White Gold Wielder Part 39

He replied as if her resistance had no meaning: "I am Kevin. Son of Loric. High Lord of the CouncU.

Founder of the Seven Wards. And enactor of the Land's Desecration by my own hand. I am Kevin Landwaster."

In response, she was able to do nothing except groan. Dear G.o.d. Oh, dear G.o.d.

Kevin.

She knew who he was.

He bad been the last High Lord of Berek's lineage, the last direct inheritor of the Staff of Law. The wonder and munifi- cence of his reign in Revelstone had won the service of the Bloodguard, confirmed the friends.h.i.+p of the Giants, advanced the Council's dedication to the Earthpower, given beauty and purpose to all the Land. And he had failed. Tricked and de- 363 feated by the Despiser, he had proved himself unequal to the Land's defense. By his own mistakes, the object of his love and service had been doomed. And because he had understood that doom, be had fallen into despair.

Madly, he had conceived the ploy of the Ritual of Desecration, believing that Lord Foul would thereby be undone*

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that the price of centuries of devastation for the Land would purchase the Despiser's downfall. Therefore they bad met in Kiril Threndor within the heart of Mount Thunder, mad Lord and malign foe. Together, they had set in motion the dire Ritual.

But in the end it was Kevin who fell while Lord Foul laughed. Desecration had no power to rid the world of Despite.

Yet that was not the whole tale of his woe. Misled by the confusion of her love and hate, the later High Lord, Elena, daughter of Lena and Covenant, had thought that the Landwaster's despair would be a source of irrefusable might; and so she had selected him for her breaking of the Law of Death, had rent him from his natural grave to hurl him in combat against the Despiser. But Lord Foul had turned the attempt against her. Both she and the Staff of Law had been lost; and Dead Kevin had been forced to serve his foe.

The only taste of relief he had been granted had come when Thomas Covenant and Saltheart Foamfollower had defeated the Despiser.

But that victory was now three millennia past. The Sunbane was rampant upon the Land, and Lord Foul had found the ;', path to triumph. Kevin's dismay and wrath poured from him ' in floods. His voice was as hard as a cable under terrific stress.

"We are kindred in our way*the victims and enactors of Despite. You must heed me. Do not credit that you may exercise choice here. The Land's need admits no choice. You must heed me. Must!"

The word hammered and echoed and pleaded through her.

Must. He had not come to appall her, meant her no harm.

Rather, he approached her because he had no other way to reach out among the living, exert himself against the De- Bpiser's machinations.

Must.364 She understood that. Her fingers relaxed their grasp on the gra.s.s; her senses submitted to his vehemence. Tell me what it is, she said as if she had no more need to choose. Tell me what I should do.

"You will not wish to heed me. The truth is harsh. You will seek to deny it. But it will not be denied. I have borne horror upon my head and am not blinded by the hope which refuses truth. You must heed me."

Must.

Yes.

Tell me.

"Linden Avery, you must halt the Unbeliever's mad intent.

His purpose is the work of Despite. As I have done before (298 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:44 PM]

him, he seeks to destroy that which he loves. He must not be permitted.

"If no other means suffice, you must slay him."

No! In a rush of trepidation, she strove against his power*

and still she had no strength to raise her head. Slay him?

Ooaded by his gaze, her heart labored. No! You don't understand. He wouldn't do that.

But his voice came down on her back like a fall of stone.

"No. It is you who do not understand. You have not yet learned to comprehend the cunning of despair. Can you think that I allowed my fellow Lords to guess my purpose when I had set my heart to the Ritual? Have you been granted the gift of such sight, and are you yet unable to see? When evil rises in its full power, it surpa.s.ses truth and may wear the guise of good without fear of discovery. In that way was I brought to my own doom.

"He walks the path which his friends among the Dead have conceived for him. But they also do not comprehend despair.

They were redeemed from it by his brave mastery of the Despiser*and so they see hope where there is only Desecration. Their vision of evil is incomplete and false."

He gathered force in the night, became as shattering as a shout of disaster.

"It is his intent to place the white ring into Lord Foul's hand.

