The First stopped and scanned the area. “We must cross this water.”
“No!” Linden yelped at once. “We'll be killed.”
The First cocked a stern eyebrow. “Then it would appear,” she said after a moment of consideration, “that the place of our defence has been chosen for us.”
A deformed silence replied. Pitchwife's breathing whistled faintly in and out of his cramped lungs. Sunder hugged Hollian against the pain in his chest. The faces of the Haruchai looked like death masks. Linden was unravelling visibly toward panic.
Softly, invidiously, the atmosphere began to sweat under the ululation of the lurker.
It mounted like water in Covenant's throat, scaled slowly upward in volume and pitch. The skest poured interminably through the thick scream. Perspiration crawled his skin like formication. Venom beat in him like a fever.
Cable Seadreamer clamped his hands over his ears, then dropped them when he found he could not shut out the howl. A mute snarl bared his teeth.
Calmly, as if they felt no need for haste, the Haruchai unpacked their few remaining bundles of firewood. They meted out several brands apiece among themselves, offering the rest to the Giants. Seadreamer glared at the wood incomprehendingly; but Pitchwife took several faggots and handed the rest to Honninscrave. The wood looked like mere twigs in the Giants' hands.
Linden's mouth moved as if she were whimpering; but the yammer and shriek of the lurker smothered every other cry.
The skest advanced, as green as corruption.
Defying the sheen of suffocation on his face, Brinn said, “Must we abide this? Let us attempt these skest.”
The First looked at him, then looked around her. Without warning, her broadsword leaped into her hands, seemed to ring against the howl as she whirled it about her head. “Stone and Sea!” she coughed-a strangled battle cry.
And Covenant, who had known Giants, responded:
"Stone and Sea are deep in life,
two unalterable symbols of the world."
He forced the words through his anoxia and vertigo as he had learned them from Foamfollower.
“Permanence at rest, and permanence in motion;
participants in the Power that remains.”
Though the effort threatened to burst his eyeballs, he spoke so that the First would hear him and understand.
Her eyes searched him narrowly. “You have known Giants indeed,” she rasped. The howling thickened in her throat. “I name you Giantfriend. We are comrades, for good or ill.”
Giantfriend. Covenant almost gagged on the name. The Seareach Giants had given that title to Damelon father of Loric. To Damelon, who had foretold their destruction. But he had no time to protest. The skest were coming. He broke into a fit of coughing. Emeralds dizzied him as he struggled for breath. The howl tore at the marrow of his bones. His mind spun. Giantfriend, Damelon, Kevin; names in gyres. Linden Marid venom.
Venomvenomvenom.
Holding brands ready, Brinn and Ceer went out along the edge of the lake to meet the skest.
The other Haruchai moved the company in that direction.
Sweat running into Pitchwife's eyes made him wink and squint like a madman. The First gripped her sword in both fists.
Reft by vertigo, Covenant followed only because Hergrom impelled him.
Marid. Fangs.
Leper outcast unclean.
They were near the burning children now. Too near.
Suddenly, Seadreamer leaped past Brinn like a berserker to charge the skest.
Brinn croaked, “Giant!” and followed.
With one massive foot, Seadreamer stamped down on a creature. It ruptured, squirting acid and flame.
Seadreamer staggered as agony screamed up his leg. His jaws stretched, but no sound came from his throat. In an inchoate flash of perception, Covenant realized that the Giant was mute. Hideously, Seadreamer toppled toward the skest.
The lurker's voice bubbled and frothed like the lust of quicksand.
Brinn dropped his brands, caught Seadreamer's wrist. Planting his strength against the Giant's weight, he pivoted Seadreamer away from the creatures.
The next instant, Pitchwife reached them. With prodigious ease, the cripple swept his injured comrade onto his shoulders. Pain glared across Seadreamer's face; but he clung to Pitchwife's shoulders and let Pitchwife carry him away from the skest.
At the same time, Ceer began to strike. He splattered one of the acid-children with a back-handed blow of a brand. Conflagration tore half the wood to splinters. He hurled the remains at the next creature. As this skest burst, he was already snatching up another faggot, already striking again.
Stell and Brinn joined him. Roaring, Honninscrave slashed at the line with a double handful of wood, scattering five skest before the brands became fire and kindling in his grasp.
Together, they opened a gap in the lurker's noose.
The howl tightened in fury, raked the lungs of the company like claws.
Hergrom picked up Covenant and dashed through the breach. Cail followed, carrying Linden. Brinn and Ceer kept the gap open with the last of the firewood while Honninscrave and the First strode past the flames, relying on their Giantish immunity to fire. Pitchwife waded after them, with Seadreamer on his back.
Then the Haruchai had no more wood. Skest surged to close the breach, driven by the lurker's unfaltering shriek.
Stell leaped the gap. Harn threw Hollian bodily to Stell, then did the same with Sunder.
As one, Brinn, Ceer, and Harn dove over the creatures.
Already, the skest had turned in pursuit. The lurker gibbered with rage.
“Come!” shouted the First, almost retching to drive her voice through the howl. The Giants raced along the lakeshore, Pitchwife bearing Seadreamer with the agility of a Haruchai.
The company fled. Sunder and Hollian sprinted together, flanked by Harn and Stell. Covenant stumbled over the roots and vines between Brinn and Hergrom.
Linden did not move. Her face was alabaster with suffocation and horror. Covenant wrenched his gaze toward her to see the same look which had stunned her mien when she had first seen Joan, The look of paralysis.
Cail and Ceer took her arms and started to drag her forward.
She fought; her mouth opened to scream.
Urgently, the First gasped, “Ware!”
A wail ripped Hollian's throat.
Brinn and Hergrom leaped to a stop, whirled toward the lake.
Covenant staggered at the sight and would have fallen if the Haruchai had not upheld him.
The surface of the lake was rising. The water became an arm like a concatenation of ghost-shine- a tentacle with scores of fingers. It mounted and grew, reaching into the air like the howling of the lurker incarnate.
Uncoiling like a serpent, it struck at the company, at the people who were nearest.
At Linden.
Her mouth formed helpless mewling shapes. She struggled to escape. Cail and Ceer pulled at her. Unconsciously, she fought them.
As vividly as nightmare, Covenant saw her left foot catch in the fork of a root. The Haruchai hauled at her. In a spasm of pain, her ankle shattered. It seemed to make no sound through the rage of the lurker.
The arm lashed phosphorescence at her. Cail met the blow, tried to block it. The arm swatted him out of the way. He tumbled headlong toward the advancing skest.