Despite the reasonableness of the man's voice, some of King Hadaru's arrogance and demanding ways shaded the words of his emissary. A murmur of discontent rumbled from the warriors and knights in the hall. Almost all of them had stood upon the field of the Raaswash when the delicate peace between Ishka and Mesh had been made. They must have recalled, as I did, how King Hadaru's eldest son, Salmelu, had been exposed there as a betrayer of all the Valari and had been driven off forever from the Nine Kingdoms. If Prince Issur, however, suffered from the shame of his brother's treason, he gave no sign of it.
Finally, my father nodded at Prince Issur and said, 'The Lightstone shall be brought into Ishka, and the other kingdoms, soon.'
'Soon,' Prince Issur repeated as if the word had a sour taste. 'Do you mean within a month, King Shamesh? Another half a year? Or might "soon" mean another century or even an age lasting three
thousand
years?'
Once, at the end of the Age of Swords, the great Aramesh had wrested the Lightstone from Morjin and had brought it back to this very castle, where my ancestors had kept it all during the long Age of Law.
'Soon means soon,' my father said to Prince Issur with a soft smile 'Arrangements are being made for that which you desire. May a little more patience be asked of King Hadaru?'
My father, I thought, was a wise man and deep. He knew very well as did I, that the Ishkans had come to Mesh seeking to set a date for the Lightstone to be brought to King Hadaru's palace in Loviisa. He knew, too, that the Ishkans expected to be put off with all the forcefulness for which my father was famed. Thus his gentle manner disarmed Prince Issur.
'Perhaps a
little
more patience, then,' Prince Issur said, flushing from the intensity of my father's gaze. 'Shall we say before autumn's first snow?'
'Autumn is less than half a year away,' my father said. 'With the Red Dragon on the march again and kingdoms going up in flames it will come soon enough - all too soon.'
He motioned for Prince Issurg take his seat; despite himself, Prince Issur did so. Although he must have been aware that my father had made no real commitment, he would take back to Ishka the impression that my father defied the same thing as did King Hadaru. And, truly, my father did. The duties of kingship might demand that he remain flexible in his strategies, but he would never stoop to deception or outright lies.
Even so, I knew that he hated having to make such oblique responses, that it went against his honest nature. He turned toward me then, and flashed me a quick look as if to say, 'Do you think it is hard being King? What must it be like, then, to be the Maitreya?'
As I sat pondering this mystery, I became aware of the many people covertly watching me, as they had all through the feast. I felt as well a smoldering malevolence directed at me; it stirred me to memory of another night just before the quest when Prince Issur's brother, Salmelu, had sat with the Ishkans silently beating me to death with his hateful heart. I hadn't known then that he had gone over to Morjin, that
he
was the assassin who had fired a kirax-tipped arrow at me in a dark wood. Despite the sensitivity of my gift, I hadn't been able to determine which of the hundreds of faces concealed the wish to make me dead.
My father's eyes now fell upon the Alonian table, and he called out, 'Count Dario - will you speak for Alonia?'
Count Dario, a small, dapper man, stood up quickly as his fingers smoothed the red hairs of his moustache and goatee. Then he bowed his head to my father. 'King Shamesh, you have sent emissaries to all the Free Kingdoms to call for a conclave here in Silvassu that we might make alliance to oppose Morjin. But King Kiritan bids me to inform you that this cannot be. The conclave must be held in Tria. King kiritan has sent word to each of the Free Kingdoms that the conclave will commence on the twenty-eighth of Marud. What do you say to this?' I felt anger surge through my father's chest as he said, 'That your king must have a great grievance against me that he would insult me so.'
Lord Harsha and Lord Tanu - and many others across the hall -angrily nodded their heads in support of my father's outrage.
Count Dario now shot me a quick, sharp look. Then he stabbed his short finger toward the Lightstone as he turned back to my father and said, 'Last year, on the seventh of Soldru in Tria, on the night that King Kiritan called the Quest, all the knights who would recover the Lightstone vowed to seek it for all of Ea and not themselves. The Cup of Heaven was to be brought into Tria, from where the questers went forth. King Kiritan would ask King Shamesh why this has not been done?'
