David Zindell - The Lightstone

We took our places behind the battlements of the west wall. There we found one of Lord Grayam't knights speaking in low tones to Kane. It was very dark there, the only illumination being the fire of the torches in the courtyard below and the far-off glimmer of the stars. It would't do to give the enemy's archers targets to shoot at if Count Ulanu should move them into range during the night.

'So,' Kane said, pointing out at the strip of dark, barren ground that separated the walls from the rest of the city. 'They'll at least try to move their siege engines in as close as they can before morning.'

I looked across the barren ground down toward the houses of the city. With no one left to light their hearths they were strangely dark. Beyond them, in the thicker dark, farther to the west, I could just make out the lines of the outer wall. While we had been in the infirmary with Maram, Count Ulanu's engineers had breached its gates.

The sounds of him bringing up his army lent a chill to the air. There came a squeaking of the axles of many carts and wagons, and iron-shod wheels rolling over the paving atones of the empty streets. Thousands of boots striking stone, jangling steel, whinnying horses, hateful shouts and the incessant howling of the Blues – this was the cacophony we had to endure those long houis after dusk in place of the nightingale's song or other music.

After a while, Lord Grayam walked down the battlements toward us and approached Kane. He told him. 'Thank you for your work at the gate. It's said that but for your sword, the enemy would have broken through.'

'So, my sword, yes,' Kane said, nodding his head. 'And those of a hundred others, Captain Donalam's foremost among them.'

In the dim torchlight I thought I caught a gleam of water in both Grayam's eyes. 'I've been told that my son was stunned by an axe-blow and thus taken before he could regain his wits.'

Kane, who didn't like to lie, lied to Lord Crayam now. I sensed both untruth and a terrible sadness in him as his dark eyes filled with a rare compassion.

'I'm sure he never regained his wits,' he said. 'I'm sure he sleeps with the dead.'

'Let us hope so,' Lord Grayam said, swallowing against the lump in his throat.

'There's little enough hope left for us now.'

To cheer him, and myself, I finally told him of what we had found in the Library earlier that day. I brought forth the False Gelstei and pressed the little bowl into his hands. As the night deepened, Kane and Maram recounted the story of Master Juwain finding Master Aluino's journal. And then Atara, whose memory was like a glittering net that seemed to gather in all things, quoted from it almost word for word.

'Is it possible that Master Aluino told true?' lord Grayam exclaimed. 'That the Lightstone is still in Argattha?'

He turned the False Gelstet about in his hands as if it might provide an answer to his question. And then he said to us, 'This is why we fight. And this is why we must prevail tomorrow at any cost. Do you see what treasures we have here? How can we let them be lost?'

He thanked me for telling him of our find and delivering the cup to him, according to our promise. And then he told us, 'You're truly noble all of you. With such virtue on our side, we might yet win this battle.'

Time is strange. That night near the ides of Soal, as measured by the sands of an hourglass, was rather short as summer nights are. But as measured by the sufferings of the soul, it seemed to drag on forever. Count Ulanu's men were determined that none of us should sleep. The half-moon rose to the Blues' relentless howls, which grew louder and more ferocious as the world turned past midnight. From the darkness beyond the wall came a clamor of axes being struck together and the pommels of swords banging against shields. Iron hammers beat against nails as terrible screams split the night.

We were closer to the Tearam here, and I listened for the river's cleansing sound beneath all this noise. Beyond it, to the north, Mount Salmas was humped in shadows as was Mount Redruth to the east. More than once I turned away from the wall facing this dark peak. In that direction lay Argattha and my home; from the east, in only a few hours or less, would come the rising of the sun and the hope of a new day.

But when the morning finally broke free from the gray of twilight and the forms of the dark earth began to sharpen, a terrible sight greeted all who stood behind the battlements. For there, set into the ground along the barren strip in front of the walls, were forty wooden crosses. The naked bodies of men and three women were nailed to them. The rising wind carried their moans and cries up to us.

'Oh, my Lord!' Maram said to me. 'Oh, too bad!'

Atara, pressing close to my side as she looked out the crenel before us, let loose a soft cry of her own, saying, 'Oh, no – look Val! It's Alphanderry!'

I stared along the line of her pointed finger, peering out into the dawn. My eyes were not as keen as hers; at first all I could make out was the torment of men writhing on their bloodstained wooden towers. And then as the light grew stronger, I saw that the middlemost of the crosses bore the body of our friend. Cords running across his brow bound his head to the cross so that it wouldn't fall forward and we could get a good look at his face. His eyes were open and gazed out at the sky as if he were still hoping to catch sight of the Morning Star before the sun rose and devoured the dreams of night in its fiery wrath.

'Is he alive?' Maram asked me.

For a moment, I closed my eyes, remembering. Then I looked at the remains of Alphanderry as I felt for the beating of his heart, 'No, he's dead. And five days dead at that.'

'Then why crucify him? He's beyond all pain now.'

'He is, but we're not, eh?' Kane said, clenching his fist in fury. If his fingernails had been claws, they would have torn open his palms. 'Count Ulanu desecrates the dead in order to kill the hope of the living.'

It was why he had crucified the others, too. These, however, were all still alive and all too keenly aware of the agonies that they suffered It took at least two days to die upon the cross and sometimes much longer.

'Look!' one of the Librarians said, pointing at the cross next to Alphanderry's. 'It's Captain Donalam!'

Captain Donalam, hanging there helplessly, his anguished face caked with black blood, looked up toward the wall in silent supplication. I saw him meet eyes with his father. What passed between them was terrible to behold. I felt Lord Grayam's heart break open, and then there was nothing left inside him except defeat and a desire to die in his son's place.

'Look!' another Librarian said. 'There's Josam Sharod!'

And so it went, the knights on the wall calling out the names of their friends and companions – and of those few shepherds and farmers that Count Ulanu's men had captured outside the walls during his march upon the city.

A little while later, someone called out our names. We turned to see Liljana climbing the stairs to the wall, bearing a big pot of soup that she had made us for breakfast.

She set it down and joined us in looking out at the crosses.

'Alphanderry!' she cried out as if he were her own child. 'Why did they do this to you?'

'So,' Kane growled, 'the Dragon's priests make every abomination, seek every opportunity to degrade the human spirit.'

Just then, four of Count Ulanu's knights rode out from behind the line of crosses.

Atara fit an arrow to her bow to greet them, but she didn't fire it because one the knights bore a white flag. She listened, as we all did, when the knights stopped their horses beneath the walls and one of them called up to Lord Grayam requesting a parley.

'Count Ulanu would speak with you as to making a peace,' this proud-faced knight said.