David Zindell - The Diamond Warriors

She started laughing then, and so did I: deep, belly laughs that shook the whole of my body and brought tears to my eyes. I drew Atara closer, and kissed her lips, her forehead and the white band of cloth covering the empty spaces where her eyes used to be. And I whispered in her ear: ‘I will miss you so badly – as the night does the sun.’

‘And I will miss you,’ she told me. ‘Until I see you again in the darkest of places, where it seems there is no sun – only Valashu, the Morning Star.’

She kissed me then, long and deeply, and I didn’t think she would have cared if anyone had heard the murmurs of delight and fear within our throats or had seen us sitting with our arms wrapped around each other for what seemed like hours. At last, though, we broke apart. Atara said that she had to go feed her horse and prepare for a long journey. And I must prepare to meet my fate – or make it – when the sun rose on the morrow.

On the twenty-first day of Soldru, early on a morning of blue skies and brilliant sunlight, I put on my diamond armor and girded my sword at my side. When I came out of my pavilion, my companions and counselors stood on the crushed grass of our encampment’s central lane waiting for me. I nodded at Lord Avijan, tall and grave, and resplendent in his blue surcoat emblazoned with its golden boar. Likewise I greeted Lord Harsha, Lord Sharad, Lord Noldashan and others. Maram also had donned a suit of diamond armor, as had Kane. My invincible friend stood between Atara and Liljana as if ready to ride on a pleasant outing in the countryside – or to go to war. His harsh face radiated anticipation, wrath, joy and his fiery will to crush anyone who opposed him. I had thought that he must spend the next few days or weeks recuperating from his dreadful wound. I should have known better. According to what Liljana later told me, Kane had awakened before dawn calling for a haunch of bloody meat. He had drawn great strength from this savage meal, hour by hour regaining his nearly bottomless vitality. With a new adventure now at hand, he seemed ready to battle any or all of Lord Tomavar’s knights on my behalf.

‘So, Val,’ he said to me with a nod of his head, ‘this is the day.’

With Sar Shivalad, Sar Jonavar, Sar Kanshar and Joshu Kadar acting as my guardians, I led forth down the lane and into the square. The two thousand warriors and knights who had originally pledged to Lord Avijan stood drawn up in full battle armor along its eastern side. The sun poured down upon their neat, sparkling ranks. So it was with Lord Tanu’s men and Lord Tomavar’s, at the southern and western edges of the square. Along the northern perimeter, the Lords Ramanu, Bahram and Kharashan had arrayed their smaller forces in three separate groupings, next to a veritable mob of the two thousand free warriors. Into the square’s four corners crowded the women, children, old men and a few outlanders who had come to witness the day’s events. I reminded myself that they must be evacuated from the field at the first sign of trouble.

I walked straight out to the center of the square with my companions, and so it was with the other lords who would be king. I paid little heed to either Lord Bahram or Lord Ramanu, or even Lord Kharashan, a thick, bullnecked old warrior whose square face showed little guile. Lord Tanu stood to my left with Lord Eldru, Sar Shagarth and the grizzled Lord Ramjay slightly behind him. A small, dark, dangerous-looking man, Lord Tanu’s cousin, Lord Manamar, had joined them as well.

Straight across from me waited Lord Tomavar. I had not seen him since the year before at the Culhadosh Commons, and he still looked much the same: very tall, with great broad shoulders and long arms used to swinging a sword. His white surcoat, draped over his heavily-muscled body, showed the black tower of his line. Grief still tormented his long, horsey face, which he positioned facing me square-on as if in challenge. I liked his eyes, for they were deep and quick and shone with a ready courage. My father had valued him greatly as the finest of tacticians and a warrior who inspired his men to fight with a terrible ferocity. And I knew that he had esteemed my father, though it seemed he held only grievance and suspicion toward me.

‘Lord Valashu Elahad,’ he said, greeting me formally, ‘I should like it made known from the beginning of this gathering that you do the warriors great insult in asking them to stand for you again, where they have already stood against you.’

His words, carried by his loud, deep, powerful voice, blasted out into the square. His rage and deep anguish stunned me. So did the fury that darkened his black eyes. He took advantage of my silence to try immediately to preempt my bid to become king.

‘Lord Tanu!’ he called out, turning to his right where Lord Tanu stood with Lord Manamar and his other captains. ‘We have marched in many campaigns and fought in many battles together. Your men trust you, even as King Shamesh did, and all those who know you. If I should be struck down here today by a bolt of lightning, is there anyone in Mesh who would make a better king? It is in recognition of your services to our land and your prowess as the greatest of knights that I would like to honor you. Command your warriors to pledge to me , and I shall make you Lord Protector of Mesh and Lord Commander of my army!’

Lord Tomavar’s captains – Lord Vishand, Sar Jarval and the elegant Lord Arajay Solval – pressed up close behind him as if they could not quite believe what they had just heard. They seemed as surprised as the rest of Lord Tomavar’s warriors, drawn up across the square. It seemed that Lord Tomavar’s offer to Lord Tanu had been an inspiration of the moment, based upon Lord Tomavar’s keen instincts and his reading of Lord Tanu.

‘Lord Protector, you say!’ Lord Tanu cried out. He tried not to let his amazement show on his tight, sour face. ‘And Lord Commander of all the army?’

‘Second only to myself,’ Lord Tomavar told him. ‘The command of all the infantry shall be yours.’

As the infantry in our army outnumbered the cavalry by more than ten to one, it was a magnanimous offer.

‘Command your warriors to pledge to me,’ Lord Tomavar said again, ‘and we can bring an end to this conclave, here and now!’

If Lord Tanu did as Lord Tomavar asked, then more than ten thousand of the nearly sixteen thousand warriors gathered around the square would stand for Lord Tomavar, and he would become king.

‘Val,’ Maram murmured at my shoulder, ‘ do something, before it is too late!’

Slightly behind Maram stood Daj, Estrella, Master Juwain, Liljana and Atara. And Kane, who growled out, ‘So, it’s a deal that this Tomavar would make!’

As a tactic, Lord Tomavar’s offer to Lord Tanu was bold and brilliant, and I could feel Lord Tanu nearly burning to incline his head to Lord Tomavar. In the moment before he commanded his muscles to move and changed the future forever, I called out to him: ‘Lord Tanu – you have promised to release your warriors from their pledges so that they may stand for whom they will!’

Lord Tanu, always a thoughtful man, regarded me deeply as the tension flowed down from his jaws into the rest of his compact body. For the moment, it seemed that he could not speak.

‘Lord Tanu,’ Lord Ramjay shouted out in his lord’s stead, ‘has made no such promise! He has said only that he agreed with you that the warriors should be released from their pledges. Well, perhaps they should be, if no solution other than war can decide who should be king. But Lord Tomavar has proposed an honorable way out of our troubles.’

I heard murmurs of assent ripple up and down the lines of men behind Lord Tomavar and then pass even to Lord Tanu’s warriors, drawn up in their ranks ten deep. And then the fiery Sar Vikan, standing with the others in my escort, cried out: ‘You speak of honor, but Lord Tanu has said that the warriors should decide who will be king! By the lake, Lord Ramjay! In front of you and many who are gathered here, Lord Tanu said this thing!’