If that's true, then you're probably going to tell me you can't do anything about Covenant's venom."
At her back, she felt her companions freeze in surprise and apprehension-taken aback by her unexpected demand, disturbed by her frank ire. But she ignored that as well, focused her shivering against Infelice's gaze.
“I don't ask you to do anything about his leprosy. That has too many implications. But the venom! It's killing him. It's making him dangerous to himself and everyone around him. It's probably the worst thing Foul has ever done to him. Are you going to tell me you can't do anything about that?”
The bells rang as if they were offended or concerned. One of them said:
— She transgresses incondignly upon our welcome. Another replied:
— With good reason. Our welcome has not been kindly. But a third said:
— Our path is too strait for kindness. He must not be permitted to destroy the Earth.
Linden did not listen to them. All her wrath was fixed on Infelice, waiting for the tall woman to meet or deny her implicit accusation.
“Sun-Sage.” Infelice's tone had hardened like a warning. “I see this venom of which you speak. It is plain in him-as is the wrong which you name leprosy. But we have no unction for this hurt. It is power-apt for good or ill-and too deeply entwined in his being for any disentanglement. Would you have us rip out the roots of his life? Power is life, and for him its roots are venom and leprosy. The price of such aid would be the loss of all power forever.”
Linden confronted Infelice. Rage set all her old abhorrence of futility afire. She could not endure to be rendered so useless. Behind her, Covenant was repeating her name, trying to distract her, warn or restrain her. But she had had enough of subterfuge and defalcation. The ready violence which lurked beneath the surface of Elemesnedene coursed through her.
“All right!” she flamed, daring Infelice to respond in kind, though she knew the Elohim had the might to snuff her like a candle. “Forget it. You can't do anything about the venom.” A sneer twisted her mouth. “You can't give Seadreamer back his voice. All right. If you say so. Here's something you goddamn well can do.”, “Chosen!” cautioned the First. But Linden did not stop.
“You can fight the Despiser for us.”
Her demand stunned the Giants into silence. Covenant swore softly as if he had never conceived of such a request. But her moiling passion would not let her halt.
Infelice had not moved. She, too, seemed taken aback.
“You sit here in your clachan,” Linden went on, choosing words like items of accusation, "letting time go by as if no evil or danger in all the world has any claim on your hieratic self-contemplation, when you could be doing something! You're Earthpower! You're all made out of Earthpower. You could stop the Sunbane-restore the Law-defeat Lord Foul-just by making the effort!
“Look at you!” she insisted. “You stand up there so you can be sure of looking down on us. And maybe you've got the right. Maybe Earthpower incarnate is so powerful we just naturally seem puny and pointless to you. But we're trying!” Honninscrave and Seadreamer had been hurt. Covenant had been denied. The whole quest was being betrayed. She flung out her sentences like jerrids, trying to strike some point of vulnerability or conscience in Infelice. “Foul is trying to destroy the Land. And if he succeeds, he won't stop there. He wants the whole Earth. Right now, his only enemies are puny, pointless mortals like us. In the name of simple shame if nothing else, you should be willing to stop him!”
As she ran out of words, lurched into silence, voices rose around the eftmound-expostulations of anger, concern, displeasure. Among them, Chant's shout stood out stridently. “Infelice, this is intolerable!”
“No!” Infelice shot back. Her denial stopped the protests of the Elohim, “She is the Sun-Sage, and I will tolerate her!”
This unexpected response cut the ground from under Linden. She wavered inwardly; surprise daunted her ire. The constant adumbration of the bells weakened her. She was barely able to hold Infelice's gaze as the tall Elohim spoke.
“Sun-Sage,” she said with a note like sorrow or regret in her voice, “this thing which you name Earthpower is our Wurd.” Like Daphin, she blurred the sound so that it could have been either Wyrd or Word, "You believe it to be a thing of suzerain might. In sooth, your belief is just. But have you come so far across the Earth without comprehending the helplessness of Power? We are what we are-and what we are not, we can never become. He whom you name the Despiser is a being of another kind entirely. We are effectless against him. That is our Wurd.
“And also,” she added as an afterthought, “Elemesnedene is our centre, as it is the centre of the Earth. Beyond its bounds we do not care to go.”
Linden wanted to cry out, You're lying! The protest was hot in her, burning to be shouted. But Covenant had come to her side. His half-hand gripped her shoulder like talons, digging inward as if to control her physically.
“She's telling the truth.” He spoke to her; but he was facing Infelice as if at last he had found the path of his purpose. Linden felt from him an anger to match her own-an anger that made him as rigid as bone, "Earthpower is not the answer to Despite. Or Kevin would never have been driven to the Ritual of Desecration. He was a master of Law and Earthpower, but it wasn't what he needed. He couldn't save the Land that way.
“That's why the Land needs us. Because of the wild magic. It conies from outside the Arch of Time. Like Foul. It can do things Earthpower can't.”
“Then it comes to this.” Honninscrave lifted his voice over Covenant's. The frank loss in his tone gave him a dignity to equal his stature; and he spoke as if he were passing judgment on the Elohim. "In all parts of the Earth are told the legends of Elemesnedene. The Elohim are bespoken as a people of sovereign faery puissance and wonder, the highest and most treasurable of all wonders. Among the Giants these tales are told gladly and often, and those who have been granted the fortune of a welcome here account themselves blessed.
“But we have not been given the welcome of which the world speaks with such yearning. Nor have we been granted the gifts which the world needs for its endurance. Rather, we have been reft of the Haruchai our companions and demeaned in ourselves. And we have been misled in our asking of gifts. You offer giving with feoffment, but it is no boon, for it places refusal beyond appeal. Elemesnedene is sadly altered, and I have no wish to carry this tale to the world.”
Linden listened to him urgently. Covenant's attitude appalled her. Did he think that Chant's desire for his ring was gratuitous? Was he deaf to the bells?
One of them was saying:
— He speaks truly. We are altered from what we were. A darker answer knelled:
— No. It is only that these mortals are more arrogant than any other.
But the first replied:
— No. It is we who are more arrogant. In time past, would we not have taken this cost upon ourselves? Yet now we require the price of him, that we will be spared it.
At once, a third chime interposed:
— You forget that he himself is the peril. We have chosen the only path which offers hope to him as well as to the Earth. The price may yet befall the Appointed.
But still the Elohimfest went on as if there were no bells. Stiffly, Infelice said, “Grimmand Honninscrave, you have spoken freely. Now be silent.” However, his dignity was beyond the reach of her reproof. Directing her gaze at Linden, she asked, “Are you content?”
“Content?” Linden began. “Are you out of-?”