Covenant's grip stopped her. His fingers gouged her shoulder, demanding restraint. Before she could fight free of him, shout his folly into his face, he said to Infelice, “No. All this is secondary. It's not why we're here.” He sounded like he had found another way to sacrifice himself.
“Continue, ring-wielder,” said Infelice evenly. The light in her hair and apparel seemed ready for anything he might say.
“It's true that Earthpower is not the answer to Despite.” He spoke as incisively as ice. “But the Sunbane is another matter. That's a question of Earthpower. If it isn't stopped, it's going to eat the heart out of the Earth.”
He paused. Calmly, Infelice waited for him.
And Linden also waiting. Her distrust of the Elohim converged with an innominate dread. She was intuitively afraid of Covenant's intent.
“I want to make a new Staff of Law.” His voice was fraught with risks. “A way to fight back. That's why we're here. We need to find the One Tree.” Slowly, he unclenched Linden's shoulder, released her and stepped aside as if to detach his peril from her. “I want you to tell us where it is.”
At once, the bells rang insistently. One of them struck out:
— Infelice, do not. Our hope will be lost. The crystal answer came clearly from her:
— It is understood and agreed. I will not. But her eyes gave no hint of her other conversations. They met Covenant squarely, almost with relish. “Ring-wielder,” she said carefully, “you have no need of that knowledge. It has already been placed in your mind.”
With matching care, matching readiness, he replied, “That's true. Caer-Caveral gave it to me. He said, The knowledge is within you, though you cannot see it. But when the time has come, you will find the means to unlock my gift.' But I don't know how to get at it.”
The chiming grew hushed, like bated breath. But Linden had caught the import of the bells. This was the moment for which they had been waiting.
In a rush of comprehension, she tried to fling herself at Covenant. Words too swift for utterance cried through her: They already know where the Tree is, this is what they want, don't you understand, Foul got here ahead of us! But her movements were too slow, clogged by mortality. Her heart seemed frozen between beats; no breath expanded her lungs. She had barely turned toward him when he spoke as if he knew he was committing himself to disaster.
“I want you to unlock the knowledge for me. I want you to open my mind.”
At the top of the eftmound, Infelice smiled.
Nine: The Gift of the Forestal
THE next moment, Linden reached Covenant so hard that he staggered several steps down the slope. Catching hold of his shirt, she jerked at him with all her strength. “Don't do it!”
He fought to regain his balance. His eyes burned like precursors of wild magic. “What's the matter with you?” he barked. “We have to know where it is.”
“Not that way!” She did not have enough strength, could not find enough force for her voice or her muscles. She wanted to coerce him physically; but even her passion was not enough. “You don't have to do that! They can just tell you! They already know where it is.”
Roughly, he took hold of her wrists, wrenched himself out of her grip. The rising of venom and power in him made his grasp irrefusable. He held her wrists together near the cut in his shirt, and she could not break free. “I believe you.” His glare was extreme. “These people probably know everything. But they aren't going to tell us. What do you want me to do? Beg until they change their minds?”
“Covenant.” She raged and pleaded simultaneously. “I can hear what they're saying to each other.” The words tumbled out of her. “They've got some secret purpose. Foul got here ahead of us. Don't let them possess you!”
That pierced him. He did not release her wrists; but his grip loosened as he jerked up his head to look at Infelice.
“Is this true?”
Infelice did not appear to be offended. Repeatedly, she tolerated Linden. “The Sun-Sage suggests that the Despiser has come upon us and bent us to his own ends. That is untrue. But that we have also our own purpose in this matter-that is true.”
“Then,” he gritted, “tell me where the One Tree is.”
“It is not our custom to grant unnecessary gifts.” Her tone refused all contradiction, all suasion. "For reasons which appear good to us, we have made our choice. We are the Elohim, and our choices He beyond your judgment. You have asked me to unlock the knowledge occulted within you. That gift I am willing to give-that and no other. You may accept or decline, according to the dictates of your doubt.
“If you desire another answer, seek it elsewhere. Inquire of the Sun-Sage why she does not enter your mind to gain this knowledge. The way is open to her.”
Linden recoiled. Enter-? Memories of Covenant's last relapse flared through her. Suppressed dark hunger leaped up in her. Surely to have him from what the Elohim intended-! But she had nearly cost him his life. Peril came crowding around her. It flushed like shame across her skin. The contradiction threatened to trap her. This was why she had been chosen, why Gibbon had touched her. Twisting out of Covenant's slackened grasp, she confronted Infelice and spat out the only answer she had-the only reply which enabled her to hold back the hunger.
“Possession is evil”
Was it true after all that the Elohim were evil?
Infelice cocked an eyebrow in disdain, but did not reply.
“Linden.” Covenant's voice was gripped like a bit between his teeth. His hands reached out to her, turned her to face him again. “I don't care whether we can trust them or not. We have got to know where the One Tree is. If they have something else in mind-” He grimaced acidly. “They think I don't count. How much of that do you think I can stand? After what I've been through?” His tone said clearly that he could not stand it at all. “I saved the Land once, and I'll do it again. They are not going to take that away from me.”
As she recognized his emotions, she went numb inside. Too much of his anger was directed at her-at the idea that she was the Sun-Sage, that he was to be blamed for affirming himself. The bells were within her range now, but she hardly listened to them. It was happening again, everything was happening again, there was nothing she could do, it would always happen. She was as useless to him as she had been to either of her parents. And she was going to lose him. She could not even say to him, I don't have the power. Don't you understand that the reason I won't go into you is to protect you? Instead, she let the frozen place in her heart speak.
“You're just doing this because you feel insulted. It's like your leprosy. You think you can get even by sacrificing yourself. The universal victim.” You never loved me anyway. “It's the only way you know how to live.”
She saw that she had hurt him-and that the pain made no difference. The more she reviled him, the more adamant he became. The hot mute glare with which he answered her rendered him untouchable. In his own terms, he had no choice. How could he rise above his plight, except by meeting it squarely and risking himself against it? When he turned his back on her to accept Infelice's offer, she did not try to stop him. Her numbness might as well have been grief.
“Covenant Giantfriend,” the First demanded. “Be wary of what you do. I have given the Search into your hands. It must not be lost.”
He ignored her. Facing Infelice, he muttered in a brittle voice, “I'm ready. Let's get on with it.”
A bell rang across the eftmound-a clamour of appeal or protest. Now Linden was able to identify its source. It came from Findail.