While Count Dario awaited my father's answer, Maram suddenly arose and wobbled on his beer-weakened legs. He was drunk enough to forget all protocol - but not so drunk that he was willing to let Count Dario's words stand unchallenged.
'King Shamesh!' he called out, 'may I speak?' Without waiting for permission, he turned toward Count Dario and continued, '
I
stood with the knights who made vows at your king's birthday party; I stood with Master Juwain Zadoran and Lord Valashu Elahad, who are here this night. I remember vowing that our quest to find the Lightstone would not end unless illness, wounds or death struck us down first. Well, illness of the soul anyone will suffer if they go into Argattha. Of wounds we had many, and death struck down the fairest of us in the Kul Moroth. Even so, our quest didn't end, as all can see. We
did
vow to seek the Lightstone for all of Ea. But we never said that we would deliver it to King Kiritan, who remained safe behind his kingdom's walls.' Maram, puffing and sweating from his little speech, suddenly dropped back into his chair. I thought that he was rather pleased that he had slurred only a few of his words.
Count Dario seemed to be fighting back a smile as he bowed his head toward Maram. 'All the questers must be honored, especially those who went into Argattha and returned. I would not presume to gainsay Prince Maram. But I must strongly declare that it was under-stood the Lightstone was to be brought to Tria. This was the spirit of the questers' vows.'
From the dais above our table, where the thirty Guardians stood glaring at Count Dario, the Lightstone's radiance poured down upon my father s black and silver hair. He calmly regarded Count Dario and there was steel in his voice as he said, 'Surely those who made vows are best able to interpret their spirit. Even so, we are all agreed that the Lightstone is for all of Ea, even as you have heard. Soon it wil brought to Ishka - soon.'
'Then are we also agreed that it will be brought to Tria soon after?'
'That may be.'
'King Kiritan would ask you to agree that the Lightstone should be kept in Tria, where it will be safest.'
My father's face was grave as he said, 'Where is safety to be found in this world? Wasn't it only last year, at King Kiritan's birthday celebration, that one of his own barons nearly assassinated him?'
'Baron Narcavage, as you must know,' Count Dario said, glancing at the priests at table next to him, 'had gone over to Morjin. The plot was crushed - you can be sure that my king's other nobles remain loyal to him.'
'That is good. There's little enough of surety in this world, either.'
Count Dario's cool blue eyes tried to hold the brilliance of my father's gaze as he said, 'Come, King Shamesh, what do you say as to my king's request?'
'That it is not mine, alone, to grant.'
'No? Whose is it, then?'
My father shifted about in his chair to regard the Lightstone for a long few moments. He bowed his head to the Guardians who protected it. Then he turned back to Count Dario. 'You speak of a permanent residence for that which was meant to reside in one place, and one place only.'
'In this hall, do you mean?' Count Dario stood bristling with insult while Prince Issur seemed ready to leap out of his chair to speak again.
And then my father said, 'The Lightstone was meant to reside in the hands of the Maitreya. Only he can decide its home - and its fate.' Count Dario's face brightened as if he had been given the keenest of weapons to wield. 'You will be glad to know then that it is almost certain that the Maitreya has been found: in a village near Adavam. His name is Joakim.'
'Is this the blacksmith of which we have heard?'
'Yes - but he has been taken to Tria to prepare for a higher calling.'
Count Dario went on to say that Joakim now resided at the King's palace where Ea's greatest scholars, healers and alchemists were refining his talents and preparing him to take his place in history. Here Master Juwain stood clutching the much-worn traveling volume of the
Saganom Elu
that he always carried. He called out, 'King Shamesh may I speak?'
'Please do, Master Juwain.'
After flipping through the pages of his book, Master Juwain called out even more strongly as he read a passage from
Beginnings:
'"Grace cannot be gained like diamonds or gold. By the hand of the One, and not the knowledge of men, the Maitreya is made."' He closed his book and held it out toward Count Dario as if challenging him to read it too.
'Those are curious words for a master of the Brotherhood to give us,' Count Dario said. 'Who reveres knowledge more than Master Juwain?'
'Perhaps one who knows the limits of knowledge.'
