David Zindell - The Lightstone

'Illusion!' Salmelu cried out again. His squinting at the bloodstone crinkled the red dragon tattooed into his forehead. 'What you see is surely an illusion cast by this evil stone!'

I put away the bloodstone then, and watched as the red mark disappeared.

'Do you see?' Salmelu said. 'It's gone, isn't it?' I drew my sword an inch from its sheath. I touched my thumb to its blade, drawing blood. Then I pressed my thumb to the middle of Salmelu's forehead. The ink seared into his flesh grabbed at my blood and held some part of it. When I pulled back, the dragon tattoo now stood out red as blood for all to see. 'A trick!' he called. 'Another trick!'

He managed to wrench free his arm, and he clawed his hand furiously at his forehead in a vain attempt to rub away the mark that would remain there to his death. 'Is this a trick?' I asked him.

As the Ishkan lords regained their hold on him, I placed my hand on the dagger at his belt and drew it. I showed it to King Hadaru. Its blade was coated with a dark blue substance that could only be kirax. 'During the battle,' I said to him, 'if you weren't struck down, he was to have touched you with this.'

King Hadaru's eyes locked on Salmelu in disbelief. 'Why?' he asked him softly.

Salmelu, now seeing that his lies would no longer be believed, tried hate and terror instead.

'Because you're a blind old fool who can't see what must be done!' He tried to twist free from the men holding him, but could not. 'All the Valari – fools! Can't you see that Morjin will rule Ea? If we oppose him, he'll annihilate us. But if we serve him, he'll make us kings and lords over other men!'

King Hadaru climbed down from his horse. He drew out his sword and stepped in front of me. Then he raised it up above Salmelu's neck. In his wrathful eyes was horror and hate of his son – and a terrible love as well.

'Hold!' my father called out from on top of his horse. 'King Hadaru, hold! None of us would see a man slay his own son.'

'If not I, then who else?' King Hadaru said. 'My son has earned this death – no man more so.'

'So he has,' my father agreed. 'But let there be no blood spilled here today.'

His eyes met mine in a twinkle of light and then he glanced down at my hand. 'No more blood, that is.'

King Hadaru's sword wavered above Salmelu's neck. I knew that he did not want to kill him. And my father knew this as well. 'May a king ask another king for mercy?'

'Very well,' King Hadaru said. As quickly as he had drawn his sword, he sheathed it.

Although it was he who should have thanked my father, his manner suggested that he had granted him a great boon.

'Let me go, then!' Salmelu screamed out.

'Yes, let him go,' King Hadaru commanded his men.

As Lord Mestivan and the others set Salmelu free, King Hadaru took the tainted dagger from me, then bent and thrust it through the snow into the ground beneath.

He walked over to Salmelu's horse. He grabbed up the shield slung there and cast it to the ground as well. His war lance and three throwing lances followed in quick succession. Then, as Salmelu's cold eyes met the even colder stare of his father, King Hadaru commanded that Salmelu's helmet, armor, and ring be stripped from him. This was done. He stood almost naked in his underpadding before the lords of Mesh and Ishka waiting to hear his father pronounce his judgment.

'This is not yet Ishkan soil,' King Hadaru said, 'and so not even the King of Ishka can banish you from it. But you are so banished from Ishka, forever. No one in my realm is to give you fire, bread or salt.'

'And in my realm as well, Prince Salmelu,' my father said, 'you are denied fire, bread and salt.'

As twenty thousand men watched the badly shaking Salmelu, he climbed on top of his horse. Again he rubbed at the red dragon marking his forehead. And then, kicking his heels into his horse, he screamed out, 'Damn you, Valari!'

And with that he thundered off across the battlefield cursing and screaming. When he reached the Lower Raaswash, he drove his horse in a savage gallop through its swift waters. From the Raaswash to the Culhadosh was a distance of ten miles. And on the other side of that river was the kingdom of Waas.

After Salmelu had disappeared into the woods beyond the Raaswash, I turned to address his father and my own.

'King Hadaru,' I said. Then I looked at my father, 'Sire, in all the Morning Mountains, no other kings have so great renown. But a war between Ishka and Mesh will only diminish both realms. It will only please the Lord of Lies – he who has schemed and sent out assassins so that this war might take place. Will you do the bidding of a false king?'

'The King of Ishka,' King Hadaru said, touching the white bear of his purple surcoat,

'does his own bidding and no other.'

With his bushy white hair whipping about in the wind, I could see that he was still wroth over what had occurred with Salmelu. He scowled at my father and said, 'The Lord of Lies' schemes notwithstanding, there are still grievances between our kingdoms. There is still the matter of Korukel and its diamonds.'

I took back the Lightstone from Maram and stood holding it. Then I looked at my father and said; 'Sire, let the Ishkans have the diamonds. They'll need many diamonds to make armor to face the Dragon in the wars that are to come. All the Valari will.'

My father, Shavashar Elahad, known throughout the Morning Moun tains as King Shamesh, was not a vindictive or grasping man. For a long time, it seemed, he had been looking for a good reason to cede the Ishkans their half of Mount Korukel.

Only the stubbornness and ferocity of his lords such as Lord Tanu and Lord Harsha had kept him from this course. But now, in light of all that had occurred here this day, their hearts softened, and the greatest lords of Mesh nodded their heads to my father in assent of what I had suggested.

'Very well,' he said to King Hadaru. He dismounted and walked over to him. 'You shall have your diamonds.'

At this grace, Asaru and others struck their lances against their shields that my father's wisdom had finally prevailed.

King Hadaru inclined his head very slightly in acceptance of his offer. And then, most ungraciously, he said, 'It is perhaps easy to surrender one treasure when a greater one has so unexpectedly been gained.' And with that, he turned toward me to stare at the Lightstone. I held the golden cup higher for all to see. Once before, on this same ground, Mesh and Ishka had fought over its possession, and the Ishkan king, Elsu Maruth, had been killed. As I looked upon the thousands of warriors who had taken the field here this day, I prayed that we would not fight over it again.

'King Hadaru,' I said, 'the Lightstone is to be kept by all the Valari. We are its guardians.'

And with that, much to his astonishment, I stepped forward and placed it in his hands.

While Ishkan lords and Meshians came down from their horses and pressed closer, he gazed at the cup in wonder. His grim, old eyes were wide like a child's.

Something coiled tightly inside him seemed suddenly to let go. Then he raised his head up and stood straight and tall, looking like one of the Valari kings of old. And in a clear voice he called out, 'Ishka will not make war with Mesh.'

He surprised even himself, I thought, in surrendering the Lightstone to my father. As his hands closed upon it, a golden radiance fell upon him. And in his noble countenance was revealed the lineaments of Telemesh, Aramesh and even Elahad himself.

'And Mesh,' my father told the assembled lords and knights, 'will not make war with ishka.'

Holding the cup in one hand, he stepped forward and clasped King Hadaru's hand with his other. As squires were sent off to report this news to the captains of the two armies, my father looked at the Lightstone and asked me, 'How were you led to find it?'