The Lightstone: The Silver Sword: Part Two. David Zindell
‘Not yet,’ Lord Grayam told him. ‘We still stand. And so does Sarad.’
‘But will Sarad come to your aid?’ I asked him. I tried to imagine the Ishkans marching out to aid Mesh if the combined tribes of the Sarni tried to invade us.
‘No, I doubt if they will,’ the Lord Librarian said. ‘I expect that they, too, in the end, will do homage to Count Ulanu.’
‘Then you stand alone,’ Maram said, looking toward the window like a trapped beast.
‘Alone, yes, perhaps,’ the Lord Librarian said. He looked from Kane to Atara and then me. Lastly, he fixed Maram with a deep look as if trying to see beneath his surface fear and desperation.
‘Then will you make peace with the Count yourselves?’ Maram asked him.
‘We would if we could,’ the Lord Librarian said. ‘But I’m afraid that while it takes two to make peace, it only takes one to make war.’
‘But if you were to surrender and kneel to –’
‘If we surrendered to Count Ulanu,’ the Lord Librarian spat out, ‘he would enslave those he didn’t crucify. And as for our kneeling to him, we Librarians kneel to the Lord of Light and no one else.’
He went on to tell us that the Librarians of Khaisham were devoted to preserving the ancient wisdom, which had its ultimate source in the Light of the One. Theirs was the task of gathering, purchasing and collecting all books and other artifacts which might be of value to future generations. Much of their labor consisted of transcribing old, crumbling volumes and illuminating new manuscripts. They worked gold leaf into paper and vellum, and spent long hours in their calligraphy, penning black ink to white sheets with devout and practiced hands. Perhaps their noblest effort was the compilation of a great encyclopedia indexing all books and all knowledge – which was still unfinished, as Lord Grayam sadly admitted. But their foremost duty was to protect the treasures that the Library contained. And so they took vows never to allow anyone to desecrate the Library’s books or to forsake guarding the Library, even unto their deaths. Toward this end, they trained with swords almost as diligently as with their pens.
‘You’ve taken vows of your own,’ he said, nodding toward my medallion. ‘You’re not the first to come here looking for the Lightstone, though none has done so for quite some time.’
He told us that once, many had made the pilgrimage to Khaisham, often paying princely sums for the right to use the Library. But now the ancient roads through Eanna and Surrapam were too dangerous, and few dared them.
‘Master Juwain,’ he said to me, ‘has already explained that you’ve brought no money for us. Poor pilgrims you are, he tells me. That’s as may be. But you have my welcome to use the Library as you wish. Any who have fought Count Ulanu as you have are welcome here.’
From what he said then, it was clear that he regarded Master Juwain, Maram and Liljana as scholars, and esteemed Kane, Atara and me as warriors protecting them.
‘We are fortunate to be joined by a company of such talents,’ he said, searching in the softness of Maram’s face for all that he tried to conceal there. ‘I would hope that someday you might tell of what happened in the Kul Moroth. How very strange that the ground should shake just as you passed through it! And that rocks should have blocked Count Ulanu’s pursuit. And such rocks! The knights I sent there tell me that many of them were blackened and melted as if by lightning.’
Maram turned to look at me then. But neither of us – or our other companions – wished to speak of our gelstei.
‘Well, then,’ Lord Grayam said, ‘you’re good at keeping your own counsel, and I approve of that. But I must ask your trust in three things in order that you might have mine. First: If you find here anything of note or worth, you will bring it to me. Second: You will take great care not to harm any of the books, many of which are ancient and all too easy to harm. Third: You will remove nothing from the Library without my permission.’
I touched the medallion hanging from my neck and told him, ‘When a knight takes refuge in a lord’s castle, he doesn’t dispute his rules. But you must know that we’ve come to claim the Lightstone and take it away to other lands.’
The Lord Librarian bristled at this. His bushy eyebrows pulled together as his hand found the hilt of his sword. ‘Does a knight in your land then enter his lord’s castle to claim his lord’s most precious possession?’
‘The Lightstone,’ I told him, remembering my vows, ‘is no one’s possession. And we seek it not for ourselves but for all Ea.’
‘A noble quest,’ he sighed, relaxing his hand from his sword. ‘But if you found the Cup of Heaven here, don’t you think it should remain here where it can best be guarded?’
I managed to climb out of bed and walk over to the window. There, below me, I could see the many houses of Khaisham, with their square stone chimneys and brightly painted shutters. Beyond the city streets was Khaisham’s outer wall, and beyond it, spread out over the green pastures to the south of the city, the thousands of tents of Count Ulanu’s army.
‘Forgive me, Lord Librarian,’ I said, ‘but you might find it difficult guarding even your own people’s lives now.’
Lord Grayam’s face fell sad and grave, and lines of worry furrowed his brow as he looked out the window with me.
‘What you say is true,’ he admitted. ‘But it is also true that you won’t find the Lightstone here. The Library has been searched through every nook and cranny for it for most of three thousand years. And so here we stand, arguing over nothing at a time when there’s much else to do.’
‘If we’re arguing over nothing,’ I said, ‘then surely you won’t mind if we begin our search?’
‘So long as you abide by my rules.’
If we abided by his rules, as I pointed out to him, we would have to bring the Lightstone to him should we be so fortunate as to find it.
‘That’s true,’ he said.
‘Then it would seem that we’re at an impasse.’ I looked at Master Juwain and asked, ‘Who has the wisdom to see our way through it?’
Master Juwain stepped forward, gripping his book, which Lord Grayam eyed admiringly. Master Juwain said, ‘It may be that if we gain the Lightstone, we’ll also gain the wisdom to know what should be done with it.’
‘Very well then, let that be the way of it,’ Lord Grayam said. ‘I won’t say yea or nay to your taking it from here until I’ve held it in my hands and you in yours. Do we understand each other?’
‘Yes,’ I said, speaking for the others, ‘we do.’
‘Excellent. Then I wish you well. Now please forgive me while I excuse myself. I’ve the city’s defenses to look to.’
So saying, the Lord Librarian bowed to us and strode from the room.
I counted exactly three beats of my heart before Maram opened his mouth and said, ‘Well, what are we waiting for?’
I drew my sword again and watched the light play about its gleaming contours.
‘You must follow where your sword leads you,’ Master Juwain told me, clapping me on the shoulder. Then he picked up a large book bound in red leather. ‘But I’m afraid I must follow where this leads me.’
He told us that he was off to the Library’s stacks to look for a book by a Master Malachi.
‘But, sir,’ Maram said to him, ‘if we find the Lightstone in your absence –’
‘Then I shall be very happy,’ Master Juwain told him. ‘Now why don’t we meet by the statue of King Eluli in the great hall at midday, if we don’t meet wandering around the other halls first? This place is vast, and it wouldn’t do to lose each other in it.’
Liljana,