David Zindell - The Lightstone

The first ruins we came upon occupied an area about a half mile south of the tower.

Much of the blasted stone there lay upon the ground in rectangular patterns or still stood as broken walls. We guessed it to be the remains of buildings, perhaps dormitories and dining halls and other such structures that the ancient scryers must have used. We dismounted, and began walking slowly among the mounds of rattling rock.

If the Lightstone lay buried beneath it, I thought, we might dig for a hundred years before uncovering it.

'But there is no reason that Sartan Odinan would have hidden it here,' Master Juwain said. He pointed straight toward the Tur-Solonu to the north, and then due east a quarter of a mile where stood the scorched columns of what must have been the scryers' temple. 'Surely he would have hidden it there. Or perhaps inside the Tower itself.'

Atara, standing with her hand shielding her eyes from the sun, pointed at another fallen-in structure a quarter mile due west of the Tower. It stood – if that was the right word – next to a swift stream running down from the mountains. 'What is that?' she asked.

'Probably the ruins of the baths,' Kane said. 'At least, that was my guess the first time I came here.'

'You never did tell us why you came here,' Atara said, fixing her bright eyes upon him.

'No, I didn't, did I?' Kane said. He gazed at the Tower, and it seemed he might retreat into one of his deep, scowling silences. And then he said, 'When I was younger, I wanted to see the wonders of the world. So, now I've seen them.'

Maram was now walking slowly among the shattered buildings; he paused from time to time as he looked back and forth toward the tower as if measuring angles and distances with his quick brown eyes. After a while, he said, 'Well, there's still much of the ruins we haven't seen. It's growing late – why don't we begin our search before it grows too late?'

'But where should we begin?' Master Juwain asked.

'Surely in the Temple,' Liljana said. Although her face remained calm and controlled as it usually was, I knew that she was tingling inside with I a rare impatience.

'But what about the Tower?' Master Juwain asked. 'Shouldn't we climb it and see what is there?'

For a time, as the sun dropped quickly behind the mountains, the two of them argued as to where we should direct our efforts. Finally, I held up my hand and said,

'Such explorations will likely take longer than the hour of light we have left. Why don't we leave them until tomorrow?'

These were some of the hardest words I had ever spoken. If the others were trembling inside to find the Lightstone that very day, I was on fire.

'Why don't we walk around the Tower first,' I said, 'and see what we can see?'

The others reluctandy agreed to this, and so we began leading the horses in a wide spiral around the Tower. Soon we came to a circle of standing stones about four hundred yards from it. That is, some of the stones were still standing, while most were scorched and lying flat on the grass as if some impossibly strong wind had blown them over. Each stone was cut of granite, and twice the height of a tall man.

The entire area was also peppered with smaller stones, likewise melted, which we took to be the broken remains of the Tower, There were many of them, all of a white marble nowhere visible in the rock of the surrounding mountains.

'Look!' Maram said, pointing at the ground closer to the Tower. 'There are more stones over there.'

A hundred yards closer in toward the Tower, we found another circle of the larger stones half-buried in the grass. Only a few of these were still standing. They were covered with splotches of green and orange lichens that seemed to have been growing for thousands of years.

No sooner had we begun walking around these stones, than Maram descried yet a third circle of them fallen down closer still to the Tower. We moved from stone to stone around toward the east in the direction of the temple. Neither I nor any of the others was sure what we might be looking for among them if not the Lightstone itself. But their configuration was intriguing. Master Juwain believed they had been set to mark the precession of the constellations or some other astrological event.

Liljana, however, questioned this. With one of her mysterious smiles that hid more than it revealed, she said, 'The ancient scryers, I think, cared more about the earth than they did the stars.'

Maram, who was in no mood for learned disputes, continued leading the way around the circle. Soon we found ourselves to the north of the Tur-Solonu, directly along the line leading toward the apex of the notch. Without warning, Maram began walking toward the second circle as he studied the fallen stones and the scorch marks on the few standing ones with great care. When he reached the wide ring of stones, he stopped to point at a huge stone overturned and sunken into the ground.

It lay by itself exactly at the midpoint between the second and third circles. It was thrice as long as any of the other stones and must have once stood nearly forty feet high.

'Look there's something about this stone!' he said. Again, he stood measuring distances with his eyes. He was breathing hard now, and his face was flushed.

Inside, he was all pulsing blood and pure, sweet fire. 'This is the place – I know it is!'

So saying, he hurried over to one of the packhorses and unslung the axe that it carried. With the axe in his hands and a wild gleam in his eyes, he rushed back to the end of the great stone and there fell upon it with a fury of motion most unlike him.

'Hold now! What are you doing?' Kane yelled at him. He rushed over and grabbed Maram from behind. 'You fat fool – that's good steel you're mining!'

Maram managed one last swipe with the axe before Kane's grip tightened around him. By then it was too late: the axe's edge was already notched and splintered from chopping into cold, hard stone.

'Let me go!' Maram shouted, kicking at the ground like a maddened bull, 'Let me go, I said!'

And then the impossible happened: he broke free from Kane's mighty armlock. He raised the axe above his head, and I was afraid he might use it to brain the astonished Kane.

It's here!' Maram shouted. 'A couple more good blows ought to free it!'

'What is here?' Kane growled at him.

'The gelstei,' Maram said. 'The firestone. Can't you see that when this stone was still standing, the Red Dragon must have mounted the red gelstei on top of it to bum down the Tower?'

Suddenly, we all did see this. Looking south toward the Tur-Solonu and all the other structures and stones in the notch, we could all see to our minds the blasts of fire that must have once erupted from this spot.

'Well, even if you're right,' Kane said to him, 'why should you think the firestone is still here?'.

'How do I know my heart is here?' Maram said, thumping the flat of the axe against his ches. t Then he pointed at the end of the: stone, which was all bubbled and fused as if it had once been touched by a great heat. 'It is here. Can't you see it must have melted itself into the stone?'

Again, he raised up the axe, and again Kane called to him, 'Hold, now! If you must have at it, don't ruin our axe beyond all repair.'

'What should I use then – my teeth?'

Kane strode over to the second packhorse. where he found a hammer and one of the iron stakes we used to picket the horses. He gave them to Maram and said, 'Here use these.'

With his new tools, Maram set to work, panting heavily as he hammered the stake's iron point against the stone, little gray chips flew into the air as iron rang against iron; dust exploded upward and powdered Maram all over. Twice, he missed his mark, and the hammer's edge bloodied his knuckles. But he made no complaint hammering now with a rare purpose that I had seen in him only in his pursuit of women.