White Gold Wielder Part 21

Shortly after noon, two more Haruchai joined Covenant, bringing to ten the number of their people ranged protectively on either side of him and bis companions.

He saluted them strictly; but their presence only made him more afraid. He did not know how to defend them from Gibbon.

And his fear increased as Sunder grew weaker. Even with Sunstone and krill, the Graveler was only one lone man.198 White Cold Wielder While the obstacles swarming in front of him were simply bracken and heather, he was able to furrow them as effectively as any Rider. But then the soil changed: the terrain became a jungle of mad rhododendron, jacaranda, and honeysuckle.

Through that tangle he could not force his way with anything like the direct accuracy which the Banefire made possible. He had to grope for the line of least resistance; and the jungle closed behind the travelers as if they were lost.

The sun had fallen near the Westron Mountains, and the light had become little more than a filtered gloom, when Linden and Hollian gasped simultaneously, "Sunder!"

Honninscrave jerked to a halt. The First wheeled to stare at the Graveler. Covenant's throat constricted with panic as he scrambled forward at Linden's back.

The Master set Sunder down as the company crowded around them. At once, Sunder's knees buckled. His arms shook with a wild ague.

Covenant squeezed between the First and Pitchwife to confront the Graveler. Recognition whitened Hollian's face, made her raven hair look as stark as a dirge. Linden's eyes flicked back and forth between the Sunstone and the krill.

The vermeil shaft springing from his orcrest toward the setting sun had a frayed and charred appearance, as if it were being consumed by a hotter fire. And in the core of the kriirs clear gem burned a hard knot of blackness like a canker.

"The na-Mhorara attempts to take him!' Hollian panted desperately. "How can he save himself, when he is so sorely weary?"

Sunder's eyes were fixed on something he could no longer see. New lines marked his ashen face, cut by the acid sweat that slicked his skin. Tremors knotted in his muscles. His expression was as naked and appalled as a seizure.

"Put them down!" Linden snapped at him, pitching her voice to pierce his fixation. "Let go! Don't let him do' this to you!"

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The comers of Sunder's jaw bulged dangerously. With a groan as if he were breaking his own arm, he forced down the Sunstone, dropped it to the ground. Instantly, its crimson beam vanished: the orcrest relapsed to elusive translucence.

But the blackness at the center of the krill swelled and became stronger.

199 Grimly, Sunder clinched his free hand around the blade's wrappings. Heat shone from the metal. Bowing his head, he held the krill in a grip like fever and fought to throw off the Clave's touch*fought with the same human and indefeasible abandon by which he had once nearly convinced Gibbon that Covenant was dead.

Linden was shouting, "Sunderi Stop! It's killing youl" But the Graveler did not heed her.

Covenant put out his half-hand. Fire spattered from his ring as if the simple proximity of Gibbon's power made the silver-white band unquenchable.

Findail's protest rang across the jungle. Covenant ignored it. Sunder was his friend, and he had already failed too often. Perhaps he was not ready to test himself against the Clave and the Banefire. Perhaps he would never be ready. But he did not hesitate. Deliberately, he took hold of the krill.

With the strength of fire, he lifted the blade from Sunder's grasp as if the Graveler's muscles had become sand.

But when he closed wild magic around the krill, all his flame went black.

Midnight conflagration as hungry as hate burst among the company, tore through the trees. A rage of darkness raved out of him as if at last the venom had triumphed, had become the whole truth of his power. >- For an instant, he quailed. Then Unden's wild cry reached him.

Savage with extremity, he ripped his fire out of the air, flung it down like a tapestry from the walls of his mind. The krill slipped between his numb fingers, stuck point first in the desecrated soil.

Before he could move, react, breathe, try to contain the horror clanging in his heart like the carillon of despair, a heavy blow was struck behind him; and Cail reeled through the brush.

Another blow: a fist like stone. Covenant pitched forward, slammed against the rough trunk of a rhododendron, and sprawled on his back, gasping as if all the air had been taken out of the world. Glints of sunset came through the leaves like emerald stars, spun dizzily across bis vision.

Around him, fighting pounded among the trees. But it made no sound. His hearing was gone. Linden's stretched shout was mute; the First's strenuous anger had no voice.

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White Gold Wielder 200.

Galvanized by frenzy, Hollian dragged Sunder bodily out of the way of the battle. She pa.s.sed in front of Covenant, blocked his view for a moment. But nothing could block the bright, breathless vertigo that wheeled through him, as compulsory and d.a.m.ning as the aura of the Worm.

Cail and the Giants were locked in combat with Ham, Durris, and the rest of the Haruchai.

