David Zindell - The Lightstone

'Thank you, Asaru,' I told him. 'But you had me worried,' he said.

'When the news came from Ishka, about the Bog, we all gave up hope.'

I looked deep into the essential innocence gathering in his dark eyes, and I said, 'All except you.'

We clasped hands so tightly that my fingers hurt. And he said, 'You've changed, Valashu.'

All at once, as if ice were breaking beneath me, I felt myself plunging into unbearably cold waters. There pooled all the pain of Atara's blinding, of Kane's darkened soul, of Alphanderry's death.

'Valashu,' my brother said.

I blinked my eyes to see him suddenly weeping as all the anguish inside me flowed into him. I knew then that the gift of valarda that my grandfather had bestowed upon me had not left Asaru untouched. It lay waiting to be awakened in all Valari, perhaps in all men.

Now the twelve thousand warriors of Ishka and the ten thousand of Mesh had finally closed and met all about us in the middle of the field. At the commands of the warlords and captains, they laid their spears and shields down upon the snow. Its white crystals, like millions of diamonds, shimmered with blues and golds and reds.

Soon the morning sun would melt the ground's cold covering, even as the Lightstone melted six thousand years of hatred, envy and suspicion. I turned to watch the warriors of King Hadaru and King Shamesh passing the cup from hand to hand, along the ranks, up one file and then down another. The Valari drank in its radiance through their bright eyes and through their hands. It blazed like the sun through their beings. In each of them, as in Asaru, I saw a golden cup pouring out its light from inside their hearts. It melted them open, melted the very diamond armor encasing them. And in this grade that seemed almost an illusion but was as real as the water in my eyes, as real as my love for Asaru and for my brothers, for my father and King Hadaru and all the Ishkans, it melted even me.

'Look,' Asaru said, pointing up at the sky, 'there's a good sign.' I followed the line of his finger to see a great flock of swans winging their way south as they flew over the Upper Raaswash into Mesh. As my heart opened to this glorious sight, and to the hearts of the twenty thousand jubilant Valari all around me, I knew that the valarda was truly the greatest of gifts. For the joy of my brothers in arms and fellow guardians came flooding into me, and I felt myself soaring through the sky as well.

'Tonight,' Asaru said, still looking at the swans, 'they'll sleep at home. As we will soon enough, since there will be no war. What will you do, Valashu, now that you've found the Lightstone?'

What would I do, I wondered?

I turned to watch the swans disappear over the mountains to the south. In that direction lay the Valley of the Swans and the three great peaks above my father's castle. My mother and grandmother would be waiting for me there – even as my grandfather waited in another place. Atara was waiting in darkness for our son to be born and behold the beauty of the world. Where the stars burned cold and clean and bright, there the Elijin and Galadin waited for the Shining One to come forth. All people everywhere, and all things, always waiting.

And I must wait a little longer, too. The Quest had been fulfilled but one task remained: I must show my grandfather the golden cup that he knew would one day be found. And so, soon, on a clear winter night, I would climb Mount Telshar or Arakel and stand upon the summit with the Lightstone in my hand. I would breathe the cold breath of all those who had come before me; I would dream my fiery dreams and speak my promise to the stars: that darkness would be defeated, that men and women would soar the heavens with wings of light, that someday the Lightstone would be returned to that bright, blazing place from which it came.