Then Stave touched Linden’s arm. When she glanced at him, she saw that Galt and the Voice of the Masters had turned their steps away from the line of the cliff, angling across a low rise. In that direction, by her estimate, lay the opening of the tunnel which emerged from Revelstone. Presumably Handir and the Humbled aimed to intercept Covenant and Jeremiah there.
With her companions, she followed the two Masters.
Clouds still occluded the dawn, but the thin grey light was enough. From the top of the rise, Linden could see the wide mouth of the Keep gaping to the rain. Just outside the tunnel, Covenant and Jeremiah stood facing toward her, obviously waiting for her.
They were accompanied by Clyme and Branl, as well as by perhaps twenty other Masters.
Vaguely Linden wondered if these Haruchai were all that could be spared from the defence of Revelstone. She still had no idea how many of Stave’s kinsmen occupied Lord’s Keep.
Covenant did not appear to look at her: he held his head down as if he were lost in contemplation. But Jeremiah waved with the enthusiasm of an excited boy.
The sight of his eagerness smote Linden deeply. She should have been delighted; should have felt unalloyed joy at his conscious and willing presence, his show of gladness. But she could not forget that it was his power which had prevented her from touching him in the forehall.
He and Covenant remained impenetrable to her senses.
Involuntarily her heart tightened, and her face settled into a grim frown, as she strode down the hillside to meet the two people whom she most loved-and whom she most wanted to trust.
At her approach, Covenant glanced up once, briefly, then began to walk away from the throat of Revelstone, heading toward Furl Falls. But Jeremiah called happily, “Hi, Mom! It’s time to get started!” before he moved to join Covenant.
Her son’s tattered pajamas were drenched, but he did not appear to feel the cold. She still did not know whether he had been shot.
The Masters arrayed themselves protectively around the Unbeliever and Jeremiah without impeding Linden’s approach. In a few moments, she caught up with them.
Stave walked like a guardian between her and them. Rain pricked at her face and hands. The wind had teeth now, biting through her cloak into her clothes.
Covenant was closer to her, between Stave and Jeremiah. Carefully neutral, as if she were speaking to the weather rather than to Covenant, she said, “I think that I understand why you didn’t want to tell me what you’re planning.” I deserve better than this. I need something in return. “But why did we have to come out here?” She gestured vaguely at the rain. A little bit of trust. “Why couldn’t you show me inside? And why did you have to wait until now?”
Covenant seemed distracted, his thoughts elsewhere. But he did not pretend that he had not heard her. “It isn’t going to be easy,” he said absently. “We don’t just need distance from the Demondim. We need a smoke screen. Like the Earthpower coming out of Glimmermere. If they catch even a whiff of what we’re doing-” For a moment, his voice faded. Then he added, “But that’s not the only problem. There are other forces that might try to stop us. We needed time to prepare for them.”
“What “forces”?” asked Linden. “You said something like that last night, but you didn’t explain.”
He kept his head down, studying the soaked grass. “Well, Kastenessen for one. Who knows what the hell Esmer is going to do?” He glanced over at Jeremiah. And you’re forgetting that those ur-viles have manacles.”
Linden missed a step. She could no longer conceive any ill of the Demondim-spawn. After what she had just experienced, his suspicions sounded absurd.
“But if I were you,” he went on before she could pursue the subject, “I’d be more worried about the Elohim. They’ve never trusted me. You remember that.
“Of course,” he said sourly, “you have my ring, which suits them just fine. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to interfere. They haven’t spent all this time warning people to “beware” of me just for fun.”
“I’ve met them,” Jeremiah offered. “I think they just don’t like it when somebody else is more important than they are.”
By slow degrees, dawn leaked though the receding storm; dissolved the darkness over the plateau. Now stands of trees were visible on either side of the route chosen by the Masters: copses of mimosa and wattle, clustered cedars, all dark, shrouded with rain and full of implied secrets. Any number of lorewise beings could have concealed themselves there, and Linden would have caught no hint of them.
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. If Kastenessen wants to stop you, why would the Elohim want the same thing’?” Esmer had told her that they expected her to deal with Kastenessen and the skurj. Are you not the Wildwielder? What then remains to cause the Elohim concern? “They Appointed him to stop the skurj. In fact, they forced him. They made him a prisoner. Why would they want what he wants now?’
“You’re right,” replied Covenant sharply. “You don’t understand.
Especially Kastenessen.”
With elaborate patience, he explained, “You need to realise that he didn’t break his Durance. He didn’t have that much actual power. No, he slipped out. Which he managed to do by becoming part skurj himself.” While Linden stared at him, Covenant muttered as if to himself. “He probably got the idea from Foul. The Despiser loves shit like that.”
Then he resumed his explanation. “Oh, the effect was the same. No more Durance. But the point is, it was hideously painful. Merging with the skurj, even a little bit-It was more painful than you can imagine. Hell and blood, Linden, it probably makes what Jeremiah is going through feel like a picnic.”
“He’s right, Mom,” Jeremiah put in with as much earnestness as his excitement allowed. He was tossing his racecar back and forth between his hands as he walked, catching it deftly with his remaining fingers. “I saw it. Before you came to the Land. It’s horrible. If I ever have to choose”- he shuddered dramatically- “I’ll stay where I am.”
Still studying the rain-matted grass, Covenant nodded. Now Kastenessen is all pain. It’s made him completely insane. There’s nothing else left. And rage is his only outlet. Everything he does is just another way of screaming.
“But he can’t rage hard enough to stop the pain. No one can. Not for long, anyway. So he does what any lunatic does in his situation. He causes himself more pain, trying to make his rage more powerful. Being part skurj isn’t excruciating enough, so he surrounds himself with them, he makes them carry out his rage. And when that doesn’t work, he maims-”
Covenant’s voice trailed away. “Maims what?’ Linden asked at once.
“Himself, of course,” the Unbeliever snorted. “It doesn’t matter what he hurts. All that matters is pain and rage. He’s a walking, talking apotheosis of pain, and nothing is going to make him sane again. I intend to put him out of his misery, but he just doesn’t understand. He can’t. His pain is all he’s got. He’s terrified of losing it. That’s why he wants to stop me.
“If he figures out what’s about to happen, he’ll go berserk. He can’t bring the skurj against us fast enough to make a difference. But he’s still Elohim: He can show up anywhere in a heartbeat. And you do not want to fight that kind of power.”