David Zindell - Diamond Warriors

This word seemed to hang in the air like a trumpet's call. And Lord Harsha banged the table with his fist, and turned his angry eye on Joshu.

'Here, now — that won't do!' he snapped. 'You may call Lord Valashu "Sire" when the warriors have acclaimed him, but not before!'

Joshu bowed his head in acquiescence of Lord Haasha's admonishment. Lord Harsha, as he should have known, was a stickler for the ancient forms, and he believed that a king must always draw his power from the will of the warriors whom he led.

'All right, then,' Lord Harsha said as he stood up from the table and picked up the brandy bottle. He went around the table filling up everyone's cup. He returned to his place and raised his own as he said, 'To Valashu Elahad — may he become the next in the unbroken line of Elahad kings and protect our sacred realm!'

After we had clinked cups and sipped our brandy, Behira stared across the table at Joshu and said, 'Then tomorrow you'll ride off again?'

At this, Joshu turned toward me. I sensed that he didn't want to wed Behira half as much as he burned to take his revenge for what had happened upon the Culhadosh Commons. As our eyes met, I felt a bright flame come alive within him.

'I must serve Lord Valashu,' he told her. 'There will be war — if not against Lord Tanu or Lord Tomavar, then against the Waashians when Lord Valashu becomes king. Or the Urtuk will invade in force, and the Mansurii with them. Perhaps Morjin himself will march against Mesh again. And when he does, I must ride with Lord Valashu.'

'If he is your king, then you must,' Lord Harsha agreed. 'And so must I. And that is why we should arrange a wedding while we can.'

I felt Maram's knee pressing against mine beneath the table, and I said to Lord.Harsha, 'I am afraid there will be war. Why not let the question of your daughter's marriage wait until greater matters are settled?'

'Do you mean, wait until one of Morjin's knights puts a spear through Joshu's other lung?' Lord Harsha said bluntly.

As my father had once told me, sometimes problems worked out best if left alone. And death solved all of life's problems.

'Or Sar Maram,' Lord Harsha said. 'I would no more see him lying bloodied on the battlefield than I would Sar Joshu.'

In the dark corner of the room above Maram's head, I caught a sense of a deeper darkness. The Ahrim, I knew, followed Maram as it did me.

'I understand your concern,' I said to Lord Harsha, 'and I will do what I can to ease it. Do you know of the estate my family holds along the Kurash River?'

'The lands by the Old Oaks?' Lord Harsha said. 'Five hundred acres of the best bottomland?'

'Yes, those,' I said. 'It shall be my present to Behira at her wedding.'

Lord Harsha nodded his head at this as he regarded me. Ever a practical man, he said, 'You're even more generous than your father, lad. But suppose that neither Sar Joshu nor Sar Maram survive what is to come? Suppose — may the stars forbid it — that you yourself do not?'

'Then,' I told him, 'let these lands be held in dower for Behira to whomever she might marry.'

'Generous, indeed!' Lord Harsha called out. Again he lifted up his cup. 'Well, let us drink to that!'

At this, Maram smiled at me in gratitude. We raised our cups, even Master Juwain, though he would drink no intoxicants. Behira, however, sat still and stolid, refusing to touch her cup.

'What's wrong?' Lord Harsha asked her.

And in a clear, strong voice, she said, 'What if I don't want to marry?'

Lord Harsha sat in a stunned silence staring at her. 'Not marry — what do you mean?'

'I mean, father, that I'm not sure I want to marry anyone.'

Her words struck Lord Harsha speechless, and he glared at her.

Then Behira looked down the table at Liljana, and caught her eye. Usually Liljana stayed out of such business, but something in Behira must have moved her, for she said, 'There are other things a young woman can do besides marry.'

Her words caused Lord Harsha to turn his black blazing eye upon her. And he commanded Behira, 'You won't listen to such outlandish talk!'

But he wasn't the only one in the Harsha family who could summon up the more wrathful emotions. Behira shook her head at her father and without warning exploded into what might have been a tantrum if it hadn't been so well-reasoned: 'Oh, won't I? And why not? Why must I marry? Because you want grandsons, father? More meat to skewer on our enemies' swords? I won't see my children killed this way — I won't! All this talk tonight of people dying and noble men defending Mesh while I wait and wait yet again for Maram or Joshu or someone else to return someday and favor me with their precious seeds — as if I'm no more than a field of dirt to plant them in! Well what if I don't want to wait?'

Lord Harsha, utterly taken aback by this outburst, stared at her

and said, 'But if you don't marry, what do you think you will do?'

Behira looked at Atara sitting quietly as well-balanced and

straight as one of her arrows. And Behira said, 'The Sarni women,

some of them, become warriors.'

'The Sarni are savages!' Lord Harsha shouted. Then I felt shame burning his face as he looked at Atara and said, 'Forgive me, Princess!'

'It's all right,' Atara said with a cold smile. 'Sometimes we are savages — and worse.'

'Do you see?' Lord Harsha said to Behira. 'Do you see?' Behira turned to look down the table at me. Then she told her father, 'I see a man who would become King of Mesh, and not be content merely to keep the roads in good repair and hold feasts. If Lord Elahad wins the throne, then there will be war — a war such as we've never seen. And we Valari women are supposed to be warriors aren't we? With the whole world about to spill its blood, you can't just expect us to sit around and hope for our men to return and bestow upon us babies!'

Lord Harsha forced himself to breathe in and out ten times before he made response to this: 'Our women are warriors: warriors of the spirit. Who teaches our children to meditate, and so ennobles them with the grace and power of the One? Who teaches them to tell the truth? It's the truth I'll tell you now, as your mother would have if she were still alive: our women are the keepers of the very flame that makes us Valari.'

Behira placed her hand across her breast as she looked at me and said, 'This flame burns for a better world, as it is with Lord Valashu. Whatever spirit I have, I wish to use in his service helping him to win. Then, father, it might be safe to wed and bring a child into the world.'

Lord Harsha, who had finally borne too much, banged his fist against the table and thundered: 'You will wed when I say you will and whom I choose as your husband!'

At this, Behira burst into tears. But she soon gathered up her pride, and stood up from her chair. With an almost violent clacking of the crockery, she began stacking up our dirty plates. And she announced, 'I'm going to do the dishes, and then go for a walk outside. Atara, will you help me? Liljana?'

Without another word, these three very willful women cleared the table and then disappeared into the kitchen, shutting the door behind them. Their voices hummed beyond it like the buzzing of bees from within a hive. Then Lord Harsha gazed at me with accusation lighting up his eye.

'You have returned, Lord Elahad, to lead us to war,' he said, 'for now there is war even in my own house. These are had times indeed — the worst times I've ever seen!'

For a while he sat sipping his brandy and rubbing at his temple. Then I smiled and said to him, 'Tomorrow I'll talk with Behira — it will all come out all right. There is always a way.'