White Gold Wielder Part 34

But how? The company could not hope to outrun the ur-viles now.

"Perhaps it may be done," said Hollian, speaking so quietly that she could barely be heard over the savage din.

"a.s.suredly it is conceivable. The way of it is plain. Is it not possible?"

Sunder turned back from the rim to gape at her. Inchoate protests tumbled together in him, fell voiceless.

"Conceivable?" Covenant demanded. "Wbat're you talking about?"

Hollian's pale face was intense with exaltation or vision.

Her meaning was so clear to her that she seemed beyond question.

"Sunder and I have spoken of it. In Crystal Stonedown Sivit na-Mhoram-wist t.i.tled me Sun-Sage*and that naming was false. But does not his very fear argue that such work is possible?"

Linden flinched. She had never done anything to earn the epithet the Elohim had given her. She feared even to consider its implications. Did Hollian think that she. Linden, could (261 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

change the Sunbane?

But Sunder strode toward Hollian urgently, then stopped and stood trembling a few steps away. "No," he murmured.

"We are mortal, you and I. The attempt would reave us to the marrow. Such power must not be touched."

She shook her head. "The need is absolute. Do you wish to lose the lives of the ur-Lord and the Chosen*the hope of the Land*because we dare not hazard our own?" He started to expostulate. Suddenly, her voice rose like flame. "Sunder, I have not been tested 1 I an unknown to myself. No measure has been taken of that which I may accomplish." Then she grew gentle again. "But your strength is known to me. I have no doubt of it I have given my heart into your hands, and I say to you, it is possible. It may be done."

From beyond the ridge came harsh screams as Vain ripped and mangled the ur-viles. But the pace of their cries had diminished; he was killing fewer of them. Linden's senses registered a rippling of power in the horde. Some of the clamor The Eh-Brand 321.

had taken on a chanting cadence. The monsters were summoning their lore against the Demondim-sp.a.w.n, "h.e.l.lfiret" Covenant e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Make sense! We've got to do something!"

HolUan looked toward him. "I speak of the alteration of the Sunbane."

Surprise leaped in his face. At once, she went on, "Not of its power or its ill. But of its course, in the way that the s.h.i.+fting of a stone may alter the course of a river."

His incomprehension was plain. Patiently, she added, "The morrow's sun will be a sun of rain. And the pace of the Sunbane increases as its power grows, ever shortening the s.p.a.ce of days between the suns. It is my thought that perhaps the morrow's sun may be brought forward, so that its rain will fall upon us now."

At that. Linden's apprehension jerked into clarity, and she understood Sunder's protest-The strength required would be enormous! And Hollian was pregnant, doubly vulnerable.

If the attempt ran out of control, she might rip the life out of more than one heart.

The idea appalled Linden. And yet she could think of no other way to save the company.

Covenant was already speaking, His eyes were gaunt with the helplessness of his alloyed puissance. Thoughts of warped black flesh and bloodshed tormented him. "Try it," he whispered. "Please."

His appeal was directed at Sunder.

For a long moment, the Graveler's eyes went dull, and his (262 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

stature seemed to shrink. He looked like the man who had faced Linden and Covenant in the prison-hut of Mithil Stonedown and told them that he would be required to kill his own mother. If she had been able to think of any alternative at all*any alternative other than the one which horrified her *Linden would have cried out. You don't have to do this!

But then the pa.s.sion that Covenant had inspired in Sunder's life came back to him. The muscles at the comers of his jaw bunched whitely, straining for courage. He was the same man who had once lied to Gibbon-Raver under extreme pain and coercion in an effort to protect the Unbeliever. Through bis teeth, he gritted, "We will do it. If it can be done."332 "Praise the Earth!" the First exhaled sharply. Her sword leaped into her hands. "Be swift. I must do what I may to aid the Demondim-sp.a.w.n." Swinging into motion, she pa.s.sed the rim and vanished in the direction of Vain's struggle.

Almost immediately, a roynish, guttural chorus greeted her. Linden felt the mounting power of the ur-viles fragment as they were thrown into frenzy and confusion by the First's onset.

But Sunder and Hollian had room in their concentration for nothing else. Slowly, woodenly, he placed himself before her. She gave him a smile of secret eagerness, trying to rea.s.sure him; he scowled in reply. Fear and determination stretched the skin of his forehead across the bones. He and Hollian did not touch each other. As formally as strangers, they sat down cross-legged, facing each other with their knees aligned.

Covenant came to Linden's side. "Watch them," he breathed. "Watch them hard. If they get into trouble, we've got to stop them. I can't stand*" He muttered a curse at himself. "Can't afford to lose them."

She nodded mutely. The clangor of battle frayed her attention, urged it away from the Stonedownors. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself into focus on Sunder and Hollian.

Around her, the edges of the landscape throbbed with the sun's lambency, the hue of blood.

Sunder bowed his head for a moment, then reached into his jerkin and drew out his Sunstone and the wrapped krill. The orcrest he set down squarely between himself and Hollian.

It lay like a hollow s.p.a.ce in the dead dirt; its strange translucence revealed nothing.