"If you suffer him to succeed, the term of our grief will be slight, for all Earth and Time will be lost.

"You must halt him."

"Andelain! forgive!" 365 Repeating until all the Hills replied, Must. Must.

After a moment, he left her. The door of his power closed behind him. But she did not notice his departure. For a long time, she went on staring blindly into the gra.s.s.

SIXTEEN.

"Andelain! forgive!"

LATER, it started to rain.

Drizzling lightly, clouds covered the stars and the moon.

The rain was as gentle as the touch of springtime, as clean and kind and sad as the spirit of the Hills. It fed the gra.s.s, blessed the flowers, garlanded the trees with droplets. In no way did it resemble the hysterical fury of the sun of rain.

Yet it closed the last light out of the'world, leaving Linden in darkness.

She lay outstretched on the turf. All will and movement were gone from her. She had no wish to lift her head, to stir from her prostration. The crus.h.i.+ng weight of what she had learned deprived her of the bare desire to breathe. Her eyes accepted the rain without blinking.

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^ The drizzle made a quiet stippling noise on the leaves and ^ gra.s.s, a delicate elegy. She thought that it would carry her $-. away, that she would never be asked to move again. But 1; then she heard another sound through the spatter of drops: a ^-Bound like the chime of a small, perfect crystal. Its fine note !$ conveyed mourning and pity.

: When she looked up, she saw that Andelain was not alto- ^ gether dark. A yellow light shed streaks of rain to the gra.s.s.

,'It came like the chinomg from a flame the size of her palm .^Which bobbed in the air as if it burned from an invisible wick.

^.366 And the dancing fire sang to her, offering her the gift of its sorrow.

One of the Wraiths of Andelain.

At the sight, pain seized her heart, brought her to her feet.

That such things would be destroyedl That Covenant meant to sacrifice even Wraiths and Andelain on (he altar of his despair, let so much lom and fragile beauty be ripped out of lifel Instinctively, she knew why the flame had come to her.

"I'm lost in this rain," she said. Outrage rose behind her clenched teeth. "Take me back to my people."

The Wraith bobbed like a bow; perhaps it understood her.

Dancing and guttering, it moved away through the drizzle.

Droplets crossed its light like falling stars.

She followed it without hesitation. Darkness crowded around her and through her; but the flame remained clear.

It did not mislead her. In a short time, it guided her to the place where she had left her companions, Under the Gilden, the Wraith played for a moment above the huge, sleeping forms of the Fust and Pitcbwife. They were not natives of' the Land; unappalled by personal revenants, they slumbered in the peace of the Hills.

The flitting flame limned Vain briefly, sparked the rain beading on his black perfection so that he seemed to wear an intaglio of glisters. His ebon orbs watched nothing, admitted nothing. His slight smile appeared to have no meaning.

But Covenant was not there.

The Wraith left her then as if it feared to go farther with her. It chimed away into the dark like a fading hope. Yet when her sight adjusted to the cloud-closed night, sh& caught a glimpse of what she sought. In a low hollow to the east lay a soft glow of pearl.

She moved in that direction, and the light became (300 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:44 PM]

brighter.

It revealed Thomas Covenant standing among his Dead.

His wet s.h.i.+rt dung to his torso. Rain-dark hair straggled across his forehead. But he was oblivious to such things. And he did not see Linden coming. All of him was concentrated on the specters of his past.

She knew them by the stories and descriptions she had heard of them. The Bloodguard Banner resembled Brinn too closely to be mistaken. The man in the grave and simple robe "Andelain! forgice!" 367 had dangerous eyes balanced by a crooked, humane mouth: High Lord Mhoram. The woman was similarly attired because she also was a former High Lord; and her lucid beauty was marred*or accentuated*by a prophetic wildness that echoed Covenant's: she was Elena, daughter of Lena. And the Giant with laughter and certainty and grief s.h.i.+ning from his gaze was surely Saltheart Foamfollower.

The power they emanated should have abashed Covenant, though it was not on the same scale as Kevin's. But he had no percipience with which to taste their peril. Or perhaps his ruinous intent called that danger by another name. His whole body seemed to yearn toward them as if they had come to comfort him.

