Black Jade. David Zindell

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СКАЧАТЬ took a brave man to hold Kane’s gaze, as Abrasax did. I didn’t need to be a reader to see the fire that seemed to leap straight out of Kane’s black eyes. As the candles flickered in their stands and the other Masters drew in deep breaths or held them inside, Abrasax continued staring at Kane. The Grandmaster’s eyes grew brighter, like moonlit oceans, and I fancied that I saw this radiance touch his hair and beard and spill down over his tunic in flows of scarlet, orange and other colors. And yet it was nothing against the splendor that enveloped Kane. He stood as beneath a rainbow. Its hues clung to his body like a robe of fire and slowly deepened and brightened into a shimmering brilliance. White light crowned his savage head, and so did flashes of glorre. I stared at him, awestruck. I couldn’t believe what my eyes or some other sensing organ told me must be true. It lasted only a moment, this piercing vision into the heart of Kane’s being. And then I blinked my eyes, and it was gone. I saw my old friend standing before me as he usually did: fiercely, willfully, joyfully – with challenge toward Abrasax or anything in the world that might try to thwart or even contain him.

      The others of the Seven, with my companions, sat gazing at Kane in wonderment. Master Storr shook his head as he called out, ‘No, it cannot be! Not this rogue knight!’

      Then Abrasax bowed to Kane and said, ‘I never thought to live so long that my path would cross yours, Lord Elijin.’

      Again, Master Storr said, ‘It cannot be!’

      Abrasax drew in a deep breath. He looked from Master Storr to Master Matai, and then at Kane. ‘It surely is. This man is no rogue knight. It is, as the Master Diviner and I have deduced, now beyond argument that one of the Old Ones of the Elijik Order journeyed with this company into Argattha. And has found the way into our valley. His name, of old, was –’

      ‘I am,’ Kane growled out, interrupting him, ‘not the one you speak of. Once I was, perhaps, but now I am Kane.’

      ‘Kane, then,’ Abrasax said to him. ‘But you were, were you not, sent to Ea along with eleven others of your order to find and safeguard the Lightstone for the Maitreya?’

      ‘So,’ Kane said, glaring at him.

      ‘And of those eleven, only one other survives – Morjin.’

      ‘So,’ Kane said again.

      Abrasax and the others of the Seven sat staring up at Kane. I noticed Master Storr’s hard blue eyes drilling into him as he regarded him with dread. He called out, ‘If this is that one, then he has fallen nearly as far as the Red Dragon. How can we be sure that if we help him to find the Maitreya, he won’t fall even farther?’

      Kane, not deigning to respond to the Master Galastei’s terrible doubt, stood as still as a granite carving.

      ‘How can we be sure what any man or woman will do, in the end?’ Abrasax asked, looking at his fellows. ‘Master Juwain tells that in Argattha, Kane gave back the Lightstone to Valashu when he might have kept it for himself. Can all of us say that we would have surrendered it so faithfully? Surely Kane has passed the most vital test.’

      His reasoning seemed to persuade even Master Storr, who inclined his head toward Kane. And Kane growled out to Abrasax, ‘And what of the Brotherhood’s Masters, then? You speak of keeping no secrets, and yet you keep some very powerful baubles hidden inside your pockets, eh?’

      Abrasax smiled at Master Storr. ‘Did I not tell you that we could not conceal things from one of the Elijin?’

      And with that he nodded at Master Matai, who reached into his pocket and brought out a small crystal sphere that shone like a ruby. The First, he named it. Master Virang likewise showed us a stone, which he called the Second, which gleamed golden-orange in hue. And so with Master Nolashar and his bright yellow sun stone and Master Okuth’s green heart stone, and then Master Yasul’s and Master Storr’s crystals – colored blue and purple – whose names were the Fifth and the Sixth. And then, finally, Abrasax drew forth a marble-like sphere as clear and brilliant as a diamond. It was, he told us, the Seventh: the last and highest of the crystals called the Great Gelstei.

      ‘Your crystals,’ he said to us, ‘are powerful and rare, but on all of Ea there are no other gelstei like these, for they were not made on earth.’

      He went on to say that only the angels, and the Galadin at that, could possibly possess the art of forging the Great Gelstei. Then he held up his clear stone and showed it to Kane. ‘The Elijin who were sent here brought these with them, didn’t they?’

      ‘So,’ Kane growled out. ‘Nurijin, Mayin and Baladin were the stones’ keepers. And Manjin, Durrikin, Sarojin – Iojin, too. And all of them killed over the years on this cursed world. I had thought the stones lost.’

      He drew in a long, pained breath and said to Abrasax, ‘It must have been a great work to seek these out and bring them here.’

      ‘The work of ages,’ Abrasax told him. ‘Many Brothers died in this quest.’

      ‘As you will die if you continue to use them.’

      ‘The Red Dragon, we believe,’ Abrasax said, ‘does not yet know that we keep them. And use them we must, at least tonight. There are tests still to be made.’

      He sat cupping his clear stone in his hand. It shimmered a soft white, even as the crystals of the other Masters radiated colors of crimson and orange, up through a glowing violet.

      ‘We have questions for the girl,’ Abrasax said, looking at Estrella. Then he turned to me. ‘And for you, Valashu Elahad.’

      The room fell quiet, and I nodded at Estrella and then Abrasax. I sat gripping the hilt of my sword as I waited for the seven Masters of the Brotherhood to test me somehow – if not in actual combat, then perhaps in a trial of the soul.

       9

      Abrasax oriented his long, stately body toward Estrella, sitting almost motionlessly on her cushion by her table. For a long time he regarded her in silence. His liquid brown eyes seemed to empty of all thoughts, even questions, even as they filled with a strange and piercing light. The round crystal resting in his open palm gleamed like a little star. Those of the other masters seemed to resonate with it, gathering radiance from it and feeding it back to Abrasax’s stone, all at once.

      At last, the Grandmaster’s eyes regained their normal focus. And in his deep, strong voice, he announced, ‘This girl’s aura is like none I have ever seen. So pure: as if the flames of her chakras flow toward one color, in one direction. And bright it is – so very bright.’

      Abrasax continued gazing at Estrella, who sat peacefully on her big red cushion gazing back at him. Estrella’s happy smile seemed to warm Abrasax’s heart, and his whole face pulled into a smile, highlighting the deep lines around his eyes.

      ‘Strange,’ he murmured as he looked at her. ‘There is indeed something strange about this girl.’

      ‘Then is it possible,’ Master Storr asked, ‘that she is truly a seard?’

      Abrasax nodded his head. ‘I’m certain that she is. Master Juwain has identified her correctly.’

      ‘But what is a seard?’ Daj asked from his place next to Estrella. It was the first time that evening СКАЧАТЬ