Diamond Warriors (71 page)

'But it will also be a joy,' I said, resting my hand upon her belly. 'And haven't we proved that nothing is impossible?'

She clasped my hand, and pressed it more firmly against her. 'I wish I could believe that, Val. I know only that now I must be a queen, as I was born to be.'

She did not speak of either her blindness or the child growing inside her as a burden, but I felt a great heaviness pulling her down. And I said to her,
'My
queen - and
that
you were born to be as well.'

'Yes, I suppose I was. And I suppose that I shall
have
to marry you now. I won't have such as Count Muar calling our son a bastard.'

At last, we set a date for our wedding: the seventh of Soldru. in my happiness, I swept up Atara in my arms and kissed her deeply. But I, who had struck pure angel fire into the worst of men, could not find the way to drive back the darkness afflicting the woman I loved.

The following afternoon on that same lawn, Lord Avijan - with Lord Tomavar, Lord Harsha, Lord Jessu, Lord Noldashan and all the surviving captains of Mesh - came to me and asked to return to their home.

'Can we not persuade you, Sire,' Lord Avijan asked me, 'to reopen the Elahad castle and rule Ea from your own kingdom?'

I would as soon live inside a dungeon as my family's ancient castle, but I did not admit this to Lord Avijan. Instead, I told him, 'Elahad made his residence in Tria, and long before the Star People came to Ea, so did a very great king. And so I shall, too.'

I added that it made good sense to set my throne here in Tria, as ships could come and go through her harbor and Ea's seas, more easily connecting all lands with each other. And now that Ea's sovereigns had made me High King, I belonged to Ea.

'But, Sire,' Lord Harsha said to me with much sadness,
'we
belong to Mesh. Most of us left wives and children there. I, myself, miss my land and must return to tend my crops.'

'So you must,' I said to him, grasping his arm. 'Go back then, old friend, and plant your barley.'

I told my lords that they could return home after my coronation. 'But what of the other Valari kings and their armies?' Lord Tomavar asked me. 'Will you let them go, too?'

'I will. But from the best of their warriors, as from our own, I will choose knights, a thousand altogether, who wish to remain here as Guardians of the Lightstone.'

'A small enough force,' Lord Avijan said, 'to protect the golden cup - and yourself.'

'I will not need more. And if I do, the Valari will stand ready to march, to the end of the earth.'

'To the end of the stars!' Lord Avijan said.

'Faithful Lord Avijan!' I said, clapping my hand to his shoulder. 'You shall be Regent of Mesh, and your sons after you. Care for our land. I shall return there, when I can.'

Lord Avijan beamed as he bowed to me, for I did not think that he had anticipated such an honor. Lord Tomavar, watching him, might have burned with envy, for he had nearly become Mesh's king and now must defer to his rival. But I had honors to bestow upon him, too.

'Lord Tomavar!' I called to him. 'Of all Mesh's warriors, none fought so fiercely or well at the Detheshaloon as you. If not for you, I think, the battle would have been lost.'

I brought forth my brother's diamond-dusted sharpening stone, which I had passed on to Kane, and Kalkin had given back to me.

'Take this,' I said, handing it to him, 'that you will always keep your sword sharp and bright.'

Then I told everyone gathered there that the soul of Lord Gorvan Tomavar shone more brightly than any steel and that he was the truest of Valari warriors.

'Tomavar the True!' I called out to him.

His long, horsey face broke into a great smile as he bowed to me. 'Thank you, Sire,' he told me. Then he turned to gaze at his wife.

Vareva Tomavar stood beside my lords and captains with a proud sureness, as if she had earned her place among them - as indeed she had. Her raven hair spilled down across the diamond armor that still seemed so strange to see encasing the body of a woman. No spear, arrow or sword, during the battle, had touched her flawless, ivory skin. Her large eyes fixed on Lord Tomavar, with great love, as if she had at last forgiven him for abandoning her to Morjin and challenging me for Mesh's kingship.

'Vareva,' I said to her, 'if not for you and the women you led into battle, our enemy surely would have broken our lines beyond repair. Accept this, in honor of your service to Mesh.'

Then I presented her with a silver ring set with four large, brilliant diamonds; the ring of a Valari lord. She pushed it down onto her finger, in place of the warrior's ring that she had worn into battle.

