The Lightstone: The Ninth Kingdom: Part One. David Zindell

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      I had thought to score a point by invoking the name of Navsa Adami. But Master Juwain let his anger melt away so that only a terrible sadness remained. Then he said softly, ‘If Navsa Adami were alive today, he would be the first to warn you that once the killing begins, it never ends.’

      I turned away as his sadness touched my eyes with a deep, hot pain. I suddenly recalled the overpowering wrongness that I had sensed earlier in the woods; now a bit of this wrongness, in the form of kirax and perhaps something worse, would burn forever inside me.

      I wanted to look at Master Juwain and tell him that there had to be a way to end the killing. Instead, I looked into myself and said, There’s always a time to fight.’

      Master Juwain stepped closer to me and laid his hand on mine. Then he told me, ‘Evil can’t be vanquished with a sword, Val. Darkness can’t be defeated in battle but only by shining a bright enough light.’

      He looked at me with a new radiance pouring out of him and said, ‘This is truly a dark time. But it’s always darkest just before the dawn.’

      He let go of me suddenly and walked over to his desk. There his hand closed on a large book bound in green leather. I immediately recognized it as the Saganom Elu, many passages of which I had memorized during my years at the Brotherhood’s school.

      ‘I think it’s time for a little reading lesson,’ he announced, moving back toward Maram and me. His fingers quickly flipped through the yellow, well-worn pages, and then he suddenly dropped the book into Maram’s hands. ‘Brother Maram, would you please read from the Trian Prophecies. Chapter seven, beginning with verse twenty-six.’

      Maram, who was as surprised as I was at this sudden call to scholarship, stood there sweating and blinking his eyes. ‘You want me to read now, sir. Ah, shouldn’t we be getting ready for the feast?’

      ‘Indulge me if you will, please.’

      ‘But you know I’ve no talent for ancient Ardik,’ Maram grumbled. ‘Now, if you would ask me to read Lorranda, which is the language of love and poetry, why then I would be delighted to –’

      ‘Please just read us the lines,’ Master Juwain interrupted, ‘or we will miss the feast.’

      Maram stood there glowering at him like a child asked to muck out a stable. He asked, ‘Do I have to, sir?’

      ‘Yes, you do,’ Master Juwain told him. ‘I’m afraid that Val never had the time to learn Ardik as well as you.’

      Truly, I had left the Brotherhood’s school before mastering this noblest of languages. And so I waited intently as Maram took a deep breath and ground his finger into the page of the book that Master Juwain had set before him. And then his huge voice rolled out into the room: ‘Songan erathe ad valte kalanath li galdanaan … ah, let me see … Jin Ieldra, song Ieldra –’

      ‘Very good,’ Master Juwain broke in, ‘but why don’t you translate as you read?’

      ‘But, sir,’ he said, pointing at a book on the writing table, ‘you already have the translated version there. Why don’t I just read from that?’

      Master Juwain tapped the book that Maram was holding and said, ‘Because I asked you to read from this.’

      ‘Very well, sir,’ Maram said, rolling his eyes. And then he swallowed a mouthful of air and continued, ‘When the earth and stars enter the Golden Band … ah, I think this is right … the darkest age will end and a new age –’

      ‘That’s very good,’ Master Juwain interrupted again. ‘Your translation is very accurate but …’

      Yes, sir?’

      ‘I’m afraid you’ve lost the flavor of the original. The poetry, as it were. Why don’t you put the words to verse?’

      Now sweat began pouring down Maram’s beard and neck. He said, ‘Now, sir? Here?’

      ‘You’re studying to be a Master Poet, aren’t you? Well, poets make poems.’

      ‘Yes, yes, I know, but without time to make the music and to find the rhymes, you can’t really expert me to –’

      ‘Do your best, Brother Maram,’ Master Juwain said with a broad smile. ‘I have faith in you.’

      Strangely, this immensely difficult prospect seemed suddenly to please Maram. He stared at the book for quite a long while as if burning its glyphs into his mind. Then he closed his eyes for an even longer time. And suddenly, as if reciting a sonnet to a lover, he looked toward the windows and said:

       When earth alights the Golden Band,

       The darkest age will pass away;

       When angel fire illumes the land,

       The stars will show the brightest day.

       The deathless day, the Age of Light;

       Ieldra’s blaze befalls the earth;

       The end of war, the end of night

       Awaits the last Maitreya’s birth.

       The Cup of Heaven in his hand,

       The One’s clear light in heart and eye,

       He brings the healing of the land,

       And opens colors in the sky.

       And there, the stars, the ageless lights

       For which we ache and dream and burn,

      Upon the deep and dazzling heights –

       Our ancient home we shall return.

      ‘There,’ he said, wiping the sweat from his face as he finished. With a trembling hand, he gave the book back to Master Juwain.

      ‘Very good,’ Master Juwain told him. ‘We’ll make a Brother of you yet.’

      He motioned us over to the window. He pointed up at the stars, and in a voice quavering with excitement, he said, ‘This is the time. The earth entered the Golden Band twenty years ago, and I believe that somewhere on Ea, the Maitreya, the Shining One, has been born.’

      I looked out at the Owl constellation and other clusters of stars that shimmered in the dark sky beyond Telshar’s jagged peak. It was said that the earth and all the stars turned about the heavens like a great, diamond-studded wheel. At the center of this cosmic wheel – at the center of all things – dwelt the Ieldra, luminous beings who shone the light of their souls on all of creation. These great, golden beacons streamed out from the cosmic center like rivers of light, СКАЧАТЬ