Hollian produced her lianar, placed it across her ankles.

A soft invocation began to sough between her Ups as she raised her palms to Sunder. She was the eh-Brand: she would have to guide the power to its purpose.

Dread twisted Sunder's visage. His hands shook as he exposed the krill, let its light s.h.i.+ne into his eyes. Using the cloth to protect his grip from the kriirs heat, he directed its tip at Hollian's palms.

(263 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

Covenant winced as the Graveler drew a cut down the center of each of her hands.

Blood streaked her wrists. Her face was pale with pain, but she did not flinch. Lowering her arms, she let thick drops 323 fall onto the orcrest until all its surface was wet. Then she took up her wand.

Sunder sat before her as if he wanted to scream; but somehow he forced his pa.s.sion to serve him. With both fists, he gripped the handle of the krill, its tip aimed upward in front of his chest. The eh-Brand held her lianar likewise, echoing his posture.

The sun was almost directly above them.

Faintly, Linden heard the First cursing, felt an emanation of Giantish pain. Pieces of the ur-viles' power gathered together, became more effective. With a groan like a sob, Pitchwife fore himself from the Stonedownors and ran past the ridge to help his wife.

Sweating under the sun of pestilence, Linden watched as Sunder and the eh-Brand reached krill and lianar toward each other.

His arms shook slightly; hers were precise. Her knuckles touched his, wand rested against krill-gem, along a line between the bloodied orcrest and the sun.

And hot force stung through Linden as a vermeil shaft sprang from the Sunstone. It encompa.s.sed the hands of the Stonedownors, the blade and the wand, and shot away into the heart of the sun.

Power as savage as lightning: tfee keen might of the Sunbane. Sunder's lips pulled back from his teeth. Hollian's eyes widened as if the sheer size of what she was attempting suddenly appalled her. But neither she nor the Graveler withdrew.

Covenant's half-hand had taken hold of Linden's arm.

Three points of pain dug into her flesh. On the Sandwall, for entirely different reasons, Cail had gripped her in that same way. She thought she could hear the First's sword hacking against distorted limbs, hideous torsos. Vain's anger did not relent. The strain of Pitchwife's breathing came clearly through the blood-fury of the ur-viles.

Their lore grew sharper.

But the scalding shaft of Sunbane-force had a white core.

Argent blazed within the beam, reaching like the will of the Stonedownors to pierce the sun. It came from the gem of the krill and the clenched strength of Sunder's determination.

It pulled him so far out of himself that Linden feared he Was already lost.

She started forward, wildly intending to hurl herself upon (264 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

324 him, call him back. But then the eh-Brand put forth her purpose; and Linden froze in astonishment.

In the heart of the gem appeared a frail, blue glimmer.

Sensations of power howled silently against Linden's nerves, scaled upward out of comprehension, as the blue gleam steadied, became stronger. Flickers of it bled into the beam and flashed toward the sun. Still it became stronger, fed by the eh-Brand's resolve. At first, it appeared molten and limited, torn from itself drop after drop by a force more compelling than gravity. But Hollian renewed it faster than it bled. Soon it was running up the beam in bursts so rapid that the shaft seemed to Sicker.

Yet the aura around the sun showed no sign of alteration.

The Stonedownors chanted desperately, driving their exertion higher; but their voices made no sound. The incandescent beam absorbed their invocations directly into itself. Soundless force screamed across Linden's hearing. Something inside her gibbered. Stop them stop they'll kill themselves stop! But she could not. She could not tell the difference between their agony and the wailing in her mind.

The krilFs jewel shone blue. Constant azure filled the core of the shaft, hurled itself upward. Still the aura around the sun did not change.

The next instant, the power became too great.

The lianar caught fire. It burst in Hollian's hands, shedding a bright vehemence that nearly blinded Linden. The wood flared to cinders, b.u.med the eh-Brand's palms to the bone. A cry ripped through her. The shaft wavered, faltered.

But she did not fall back. Leaning into the power, she closed her naked hands around the blade of the krill.

At her touch, the shaft erupted, shattering the Sunstone, shattering the heavens. The ground wrenched itself aside in a convulsion of pain, sent Linden and Covenant sprawling.

She landed on him while the hills reeled. The air was driven from his lungs. She rolled off him, fought to get her feet under her. The earth quivered like outraged flesh.

Another concussion seemed to wipe everything else out of the world. It rent the sky as if the sun had exploded. Linden fell again, writhed on the heaving dirt. Before her face, the dust danced like shocked water, leaving fine whorls in the wake of the blast. The light faded as if the fist of the heavens had begun to close.

325 When she raised her head, she saw tremendous thunderheads teeming toward her from all the horizons, rus.h.i.+ng to seal themselves over the sun's blue corona- For an instant, she could not think, had forgotten how to (265 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

move. There was no sound at all except the oncoming pa.s.sion of the rain. Perhaps the battle beyond the ridge was over. But then awareness recoiled through her like a thunderclap.

Surging in panic to her hands and knees, she flung her per- capience toward the Stonedownors.