The movements of the attackers were curiously sluggish, imprecise. They did not appear to be in control of themselves.

But they struck with the full force of their native strength*

blows so hard that even the Giants were staggered. Pitchwife went down under the automatic might of Fole and another Haruchai. Swinging the flat of her falchion, the First struggled to her husband's aid-Honninscrave leveled one of the Haruchai with each fist. Call's people no longer had the balance or alertness to avoid his ma.s.sive punches. But the attackers came back to their feet as if they were inured to pain and a.s.sailed him again. Mistwave bearhugged one Haruchai, knocked another away with a kick. But the Haruchai struck him a blow in the face that made his head crack backward, loosened his grasp.

Moving as stiffly as a man in a geas. Ham pursued Cail through the battle. Cail eluded him easily; but Ham did not relent. He looked as mindless as Durris, Fole, and the others.

They had been mastered by the Clave.

Slowly, the vertigo spinning across Covenant's sight came into focus; and he found himself staring at the krill. It stood in the dirt like a small cross scant feet from bis face. Though fighting hit and tumbled everywhere, no one touched Loric's eldritch blade.

Its gem shone with a clear, clean argence; no taint marred the pure depths of the jewel.

Gibbon's attempt on it had been a feint*a way of distracting the company until he could take hold of all the Haruchai.

All except Cail.

With the dreamy detachment of anoxia. Covenant wondered why Cail was immune.

Abruptly, the knotting of his muscles eased. He jerked air into his lungs, biting raw hunks of it past the stunned paroxysm which had kept him from breathing; and sound began to leech back into the jungle*the slash of foliage, the grunt and 201 impact of effort. For a moment, there were no voices; the battle was fought in bitter muteness. But then, as if from a great distance, he heard Linden call out, "Caill The mere- (164 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:42 PM]

wivesi You got away from them!"

Covenant heaved himself up from the ground in time to see Cail's reaction.

With the suddenness of a panther, Cail pounced on Harn.

Ham was too torpid to counter effectively. Ducking under Ham's blunt blows, Cail knocked him off balance, then grabbed him by the shoulder and hip, s.n.a.t.c.hed him into the air. Ham lacked the bare self-command to twist aside as Cail plunged him toward a knee raised and braced to break his back.

Yet at the last instant Ham did twist aside. When Brinn and Cail had been caught in the trance of the merewives, Linden had threatened to snap Brinn's arm; and that particular peril had restored him to himself. Ham wrenched out of Call's grasp, came to his feet facing his kinsman.

For a moment, they gazed at each other impa.s.sively, as if nothing had happened. Then Harn nodded. He and Cail sprang to the aid of the Giants.

Still coughing for air. Covenant propped himself against a tree and watched the rest of the fight.

It did not last long. When Cail -and Ham had broken Fole and Durris free of Gibbon's hold, the four of them were soon able to rescue the remaining six.

Pitchwife and Mistweave picked their battered bodies out of the brush. The First glared sharply about her, holding her sword ready. Honninscrave folded his arms over his chest to contain the startling force of his own rage. But the Haruchai ignored the Giants. They turned away to face each other, speaking mind-to-mind with the silent dispa.s.sion of their people. In spite of what had just happened, they did not appear daunted or dismayed.

When their converse was over, Cail looked at the Giants and Linden, then met Covenant squarely-He did not apologize. His people were Haruchai, and the offense to their rect.i.tude went too deep for mere contrition. In a voice entirely devoid of inflection, free of any hint of justification or regret, he said, "It is agreed that such unworth as mine has its uses. Whatever rest.i.tution you command we will undertake.

But we will not again fall from ourselves in this way.'*202 Covenant did not know what to say. He had known the Haruchai for a long time, and the Bloodguard before them; yet he was still astonished by the extravagance of their Judgments. And he was certain that he would not be able to bear being served by such people much longer. The simple desire to be deserving of them would make him wild.

How was it possible that his white fire had become so black in so little time?

Pitchwife murmured something like a jest under his breath, then grimaced when no one responded. Honninscrave had (165 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:42 PM]

become too bleak for mirth. In his frustrated desire to prove himself to himself, Mistweave had forgotten laughter. And the First was not mollified by Call's speech. The Haruchai had aroused her battle instinct; and her face was like her blade.

whetted for fighting.

Because the sun was setting and Sunder was exhausted, she commanded the Master and Mistweave to prepare a camp and a meal. Yet the decision to rest did not abate her tension.

Dourly, she stalked around the area, hacking back the brush to form a relatively clear s.p.a.ce for the camp.

