David Zindell - The Lightstone

When had I finished speaking, I took another long drink of wine and blamed it for loosening my tongue. But Pualani looked at me with the opposite of blame. She bowed her head and said, 'Thank you for opening your heart to us, Sar Valashu.

Now at least it's clear how you entered our wood. You must be very wise to entrust your fate to your horse. And he must be blessed with much more than wisdom to be drawn by the Forest.'

She nodded toward a grove of apple trees nearby where the Lokilani had tethered our horses. Then she continued, 'If you hadn't been so forthcoming, we would have understood nothing about you. As it is, we can make sense of only a very little.'

She went on to say that the world of castles and quests and old books full of words were as unknown to the Lokilani as the stars must be to us. She had never heard of the Nine Kingdoms, nor even of Alonia, in whose great forests the Forest abided. In truth, she denied that any king could have a claim upon her woods or that it might be a part of any kingdom, unless that kingdom be the world itself. As she said, the Lokilani were the first people, the true people, and the Forest was the true world.

'Once, before the Earthkiller came and men cut down the great trees, there was only the Forest,' she told us. 'Here the Lokilani have lived since the beginning of time.

And here we will remain until the stars die.'

Atara, who had been silent until now, caught Pualani's eye and said, 'It may be that King Kiritan has no true claim upon your realm. But he would think he had. Your woods lie very close to the more cultivated parts of Alonia. Aren't you afraid that, the king's men will some day come to cut them down?'

'No, this we do not fear,' Pualani said. 'Your people build a world of stone cities and armies and swords. But this not the world. Very little in your world can touch the Forest now.'

'What about the Earthkiller?' I asked her.

Again, a dark look fell over Pualani's face; I was reminded of winter storm clouds smothering a bright Sue sky.

She Earthkiller has great power,' she admitted. 'And great allies, too. These Stonefaces of yours have tried to enter the Forest in our dreams even as they entered yours.'

'But they haven't tried to broach it, in their bodies?' 'No – they will never find their way into our woods. And if they do, they will never find their way out alive.'

'Still,' I said, 'it must be a great temptation for them to try. There are things here that the Lord of Lies would give a great deal to know: how you grow trees to such great heights and grow gems from the very ground.'

'It is the earth that grows these things, not we. No more than a midwife grows the children she helps deliver.'

'Perhaps that's true,' I said. I touched my scar where the midwife's tongs had once cut me. 'But a midwife would be no more than a butcher without the skills taught her.

It's this knowledge that the Lord of Illusions seeks.'

'You seem to know a great deal of what he would wish to know.'

Truly, I thought as I recalled my dream, I did know much more of Morjin's mind than I wanted to. I certainly knew enough to perceive that if he could, he would crush the secrets from the Lokilani as readily as he would grapes beneath his boots.

'There is one thing he seeks above all else,' I said. 'The same thing that we seek.'

'This is the Lightstone that you spoke of, yes? But what is this stone? Is it an emerald? A great ruby or a diamond?'

'No, it is a cup – a plain golden cup.'

Here, Master Juwain broke in to tell of the gelstei and of how these great crystals had been made through many long ages of Ea's history. And the greatest of all the gelstei, he said, was the gold, which most men believed had been created by the Star People and brought to earth at the beginning of the Lost Ages. But he admitted that many also thought that the Lightstone had been forged and cast into the shape of a cup in the Blue Mountains of Alonia sometime during the Age of Swords. Whatever the truth really was, the Lord of Lies sought not only the Lightstone itself but the secret of its making.

'He would certainly create a Lightstone of his own, if he could,' Master Juwain said.

'And so he would certainly steal from you any knowledge of growing and shaping crystals that might help him.'

Pualani sat very straight pulling on the emeralds of her necklace. She looked at Master Juwain for a long moment, and then at Atara, Maram and me. She asked us why we sought the Lightstone. We each answered as best we could. When we had finished speaking, she said, 'The gold gelstei brings light, as you say. And yet this lord of darkness seeks it above all other things. Why, we want to know, why, why?'

'Because,' Master Juwain said, 'the gold gives power over all the other gelstei except perhaps the silver. It gives immortality, too. And perhaps much else that we don't know of.'

'But it is light, you say, pure light bound into a cup of gold?' 'Even light can be used to read good or evil words in a book,' Master Juwain told her. ' Just as too much light can burn or blind.'

I sat thinking about this for a moment and then I added, 'Even if this cup brought the Red Dragon no light at all, he would take joy in keeping others from it.'

'Oh, that is bad, very, very bad/ Pualani said. She bent forward to confer with Danali. After looking at Elan in silent understanding, she told us, There is great danger here for the Lokilani. A danger we never saw.'

'My apologies,' I said, 'for bringing such evil tidings.'

'No, no, you mustn't apologize,' Pualani said. 'And you've brought nothing evil into our woods, so we hope, so we pray. It may be that you're an emissary of the Ellama after all, even if you didn't know it.'

I looked down at the leaves on the ground because I didn't know what to say.

'The Ellama still watches over the Forest,' she told us. 'The Galad a'Din haven't forgotten the Lokilani, they would never forget.'

I smiled sadly at this because I supposed the Galadin had looked away from the ways and wars of Ea long ago.

'And we haven't forgotten them, we must never forget,' Pualani said to us. 'And so we celebrate this remembrance and their eternal presence among us. Will you help us celebrate, Sar Valashu Elahad?'

She looked straight at me then, and her eyes were twin emeralds, all green and blazing like life itself.

'Yes, of course,' I told her. 'Even as you've helped us.'

'And you, Prince Maram Marshayk – will you help us, too?'

Maram eyed his empty cup and the jug of wine that had found its way to the end of the table. He licked his lips and said, 'Help you celebrate? Does a bear eat honey if you hold it to his face? Does a horse have to be kicked to eat sweet grass?'

'Very good,' Pualani said, nodding at him. Then she smiled at Atara and asked, 'And what about you, Atara of the Manslayers? Will you celebrate the coming of the Gaiad a'Din?'

'I will,' Atara told her, nodding her head.

Pualani now turned to Master Juwain, and asked him this same question as if reciting the words to a ritual. And he replied, 'I would like very much to celebrate with you, but I'm afraid my vows don't permit me to drink wine.'

'Then you may keep your vows,' Pualani said, 'for it's not wine we drink in remembrance of the Shining Ones.'

At this news, Maram looked crestfallen, and he said, 'What do you drink, then?'

'Only fire,' Pualani said, smiling at him, 'But it might be more precise to say that we eat it.'

'Eat?' Maram said groaning as he held his bulging belly. 'Eat what? I don't think I can eat another bite.'

'Does a bear eat honey when it's held to his face?' Pualani asked him with a coy smile.

'You have honey?' Maram asked her. 'I thought the Lokilani didn't eat honey.'

'We. don't,' Pualani told him. 'But we have something much sweeter.'