Lord of Lies by David Zindell Read Free Book Online Page B

and friends?'
    I might have agreed with him - with the qualification that the Valari were meant to be warriors of the spirit only. But just then, to the sound of trumpets announcing the beginning of the feast my father, mother and brothers entered the hall from its western portal.
    Lord Harsha cried out, 'The King!' as hundreds of people turned to watch Shavashar Elahad make his way toward the from of the room where my family's table was set. My father was a tall man whose black tunic, showing the swan and stars of our house, draped in clean lines about his large and powerful frame. Despite his years, he moved with a flowing grace that even a young knight might envy, his black eyes seemed filled with starlight and blazed with that fearlessness to which all Valari aspired. Many there were who could not bear the brilliance of his gaze and said that he was too hard on men, whether they be his enemies or those who had sworn him allegiance. But many more loved him precisely because he called them to find the best part of themselves and polish their souls until they sparkled like diamonds.
    As he and my mother, with my brothers, took their places at table, ten warriors escorting a group, of yellow-robed men appeared in the western portal. A silence befell the hall. All eyes turned toward these men, for they were Morjin's emissaries: the hated Red Priests of the Kallimun. I and many others, struggled to get a good look at these seven priests who had been locked in their rooms in the keep for the last three days. But the great cowls of their robes hid their faces. The warriors led them to the table next to that of the Alonians. There, scarcely twenty feet from my father's withering gaze, they were seated.
    And then the silence was suddenly broken as one of the knights near me cried out, 'Must we take meat with them? Send them back to Sakai!'
    And then Vikadar of Godhra, one of the fiercest knights in Mesh, shouted, 'Send them back to the stars!'
    His call for the priests to be executed out of hand gained the immediate approval of the more bloodthirsty in the hall. Next to me, Baltasar stood staring at the priests, and I could almost feel the heat of his ire beating through his veins. Many others burned for vengeance as well. But my father cooled the passions running through the hall with a sudden lifting of his hand. His bright eyes caught up Vikadar in reproach to remind him of one of Mesh's most sacred laws: that anyone who willfully killed an emissary should himself be put to death.
    'It is said,' my father called out in his strong, clear voice, 'that these emissaries have been sent by Morjin to sue for peace. Very well - we shall hear what they have to say. But only after we've all taken meat.'
    This was a signal that everyone still standing should take their seats. While Maram went off to join Lord Harsha and Behira at their table with Lord Tanu and Lord Tomavar, Master Juwain made his way toward his fellows of the Brotherhood. Sunjay and Baltasar sat with the other off-duty Guardians in the second tier of tables from the front of the hall. Upon taking my grandmother's arm in mine, I walked with her to our family's table where I pulled out her chair next to my father. I sat at the right end of the table next to my brother, Ravar. He had the
    face of a fox, and his dark, quick eyes flickered from my father to the cowled faces of the Red Priests at their table before us. His sharp and secretive smile reminded me that our father would not be moved by fear of Morjin's men, which would be the same as admitting to fear of the Red Dragon himself.
    It was strange eating our supper beneath the dais on which stood the Lightstone, guarded by thirty Knights of the Swan. Nevertheless eat we all did: fishes and fowls, joints of mutton and whole suckling pigs roasted brown and sheeny with fat. There were loaves of black barley bread, too, and pies and puddings - and much else. The feast began with talk of war on the Wendrush. A minstrel from