Lord Tomavar, with a great show of restraint, relaxed his hand from the hilt of his sword. He stood proud and too obviously pleased with himself, and he strode back and forth before his warriors in their gleaming ranks as he called out to them: 'Do you see? Do you see the madness that Valashu Elahad has brought upon our land?'
He turned to pace toward Lord Tanu's warriors as he continued his tirade: 'A brooch, your Lord Manamar wishes returned to him. My wife I
demand
be returned to me! How did it come to be that the Red Dragon stole the most beautiful woman in the world from me? How is it that many of you have lost brothers, sons and fathers in battle? And seen your daughters and wives slaughtered in the sack of the Elahad castle? It is because Valashu Elahad called down the Red Dragon upon Mesh! As he now calls down discord upon this field! Is this the man you would stand for as king?'
I knew that I must make a riposte to this, and soon. But Liljana was quicker with words than I. She had spent a whole lifetime manipulating men in service of her secret purpose. I sensed her will to provoke Lord Tomavar into talking himself into a trap.
'And what would you do, mighty Lord,' she said to him in a voice as sharp and precise as an acupuncturist's needles, 'to see Mesh restored and your wife returned to your arms again?'
Her calculated ridicule drove him to a fury. And he bellowed out: 'I would make Mesh strong, and lead her against our enemies! The Waashians we could defeat without too great a loss. And then, if need be, the Ishkans. And so we would gain great glory! And so the Valari would
have
to follow us, to the war against Morjin. We
shall
have our revenge! We shall storm the Black Mountain again, and this time, we shall triumph! We shall take all of Morjin's treasure, and
I
shall take my most beloved of treasures back!'
As Lord Tanu had observed in the pass, Lord Tomavar was a poor strategist. Everyone standing at the center of the field listened to him with doubt beginning to work at their hearts. The warriors in the front lines of each of the forces crowding the square took in his words and passed them back to the deeper ranks. I heard some shouts of acclaim, but even more grumblings of dismay. Once, at the very end of the Age of Law, at the Battle of Tarshid, Morjin had destroyed an army of Valari assaulting his stronghold inside Skartaru, the Black Mountain. The six thousand survivors, many from Mesh, he had crucified. It was the worst defeat in all the history of the Valari, and the minstrels still sang of it with mourning and lament.
Lord Tomavar, perceiving that the tide of the warriors' sentiments might be turning against him, moved quickly to the offense by attacking me: 'And what would Valashu Elahad do if you stand for him as king? Only this: he would fail you as he did before and leave your wives and daughters to be ravished!'
I knew that I must respond to this calumny, without hesitation and in a clear, strong voice so that the warriors could hear the truth of things. I knew that I had this power, to open my heart to men and speak straight from my soul. What
would
I do if made king, I wondered? Only this: I would use all my power and call upon every particle of my being to defeat Morjin. Strangely, Lord Tomavar's blood burned with same desire as mine to see Morjin brought down, even if his plan to do this was folly - and even if he dreamed too much of revenge and glory.
'If you stand for me as king,' I started to say to the fifteen thousand warriors assembled around the square, 'I will -'
'He will betray you!' Lord Tomavar cried out, interrupting me with an unforgivable rudeness. 'As he betrayed all of us at the Elahad castle! How could our women and children have been slaughtered like animals? How
could
they? It is only because Valashu Elahad deserted the castle! Out of his criminal pride! And then lied about it, putting the blame on Lord Lansar Raasharu, a great and noble man, whom King Shamesh loved and trusted as much as he did myself!'
'No, that is not true!' I cried out. 'I thought my father was dead and that my brother had summoned me, and I wanted only to -'
'You wanted to usurp your own father! By gaining glory on the battlefield, you hoped your renown would lead
you
to stand before the warriors! In place of your father, killed in the very battle you brought down upon us!'
His words drove me to a fury. I felt my spleen pouring out poisons into my blood and a sick heat tormenting my brain. A terrible pressure built inside my throat. I opened my mouth to draw in air and deny his vile accusations. And in that moment, the Ahrim struck. It came out of nowhere, a boiling blackness that fell over my face and eyes. For three long, bitter beatings of my heart, I could not hear nor could I see. And then the Ahrim's icy cold substance seemed to gather about my neck. It clamped down, hard, like a iron fist, squeezing the very breath from my throat with such a crushing force that I could barely speak:
'My ... father,' I gasped out, 'I . . loved .. like . .'
