The Diamond Warriors. David Zindell

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СКАЧАТЬ it came through the Skadarak,’ he told us. ‘From far, far away it came. The Dark One, Angra Mainyu, sent it from Damoom. It is all his malice and spite, the very shadow of his soul. In a way, his herald.’

      ‘His herald!’ Maram cried out. ‘But it was so powerful! It nearly killed Val!’

      At this, Kane looked at me as he shook his head. ‘This you must know about the Ahrimana: it has no power, of its own. But the power you give it, which it seeks out as a leech does blood, that power can burn you like hellfire and utterly destroy you.’

      Upon speaking these words, Kane’s immense strength finally seemed to fail him. Air bubbled out of his back in a sprinkling of bright red blood as if he could no longer will his veins to keep his life’s essence within him. His eyes closed, for a moment, and he seemed ready to topple over.

      ‘That is enough for today’ Master Juwain said, going over to Kane. He positioned his small body against Kane’s side to prop him up. ‘I don’t know how you learned of what you have told us, or how you could ride four hundred miles with an arrow in your lung. But I’ve got to draw it, now, or even you might be destroyed.’

      Kane slowly nodded his head at this. Then I called for a litter, and Kane had to consent to being carried from my pavilion into Master Juwain’s smaller and starkly furnished tent. There, with Liljana’s help and that of two other healers, Master Juwain went to work with his gleaming steel instruments to draw the barbed arrow from deep within Kane’s flesh. This difficult surgery nearly killed the unkillable Kane. Finally, though, with a great spray of blood, Master Juwain pulled free the arrow. He used his green gelstei to stop the ferocious hemorrhaging and heal the terrible wound torn into Kane. Finally, he helped Kane drink a tea that would make him sleep.

      ‘I shall stay with him the rest of today and tonight,’ Master Juwain told me. He looked over toward his own bed, where Kane rested with his eyes closed. ‘Liljana will stay, too. But there is no need for you to remain here – you must have many things to do.’

      I did indeed have matters to attend to, though none so important as seeing Kane restored to himself. I waited by his side all the rest of the afternoon, through dinner and late into the evening. And then as the night deepened and the stars came out, Atara finally returned with news of her own. She stepped into Master Juwain’s tent, and came over to kiss Kane’s forehead. She smiled sadly as if she had looked upon his still form a thousand times. Then she said to me, ‘May I speak with you alone?’

      I nodded my head at this. We went outside and walked along the rows of campfires, where warriors gathered drinking beer and telling of deeds at the Culhadosh Commons, and other battles. Joshu Kadar and a few knights kept a vigil outside my pavilion. No one seemed bothered that I should hold council inside alone with Atara. I closed the flaps behind us, and went around this large space lighting the many candles in their stands. They cast little, flickering lights on the long council table and the tent’s walls and ceiling. Atara and I sat facing each other on a red carpet at the center of the tent.

      ‘We are as alone as we can be,’ I said, gazing at the blindfold that bound her face. ‘What is troubling you?’

      Atara cocked her head as if listening for eavesdroppers along the walls. ‘It might be better if we took a walk in the hills.’

      I laughed softly at this, and told her, ‘Joshu Kadar and Shivalad, to say nothing of Lord Avijan, would never allow that. Now that the gathering has begun, they look for assassins everywhere. They don’t even like me to walk around our own encampment alone.’

      Atara smiled grimly at this, then her deep, dulcet voice grew even lower. ‘It is beginning, Val. At last, this terrible, terrible future that I have seen for too long is upon us.’

      I moved even closer to her, and covered her hot, long hand with mine. Outside the tent came the sound of crickets chirping and men chanting out the ancient epics. Inside, it was nearly so quiet that I could hear the drumbeat of Atara’s heart – and my own.

      ‘Kane,’ I whispered to her, ‘said that in Galda, people spoke of a great crusade. I didn’t think Morjin could be ready to order forth his armies so soon.’

      She drew out her scryer’s crystal, and she pressed this sphere of white gelstei against her forehead. ‘I don’t know that he is. But he makes ready something. Out on the Wendrush. Karimah told me that the Zayak have crossed the Blood River, the Janjii, too. It can only be that they have gone to join with the Marituk. From the south, there have come reports that the Tukulak are making common cause with the Danyak and Usark.’

      ‘Kane always said,’ I murmured, squeezing her hand, ‘that Morjin would try to unite the Sarni before falling against the Nine Kingdoms.’

      Atara smiled sadly as she cupped her clear crystal in her free hand. ‘He will never unite all the Sarni – not so long as my grandfather can pull a bow. Sajagax has called for the tribes to join with the Kurmak in alliance against Morjin.’

      ‘Is this the news that Karimah brought you?’

      ‘Yes, in part.’

      ‘Sajagax,’ I said, remembering, ‘is a great man. But most of the tribes favor Morjin, do they not?’

      ‘Yes, most,’ she told me, nodding her head. ‘But not the Niuriu, nor the central Urtuk. Nor the Adirii, most of the clans, and probably not the Danladi. And then there are the Manslayers.’

      At the mention of these most willful of warriors, drawn from every Sarni tribe, I gazed at Atara and waited for her to say more.

      ‘My sisters,’ she told me, ‘will not keep allegiance with their tribes – this has been decided. The Manslayers are to be a tribe of our own. But what my sisters could not decide when they met at the council rock a year and a half ago was whether to go to war against Morjin. Only a chiefess, my sisters say, can lead them against such an enemy.’

      I listened to her deep breathing for a few moments. Then I said, ‘But the Manslayers have no chiefess.’

      ‘No, they do not – not yet. But there is to be another gathering, in the Niuriu’s lands, where the Diamond River joins with the Poru. We are to choose a chiefess.’

      I bowed my head to her. ‘You, then?’

      ‘That is Karimah’s hope. And Sonjah’s, and Aieela’s – and others.”

      I looked over at the long table where my father had once sat at council with his most trusted lords. And I said, ‘For you to be Chiefess of the Manslayers – that would be a great thing.’

      ‘That is what Karimah tells me,’ Atara said with a sad smile. ‘If the Marituk, with the Zayak and Janjii, attack my grandfather, we could ride to his aid.’

      I looked around for a pitcher of water so that I might ease the aching in my throat. And I said to her, ‘Then you have already decided, haven’t you?’

      She slowly nodded her head. ‘I cannot allow the Kurmak to be trampled under. We cannot, Val.’

      ‘I cannot let you go,’ I said, wrapping my hand around her hand even more tightly. ‘I need you here, beside me.’

      She brought my hand up to her lips, whose softness seemed to burn against my fingers. Then she told me, ‘I shall stay with you until you become king.’

      ‘Will СКАЧАТЬ