Lord of Lies (65 page)

'King Hanniban,' I said, upon listening to this, 'is shortsighted. He thinks only of his own kingdom.'

'So it is with each king, I'm afraid,' Liijana said.

'And he underestimates his enemy,' I said. 'Morjin will soon fall against the Ymanir and destroy Elivagar. He'll reinforce Yarkona from Sakai, then order Count Ulanu to attack Eanna from its soft underbelly in the southeast, even as his Hesperuk armies move up through Surrapam. He'll crush Eanna between these two jaws. King Hanniban must be blind not to see this.'

As I said this, Atara's lips tightened. But she sat across from me in silence.

'Well,' Liijana said, 'other kings
do
favor an alliance.'

'Which kings?' Maram asked from beside her.

'Well, your father,' she said. 'I think he's very eager to make alliance with Alonia and the Nine Kingdoms. He fears that Delu will be attacked from Galda across the Terror Bay, as in ancient times.'

'Ah, well, he's a fearful man,' Maram said 'But in this case with good reason.'

'Too true,' Liijana said. 'And if reason alone prevailed, Alonia would promise aid to Delu. But King Kiritan doesn't want to commit forces that might be needed in defense of his own kingdom - unless others first commit to him. They're selfish men, these kings.'

'Then all must commit as one,' Master Juwain said. 'There simply
must
be an alliance.'

'And that is precisely what King Theodor Jardan has said. Of course, being of the Elyssu, he's a reasonable man.'

'Of course,' Master Juwain said. He, who had been born on this island kingdom, smiled at Liljana. But she did not smile back.

'But I'm sorry to say,' she told him, 'that King Theodor favors an alliance only with Alonia and Delu - and possibly with the Nine Kingdoms. The western kingdoms he doesn't trust. It's been only twelve years since the Elyssu warred against Nedu.'

She watched as Master Juwain's ugly face fell into a frown. From the moment these two luminaries of their respective Brotherhood and Sisterhood had met, they had taken to sparring verbally with each other.

And then Maram put in, 'Is there anyone besides my father who favors an alliance of
all
the Free Kingdoms?'

'Well, there is Atara's father,' Liljana said, looking at Atara. 'King Kiritan has almost persuaded King Tal and King Aryaman of the need - King Theodor, too. If he succeeds, King Hanniban will likely go along with them. But it seems he won't succeed.'

'But why not?' Atara asked, breaking her silence.

'Because the kings dispute everything,' Liljana said. 'Are the Free Kingdoms merely to make a pact to come to each other's defense in case of invasion? Or are they to form an army and navy of their own, and themselves invade the lands held by the Red Dragon? And if so, how many battalions of foot is each kingdom to contribute? How many archers and knights? How many warships? What should be the Alliance's strategy?'

'Fourteen kings,' I said, 'will likely offer fourteen different strategies.'

'Of course they would,' Liljana said, brushing bread crumbs from her lap. 'Of course they have. And that is why everyone realizes, even if they won't admit it, that only one of them can lead the Alliance. King Kiritan is exercising all his power to ensure that
he
is that king.'

'That
,' I told her, 'can never be. The Valari kings would never accept any but a Valari to command the Alliance.'

She nodded her head as she wiped her hands on a moistened cloth. 'King Hadaru has made this clear to everyone. King Waray, too. And King Mohan has said that the only one of Valari who could be Lord of the Alliance would be the Lord of Light himself.' Liljana, having finished eating, turned to look at me with clear eyes that missed very little. I sensed her searching for something deep inside me. I could almost feel her congratulating herself that any noble qualities she found there were at least partly due to her cherishing my soul.

I wiped my hands, too, then broke out a bottle of brandy, which pleased Maram greatly. After filling all our cups, I turned to Liljana and said, 'Then have the Valari kings spoken much of the Maitreya?'

'All
the kings have spoken of him,' she told me. 'And throughout the whole of the city, there is talk of little else. You can't know how much we Trians have awaited the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies.'

I
noticed Atara holding her head utterly still. She seemed to be looking at something outside my tent, past the shadowed, silken walls of time. To Liljana, I said, 'Then is it possible they would entertain the thought of the Maitreya being of the Valari?'