Covenant stood and watched her. The blow he had received made everything inside him fragile. Even his truncated senses were not blind to her sore, stem vexation.

Linden would not come near him. She stayed as far. away from him as the First's clearing permitted, avoiding him as if to lessen as much as possible his impact on her percipience.

The glances that Hollian cast toward him over Sunder's shoulder were argute with fright and uncertainty in the deepening twilight. Only Vain, Findail, and the Haruchai behaved as if they did not care.

Covenant started to cover his face, then lowered his hands again. Their numbness had become repugnant to him. His features felt stiff and breakable. His beard smelled of sweat; his whole body smelled. he was unclean and rank from head to foot. He feared that his voice would crack; but he forced himself to use it.

"All right. Say it. Somebody."

The First delivered a fierce cut that severed a honeysuckle stem as thick as her forearm, then wheeled toward him. The tip of her blade pointed accusations at him.

Linden winced at the First's anger, but did not intervene.

203 "Giantfriend," the leader of the Search rasped as if the name hurt her mouth, "We have beheld a great ill. Is it truly your intent to utter this dark fire against the Clave?"

She towered over Covenant, and the light of Mistweave's campfire made her appear dominant and necessary. He felt too brittle to reply. Once he had tried to cut the venom out of his forearm on a ragged edge of rock. Those faint scars spread like fretwork around the fundamental marks of Marid's fangs. But now he knew better. Carefully, he said, "He will not do that to me and get away with it."

The First did not waver. "And what of the Earth?"

Her tone made his eyes b.u.m, but not with tears. Every word of his answer was as distinct as a coal. "A long time ago," with the blood of half-mindless Cavewights on his head, "I swore I was never going to kill again. But that hasn't stopped me." With both hands, he had driven a knife into the chest of the man who had slain Lena; and that blow had (166 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:42 PM]

come back to d.a.m.n him. He had no idea how many Bhrathair had died in the collapse of Kemper's Pitch. "The last time I was there, I killed twenty-one of them." Twenty-one men and women, most of whom did not know that their lives were evil.

"I'm sick of guilt. If you think I'm going to do anything that will destroy the Arch of Time, you bad better try to stop me now."

At that, her eyes narrowed as if stie were considering the implications of running her blade through his throat. Hollian and Linden stared; and Sunder tried to brace himself to go to Covenant's aid. But the First, too, was the Unbeliever's friend.

She had given him the t.i.tle he valued most. Abruptly, the challenge of her sword dropped. "No, Giantfriend," she sighed. "We have come too far. I trust you or nothing."

Roughly, she sheathed her longsword and turned away.

Firelight gleamed in the wet streaks of Linden's concern and relief. After a moment, she came over to Covenant. She did not meet his gaze. But she put one hand briefly on his right forearm like a recognition that he was not like her father.

While that touch lasted, he ached to take hold of her hand and raise it to his lips-But he did not move. He believed that if he did he would surely shatter. And every promise he had made would be lost204 The next day, the fruits of the verdant sun were worse.

They clogged the ground with the teeming, intractable frenzy of a sea in storm. And Sunder's weariness went too deep to be cured by one night of diamo ndraught-induced sleep, one swallow of the rare and potent rohorant Pitchwife created by combining his liquor with vitrim. But the Clave made no more efforts to take control of the krill or the Haruchai. The shade of the trees held some of the underbrush to bearable proportions. No Grim or other attack came riding out of Revelstone to bar the way. And the travelers had made such good progress during the past two days that they did not need to hurry now. None of them doubted that the Keep of the na-Mhoram was within reach. At infrequent intervals, the distortion of the jungle provided a glimpse of the southwestern sky; and then all the companions could see the hot, feral shaft of the Banefire burning toward the sun like an immedicable scald in the green-hued air.

Every glimpse turned Linden's taut, delicate features a shade paler. Memory and emanations of power a.s.saulted her vulnerable senses. She had once been Gibbon-Raver's prisoner in Revelstone, and his touch had raised the darkness coiled around the roots of her soul to the stature of all night. Yet she did not falter. She had aimed the company to this place by the strength of her own will, had wrested this promise from Covenant when he had been immobile with despair. In spite of her unresolved hunger and loathing for power, she did not let herself hang back.

The Stonedownors also held themselves firm-They had a score to settle with the Clave, a tally that stretched from the (167 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:42 PM]

hold of Revelstone and the ruin of the villages down to the Sunbane-shaped foundations of their lives. Whenever Sunder's need for rest became severe, Hotlian took the orcrest and krill herself, though she was unskilled at that work and the path she made was not as clear as his. The silent caterwaul and torment of the vegetation blocked the ground at every step; but the company found a way through it.

