At this, I looked off at the walls of the tent, hoping that no one
was
listening in on our words. 'You shouldn't speak that way of anyone, not even me.'
'No, I shouldn't, should I?' she said. 'But I can't help myself, and never
have
been able to. Most people take too little upon themselves; a few take too much. They look in the mirror and behold a giant, immortal and invincible. I was always afraid of being one of these. I wanted to make everything
perfect.
Or, at least, to see things come out as they should. And that is why, when I look at my fate, and yours, I want to laugh or cry, and sometimes I don't know which.'
'But
why,
then?' said, not fully understanding her.
And she grasped hold of my hand and said, 'Because that is the strange, strange thing about our lives, Val. It might really be upon
us
to save the world.'
She started laughing then, and so did I: deep, belly laughs that shook the whole of my body and brought tears to my eyes. I drew Atara closer, and kissed her lips, her forehead and the white band of cloth covering the empty spaces where her eyes used to be. And I whispered to her ear: 'I will miss you so badly - as the night
does the sun.'
'And I will miss you,' she told me. 'Until I see you again in the darkest of places, where it seems there is no sun - only Valashu, the Morning Star.'
She kissed
me
then, long and deeply, and I didn't think she would have cared if anyone had heard the murmurs of delight and fear within our throats or had seen us sitting with our arms wrapped around each other for what seemed like hours. At last, though, we broke apart. Atara said that she had to go feed her horse and prepare for a long journey. And I must prepare to meet say fate - or make it - when the sun rose on the morrow.
O
n the twenty-first day of Soldru, early on a morning of blue skies and brilliant sunlight, I put on my diamond armor and girded my sword at my side. When I came out of my pavilion, my companions and counselors stood on the crushed grass of our encampment's central lane waiting for me. I nodded at Lord Avijan, tall and grave, and resplendent in his blue surcoat emblazoned with its golden boar. Likewise I greeted Lord Harsha, Lord Sharad, Lord Noldashan and others. Maram also had donned a suit of diamond armor, as had Kane. My invincible friend stood between Atara and Liljana as if ready to ride on a pleasant outing in the countryside - or to go to war. His harsh face radiated anticipation, wrath, joy and his fiery will to crush anyone who opposed him. I had thought that he must spend the next few days or weeks recuperating from his dreadful wound. I should have known better. According to what Liljana later told me, Kane had awakened before dawn calling for a haunch of bloody meat. He had drawn great strength from this savage meal, hour by hour regaining his nearly bottomless vitality. With a new adventure now at hand, he seemed ready to battle any or all of Lord Tomavar's knights on my behalf. 'So, Val,' he said to me with a nod of his head, 'this is the day.' With Sar Shivalad, Sar Jonavar, Sar Kanshar and Joshu Kadar acting as my guardians, I led forth down the lane and into the square. The two thousand warriors and knights who had originally pledged to Lord Avijan stood drawn up in full battle armor along its eastern side. The sun poured down upon their neat, sparkling ranks. So it was with Lord Tanu's men and Lord Tomavar's, at the southern and western edges of the square. Along the northern perimeter, the Lords Ramanu, Bahram and Kharashan had arrayed their smaller forces in three separate groupings, next to a veritable mob of the two thousand free warriors. Into the square's four corners crowded the women, children, old men and a few outlanders who had come to witness the day's events. I reminded myself that they must be evacuated from the field at the first sign of trouble.
I walked straight out to the center of the square with my companions, and so it was with the other lords who would be king. I paid little heed to either Lord Bahram or Lord Ramanu, or even Lord Kharashan, a thick, bullnecked old warrior whose square face showed little guile. Lord Tanu stood to my left with Lord Eldru, Sar Shagarth and the grizzled Lord Ramjay slightly behind him. A small, dark, dangerous-looking man, Lord Tanu's cousin, Lord Manamar, had joined them as well.
Straight across from me waited Lord Tomavar. I had not seen him since the year before at the Culhadosh Commons, and he still looked much the same: very tall, with great broad shoulders and long arms used to swinging a sword. His white surcoat, draped over his heavily-muscled body, showed the black tower of his line. Grief still tormented his long, horsey face, which he positioned facing me square-on as if in challenge. I liked his eyes, for they were deep and quick and shone with a ready courage. My father had valued him greatly as the finest of tacticians and a warrior who inspired his men to fight with a terrible ferocity. And I knew that he had esteemed my father, though it seemed he held only grievance and suspicion toward me.