Sunder sat as if the detonation of earth and sky had not touched him. His head was bowed. The krill lay on the ground in front of him, its handle still partially covered. The fringes of the cloth were charred. His breathing was shallow, almost undiscemible. In his chest, his heart limped like a mauled thing from beat to beat. To Linden's first alarm, his life looked like the fading smoke of a snuffed wick. Then her health-sense reached deeper, and she saw that he would live.

But Hollian lay twisted on her back, her cut and heat- mangled palms open to the mounting dark. Her black hair framed the pale vulnerability of her face, pillowed her head like the cupped hand of death. Between her lost lips trickled a delicate trail of blood.

Scrambling wildly across the dirt. Linden dove for the eh-Brand, plunged her touch into^HoIHan and tried to call back her spirit before it Bed altogether. But it was going fast; Linden could not hold it. Hollian had been damaged too severely. Linden's fingers clutched at the slack shoulders, tried to shake breath back into the lungs; but there was nothing she could do. Her hands were useless. She was just an ordinary woman, incapable of miracles*able to see nothing dearly except the extent of her failure.

As she watched, the life ran out of the eh-Brand. The red rivulet from her mouth slowed and stopped.

Power: Linden had to have power. But grief closed her off from everything. She could not reach the sun. The Earth Was desecrated and dying. And Covenant had changed. At times in the past, she had tapped wild magic from him without his volition; but that was no longer possible. He was a new being, an alloy of fire and person. His might was inac- cessible without possession. And if she had been capable of doing that to him, it would have taken time*time which Hollian had already lost.326 The eh-Brand looked pitifully small in death, valiant and fragile beyond endurance. And her son also, gone without so much as a single chance at life. Linden stared blindly at the failure of her hands. The krill-gem. glared into her face.

From all directions at once, the rain ran forward, hissing like flame across the dirt.

Drops of water splashed around her as Covenant took hold of her, yanked her toward him. Unwillingly, she felt the feral thrust of his pain. "I told you to watch!" he raged, yelling at her because he had asked the Stonedownors to take this risk in spite of his inability to protect them from the consequences.

"I told you to watch'."

(266 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

Through the approaching clamor of the rain, she heard Sunder groan.

He took an unsteady breath, raised his head. His eyes were glazed, unseeing, empty of mind. For an instant, she thought he was lost as well. But then his hands opened, stretching the cramps from his fingers and forearms, and he blinked several times. His eyes focused on the krill. He reached out to it stiffly, wrapped it back in its cloth, tucked it away under his jerkin.

Then the drizzle caught his attention. He looked toward Hollian.

At once, he lurched to his feet. Fighting the knots in his muscles, the ravages of power, he started toward her.

Linden shoved herself in front of him. Sunder! she tried to say. It's my fault. I'm so sorry. From the beginning, failure had dogged her steps as if it could never be redeemed.

He did not heed her. With one arm, he swept her out of his way so forcefully that she stumbled. A blood-ridden intensity glared from his...o...b... He had lost one wife and son before he had met Linden and Covenant. Now they had cost him another. He bent over Hollian for a moment as if he feared to touch her. His arms hugged the anguish in his chest. Then, fiercely, he stooped to her and rose again, lifting her out of the new mud, cradling her like a child. His howl rang through the rain, transforming the downpour to grief: "HalHan!"

Abruptly, the First hove out of the thickening dark with Pitchwife behind her. She was panting hugely. Blood squeezed from the wide wound in her side where the lore of the 327 ur-viles had burned her. Pitchwife's face was aghast at the things he had done.

Neither of them seemed to see Hollian. "Come!" called the First. "We must make our way now! Vain yet withholds the ur-viles from us. If we flee, we may hope that he will follow and be saved!"

No one moved. The rain belabored Linden's head and shoulders. Covenant had covered his face with his hands. He stood immobile in the storm as if he could no longer bear the cost of what he had become. Sunder breathed in great, raw hunks of hurt, but did not weep. He remained hunched over Hollian, concentrating on her as if the sheer strength of his desire might bring her back.

The First gave a snarl of exasperation. Still she appeared unaware of what had happened. Aggravated by her injury, she brooked no refusal. "Come, I say!" Roughly, she took hold of Covenant and Linden, dragged them toward the watercourse.

Pitchwife followed, tugging Sunder.

(267 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:43 PM]

They scrambled down into the riverbed. The water racing there frothed against the thick limbs of the Giants, Linden could hardly keep her feet She clung to the First. Soon the river rose high enough to carry the company away.

Rain hammered at them as if it. were outraged by its untimely birth. The riverbanks were invisible. Linden saw no sign of the ur-viles or Vain. She did not know whether she and her friends had escaped.

But the lightning that tore the heavens gave her sudden glimpses around her. One of them revealed Sunder. He swam ahead of Pitchwife. The Giant braced him with one hand from behind.

He still bore Hollian in his arms. Carefully, he kept her head above water as if she were alive.

At intervals through the loud rain and the thunder. Linden heard him keening.

FOURTEEN.

The Last Bourne

AT first, the water was so muddy that it sickened Linden. Every involuntary mouthful left sand in her throat, grit on her teeth. Rain and thunder fragmented her hearing.