'If that Valari lord was he who had brought the Lightstone out of Argattha,' she said, squeezing my hand again, 'they would welcome him with open hearts and trumpets blowing.'

'And you, Liljana?'

'Why, the questions you ask!' she said, squeezing my hand even more tightly. 'I'd be
overjoyed
for you to claim the Lightstone - if that is truly your fate.'

She paused to take a sip of brandy as she looked at first Atara and then Estrella. And then she said, 'Of course, I'd always hoped that the Maitreya promised to bring in the Age of Light would be a woman.'

We all smiled at this, except Liljana herself. She had never been one to take herself or her own words lightly. But more to the point, ever since she had looked into Morjin's mind in Argattha, she had lost her ability to smile, even as Atara had warned her.

Now it was my turn to squeeze her hand. I said to her, 'But what of the kings at the conclave, then?'

'Some are almost ready to
accept
Valashu Elahad as the Maitreya,' she told me. 'Most of your Valari kings, of course. King Marshayk. And, I think, King Theodor. Even King Aryaman.'

'Ah,' Maram said, staring at his cup, which he had already emptied, 'it is one thing to accept Val as the Maitreya but quite another to make the Maitreya the Lord of the Alliance.'

'True, true,' Liljana said. 'But better the Maitreya as Lord, many say, than King Kiritan himself. Few except Lord Kirriland and the nobles closest to King Kiritan want to see him as a King of Kings.'

'But would they want Val any more?' Maram asked.

'It is to Val's advantage,' Liljana said, 'that he is
not
a king, nor ever likely to be.'

Master Juwain sighed as he rubbed the back of his shiny head. 'From what I remember of Val's last meeting with King Kiritan, it seems unlikely that he will ever accept Val as the Maitreya, much less as Lord of the Alliance.'

'Not unless the other kings accept him first,' Liljana said. 'Then King Kiritan will be forced to bow to their will - either that or to stand alone.'

'My father,' Atara said suddenly, clenching her hands, 'will not suffer
anyone's
will, not even that of thirteen other kings.'

'But he can't want to oppose all the Free Kingdoms!' Maram said.

'No, of course he doesn't,' Liljana told us. 'Which is why he also won't suffer anyone calling Val the Maitreya. And
that
is why I've come here tonight - one of the reasons.'

She put down her cup and brought out her little whale figurine. For a few moments she stared at this bit of blue gelstei. Then she looked at me and said, 'King Kiritan means to challenge you, Val.'

I noticed that Maram and Master Juwain were also staring at me intently. To Liljana, I said, 'To challenge me ... as man or Maitreya?'

'Perhaps both,' she told me. 'But he will certainly try to discredit your claim to the Lightstone.'

'But how?' I asked her. 'And how do you know?' I glanced down at her figurine, and so then did Maram. He had always feared that she might peer into his mind as easily as she might open the pages of a book, regardless of all her promises.

'As for how I
know
,' she said to me, 'that is easy to tell. One of my cousins is one of King Kiritan's tasters. She's sniffed out his intentions, so to speak.'

'You mean, one of your sisters of the Maitriche Telu,' Maram said. 'And you mean, she's spied on him.'

Liljana reached out to tap Maram's empty cup as if blaming the brandy for loosening his tongue. 'You should be careful of what you say, young man, and where you say it.'

She looked at Estrella, who sat across from her limned against the tent's thin walls.

'The girl has all our trust,' Maram told her. 'Besides, she's unlettered, and she couldn't tell anyone of what she hears.'

This last, of course, had proved not to be true. All this time, Estrella had sat next to Daj, flashing bright smiles at him, speaking to him in their private way and seemingly ignoring the conversation of her elders.

'Estrella,' I told Liljana, 'is one of us now. 'Her fate is tied to my own.'

'Do
you
trust her?' Liljana asked me.

Estrella's dark, wild eyes, found mine just then, and I said, 'With all my heart. With my life.'

No sooner had these words left my lips then Daj looked me and laughed out, 'Estrella trusts you, too, Val. She even trusts Liljana.'

He turned to smile at Liljana, but she just sat across from him regarding him sternly. And she muttered, 'Impertinent boy.'