'Excuse me, but doesn't the Brotherhood teach that men must use all possible knowledge to perfect themselves? That, ultimately, it is their destiny to gain the glory of the Elijin and the Galadin?'
Just then Flick appeared in the space near my head and soared out into the hall in a spiral of silver lights. He swept past the table of the Red Priests, who appeared not to see him. It was strange, I thought, that perhaps only one person out of ten was able to apprehend his fiery form.
'What you say is true,' Master Juwain told Count Dario. 'But I'm afraid that one cannot become the Maitreya this way.'
'Do you deny then the wisdom of King Kiritan's decision to instruct the blacksmith's boy?'
'No - only that he wasn't brought to the Brotherhood to be taught.'
It was plain that Count Dario and Master Juwain might continue such an argument for hours. And so my father finally held up his hand for silence. He regarded Count Dario and said, 'If King Kiritan truly believes this Joakim to be the Maitreya, then why wasn't he brought here with you, that he might stand before the Lightstone? That we all might see if he can hold its radiance and give it back to us, in his eyes, hands and heart?'
Count Dario gazed up at the golden bowl upon its stand. Then he looked at my father and said, 'You have your treasure, King Shamesh, and we Alonians have ours, which we must keep safe behind Tria's walls.'
He went on to tell of the great passions that Joakim had aroused throughout his land. Many of Alonia's greatest barons, he said, were demanding of King Kiritan that the Lightstone be delivered into Joakim's hands. He hinted that they were actually calling for a war to liberate the golden cup from Mesh. Only King Kiritan stood between them and what would be the greatest of tragedies If Count Dario could be believed, King Kiritan was a noble figure trying to control his bellicose barons for the sake of Mesh - and all of Ea.
After he had finished speaking, my father stared at him as he said. 'You must thank your king for his forbearance on our behalf.'
'That I shall do, but it is not your thanks he requires.'
As my father's stare grew cold and clear as diamonds in deep winter, Count Dario pulled at his goatee and said, 'King Kiritan knows what a sacrifice it would be to send the Lightstone to a distant land. Therefore he offers a gift, a very great gift, in return.'
Here he turned toward me and said, 'On the night the Quest was called, almost every noble in Alonia heard Lord Valashu Elahad ask for Princess Atara's hand in marriage. If the Lightstone it brought to Tria, King Kiritan would bless this marriage. And our two kingdoms might unite in strength against Morjin.'
A thrill of excitement shot through me as if I had been struck by a lightning bolt. Count Dario had spoken of King Kiritan's approval of the one thing I most desired. King Kiritan, who had once denigrated Mesh as a savage little kingdom and me as a ragged adventurer, must have thought that he was granting both the greatest of boons.
I stood up then, and to Count Dario I said, 'King Kiritan's generosity is famous, but even he cannot give away Atara's heart.'
It was the greatest torment I had ever known that Atara could not look at me in love - and would never consent to marry me so long as she couldn't.
'If my king can rule the greatest of Ea's kingdoms,' Count Dario said to me, 'then surely he can rule his own daughter.'
As I recalled the deep and lovely light that had once filled Atara's eyes before Morjin had torn them out, a terrible pain lanced through my head. I gasped out, 'Can one rule starfire?'
'You
ask that, Lord Valashu? You, whom it's said would be Lord of Light itself?'
And with this rebuke he sat back down in his chair. So did I. Many people were looking at me. As before, I felt the red-hot nails of someone's hate pounding through me. It was not Count Dario, however, who drove this deadly emotion into me. I was as sure of this as I was the direction of my mother's loving gaze of the compassion in my fathers eyes. For my gift of valarda had quickened since the gaining of the Lightstone, and it flared stronger in its presence as I sat looking out at the hundreds of men and women in the hall, my heart beat most quickly when I turned toward the table next to that of the Alonians. There sat the seven Red Priests of the Kallimun. I could not make out any of their faces, for they sat with their heads hung low and their yellow cowls concealing them. I dreaded discov-ering that one of them might have been among the priests who had tortured Master Juwain - and Atara - in Argattha.
My father nodded at Count Dario, and said, 'You must thank King Kiritan for the offer of his daughter in marriage. It must be difficult to trade so great a treasure for a little gold bowl.'