'Do you see?' Lord Tomavar called out, pointing at me. 'He chokes on his own lies!'
I wanted to kill him, then. He stood glaring at me in his dark, doubting manner, and I wanted to whip free my sword and plunge the point straight through his slanderous mouth. And then I recalled a much darker encounter with a much greater enemy, far away. In Hesperu, with the help of my friends and a great, good man, for one shining moment, I had managed to transmute my hate into something beautiful and bright. I felt this grace still warm and alive somewhere inside me. It made me believe in myself. This certainty of power and purpose had nothing to do with the delusion that I might be infallible or the destined Maitreya, but only that like any man I could keep the evil inside myself at bay and exert my will to do the right thing.
'Lord . . . Tomavar!' I gasped out. 'Your ... heart...'
I must not, I told myself, regard this man as my enemy. My father had believed in him and trusted him, and so must I. All men, as I knew too well, could be driven mad by hatred and a rage for revenge.
'Your
. . .
heart,' I tried to tell him again.
But my desire to see him healed was not enough. The Ahrim only tightened its hold upon me, and I could not speak. And so I took a step closer to him, holding out my hand. I thought only of resting it upon his chest, and trying to drive away his doubts, as I had with the warriors in Lord Avijan's hall. Lord Tomavar's hatred, though, ran deeper than a gorge cut into the earth; I could touch neither it nor him. The anguish in his black eyes warned me to stay away from him even as he drew his sword from its scabbard, and nearly cut off my hand.
'Stand back, Elahad!' he cried out. 'Don't try your trickery on me!'
'He draws!' Sar Vikan called back from beside me. 'Lord Tomavar draws on Lord Elahad! A challenge has been made!'
According to the laws of the Valari, any warrior who drew his sword on another made an irrevocable challenge to a duel.
'He draws!' Sar Vikan called out again. The thirst for blood I heard in his voice made me sick. 'Let them fight, here and now, sword to sword! Let honor be satisfied!'
His words were like a flaming brand held to spilled oil. Lord Sharad, who had never liked Lord Tomavar, called out, 'Let them fight! Let honor be satisfied!'
And then Sar Jessu and Sar Shivalad and half a thousand warriors standing behind me called out that Lord Tomavar and I must face each other sword to sword, and thousands of Lord Tomavar's own men called out the same thing - along with even many of Lord Tanu's men. So did Lord Ramanu's men call for a duel, and Lord Bahrain's and Lord Kharashan's followers and the mob of free warriors to the north. Their voices thundered out into the square:
'Honor! Honor! Honor!'
'Fight! Fight! Fight!'
Lord Tomavar stared at his long, gleaming kalama as if in horror of what he had done - but also in great gladness, as if relieved of a terrible burden. I tried to give him a way out of the bottomless chasm quickly opening up before us. I gasped out, 'A ... mistake. Put . . away ... your ... sword.'
But sometimes there can be no going back. Lord Tomavar's great head swept right and left as he listened to the roar of the warriors: 'Honor! Honor! Honor!'
'Let honor be satisfied!'
'Fight - let them fight!'
'A duel to the death! Let the victor be king!'
At last, Lord Tomavar looked at me. And he shouted out: 'I will
not
put away my sword! I call upon you to draw
your
sword, so that we might settle this matter honorably. Let it be as the warriors say: let the victor be king!'
A great cheer seemed to shake the very earth. And I forced out a few, choked-off words: 'But. . . I . won't...'
'You
must
accept the challenge,' Sar Jalval shouted on Lord Tomavar's behalf. 'Or else be called a coward! And if coward you be, then leave this field now, and let no man in Mesh give you salt, bread or fire!'
Now it seemed that almost every warrior or knight gathered about the square shouted out that this must be. I heard the men loyal to me crying out, 'Lord Valashu Elahad - Champion, Champion! The Elahad for King of Mesh!'
This is not my will,
I thought.
This is not only my will.
