Black Jade

I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword, which I had set by my side. I looked at Kane who had taught me to wield this terrible weapon with a single-minded will to destroy any and all who stood against me.

'And then there is Liljana Ashvaran,' Master Storr said. His cool blue eyes fixed on the woman who was as my mother. 'Master Juwain has told us little more than that she is a noble of Alonia who joined Valashu and the others on the great Quest. An unusual calling, isn't it, for one of her age, rank and gender?'

In truth, I knew of no other matron, noble or not, who had set out into the wilds of Ea in pursuit of the Lightstone.

Liljana's pretty round face grew as intense and reflective as a full moon. To Master Storr, she said, 'Why should you think that noble impulses are so unusual? Your order, I've been told, exists to quicken that which is noblest in everyone.'

Master Storr blinked at Liljana's riposte. He exchanged pained looks with Master Yasul and the others. I gathered that he wasn't used to being addressed by women — or anyone — so sharply.

Then he pointed his teaspoon at Liljana. 'Surely what is noblest is not the keeping of secrets from those who would help you.'

'And what secrets do you think I keep?'

Master Storr did not respond. His eyes grew even colder, like glacier ice, as he gazed at her with a greater and greater vehemence. Liljana thrust her hand inside the pocket of her tunk, and her jaw tightened in defiance. Finally, she removed her fist from her tunic and shook it at him. 'You will not,' she told him. 'You will not.'

'Will I not?' Master Storr said to her.

In answer, her soft brown eyes summoned up such an intense heat that he finally blinked and looked away.

Liljana turned toward Abrasax and said, 'Your Master Galastei tries to use this to read my mind!'

So saying, she opened her hand to reveal her blue crystal.

'He tries to seize control of it — and me!' she said. 'Like the Red Dragon himself!'

'No — I only wanted to know what you conceal from us,' Master Storr called out. 'As Master Matai has said, we must be sure of you.'

'Not this way! You have no right.'

'I am the Master of the Gelstei.'

'Not my gelstei. Would you steal my journal as well, and force the lock to read its pages?'

'I will make no apologies,' Master Storr said, 'Too much is at stake; and we must do what we must do.'

'Is that the way of the Masters of the Brotherhood, then? Is that noble?'

They might have contended thus all night if Abrasax hadn't finally held up his hand and said to Liljana, 'Master Storr has fought too many battles with the Red Dragon, and is sometimes overzealous in protecting the Brotherhood. You are right, forcing another's mind is not our way. I do apologize, for all of us. But Master Storr also is right that too much is at stake, and so there can be no secrets within this room.'

Liljana sat facing Abrasax. She must have perceived that of all the Seven, he studied her the most intently. She gazed back at him with all the force of her will, as if commanding him to fix his attention elsewhere. But not even Liljana, it seemed, could stare down the Grandmaster.

'Your Sisters,' he said to her, 'have always kept too much hidden.'

'My. Sisters?' Liljana coughed out. It was one of the few times I had ever seen her at a loss for words.

'Do you deny,' Abrasax asked her, 'that you are of the Sisterhood?'

'But why would you think that?'

'I am a Master Reader, am I not? Your chakras, each of them, give off flames — how should I not be able to read their colors? And to perceive that your aura shimmers like that of one who has been trained in the ways of the Maitriche Telu?'

Liljana looked at Kane and Master Juwain briefly before glancing at me. She seemed, somewhere inside herself, to cast off a heavy cloak. Then she held her head high as she told Abrasax: 'I am the Materix of the Maitriche Telu.'

The Seven, all except Abrasax seemed to draw in a single, hissing breath. Master Yasul leaned over to confer in low tones with Master Nolashar, while Master Matai exchanged resentful looks with Master Virang. And then Master Storr called out: 'So this is her secret! And a dark one it is, too!'

In silence he stared at Liljana, and so did Master Matai and the others — even the gentle-faced Master Okuth.

But if they thought to intimidate or even shame Liljana, then they did not know her. The more they beamed their disapproval and dread at her, the brighter and stronger she seemed to grow. And then she told them, 'Others have called my Sisters and me "witch" before.'

'No one has called you that,' Master Storr said. 'Not with your lips, perhaps, but you say it with your eyes.' Master Storr rubbed at his temples a moment before asking Liljana: 'Do you deny that in times past you nearly succeeded in inserting one of your Sisters into Morjin's chambers as a concubine? With the intention of poisoning him, as the Maitriche Telu once poisoned King Daimon and many others?'

'King Daimon Hastar,' Liljana said to Master Storr, 'was nearly as evil as Morjin. After his untimely death, Alonia enjoyed nearly fifty years of prosperity and good rule.'

'Poisoners,' Master Storr muttered. And then more softly: 'Witch.'

'We did what we had to do! When your ways failed to educate and uplift, we were left to deal with one bloodthirsty tyrant after another!'

I looked to my right to see Kane smiling savagely as his lips pulled back from his long, white teeth.

Master Storr tried to ignore him, and he snapped at Liljana: 'And your way has been poison, seduction, even the violation of men's minds!'

'No, that has not been our way — you know nothing about us!' Liljana turned toward Abrasax, and for what seemed an hour she gazed at him, and he at her. His understanding seemed to pour out from him and embrace her. Tears filled her eyes. She was the hardest woman I had ever known, but sometimes the softest, too. Finally Abrasax rose from his cushion and circled the tables until he stood above her. He reached down to grasp her hand and pull her up facing him. With his fingertips, he wiped the tears from her cheek. And then, as we all looked on in astonishment, he bent down to kiss her moist eyelids. To Master Storr and the rest of the Seven, and to all of us, he said, 'War will come soon enough, but let us not allow it into this room. Once, we of the Brotherhood and the Sisters of the Maitriche Telu were as brothers and sisters. I would have it so again.'

He squeezed Liljana's hand and bowed his head to her. Then, fixing Master Storr with a stem look, he returned to his place.

The room fell quiet, and for a while, the seven Masters of the Brotherhood sat drinking their tea. Strong sentiments like invisible currents passed between them. At last, Master Storr looked at me and said, 'War, of the spirit, at the very least, Valashu Elahad and his companions must wage, if they make this new quest. Theirs will be a dangerous journey. And one danger we should speak of now, since Liljana Ashvaran has already hinted of it. I would ask to see the rest of their gelstei.'

I nodded my head at his request, and drew Alkaladur from its sheath. My sword's silvery silustria gleamed in the starlight. Then Master Juwain brought forth his emerald varistei. Liljana set her little blue whale upon her table while Atara sat cupping her scryer's sphere inside her hands. Kane scowled as he reached into his pocket and showed Master Storr his baalstei, cut into the shape of a flat, black eye. And then Maram gently laid his firestone, red as a ruby and as long as his forearm, on his table.

'Ah, my poor, poor crystal,' he said, gazing at the webwork of fine cracks running through it. 'Ruined in battle with that damn dragon.'