'Thank you, Sire!' she told me. 'But you have already given me more than I dreamed.'

'Yes?'

'Yes, indeed: Morjin's death and peace for Mesh.'

'That was no more my doing than yours. You fought as hard as anyone.'

'Perhaps,' she said, gazing down at her ring. 'But I am glad that I shall never have to fight another battle.'

She went on to say that now she desired nothing so much as to return home and live happily with her husband.

Lord Tomavar inclined his head in agreement with this. 'I, too, am done with war. I would like to spend the years left to me siring sons worthy of becoming the Lightstone's Guardians. And teaching them to keep sharp not only their swords but their souls.'

He moved up to Vareva, and kissed her full on the lips. It was a shocking thing for a Valari lord to do in sight of his peers, but then Lord Tomavar had always been the most recklessly bold of warriors.

Then Vareva walked over to Behira, standing with my other captains and wearing her diamond armor molded to her rounded belly and full breasts. Most of my men, I thought, would have a hard time perceiving this plump, pretty woman as a warrior. But during the battle she had slain a Hesperuk lord, and now Vareva brought her to me to be acknowledged, too.

'Without Behira,' Vareva said to me, 'I never could have formed our women into a battalion, and brought them here. She is as worthy as anyone of being honored.'

I grasped Behira's hand and said, 'Then you shall wear a knight's ring.'

Before I could motion to my ring bearer, however, she shook her head and said to me, 'It is not a
knight's
ring I wish for, Sire.'

She told me that she had only one boon to ask of me: that I would speak to Maram in favor of him marrying her.

'As I recall,' I said to her, 'before we left Mesh, you weren't sure that it was Maram whom you wanted to marry.'

I noticed Joshu Kadar, standing with my Guardians, looking on with an intense interest I wondered if he still desired to make a wife of Behira, as Lord Harsha had once felt compelled to promise him.

'In truth,' I added, smiling at her, 'you weren't sure that you wanted to marry
anyone.
You said that you wanted to serve me, instead.'

'And I
did
serve you, Sire. And we
did
win the war. And if war is good for anything at all, it is to clear away all our foolishnesses and remind us of what we really desire. And I desire nothing more than to marry Maram.'

Lord Harsha came over to his daughter and wrapped his arm around her back as if to protect her. And his single eye fixed on me. 'You said, Sire, that we should put off the question of Behira's marriage until greater matters were settled. And now they are.'

'Very well,' I told Lord Harsha and Behira, 'then I
shall
speak to Maram.'

Lord Harsha might have simply thanked me and left this matter to my discretion, for I was his king, whom most lords would never have presumed to importune. But Lord Harsha was something like a hound that would not let go a bone once he had taken hold of it. And Maram had evaded him - and Behira - once too often.

'When
will you speak with him, Sire?' he asked me. 'You have many duties, and Maram has buried himself in that tavern down by the river.'

In truth, I had hardly seen Maram for most of two months. But I knew well enough that he had taken to spending his days - and nights - near the docks at a little stone tavern near the Inn of the Seven Delights.

With the Lords of Mesh looking on to see how I would respond, I said to Lord Harsha: 'We are finished here, and I have no duties now. Why don't we go and pay a visit to Maram?'

I decided to use this as an opportunity for Estrella to take the Lightstone into one of the city's poorest districts, as she already had gone among the refugees in the eastern half of the city. And so I asked Estrella to accompany Lord Harsha, Behira and me - and Vareva and Lord Tomavar, as well - and I commanded the Guardians to saddle their horses. Then I led the way down from the Hill of Gold past Eluli Square and the Battle Arch toward the river. We found Maram's tavern among blocks of old, crumbling buildings that Morjin must have thought too shabby to bother destroying. It would take some time, I thought, before my architects destroyed them themselves and rebuilt new houses here. Most of the Guardians rode or walked with Estrella down the streets as she showed the lightstone to the poor Trians who came out of their tenements and shelters to marvel at it. But Joshu Kadar and Sar Shivalad went into the tavern ahead of Lord Harsha, Behira and me.

'Val!' Maram cried out as I pushed my way into a room that was all smoke and noise. 'Look! - Morjin left the finest part of Tria untouched! But what are
you
doing here?'

