Black Jade Read Free Page B

known, enemy or no enemy,' Atara said to him. 'But fear not, we Sarni rarely fight night battles. There won't be any attack tonight.'
    'Are you speaking as a Sarni warrior or a scryer?'
    In answer, Atara only smiled at him, and then returned to her dinner.
    'Ah, well,' Maram continued, 'I should tell you that it's not the Zayak who really concern me, at least not until daybreak - and then I shall fear their arrows, too bad. No, it's those damn Red Knights. What if they charge straight into our encampment while we're sleeping?'
    'They won't do that,' Atara reassured him.
    'But what if they do?'
    'They won't.' Atara looked up at the bright moon. 'They fear arrows as much as you do. And there's enough light that they would still make good targets, at least at short range.'
    I touched the hilt of my sword, sheathed beside me, and I said, 'We can't count on this.'
    'In three days,' Atara said, 'they've kept their distance. They haven't the numbers to prevail.'
    'And that is precisely the point,' I said. 'Perhaps they are waiting for reinforcements.'
    'So, just so,' Kane said as he squeezed his bowl of stew between his calloused hands. 'And so, if there must be battle, we should take it to them before it's too late.'
    For three days and nights, I thought, my friends and I had been arguing the same argument. But now the mountains were drawing nearer, and a decision must be made,
    'We may not have the numbers to prevail, either,' Atara said. She positioned her head facing Estrella and Daj, who sat across the fire from her. 'And what of the children?'
    The children, of course, were at risk no matter what course we chose: attacking our enemy would only expose them to recapture or death all the sooner. It was that way with all children everywhere, even in lands far away and still free. With Morjin in control of the Lightstone, uncontested, it would only be a matter of time before everyone on Ea was either put on crosses or enslaved.
    'I can fight!' Daj suddenly announced, drawing out his small blade.
    We all knew that he could. We all knew, too, that Estrella had a heart of pure fire. Her great promise, however, was not in fighting the enemy with swords but with a finer and deeper weapon. As her dark, almond eyes fixed on me, I felt in her an unshakeable courage - and her unshakeable confidence in me to lead us the right way.
    'We must either fight or flee,' I said. 'But if we do flee, flee where?'
    'We could still go into the mountains,' Maram said. 'But farther south of the Kul Kavaakurk. And then we could turn north toward the Brotherhood school. We'll lose our enemy in the mountains.'
    'We'll lose ourselves,' Master Juwain put in. 'Try to remember, Brother Maram, that -'
    'Sar Maram,' Maram said, correcting him. He held up his hand to show the double-diamond ring that proclaimed him a Valari knight.
    'Sar Maram, then,' Master Juwain said with a sigh. 'But try to remember that this school has remained a secret from the Lord of Lies only because our Grandmaster has permitted knowledge of it to very few. No map shows its location. I may be able to find it -but only from the gorge called the Kul Kavaakurk.'
    For the thousandth time, I scanned the ghostly, white wall of mountains to the west of us. Could we find this secret school of the Great White Brotherhood? And if by some miracle we did reach this place of power deep within the maze of mountains of the lower Nagarshath, would we find the Grandmaster still alive? And more importantly, would he - or any of the Brotherhood's masters - be able to tell us in which land the Maitreya had been born? For it was said that this great Shining One might be able to wrest the Lightstone from Morjin, if not in the substance of the golden bowl, then at least in the wielding of it.
    'There must be such a gorge,' I told Master Juwain. 'We will certainly find it, if not tomorrow, then the next day.'
    'We would find it the easier,' Atara said, 'if we took Bajorak into our confidence. Surely he would know