David Zindell - Lord of Lies

'Go on,' I said as my eyes burned into his. 'I'm afraid it won't be as much as you hoped for.'

'Go on,' I said again.

Master Juwain sighed as he held his hand out toward the Lightstone. 'It seems that the Cup of Heaven may-be used by anyone, each according to his virtue and understanding. But if a man is flawed in any way, the light leaks out from his deeds like water from a cracked cup.'

'Are you saying, then, that a man needs to be perfect in order to use the Lightstone?'

'No — only to use it perfectly.'

'And the Maitreya?'

'The words concerning him, at least, are clear enough,' Master Juwain said. 'The Lightstone is meant for the Maitreya.'

'But how is he to use it?'

'Only he will ever know'

I turned toward the Lightstone, now pouring out a golden radiance as if it had caught the rays of the morning sun and was giving them back a thousandfold. Around the dais the last of the stricken Guardians were waking.

'But who is the Maitreya, then?' I asked Master Juwain. 'What does your stone say about that?'

'Very little, I'm afraid.' Master Juwain sighed again as he looked at me with all the kindness that he could find. 'This is the relevant passage, listen: "Just as the Lightstone is the source of the radiance that holds all things together, so the Maitreya is the light that draws all peoples and all kingdoms together toward a single source and fate.'' '

I looked at Master Juwain and said, 'Is there no more?'

'I'm certain that there is more recorded in the other thought stones in Nar.'

I drew Alkaladur and held it before the Lightstone. The Sword of Truth, it was called, the Sword of Fate. Its silver gelstei, gleaming as bright as a mirror, gave me to see a frightful thing: that I stood at the center of the whirlwind of forces that drew all the people of Ea toward a singular fate.

Lansar Raasharu suddenly cried out, 'Claim the Lightstone, Lord Valashu!'

'Claim it, Val!' Baitasar, his faithful son, repeated.

I looked around at my father and my mother, at my brothers and friends and all these people who were so close to my heart. Only hours before, Kasandra had warned of a ghul who would undo my dreams. I was sure that none of those present could be this evil being. And yet, in the deepest sense, I could be sure only of myself. Shouldn't I then claim the Lightstone, here and now, if for no other reason than to keep it safe within my grasp and guarded by my sword?

'Claim it, Val!' my fierce brother, Mandru, said to me.

The golden cup gleamed before me. If I were a false Maitreya and yet claimed it for my own, I would crack apart like a cup of clay and bring great evil to the world. But if I were the true Maitreya and failed to claim it, another would — and then the evil that he wrought with the gold gelstei would be just as great.

'Come Val,' my brother Jonathay laughed out. His face, both playful and calm, was lit up with his faith in me. 'If you're not the Lord of Light, then who is?'

At last I turned toward Estrella. She stood in the shelter of my mother's bosom silently sipping from the cup of warm milk and nutmeg that my mother had given her. Kasandra had said that this girl would show me the Maitreya. Without words to mar the way she saw the world and interpreted it to others, her whole being was a beautiful mirror like the silustria of my sword. This, I thought, was her gift. She smiled at me with her innocent and beautiful face, and in the quick, clear brightness there, it seemed that she was showing me myself just as I was.

Then I remembered the words of Morjin's letter: You cannot be this Maitreya, either. But Morjin was the Lord of Lies. I suddenly knew that he truly did fear that I was the Maitreya. And so, it seemed, I must truly be.

'All right,' I finally said, holding up my sword. I smiled at my good friends, at Sunjay Naviru, and at Skyshan of Ki and at others. 'All right. In eleven days, the tournament in Nar will begin. All the kings of the Valari or their seneschals will be there. Let this be the test of things, then: if I can persuade them to journey to Tria, there to meet in conclave with the kings of the Free Kingdoms and make alliance against Morjin, I will claim the Lightstone.'

At this news, Baltasar and Sunjay — Jonathay, too, and others — let loose a cheer. Asaru smiled at me and told me that he was glad that I would be accompanying Yarashan and him to Nar. But Lord Tanu remained skeptical. He pulled at his sour face and asked, 'And just how will you accomplish this miracle?'

'With all the force of my heart, sir.' I went on to explain that I would compete at sword and at bow, and at all the tournament's other competitions. 'If I do well enough, or am even declared champion, then the kings will have to listen to me.'

If you're declared champion,' Asaru said with a smile, 'you'll have to defeat me first, little brother.'

'And me ,' Yarashan put in as pride stiffened his handsome face.

I smiled at both of them as I bowed my head. Then I turned to Master Juwain. 'The tournament's champion, whoever he is, may ask of King Waray a boon. If fortune should favor me, I would ask that the Brotherhood school might be reopened.'

Master Juwain squeezed the thought stone in his hand. He was nearly as eager as I to enter the Brotherhood school and discover what knowledge its companion stones might hold.

'Very well,' Lord Tanu said to me, 'You young knights always want to go to tournaments. But is it fitting that the Knight of the Swan and

the Guardian of the Lightstone himself should abandon his charge to go off seeking glory?'

'No, it is not,' I said to him. I held my hand out toward the Lightstone. 'And that is why we will have to take it with us.'

As I now explained to Lord Tanu, no less my father and Lansar Raasharu and everyone else, there were good reasons for risking the Lightstone by taking it on the road. First I had vowed that all the Valari kingdoms would share in its radiance. Second, if King Waray should grant me or another Meshian knight the boon of entering the Brotherhood's school, the Lightstone would be needed to open any thought stones. Third, although there was obvious danger in taking the Lightstone out of the Elahad castle, there was perhaps an equal danger in keeping it here, as the night's events had proved. And fourth, if it should be proven that I was the Maitreya, the Lightstone must be close at hand for me to claim.

When I had completed my argument, everyone remained silent and looked at my father to see what he might say. He gazed at me for many moments before he finally spoke: 'It is hard to imagine losing this great light that has come into our castle so soon after gaining it.'

'We have each of us given our word, sir. Shouldn't we honor this?'

'Are you asking my permission to remove from my hall the greatest treasure in the world? And to take from my kingdom a hundred of its finest knights?'

He nodded at Baltasar as his radiant eyes looked past the Lightstone at the Guardians who stood around it. And then he turned back toward me.

'Yes, your permission, sir,' I said to him.

'Is that truly mine to give?'

'Should not a king command his own son? 'His son, yes,' he said as he regarded me strangely. He bowed his head to me, slightly, then continued, 'A king is charged with the safeguarding of his kingdom and ordering its affairs — and so commanding those who follow him. But he has a greater charge as well, and that is to the kingdom of the earth and all of life. This realm, however he does not rule. If he should lose his son to this higher realm, how then should he presume to command him?'

A sharp pain filled my throat as I looked at my father. The great passages of life were always sad. I could find no words to say to him.