broken. As it had grown very late, Yashku excused himself and went off to bed, followed in short order by Helenya, who complained of her aching joints and sleeplessness. Maram, of course, would have stayed there all night flirting with Chaitra if she hadn't suddenly winked at him and announced her need to go finish some undone knitting. As for me, the wound in my side pained me almost as much as the anguish of Kane's wounded soul puzzled me. Who was this man, I wondered, whose eyes looked as if they were forged in some hellish furnace put of black iron fallen down from the stars? From where had he come? To where did he really intend to go? As we all pushed back our chairs and stood up from the table, I thought that I would never know the answers to these questions. For tomorrow, at first light, Master Juwain and Maram would join me in saddling our horses, and we would set out for Tria by ourselves.

  Chapter 10

  As the sun brightened the bluish peaks of the Aakash Range to the east, we gathered in the castle's courtyard. It was a cool, clear day, and the sounds of roosters crowing and horses snorting filled the air. After I had greeted Altaru with a handful of warm bread that I had saved from breakfast, and Master Juwain and Maram had readied their sorrels, Duke Rezu came out into the courtyard to bid us farewell. Kane and Thaman accompanied him. I soon learned that Kane would be putting off his journey to Tria for at least another day - if indeed he really intended to travel in that direction. As for Thaman, our conversation over dinner had persuaded him that it would be useless to pursue his quest in either Ishka or Mesh at this time.

  And so later that morning he would continue on to Adar and then to the barony of Natesh before crossing the Culhadosh River and making his plea to the king of Taron.

  'Farewell, Sar Valashu,' he said to me all stood by Altaru. 'Forgive me if I spoke hastily last night Sometimes I think the Red Dragon has poisoned my soul. But it may be that there is more than one way of fighting him. I wish you well on your quest.'

  'And I wish you well on yours,' I said as we clasped hands. Kane came up to me then, but not to touch hands in friendship. He stood with his arms folded across his chest, all the while eyeing the lines of Altaru's trembling body as well as my war lance couched in the holster at his side. Kane's dark gaze took in the hunting bow and arrows that my pack horse bore and then fell upon the kalama that I always kept close at hand. He nodded once, in seeming approval of these well-tested weapons, and then told me, 'I have no apologies for you, Valashu Elahad. Rain is gladly drunk by parched soil but runs off cold stone. If you've closed your heart to me, so be it.

  But please accept this last piece of advice in the spirit in which it's given. Beware the hill men west of the gap in the mountains. They're very fierce, and they don't like strangers.'

  So saying, he nodded his head toward me, and I returned the gesture. Then Duke Rezu stepped over to my pack horse and patted his bulging saddlebags. He asked,

  'Did my steward take care of your provisions? It's a
long way to Tria from here.'

  'Yes, thank you,' I told him. 'We've as much as we can carry.' 'Very well,' he said.

  He sighed as he pointed toward the castle's north tower. 'You'll find it easy riding from here into Daksh. You say that Duke Gorador is a friend of your father?' 'Yes,' I said. 'He gave him this horse.'

  'Altaru, you call him, yes? Well, he's a magnificent animal - in all of Daksh, I doubt if you'll find another like him, and there are no horses like those the Dakshans ride, I'll give them that. As for Duke Gorador, I'm sure he'll welcome both you and your horse. But after you leave his castle, you should avoid the wild lands to the north.

  There are too many outlaws in those woods, I'm afraid. Instead, skirt around the Aakash Mountains and approach the Nar Road through the west of Jathay. Avoid Sauvo, if you can. There are plots against the King, and you won't want to be caught up in them. And stay well clear of Vishal - the Havosh River is its border. Baron Yashur has been pressing his claims against Count Atanu of Onkar, and they've been at war since last summer. But Yarvanu is safe. You should enter it from the southwest, through Jathay.

  My cousin, Count Rodru, has ruled Yarvanu for twenty-three years now, and he still keeps the bridge over the Santosh open.'

