'Defeated? Well, I suppose he must, yes, but defeated how?'
Master Juwain rubbed at the back of his brown-skinned head, then sighed out: 'The closer that we have come to our journey's end, the more sure I have become of what our course should be. I told this to Val years ago: that evil cannot be vanquished with a sword, and darkness cannot be defeated in battle but only by shining a bright enough light. And now. the brightest of lights has come into the world.'
He spoke, of course, of Bemossed: a slave whom we had rescued out of Hesperu on the darkest of all our journeys. A simple slave — and perhaps the great Maitreya and Lord of light long prophesied for Ea and all the other worlds of Eluru, I couldn't help smiling in joy whenever I thought of this man whom I loved as a brother.
It gladdened my heart to know that he was well-hidden in the fastness of the White Mountains — in the safest place on Earth, And guarded from Morjin by Abrasax and the Seven: the Masters of the Great White Brotherhood whose virtues in healing, meditation and the other ancient arts exceeded even those of Master Juwain.
'Morjin retains the Lightstone,' Master Juwain continued, 'but Bemossed keeps him from twisting it toward his purpose. Soon, I think, with Bemossed so well-instructed, he will be able to grasp the Lightstone's radiance, if not the cup itself. And then.. '
Liljana caught his gaze and said, 'Please don't mind me — go on.'
'And then,' Master Juwain said, 'Bemossed will bring this radiance into all lands. Men will feel an imperishable life shining within them like a star. Truth will flourish. So will courage. Men will no longer listen to the lies of wicked kings and the Kallimun priests who serve Morjin. They will resist these dark ones with their every thought and action — and eventually they will cast them down. Then new kings will follow Val's example here in creating a just and enlightened realm, and they will rebuild our Brotherhood's schools in every land. The schools will be open to alclass="underline" not just to kings' and nobles' sons, and the gifted. Then the true knowledge will flourish along with the higher arts, as it was in the Age of Law. And as it came to be during the reign of Sarojin Hastar, there will be a council of kings, and a High King, and all across Ea, men will turn once more toward the Law of the One.'
While Master Juwain paused in his speech to draw in a breath of air, Liljana kept silent as she stared at him.
'And then,' Master Juwain said, 'we will finally build the civilization that we were sent here from the stars to build. In time, through the great arts and the Maitreya's splendor, men will become more than men, and we will rejoin the Elijin and Galadin as angels out in the stars. And then the Galadin will make ready a new creation and become the luminous beings we call the Ieldra, and the Age of Light will begin.'
Master Juwain, I thought, had spoken simply and even eloquently of the Great Chain of Being and its purpose. But his words failed to stir Liljana. She stood with her hands planted on her wide hips as she practically spat out at him: 'Men, kings, laws — and this becoming that keeps you always looking to the stars! Your order's old dream. In the Age of the Mother, women and men needed no laws to live in peace on this world — no law other than love of the world. And each other. Why become at all when we are already so blessed? So alive? If only we could remember this, there would be a quickening of the whole earth, and men such as Morjin wouldn't live out another season. We would rid ourselves of his kind as nature does a rabid dog or a rotten tree.'
Most of the time, Liljana seemed no more than a particularly vigorous grandmother who had a talent for cooking and keeping body and soul together. But sometimes, as she did now in the strength that coursed through her sturdy frame and the adamantine light that came over her face, she took on the mantle of the Materix of the Maitriche Telu.
Atara stepped between Liljana and Master Juwain, and she held her blindfolded head perfectly still. Then she said, 'The Age of the Mother decayed into the Age of Swords because of the evil that men such as Morjin called forth. And Morjin himself put an end to the Age of Law and brought on these terrible times. So long as he draws breath, he will never suffer kings such as Val to arise while he himself is cast down.'
'No, I'm afraid you are right,' Master Juwain said, nodding his head at her. 'And here we must look to Bemossed, too. I believe that he is the Maitreya. And so I must believe that somehow he will heal Morjin of the madness that possesses him. I know this is his dream.'
And I knew it, too, though it worried me that Bemossed might blind himself to the totality of Morjin's evil and dwell too deeply on this healing that Master Juwain spoke of. Was it truly possible, I wondered? Could the Great Beast ever atone for the horrors that he had wreaked upon the world — and himself — and turn back toward the light?
It took all the force of my will and the deepest of breaths for me to say, 'I would see Morjin healed, if that could be. But I will see him defeated.'
'Oh, we are back to that, are we?' Maram groaned. He looked at me as he licked his lips. 'Why can't it be enough to keep him at bay, and slowly win back the world, as Master Juwain has said? That would be a defeat, of sorts. Or — I am loath to ask this — do you mean he must be defeated defeated, as in — '
'I mean utterly defeated, Maram. Cast down from the throne he falsely claims, reviled by all as the beast he is, imprisoned forever.' I gripped my sword's hilt as a wave of hate burned through me. 'Or killed, finally, fittingly, and even the last whisper of his lying breath utterly expunged from existence.'
As Maram groaned again and shook his head, Master Juwain said to me, 'That is something that Kane might say.'
My friends stood around regarding me. Although I was glad for their companionship, I was keenly aware that we should have numbered not eight but nine. For Kane, the greatest of all warriors, had ridden off to Galda to oppose Morjin through knife, sword and blood, in any way he could.
'Kane,' I told Master Juwain, 'would say that I should stab my sword through Morjin's heart and cut off his head. Then cleave his body into a thousand pieces, burn them and scatter the ashes to the wind.'
Maram's ruddy face blanched at this. 'But how, Val? You cannot defeat him in battle.'
'We defeated him in Argattha, when we were outnumbered a hundred against nine,' I told him. 'And on the Culhadosh Commons when he sent three armies against us. And we defeated his droghuls and his forces in the Red Desert — and in Hesperu, too.'
'But that was different, and you know it!' Maram's face now heated up with anger — and fear. 'If you seek battle, none of the Valari kings will stand with you. And even if they did, Morjin will call up all his armies, from every one of his filthy kingdoms. A million men, Val! Don't tell me you think Mesh's ten thousand could prevail against that!'
Did I truly think that? If I didn't, then I must at least act as if I did. I looked at Atara, whose face turned toward me as she waited for me to speak. Then it came to me that bravura was one thing, while truly believing was another. And knowing, with an utter certainty of blood and breath that I could not fail to strike down Morjin, was of an entirely different order.
'There must be a way,' I murmured.
'But, Val,' Master Juwain reminded me, 'it has always been your dream to bring an end to these endless battles — and to war, itself.' For a moment I closed my burning eyes because I could not see how to defeat Morjin other than through battle. But neither could I imagine any conceivable force of Valari or other free people defeating Morjin in battle. Surely, I thought, that would be death.