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СКАЧАТЬ Cup of Heaven, then, that you claim to guard?’

      I motioned for Baltasar to join us, and my fiery young friend rode up from between the columns of knights behind me. I asked him to show Lord Shadru the Lightstone. When he brought forth the golden cup and held it high for all to see, Lord Shadru’s eyes widened even more.

      ‘Well, well, it seems I was too hasty in my judgments, Lord Valashu.’ I motioned for Baltasar to place the Lightstone in Lord Shadru’s hands, and this he did. For a moment, it seemed that Lord Shadru was holding the sun itself. ‘Well, well, well, King Hadaru will be very pleased, indeed.’

      I told Lord Shadru that we were on our way to the great tournament, and hoped to see King Hadaru there.

      ‘I’ve had word that the king will lead a company of knights to Nar, so you certainly will see him there,’ Lord Shadru said as he handed the Lightstone back to Baltasar. ‘But first, you will see him in Loviisa.’

      ‘Then he hasn’t set out yet?’

      ‘No, I had word that he would leave in a few more days.’

      I exchanged quick looks with Baltasar, and then nodded at Asaru who came up beside him. We had been hoping to ride straight to Nar, but now it seemed that there was no graceful way to avoid a meeting with King Hadaru.

      Lord Shadru confirmed this when he said, ‘Very well, you will require an escort to the King’s palace.’

      He motioned at the knight beside him, a long, lean man with six battle ribbons tied to his long, gray hair. He presented him as Lord Jehu and said, ‘He will ride with you to Loviisa.’

      Lord Shadru gave the command of the Ishkan knights over to Lord Jehu. He wished us a pleasant journey. And then he looked at Baltasar and said, ‘May I see the Lightstone one last time?’

      Again Baltasar drew out the Cup of Heaven, and Lord Shadru sighed out, ‘Remarkable, remarkable – who would have thought I would live to see such a thing?’

      We said farewell to Lord Shadru and watched him ride back up to the huge stack of stones that was the Ishkan’s fortress. Then Lord Jehu formed up his knights: a hundred ahead of us as in a vanguard and a hundred following behind. In this way, like a small army, we continued down the road through the most rugged part of the mountains. We of Mesh did not mingle with the Ishkans, for we had fought too many wars with them to make friends so easily. But neither did we quarrel with them. When we made camp that night in a fallow field that a generous farmer lent us, only a little brook separated our rows of tents from those of the Ishkans. There was to be no going back and forth over this little water. But the songs we sang around our campfires were the same that the Ishkans sang around theirs; as the night deepened, we made a single music that winged its way up toward the stars.

      We set out very early the next morning with the intention of reaching Loviisa by dusk. After some hours of working our way down through a series of gradually descending mountains and foothills, we broke out into the broad valley of the Tushur River. Here the forests and farms spread out in a patchwork of different shades of green for as far as the eye could see. The Tushur itself was a hazy blue band in the distance. Loviisa had been built around the point where the North Road bridged the river. We spent the rest of the day riding toward it at an easy pace. The gently rolling country was kind to our mounts and to the horses drawing the wagons; the hours melted away into the abundant sunshine of a long and warm afternoon. We stopped only twice, to water the horses. At our second break, I watched Estrella picking wildflowers in a field buzzing with bees, and Lord Jehu, standing with his horse on the road above, watched us both.

      It was just past dusk when we crested a palisade on the south side of the river and rode up to King Hadaru’s palace. The fountains and gardens fronting it seemed to invite us closer. In all the Morning Mountains, there was nothing like King Hadaru’s Wooden Palace. Its pagodas were exquisitely carved and arrayed on many levels, to delight the eye with its perfect proportions as much as to provide protection from wind and rain and the assault of enemy men.

      Lord Jehu insisted that the hundred Guardians were far too many armed knights to be allowed into the palace. I insisted that if the Lightstone was to be brought before King Hadaru, the Guardians must accompany that which they guarded at all times, for this they had sworn upon their lives. King Hadaru broke this deadlock by sending a herald to invite all of us into his throne room. The King of Ishka, it seemed, would not deign to show fear of a hundred Meshian knights.

      And so, leaving our horses and baggage train to the care of the Ishkans, I led my brothers and the Guardians into the palace. The main hall was a splendid affair of great cherrywood and ebony columns carved like the pieces of my chess set. Its panels of shatterwood were as black and beautiful as jade. All this darkness contrasted with the room’s floor, an almost unbroken expanse of white oak waxed and polished to a high gloss. The massive throne, at the center of the hall, had also been carved out of this wood which was as common as it was strong. King Hadaru sat upon it waiting for us to take our places before him. He seemed to disdain surrounding himself with a private guard. Instead, some of the greatest lords of Ishka stood by the sides of his throne.

      I nodded my head toward Prince Issur and Lord Nadhru, a dark and difficult man who had once threatened to bind me with ropes and drag me out of Ishka. Lord Mestivan attended King Hadaru as well, and next to him stood Lord Solhtar who pulled at his thick black beard as he eyed us with a fierce pride of protectiveness of his king and his land. Devora, the King’s sister, was not in attendance this evening, but his beautiful young wife, Irisha, stood near the very foot of the throne. Her hair was raven-black like Behira’s and her skin was as fair as hers, too. But she had a fineness of face and form that the plump Behira lacked. Maram stared at her with a barely-concealed lust heating up his red face. And Behira, holding tightly onto Lord Harsha’s arm, stared at Maram.

      ‘Welcome to my house,’ King Hadaru said as his black eyes caught Maram up in their cold light. He was a big, burly man – bigger even than Maram – and his large head and face reminded one of a bear. Many battle ribbons were tied to his thick, white hair. ‘Prince Maram Marshayk, Lord Valashu, Lord Asaru, Lord Raasharu, and everyone – welcome all.’

      I stood directly in front of the throne with my arm covering Estrella. Asaru, Yarashan and Lansar Raasharu took their places to my left with Maram, Master Juwain, Lord Harsha and Behira on my right. Baltasar and the Guardians were arrayed behind us. I made the presentations while King Hadaru nodded his head and smiled cordially. He regarded us as might a bear eyeing a herd of deer who had presented themselves as a meal.

      Then he raised his hand, and Lord Jehu and his two hundred knights marched into the room and stationed themselves between the Guardians and the main doors. At the same time, the hall’s side doors opened to let in another hundred knights. They crossed the room at speed to take their places near the throne. If King Hadaru didn’t usually keep a private guard, he certainly had one now.

      ‘Val!’ Maram whispered to me as he nudged my side, ‘we’ve walked into a trap!’

      To my left, Asaru’s hand came to rest on the hilt of his sword, and so it was with my brothers. I didn’t turn to see if the Guardians behind me were also prepared to fight for their charge, any more than I would doubt the rising of the sun. King Hadaru gripped the hilt of his own sword, the famed kalama with which he had once beheaded Mukaval the Red of the Adirii tribe. And then he smiled his cold smile and demanded that I deliver into his outstretched hand the golden cup called the Lightstone.

      As calmly as I could, I asked Sivar of Godhra to step forward. He was a diligent man who held his rather short body rigidly erect at all times. His face, steely and serious, was now lit up with pride because it was his turn to bear the Lightstone. He brought СКАЧАТЬ