  Having completed this little dissertation of the geography and politics of the broken kingdom of Anjo, Duke Rezu clasped my hand and wished me well. Then he watched me climb onto Altaru's back, which was no mean feat considering that I still had trouble using my left arm. But my right arm was strong enough, and I lifted it to wave goodbye. To Altaru, I whispered, 'All right, my friend - let's see if we.can find this City of Light that everyone talks about.'

  We rode down from the castle to the sound of the wind blowing across the heath. It was a high, fair country that the Duke called home, with mountains lining our way both on the east and west. There were only a few trees scattered across the green hills of Rajak's central valley, and our riding was easy, as the Duke had promised.

  Most of the land near his castle was given over to pasture for the many flocks of sheep basking in the early sun; their thick winter wool was as white and puffy as the clouds floating along the blue sky. But there were farms, too. Patches of emerald green, marked off by lines of stone walls or hedgerows, covered the earth before us like a vast quilt knit of barley and oats and other crops that the Duke's people grew.

  Here and there, a few fields lay fallow casting up colors of umber and gold.

  Despite the pain in my side - which still cut into me like a knife whenever I moved my arm - it was good to be in the saddle again. It was good to smell grass and earth and the thick horse scent of Altaru's surging body. With neither the Ishkans nor any enemy we knew pursuing us, we set a slow pace toward Daksh and the lands that awaited us farther to the north.

  Beautiful country or no, Maram could barely keep lis eyes open to behold it. All that morning, he slumped in his saddle, yawning and sighing. Finally, after we had paused by a little stream to water our horses, Master Juwain took him to task for once again breaking his vows.

  'I heard you get up last night,' Master Juwain told him. 'Did you have trouble sleeping?'

  'Yes, yes, I did,' Maram said as he rode beside me. 'I wanted to take a walk around the walls and look at the stars.'

  ' I see,' Master Juwain said, riding beside him. 'Shooting stars, they were, no doubt.

  The light of the heavenly bodies.'

  'Ah, it's a wonderful world, isn't it?'

  'Wonderful, ye,' Master Juwain admitted to him. 'But you should be careful of these midnight walks of yours. One night you might find yourself plunging off the parapets.'

  Maram smiled at this, and so did I. Then he said, 'I've never been afraid of heights or of falling. To fall in love with a woman is the sweetest of deaths.'

  'As you've fallen for Chaitra?'

  'Have I fallen for Chaitra?' Maram asked as he pulled at his thick brown beard. 'Ah, well, I suppose I have.'

  'But she's a widow,' Master Juwain said. 'And a newly made one at that. Didn't the Duke say that her husband had been killed last month in a skirmish with Adar?'

  'Yes, sir, he did say that.'

  "Don't you think it's cruel, then, to take walks in the starlight with a bereaved woman and then leave her alone the next day?'

  'Cruel? Cruel, you say?' Maram was wide awake now, and he seemed genuinely aggrieved. ' The wind off Arakel in Viradar is cruel. Cats are cruel to mice, and bears

  - such as the one we fought at the Gate - live only to make me suffer. But a man's love for a woman, if it be true, can never be cruel.' 'No,' Master Juwain agreed, 'love can't be.' Maram rode on a few paces, all the while muttering that he was always misunderstood. And then he said,' Please listen to me a moment. I would never think to dispute with you the declensions of the pronouns in Ardik or the declinations of the constellations in Soldru. Or almost anything else.

  But about women .. ah, women. Widows, especially. ' There s only one way to truly console a widow. The Brotherhood teaches us to honor our vows but that compassion is more sacred yet. Well to make a woman sing where previously she has been weeping is the soul of compassion. When I close my eyes and smell the perfume that, clings to my lips, I can hear Chaitra singing still.'

  As I closed my eyes for a moment to listen to the chirping of the sparrows in the fields around us, I could almost hear Maram singing along with them. He seemed truly happy. And I had no doubt that Chaitra was doing the day's knitting with a song on her lips as well.

  Maram's worldly ways obviously vexed Master Juwain, I thought that he might upbraid him in front of me or perhaps lay upon him some harsh punishment. But instead he gave up on instilling in Maram the Brotherhood's virtues - at least for the moment. He sighed as he turned to me and said, 'You young people these days do as you will, don't you?'