Daj, in Argattha, had faced a fire-breathing dragon bravely, but he now fairly wilted beneath Liljana's disapproval. Seeing this, Liljana leaned over and touched his arm. Her voice softened as she said, 'These are matters of life and death, Daj. And not just
our
lives, either.'

Most other boys, and even men, would have looked away from Liljana's relentless gaze. But Daj met her eye to eye. His love for her, I thought, was as deep as his desire to please her. And she obviously loved him as a son. During their months together, it seemed that she had lavished her care and ideals upon him - and forged new chains even harder than the iron shackles that had once encircled his limbs.

After a few moments, Liljana turned toward Estrella and said, 'I'm delighted that you trust me, young lady. But would you trust me with all
your
heart? And with your life?'

Estrella cocked her head as if to ask, 'What do you mean?'

In answer, Liljana held up her blue gelstei and told her, 'I would speak to you with this, in the privacy of our minds, if you'll allow me.'

As we all waited to see how Estrella would respond, she looked deep into Liljana's eyes. She seemed utterly without fear of this powerful woman. Quick as a bird, she nodded her head and smiled at Liljana.

'Very well,' Liljana said, closing her eyes. 'Then listen, listen.'

As my heart beat slowly in my chest like a drum stroke measuring out time, Estrella closed her eyes, too. Liljana sat facing her in silence. She remained utterly still. Not even a jog of her head indicated that she might be hearing anything inside Estrella's mind. Estrella's breaths fell and rose, steady and deep, like my own.

And then, after what seemed an hour, Liljana opened her eyes and sighed. She looked at Master Juwain and then at me. 'It's no use. I can speak to her, but she cannot speak to me.'

Then her muteness,' Master Juwain said, 'is of the mind as well as the mouth?'

'I think it is
only
of the mind,' Liljana said, gazing at Estrella. 'She has a beautiful mind: most of it is perfectly clear. Like a diamond. Thus she is able to understand others' words. But the part of it that
makes
words of her own and tells her tongue to speak them has been darkened. By Morjin - damn his soul to burn in dragon fire! I saw this in her memories! When she was very young, he used a green gelstei to make her mute, as I presume he did the other slaves that he gave to his priests.'

Every abomination,
I thought.
Every twisting of that which is beautiful and good.

Master Juwain drew out his varistei and regarded it with his sad, gray eyes. How many times, I wondered, had he tried to heal Estrella
of
her wordless silence?

Liljana reached out to take Estrella's hand in her own. 'Poor girl!' she told her, 'You poor girl!'

Estrella pulled away from her and sat staring at her hand as if grateful that she still had the ability to move her long, expressive fingers as she willed. Her lovely smile told of her delight in her own being, just as it was. Having no pity for herself, she did not welcome Liljana's.

To turn Liljana's attention from her, I looked at her and asked, 'Liljana, you said that King Kiritan would challenge me - do you know how?'

'No, I'm sorry, I don't. I only have my suspicions.' I took a sip of brandy, then nodded at her to say more. Liljana's suspicions were often more valuable than most people's certainties.

'The one who claims the Lightstone,' she said, 'must also be able to wield it, yes? But wield it
how?
This is the key to everything, I think.'

I brought out the Lightstone then and sat holding it in my hands. For a while, as the little noises of the camp outside my tent quieted and the night deepened, we talked of the ways that it might be used. Liljana hoped to find within its golden hollows the power to grow more gelstei, particularly the green and the blue. With other blue crystals similar to her own, she said, she might speak mind to mind with her sisters in other lands and so coordinate a secret alliance against Morjin. Then, after the great Red Dragon was finally overthrown, new green gelstei could be made to pour out their healing light and restore Ea to the glories of the Age of the Mother. Master Juwain reminded us that Yrniru and his people hoped to use the Lightstone to forge more gold gelstei. He pointed out, too, that the gold gelstei might open doors to other worlds: whether for ill, as in freeing Angra Mainyu from Damoom, or for the great good of inviting angels to walk once again on Ea.

'I don't believe,' Liljana said, 'that King Kiritan will challenge Val to summon Ashtoreth into his hall. Nor to stamp out new gelstei as his mint does coins. No, the power of the Maitreya that most people speak of is the power to heal.'

He will be a healer,
I thought, recalling the words of 'The Irian Prophecies.'
From his eyes will pour a healing light.