He sat at a wooden table with Ymiru and two of Sajagax's captains, Tringax and Braggod. A couple of hard-looking sailors and a merchant from Galda had joined them.

'It is the King!' a man at one of the other tables cried out. 'It is King Valamesh!'

Every head in the room, almost, inclined toward me. But Maram, looking upon Lord Harsha as he advanced on his table, called out, 'Oh, Lord! Whatever it is you think I've done, I haven't!' Then he turned to take a long pull from the mug of frothy beer sitting on the table before him.

We drew up to the table, and Lord Harsha's hand, by habit, fell upon the hilt of his sword. There was a time when Lord Harsha would have slaughtered Maram in a duel. But that time had passed, for Maram had become one of Ea's greatest warriors. So, in truth, had the time passed even for fighting duels.

'It is just what you
haven't
done that concerns us, Sar Maram,' Lord Harsha said. He let go his sword and waved his hand at the air to shoo away a cloud of smoke, then set his single, dark eye upon Maram.
'When
do you intend to marry my daughter?'

'Ah, soon,' Maram said, looking at Behira, 'very soon.'

'Yes, but
how
soon?'

Maram glanced at me and then back at Behira, and he coughed out, 'Ah, let us say when Val marries Atara.'

He smiled and took another pull of his beer. And I told him, 'That date has been set: the seventh of Soldru.'

'It
has?'
he cried out. He banged his mug down upon the table with such force that a good deal of the amber liquid sloshed out of it. Then he stood up and embraced me, pounding his hand against my back as he cried out, 'At last! At last! Congratulations!'

I smiled as I pulled back from him. 'Shall we say that I will stand with you at your ceremony, and you shall stand with me at mine?'

'Ah,
shall
we say that?' he said, looking at Behira.

And she told him, 'You promised you'd marry me after the war - if any of us survived it.' ,

'And you swore to me,' I said, looking at him, 'the same thing.' He fell silent as he gazed down at his beer. 'It is time, Maram.'

'Ah, I suppose it is,' he muttered. Then he turned to Behira again and said, 'But I didn't know if you would still have me.'

'Still
have
you?' she asked him. 'Would a flower have the sun?'

Maram grew quiet again. He looked from Behira to Lord Harsha and then at me. He nodded at Lord Tomavar and Vareva, standing behind us. Then he turned to Braggod, whose long, yellow mustaches gleamed with beer foam, and he sighed out, 'A man can't win all battles, can he?'

He did not, I thought, refer to Braggod's and his ongoing contest to see who could hold the most beer, for Maram always prevailed in this. In truth, I had only seen one man who could outdrink Maram, and that was Ymiru.

'Most women,' Behira said with the heat of anger shading her voice, 'would wish for their beloved to fight battles to
win
them!'

'And so I have,' Maram said. He stood up, and clasped hold of Behira's hand. 'I can see that you don't understand. Ah, I'm not really sure that I do myself. But here it is: all my life, almost, I fought
hard
to take as much pleasure as I could, wherever I could. So that I could know that I was
alive.
And I succeeded -too well, really. I lived, such as few men have, but I did not really
live.
And that is because I have been afraid of the greatest pleasure of all. There came a moment, just after the Dragon had burned away my shield, when I knew that I
had
to marry you, if by some impossible chance I lived to tell you how much I love you.'

'But why
didn't
you just tell me then?'

'Because,' he said, 'love burns infinitely hotter than dragon fire. It's beautiful, yes, but terrible, too. And so I was afraid.'

Behira bowed down her head to kiss Maram's fingers, and she told him, 'You are a prince of Delu who became a Valari knight. And the only man on earth who could have slain that dragon. Don't tell me that such a
warrior
can't win at love!'

They suddenly pulled closer together to kiss each other - and so with the fire of their lips and hearts, they finally sealed their troth to marry. When Maram leaned back to gaze at her, I had never seen him smile with such happiness.

'Let us drink to marriage, then!' he shouted.
'Ours -
and Val's and everyone's!'

As the men at the other tables all looked on, Maram called out for mugs of beer to be set before everyone. I made the first toast, and Lord Harsha the second, and Ymiru the third. It did not take very long for everyone's mug to be emptied.