'Lord Valashu Elahad,' he said, greeting me formally, 'I should like it made known from the beginning of this gathering that you do the warriors great insult in asking them to stand for you again, where they have already stood
against
you.'
His words, carried by his loud, deep, powerful voice, blasted out into the square. His rage and deep anguish stunned me. So did the fury that darkened his black eyes. He took advantage of my silence to try immediately to preempt my bid to become king.
'Lord Tanu!' he called out, turning to his right where Lord Tanu stood with Lord Manamar and his other captains. 'We have marched in many campaigns and fought in many battles together. Your men trust you, even as King Shamesh did, and all those who know you. If I should be struck down here today by a bolt of lightning, is there anyone in Mesh who would make a better king? It is in recognition of your services to our land and your prowess as the greatest of knights that I would like to honor you. Command your warriors to pledge to
me,
and I shall make you Lord Protector of Mesh and Lord Commander of my army!'
Lord Tomavar's captains - Lord Vishand, Sar Jarval and the elegant Lord Arajay Solval - pressed up close behind him as if they could not quite believe what they had just heard. They seemed as surprised as the rest of Lord Tomavar's warriors, drawn up across the square. It seemed that Lord Tomavar's offer to Lord Tanu had been an inspiration of the moment, based upon Lord Tomavar's keen instincts and his reading of Lord Tanu.
'Lord Protector, you say!' Lord Tanu cried out. He tried not to let his amazement show on his tight, sour face. 'And Lord Commander of
all
the army?'
'Second only to myself,' Lord Tomavar told him. 'The command of all the infantry shall be yours.'
As the infantry in our army outnumbered the cavalry by more than ten to one, it was a magnanimous offer.
'Command your warriors to pledge to me,' Lord Tomavar said again, 'and we can bring an end to this conclave, here and now!'
If Lord Tanu did as Lord Tomavar asked, then more than ten thousand of the nearly sixteen thousand warriors gathered around the square would stand for Lord Tomavar, and he would become king.
'Val,' Maram murmured at my shoulder,
'do
something, before it is too late!'
Slightly behind Maram stood Daj, Estrella, Master Juwain, Liljana and Atara. And Kane, who growled out, 'So, it's a
deal
that this Tomavar would make!'
As a tactic, Lord Tomavar's offer to Lord Tanu was bold and brilliant, and I could feel Lord Tanu nearly burning to incline his head to Lord Tomavar. In the moment before he commanded his muscles to move and changed the future forever, I called out to him: 'Lord Tanu - you have promised to release your warriors from their pledges so that they may stand for whom they will!'
Lord Tanu, always a thoughtful man, regarded me deeply as the tension flowed down from his jaws into the rest of his compact body. For the moment, it seemed that he could not speak.
'Lord Tanu,' Lord Ramjay shouted out in his lord's stead, 'has made no such promise! He has said only that he agreed with you that the warriors should be released from their pledges. Well, perhaps they
should
be, if no solution other than war can decide who should be king. But Lord Tomavar has proposed an honor able way out of our troubles.'
I heard murmurs of assent ripple up and down the lines of men behind Lord Tomavar and then pass even to Lord Tanu's warriors, drawn up in their ranks ten deep. And then the fiery Sar Vikan, standing with the others in my escort, cried out: 'You speak of honor, but Lord Tanu has said that the warriors should decide who will be king! By the lake, Lord Ramjay! In front of you and many who are gathered here, Lord Tanu said this thing!'
'He
did
say it,' Lord Ramjay agreed. 'And it
shall
be the warriors who will choose our king. They have given their pledges of their own free will, and if Lord Tanu then asks them to stand for Lord Tomavar, that, in the end, is nothing but their will, and is the very essence of honor.'
For a while, various knights and lords gathered in the square bandied words back and forth. And all the while Lord Tanu stared at me as I did him. I felt my heart pushing my blood through my veins up into my hot, hurting face. I felt Lord Tanu's blood rushing through him, too. I did not want to think that Lord Tanu would equivocate and try to take Lord Ramjay's ignoble way out of his promise to me. In the end, as my father had said, either one believed in men, or not.