Then Lord Avijan stepped forward and said to Lord Tomavar, 'Fight, if you must, but your duel will not settle who sits on Mesh's throne. The warriors still must decide who will be king.'
Lord Tomavar, whose mind could race as swiftly as a greyhound when pressed, considered this only for a moment. 'All right then, let this be the way of things: Lord Elahad will ask your warriors to stand for me if I am the victor in our duel. And if Lord Elahad prevails, my warriors shall be free to stand for him.'
Lord Tomavar gambled like a player rolling the dice. But it was a fair enough game. If I fell beneath Lord Tomavar's sword, then the two thousand men who marched behind my banner, standing for Lord Tomavar, would give him the edge over Lord Tanu. Even if many of them refused this realignment, then Lord Tomavar still might find that most of the free warriors would support him, and give him the numbers he needed. And if I put my sword into Lord Tomavar, then 1 still might hope to win his warriors - and many others.
'All... right,' I choked out, accepting Lord Tomavar's challenge. 'Let... it... be.'
I made it known to Lord Avijan that he should go among our warriors and tell them of what we had decided here. Then, surrounded by my guardians, I walked off the field to return to my pavilion, where I would remove my armor and prepare for the duel. My companions all came with me. When we stood alone beneath my tent's glowing black silk, Kane growled out to me, 'So, it's come to
this,
then! Well kill him quickly, Val. Ha -I should have killed the Tomavar for you when I had the chance!'
I put on my best tunic and belted it. Then Master Juwain took out his green crystal and held it to my throat. After a while, he sighed out to me: 'I'm afraid my varistei has no power over the thing that attacks you. At least, I can't sense how it might be driven away. Are you any better at
all?'
No ... not... better,' I whispered.
'The Ahrim might indeed choke you to death. Perhaps you should withdraw from the duel.'
'No. . . impossible.'
'Then perhaps you should wait until your airways clear and your voice returns.'
I shook my head at this. 'No ... time.'
Just then Lord Avijan came into the pavilion and announced: 'The warriors did not want to do as you have asked them. Lord Valashu. But since
you
asked them, they are willing. Though none of us can bear to see Lord Tomavar become king.'
'Thank .., you,' I croaked out.
'How did it come to this?' Lord Avijan said to me. 'This is no time for you to lose your voice! If only
all
the warriors could but have heard you, they would know that you speak the truth.'
At this, for no reason that I could understand, Liljana drew out her blue gelstei and looked at it strangely.
'Well,' Lord Avijan said, 'things are as they are. The warriors do not believe they will have to stand for Lord Tomavar. Neither do I. Everyone remembers what you did at the tournament.'
At the great tournament in Nar two years before I had defeated Lord Dashavay, the greatest swordsman in the Nine Kingdoms, to become that year's champion.
'I've always said,' Lord Avijan continued, 'that duels are a plague upon our people.
This
one, it seems, however, must really be fought. And so, may you fight like the heroes of old, Valashu Elahad, and send Lord Tomavar back to the stars!'
With that, he clasped my hand and went back outside to make arrangements with Lord Tomavar's seconds for our duel.
Then I whispered, 'I... must... not... kill.. '
I pressed my hand to my throat, burning as if I had inhaled a lungful of the Red Desert's fiery dust. I seemed to be losing my power of speech altogether.
'Lil... jana,' I gasped.
I tried to make her understand that she should use her blue crystal to take the words off the top of my mind and speak them for me - but to delve no deeper into my more private thoughts. She nodded her head in agreement with this. Then she positioned her little whale figurine near my temple. We waited for her to speak.
'Val says,' she told everyone, 'that he must
not
slay Lord Tomavar.'
At this, Daj looked at me, amazed, and then turned to Estrella, who smiled as she nodded her head in agreement. But Master Juwain only seemed puzzled, even as Kane scowled and Maram took hold of my arm.
'You
have
to kill him,' he told me. 'It's a barbaric thing, and I agree with Lord Avijan, but that's the way of you Valari and your damned duels.' -
'So, Val - so,' Kane said.
I looked at Liljana, who had closed her eyes. And then she told my other friends: 'Val must
not
come to the kingship over Lord Tomavar's dead body. Meshians must not slay Meshians. And Valari must not slay Valari!'