David Zindell - The Lightstone

And as he made his music, flick suddenly appeared above him and whirled around and around like a tiny dancer raimented in pure light. Alphanderry, I thought couldn't see him nor could any of the nobles gathering around him. But I felt Maram's hand squeeze my shoulder as Atara flashed me a look of relief almost as sweet as Alphandery's singing.

At the end of his song, he lowered his mandolet and smiled sadly. I, like everyone else, was filled with a sense that he had been singing just for me. We looked at each other for a moment, and he seemed to know how deeply his music had touched me.

But there was no pride or vanity in him at this accomplishment, only a quiet joy that he had been gifted with the voice of the angels.

'That was lovely,' Queen Daryana said to him as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

'Galda's loss is Alonia's gain. And Ea's, as well.'

Alphanderry bowed to her, then gripped the gold medallion that King Kiritan had given him. Now his smile was happy and bright; like a butterfly among flowers, he seemed able to flit easily from one color of emotion to another.

'Thank you, Queen Daryana,' he told her. 'I haven't had the privilege of singing before such an appreciative audience for a long time.'

Baron Narcavage stepped forward and raised the wine bottle that he still held. He said, 'Allow us then to show our appreciation with some of this. I think you'll like the vintage – it's Caldan, from the King's special reserve. I was just about to pour Sar Valashu and the Queen a glass.'

So saying, he motioned to a groom, who brought over a tray of goblets. The Baron uncorked the wine, then poured the dark red liquid into eight of them. He handed the goblets one by one to me and my friends, and to Alphandeny and the Queen. The last one he took for himself. I thought it rude of him to ignore Sar Yarwan and the Valari knights – and everyone else who gathered around looking at us. Liljana Ashvaran seemed especially watchful of this little ceremony. She stood with her little nostrils sniffing the air as if any wine not offered to her must be sour.

'To the King,' the Baron called out. 'May his life be a long one. May we honor him in drinking his health as he has honored us in requesting our presence at his fiftieth birthday and the calling of the Quest.'

He nodded at the King, who was still talking with his dukes near the fountain while a dozen of his guards kept watch nearby. Kane, who stood a few yards from me scowling at his goblet, turned to scowl at the King instead. Then I gripped my goblet tightly in my hand as I looked down into the blood-red wine.

'It's not poison, Sar Valashu,' the Baron said to me. 'Do you think the King would poison you in front of his guests?'

I looked into the wine, which smelled of cinnamon and flowers and the strange spices of Galda. I could almost taste its fragrant sweetness. 'Do you think I would drink poison wine?' he said. Then he put the rim of the golden goblet to his thick lips and took a long drink. 'Come now, Sar Valashu, drink with me. All of you – drink!'

I sensed in him no intention to harm me, only a sudden exuberance and desire to win my good regard – most likely to atone for his previous unkindness. And that, I thought, was a noble thing indeed. Kane and my friends were watching to see what I would do. The Queen and Alphanderry, and Liljana Ashvaran – everyone was watching and waiting for me to take a drink of the King's wine.

Just as I was lifting the goblet to my lips, however, Liljana suddenly rushed toward me, crying out, 'No, it is poison – don't drink it!'

The certainty in her voice shocked me; I whirled around toward her to see if she might have fallen mad. Many things happened then almost in the same moment.

Baron Narcavage, standing to the other side of me, looked toward King Kiritan and cried out, 'To me!' He drew a long dagger and lunged at my throat even as Liljana knocked the goblet from my hand. Alphanderry, who was nearer to me than any of my friends, suddenly jumped between me and the Baron. He grabbed at the Baron's knife arm with both hands and stood locked in a desperate struggle with him. If not for his inexplicable courage, the knife would surely have torn open my throat.

For that was surely the Baron's true intention. I saw it clearly now in the way his face fell into a fury of hate as he clubbed Alphanderry's head with his other hand, ripped free his knife and lunged at me again. Now, however, Liljana was close enough to grab his arm. She held onto it with all the tenacity of a hound, even as he cursed at her, beat at her with his other arm and knocked her about Then I struck out with my fist straight into his bearded face. I felt my knuckles almost break against his thick jawbone. But he seemed invulnerable to pain and possessed of insane strength. He shook his knife arm free and aimed another lunge toward my throat. He would have killed me if Kane hadn't come up then and run him through with his sword. The Baron fell dead to the grass. Alphanderry stood dazed, shaking his bleeding head.

From the trees planted across the palace grounds, the nightingales sang their songs.

Then I became aware of a great clamor toward the fountains. Spears clashed against shields; swords crossed with swords, and the sound of outraged steel rang out to a great chorus of curses and shouts. Knights and ladies were running away in great numbers, even as the King's guards fell upon one another. At first, I thought they had fallen mad. And then I saw the King slash his sword toward one of his dukes while five of his guards fought fiercely to protect him from the others. They were trying to kill the King, I realized. And other men – all with badges bearing the oaks and eagles of House Narcavage – were running toward us to kill the Queen.

Or so I thought, for it didn't occur to me that they might be coming to kill me. There were nearly thirty of these knights; they appeared out of the throngs of panicked people like vultures from the clouds. Their swords were drawn and gleaming in the moonlight. 'To me!' the Baron had called out, and now I understood to whom he had been calling. His men must have seen him fall, for their faces were masks of determination and hate as they came at us.

Queen Daryana cried out as she saw her husband fighting for his life and positioned herself near Alphanderry for the protection he offered, as did Liljana and Master Juwain. The rest of us stared at our attackers as we decided what to do.

We had no one to lead us, or rather too many: Sar Yarwan, Sar lanar and the other five Valari knights – and Kane, Maram, Atara and myself. The leading of others into battle, my father once told me, is a strange thing. It depends not so much on rank or authority, but rather on the courage to see what must be done and the mysterious ability to communicate one's faith that victory is not only possible but inevitable. For only a moment, we stood there confused by the violence that Baron Narcavage had unleashed. And then I looked at the two diamonds shining like stars from my ring. A light flashed in my eyes, and in my heart, and I suddenly called out: 'Form a circle!

Protect the Queen!'

For another moment, my command hung in the air. And then, as on the drill field, Sar Yarwan and the other Valari knights formed up into a circle around Queen Daryana. Savages the King had called us, and savages we were: savages whose swords were our souls, and we called kalamas.

We drew them now just in time to meet the attack of Baron Narcavage's men. Kane stood to my right, and Atara and Maram to my left – all of us facing outward, Sar Yarwan guarded the point of the circle directly across and in back of me. We were only eleven against some thirty knights. And yet when our swords were done flashing and stabbing and rending flesh, all of them lay dead or dying in the grass.