To sh.o.r.e up his resolve, so that he would not falter from the destruction of the Earth.

And why not? In that way they would be granted rest from the weary millennia of their vigil.

Must, Linden thought. The alternative was altogether terrible. Yes. Her clothes soaked, her hair damp and heavy against her neck, she strode down into the gathering; and her rage shaped the night Covenant's Dead were potent and determined. At one time, she would have been at their mercy. But now her pa.s.sion dominated them all. They turned toward her and fell silent in mingled surprise, pain, refusal. Banner's face closed against her. Elena's was sharp with consternation. Mhoram and Foamfollower looked at her as if she cast their dreams into confusion.

But only Covenant spoke. "Linden!" he breathed thickly, like a man who had just been weeping. "You look awful.

What's happened to you?"

She ignored him. Stalking through the drizzle, she went to confront his friends.

They shone a ghostly silver that transcended moonlight.

The rain fell through their incorporeal forms. Yet their eyes were keen with the life which Andelain's Earthpower and the breaking of the Law of Death made possible for them. They stood in a loose arc before her. None of them quailed.

Behind her, Covenant's loss and love and incomprehension (301 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:44 PM]

poured into the night But they did not touch her. Kevin had finally opened her eyes, enabled her to see what the man she loved had become.368 She met the gazes of the Dead one by one. The flat blade of Mhoram's nose steered him between the extremes of his vulnerability and strength. Plena's eyes were wide with speculation, as if she were wondering what Covenant saw in Linden.

Banner's visage wore the same dispa.s.sion with which Brinn had denounced her after the company's escape from Bhrathairealm. The soft smile that showed through Foamfollower's jutting beard underscored his concern and regret.

For a fraction of a moment. Linden nearly faltered.

Foamfollower was the Pure One who had redeemed the jheherrin. He had once walked into lava to aid Covenant Elena had been driven into folly at least in part by her love for the man who had raped her mother. Banner bad served the Unbeliever as faithfully as Brinn or Cail. And Mhoram*

Linden and Covenant had embraced in his bed as if it were a haven.

But it had not been a haven. She had been wrong about that, and the truth appalled her. In her arms in Mhoram's bed.

Covenant had already decided on desecration*had already become certain of it. It is his intent to place the white ring into Lord Fours hand. After he had swom that he would not Anguish surged up in her. Her cry ripped fiercely across me rain.

"Why aren't you ashamed^*

Then her pa.s.sion began to blow like a high wind. She fanned it willingly, wanted to snuff out, punish, eradicate if she could the faces silver-lit and aghast in front of her.

"Have you been dead so long that you don't know what you're doing anymore? Can't you remember from one minute to me next what matters here? This is Andelain He's saved your souls at least once. And you want him to destroy it!

"You." She jabbed accusations at Elena's mixed disdain and compa.s.sion. "Do you still think you love him? Are you that arrogant? What good have you ever done him? None of this would've happened if you hadn't been so eager to rule the dead as well as the living."

Her denunciation pierced the former High Lord. Elena tried to reply, tried to defend herself; but no words came.

She had broken the Law of Death. The blame of the Sunbane was as much hers as Covenant's. Stricken and grieving, she wavered, lost force, and went out. leaving a momentary afterglow of silver in the ram.

"Andelain! forgive!" 369 But Linden had already turned on Banner.

"And you. You with your b.l.o.o.d.y self-righteousness. You promised him service. Is that what you call this7 Your people are sitting on their hands in Revelstone when they should be (302 of 399) [1/19/03 11:38:44 PM]

here'. HoIHan was killed because they didn't come with us to fight those ur-viles. Caer-Caveral is dead and it's only a matter of lime before Andelain starts to rot. But never mind that. Aren't you satisfied with letting Kevin ruin the Land once?" She flung the back of her hand in Covenant's direction.

"They should be here to slop him"

Banner had no answer. He cast a glance like an appeal at Covenant; then he, too, faded away. Around the hollow, the darkness deepened.

Fuming, Linden swung toward FoamfoIIower.