'Lord Tomavar!' Lord Tanu finally said, turning to this great lord. 'Your proposal is fitting, fair and indeed generous.'
He paused to take in a breath of air as he looked up at the grin-ning Lord Tomavar. Lord Tanu's face seemed to sour even more, if that were possible. Then he continued, 'But it comes too late -I have indeed given my word to Lord Elahad that the warriors should be free choose our king.'
'You
have
promised that,' Lord Eldru said, glaring at Lord Ramjay.
'And the warriors should choose
you
as king!' Sar Shagarth said.
'Lord Tanu for king!' a hundred warriors standing behind Lord Tanu cried out all at once. 'Lord Vishathar Tanu for king!'
Lord Manamar Tanu, the father of Lord Tomavar's abducted wife, cast Lord Tomavar a dark, angry look, and muttered, 'Why should we, in any case, negotiate with a man who won't even return a brooch to its rightful owner?'
As a strategy, Lord Tomavar's offer to Lord Tanu had been a poor one and had ultimately failed. It antagonized not only me and the men whom I led, but many of Lord Tanu's followers as well. And worse, Lord Tomavar had betrayed his essential weak-ness: he sought Mesh's kingship with such desperation that he was willing to stoop to bargaining liike a merchant rather than relying on sound arguments and force of character to win the warriors.
'All right then!' Lord Tomavar shouted. 'Do you think
I
have any cause to fear the judgment of the warriors? Let it be as you have said! Let them stand for a king, here and now!'
Lord Tanu positioned himself like a ram before a furious bull. Even as Lord Tomavar's face grew darker, hotter and angrier, Lord Tanu stared at him stubbornly as if he had ice in his veins.
'We all can agree to that,' Lord Tanu called out to Lord Tomavar. 'Release your men from their pledges, that they can stand for whom they will!'
But Lord Tomavar only shook his long, heavy head at this. 'My men gave their pledges of their own will, and so they have already chosen who should be king.'
'Yes, they chose - but in different circumstances. The times have changed.'
'The times are as they have always been! And they demand a king, tested in many battles, loved and trusted, who can
lead
his warriors. To glory and victory!'
As he said this, his warriors behind him let loose a great cheer - though it seemed not so great as Lord Tomavar might have wished.
'We cannot,' Lord Tanu said, 'allow a king to be chosen this way, with two fifths of the warriors pledged to you, and everyone else standing free.'
Lord Tomavar turned to glare at me then. And he shouted, 'I
won't
allow my warriors to stand for
this
one! They call Morjin the Lord of Lies, but Valashu Elahad deceives men into following him!'
A dark fire leaped in Kane's eyes at this, and my fearsome friend stepped forward as he grasped the hilt of his sword. And he snarled at Lord Tomavar: 'Say it to my face, Gorvan Tomavar, that I am a man who has been
deceived
!'
In horror of what might soon occur, both Master Juwain and Maram grasped one of Kane's arms and eased him backward. Lord Tomavar tried to ignore the furious Kane. He continued staring down his long nose at me.
'I
won't
let my men stand for the Elahad,' he reaffirmed. 'Not
this
Elahad.'
He whipped about to look at Manamar Tanu and bellowed: 'And I
won't
return the brooch! It belongs to Vareva, and my beloved wife is not dead!'
'The Red Dragon,' Lord Manamar said in a venomous voice, 'took my daughter more than a year ago, and so we must assume that she
is
dead - or worse. Return the brooch. Lord Tomavar!'
'You ask me to send diamonds to
you,'
Lord Tomavar snapped, 'when you command your smithies to cease shipments of diamond armor to
us?'
'It is not the same thing - return the brooch!'
'You may have it,' Lord Tomavar said, grasping the hilt of his sword, 'when you pry it from my dead fingers!'
'I should like nothing better!' the small deadly Lord Manamar said. His hand, too, locked onto his sword. 'Tell me you are willing, and we shall settle this matter here!'
Now it was Lord Tanu's turn to cool things down. He grasped Lord Manamar's arm and pulled his bellicose cousin a few paces back from Lord Tomavar. It might have been thought that Lord Tanu would want Lord Manamar to put his sword through Lord Tomavar's neck, and so remove at least one contender to the throne. And Lord Tanu
might
have wanted this. But the most likely outcome of a duel between the two lords would see a flash of angry swords and Lord Manamar's head rolling bloody across the grass.