Lord of Lies. David Zindell

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СКАЧАТЬ afraid I don’t understand,’ Master Juwain said.

      Maram gazed at the crystal and said, ‘As with this firestone, so with my heart. There’s a crack there, you see. Some fundamental flaw in my being. Every time I look at Behira, love flows into me like fire. But I can’t quite hold it. I had hoped to find in the Lightstone a way that I could. The way to make love last: that’s the secret of the universe.’

      Maram, I thought, was no different to anyone else. Everyone who stood before the Lightstone sought the realization of his deepest desire. But no one, it seemed, knew how to unlock the secrets of this blessed, golden vessel.

      ‘I see, I see,’ Master Juwain said. Then he reached into the pocket of his tunic. He brought out an emerald crystal, much smaller than Maram’s, and stood looking at it. He said, ‘Don’t give up hope just yet.’

      ‘Why, do you propose to heal my heart with that?’

      Master Juwain studied the green gelstei that he had gained on our quest. With it, he had healed Atara of a mortal wound, as he had more minor ones torn into Maram’s and my flesh. But too often the gelstei failed him. I knew that he dreamed the Lightstone might infinitely magnify the power of his healing crystal.

      ‘I wish I could,’ Master Juwain told Maram. ‘But you see, I’ve little more knowledge of how the Lightstone might be used than you do.’

      ‘Then your journey was unsuccessful?’

      ‘No, I wouldn’t quite say that. In fact, I discovered several things of great interest in Nar.’

      ‘What sort of things?’

      ‘Well, to begin with, it’s becoming ever clearer that only the Maitreya will show what the Lightstone is really for.’

      Here he turned toward me, and his large eyes filled with a soft, silver radiance. ‘And you, Val – what have you found in the Lightstone?’

      ‘More than I ever dreamed,’ I said. ‘But less than I hoped.’

      Maram had said that love is the secret of the universe. But why did the One, in love, give us life only to take it away in the bitterness of death?

      ‘I have looked for the secret of life,’ I admitted.

      ‘And what have you found?’

      ‘That it’s a mystery no man will ever solve.’

      ‘Nothing else?’

      I stood up and walked over to look out the window. Above Silvassu – above all the world – Telshar’s white diamond peak was gleaming in the light of the late sun.

      ‘There have been moments,’ I said at last. ‘Once or twice, while I stood looking at the Lightstone, meditating – these bright moments. When the gold of the cup turns clear as diamond. And inside it, there is … everything. All the stars in the universe. I can’t tell you how bright is their light. It fell upon me like the stroke of a shining sword that brought joy instead of death. I was alive as I’ve never been alive before, and every particle of my being seemed to blaze like the sun. And then, for a moment, the light, myself – there was no difference. It was all as one.’

      As Maram pulled at his beard, Master Juwain listened quietly and waited for me to say more. Then he spoke with a strange gravity: ‘You should mark well the miracle of these moments. We all should.’

      ‘Why, sir? Others have experienced similar things. I’m no different to anyone else.’

      ‘Aren’t you?’

      He stepped closer to me and studied the scar cut into my forehead. It was shaped like a lightning bolt, the result of a wound to my flesh during the violence of my birth.

      ‘It was you,’ he said, ‘who found the Lightstone in the darkness of Argattha when it was invisible to everyone else. As it had remained invisible for all of an age.’

      ‘Please, sir – we shouldn’t speak of this again.’

      ‘No, I’m afraid we must speak of it, before it’s too late. You see, Master Sebastian –’

      ‘He’s a great astrologer,’ I admitted. I hated interrupting Master Juwain, or anyone, but I had gone too far to stop. ‘His knowledge is very great, but a man’s fate can’t be set by the stars.’

      ‘No, perhaps not set, as a chisel’s mark in stone,’ Master Juwain said. ‘It is more like a jeweled tapestry. All that is, or ever will be, is part of it. And each golden thread, each diamond woven into it, reflects the light of all the others. There is only one pattern, one master pattern, as I’ve said a hundred times. As above, so below. The stars, from where we came, mark the place we will return to. And mark it in patterns within the one pattern resonant with the patterns of our lives. Your life, Val, has already been marked out from all others. Everyone has seen this, in who you are, in what you’ve done. But Master Sebastian has seen it in the stars.’

      He motioned for Maram and me to follow him across the room to where a large desk stood facing the wall. Many old books were heaped on top of it. One was a genealogy of the noble Valari families; another was entitled, simply: The Lesser Gelstei. The largest book was Master Juwain’s prized copy of the Saganom Elu, bound in ancient leather. He had placed it, and other books, so that they weighted down the corners of a scroll of parchment. Inked onto its yellow-white surface was a great wheel of a circle, divided by lines like slices of a pie. Other lines formed squares within the circle, and there was a single, equal-sided triangle, too. Around the circle’s edge were written various arcane symbols which I took to represent other worlds or the greatest of the heavens’ constellations.

      ‘Before I left for Nar,’ Master Juwain said to me, ‘I asked Master Sebastian to work up this horoscope from the reported hour of your birth.’ Here he stabbed his finger at a cluster of symbols at the top of the circle. ‘Do you see how your sun is at the midheaven in the constellation of the Archer? This is the sign of a soul that streaks out like an arrow of light to touch the stars. At the midheaven also is Aos, and this is an indication of a great spiritual teacher. And there also, Niran, which portends a spiritual master or great king. Their conjunction is striking and very strong.’

      As the afternoon deepened toward evening, and Maram bent over the desk with me, breathing in my ear, Master Juwain went on to point out other features of my horoscope: the grand trine formed by Elad, Tyra and my moon; my moon, itself, in the Crab Constellation, indicating deep and powerful passions for life that I kept hidden inside to protect myself and avoid hurting others; my Siraj in the castle of service in the sign of the Ram, which marked me out as a man who blazed new paths for others to follow. Directly across the circle from it was to be found my Shahar, planet of vision and transcendence. Its opposition with Siraj, according to Master Juwain, told of the great war that I waged inside myself – and with the world.

      ‘We see here the paradox of your life, Val. That you, who love others so deeply, have been forced to slay so many.’

      The sword I wore at my side suddenly felt unbearably heavy. The silustria of its blade was so hard and smooth that blood would not cling to it or stain it. I wished the same were true of my soul.

      ‘And this conflict runs even deeper,’ Master Juwain continued. ‘It would be as if your soul is pulled СКАЧАТЬ