And as the sun began to sag toward the high ridge of the Westron Mountains*still distant to the south and west beyond the region which had once been named Trothgard, but near at hand in the east-jutting promontory of the range*

the companions reached the verge of the jungle below the rocky and barren foothills of the high Keep.

205 Halting in the last shelter of the trees, they looked up at their destination.

Revelstone: once the proud bastion and bourne of the ancient, Land-serving Lords; now the home of the na-Mhoram and the Clave.

Here, at the apex of the promontory, the peaks dropped to form an upland plateau pointing east and sweeping north.

All the walls of the plateau were sheer, as effective as battlements; and in the center of the upland lay GHmmermere, the eldritch tarn with its waters untouched by the Sunbane until they cascaded down Furl Falls in the long south face of the promontory and pa.s.sed beyond the sources of their potency.

But the Keep itself stood to the east of Glimmermere and Furl Falls. The Unhomed had wrought the city of the Lords into the eastward wedge of the plateau, filling that outcrop of the Earth's hard gutrock with habitations and defenses.

Directly above the company stood the watchtower, the tip of the wedge-Shorter than the plateau, its upper shaft rose free of the main Keep bulking behind it; but its lower half was sealed by walls of native stone to the rest of the wedge.

In that way, Revelstone*s sole entrance was guarded. Long ago, ma.s.sive gates in the southeast curve of the watchtower's base had protected a pa.s.sage under the tower*a tunnel which gave admittance only to the closed courtyard between the tower and the main Keep, where stood a second set of gates. During the last war, the siege of Revelstone had broken the outer gates, leaving them in rubble. But Covenant knew from experience that the inner gates still held, warding the Clave with their imponderable thickness and weight.

Above the abutment over its opening, the round shaft of the watchtower was marked with battlements and embrasures to the crenellated rim of its crown. They were irregular and unpredictable, shaped to suit the tower's internal convolutions.

Yet the face of the watchtower was as simple as child's work compared to the dramatic complexity of the walls of the main Keep. For a surprising distance into the plateau, the sheer cliffs had been crafted by the Unhomed*written with balconies and b.u.t.tresses, parapets and walkways, and punctuated with windows of every description, embrasures on the lower levels, oriels and shaded coigns higher up*a prolific and apparently spontaneous multiplication of detail that al- (168 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:42 PM]

ways gave Covenant an impression of underlying structure, 206 meaning which only Giants could read. The faint green sunset danced and sheened on the south face, confusing his human ability to grasp the organization of something so tall, grand, and timeless.

But even his superficial senses felt the tremendous power of the Banefire's beam as it struck sunward from athwart the great Keep. With one stroke, that red force transgressed all his memories of grandeur and glory, changed the proud habitation of the Lords to a place of malefic peril. When he had approached Revelstone so many days ago to rescue Linden, Sunder, and Hollian, he had been haunted by grief for the Giants and Lords and beauty the Land had lost. But now the knot of his chosen rage was pulled too tight to admit sorrow.

He intended to tear that place down if necessary to root out the Clave*and the bare thought that he might be forced to damage Revelstone made him savage.

Yet when he looked at his companions, saw the rapt faces of the Giants, his anger loosened slightly. The Keep had the power to entrance them. Pitchwife's mien was wide with the glee of appreciation; the First's eyes shone pride at the handi- work of her long-dead people; Mistweave gazed upward hungrily, all dismay forgotten for a time. Even Honnioscrave had momentarily lost his air of doom, as though he knew intuitively that Revelstone would give him a chance to make rest.i.tution.

Conflicting pa.s.sions rose in Covenant's throat. Thickly, he asked, "Can you read it? Do you know what it means? I've been here three times"*four counting the brief translation during which he had refused Mhoram's summons*"but no one's ever been able to tell me what it means."

For a moment, none of the Giants answered. They could not step back from the wonder of the Keep-They had seen Coercri in Seareach and marveled at it; but for them Revelstone was transcendent. Watching them. Covenant knew with a sudden pang that now they would never turn back*that no conceivable suasion would induce them to set their Search and their private purposes aside, to leave the Sunbane and Lord Foul to him. The Sunbane had eroded them in fundamental ways, gnawing at their ability to believe that their Search might actually succeed. What could Giants do to aid a 207 Land in which nature itself had become the source of horror?

But the sight of Revelstone restored them to themselves.

They would never give up their determination to fight.

Unless Covenant found his own answer soon, he would not be able to save them.