  'Are you speaking of Kane?' I asked him.

  'I'm afraid I am,' he said. 'Why did you refuse his company?'

  I looked out at a nearby hill where a young shepherd stood guarding his sheep against marauding wolves; I thought a long time before giving him a truthful answer to his question.

  'There's something about Kane,' I said. 'His face, his eyes - the way he moves the knife in his hands. He ... burns. Raldu's accomplice put a bit of kirax in my blood, and that still burns like fire. But in Kane, there's more than a little bit of hell. He hates so utterly. It's as if he loves hating more than he could ever love a friend. How could anyone trust a man like that?'

  Master Juwain rode next to me, thinking about what I had said. Then he sighed and rubbed the back of his head, which gleamed like a large brown nut in the bright sunlight. He said, 'You know that Kane has Duke Rezu's trust.'

  'Yes, the Duke has need of men with quick swords,' I said. For a moment I listened to the thump of our horses' hooves against the stony soil. 'It's strange, isn't it that this Kane showed up at the Duke's castle at the same time we escaped from the bog.'

  'Perhaps it's just a coincidence,' Master Juwain said.

  'You taught me not to believe in coincidence, sir,' I said to him.

  'What do you believe about Kane, then?'

  'He hates the Lord of Lies, that much seems certain,' I said. 'But why does he hate him so much?'

  'I'm afraid it's only natural to hate that which is pure hate itself 'Perhaps,' I said. 'But what if it's more than that?'

  'What then?'

  ' There's something about Kane,' I said again. 'What if it was he who shot at me in the forest? And then somehow followed me into Anjo?' 'You think that it was Kane who tried to assassinate you?' Master Juwain asked. He seemed genuinely astonished. 'I thought we had established that it was the Lord of Lies who wished you dead. As you've observed, Kane hates him. Why should he then serve him?'

  'That is what's puzzling me, sir. Perhaps the Lord of Lies has made a ghul of him. Or perhaps he has captured Kane's family and threatens them with death or worse.'

  'Now that is a dark thought,' Master Juwain said. 'I'm afraid there'
s something dark about you, Valashu Elahad, to be thinking such thoughts on such a beautiful morning.'

  I was afraid of the same thing, and I lifted up my face to let the bright sun drive away the coldness gnawing at my insides.

  'Well,' Master Juwain continued, 'it's said that ghuls sometimes retain enough of their souls to hate their master. As for your other hypothesis, who knows? The Lord of Lies is certainly capable of doing as you said - and much worse.'

  Master Juwain stopped to let his horse eat some grass. He began pulling at the folds of flesh beneath his chin. Then he said, 'But I don't think either hypothesis accounts for what I've seen of our mysterious Kane.' 'What do you think then, sir?'

  He sat there on his horse on the middle of a gently rising hill, all the while regarding me with his large gray eyes. And then he asked, 'What do you know of the different Brotherhoods, Val?' 'Only what you taught me, sir.' And that, I thought, was not very much. I knew that early in the Age of Law, in a time of rebirth known as the Great Awakening, the Brotherhood had finally come out from behind the Morning Mountains to open schools across all of Ea. The different schools took on different names according to the colors of the gelstei that were to become the soul of that brilliant civilization; each school specialized in pursuing knowledge that related to its particular stone, and eventually became its own Brotherhood. Thus the Blue Brotherhood concerned itself with communications of all sorts, especially languages and dreams, while the Red Brotherhood sought understanding of the secret fire that blazed inside rocks and earth and all things. And so on. While each of the seven new Brotherhoods eventually opened schools of their own across the whole continen, some were much stronger in certain lands: The Silver Brotherhood predominated in far-off Surrapam while the Green Brotherhood came to its fullest flowering in the forest academies of Acadu. For two thousand years, the Brotherhoods had led civilization's rise into a golden age. And then, with the release of Morjin from his prison on the Isle of Damoom and his stealing of the Light stone, had come the fall.