The Wounded Land

by Stephen R. Donaldson

  No one had been able to rouse Linden. She was caught in the toils of a heinous nightmare, and could not fight free. What evil had been practiced upon her?

  And how many people had he killed? He, who had sworn never to kill again, and had not kept that oath. How many?

  His own fire blinded him; he could not see any stars. The heavens gaped over him like a leper’s doom. How could any man who lacked simple human sensitivity hope to control wild magic? The wild magic which destroys peace. He felt numb, and full of venom, and could not help himself.

  Wrapped in argent like a new incarnation of the Sunbane, he traversed the hills toward Glimmermere. The tarn was hidden by the terrain; but he knew his way.

  Brinn walked beside him, and did not speak. The Haruchai seemed content to support whatever Covenant intended. In this same way, the Bloodguard had been content to serve the Lords. Their acceptance had cost them two thousand years without love or sleep or death. And it had cost them corruption; like Foamfollower, Bannor had been forced to watch his people become the thing they hated. Covenant did not know how to accept Brinn’s tacit offer. How could he risk repeating the fate of the Bloodguard? But he was in need, and did not know how to refuse.

  Then he saw it: Glimmermere lying nestled among the hills. Its immaculate surface reflected his silver against the black night, so that the water looked like a swath of wild magic surrounded, about to be smothered, by the dark vitriol of ur-viles. Avid white which only made Vain grin. But Covenant’s power was failing; he had lost too much blood; the reaction to what he had done was too strong. He lumbered stiff-kneed down to the water’s edge, stood trembling at the rim of Glimmermere, and fought himself to remain alight just a little longer.

  Fire and darkness sprang back at him from the water. He had bathed once in Glimmermere; but now he felt too tainted to touch this vestige of Earthpower. And he did not know the depth of the pool. High Lord Mhoram had thrown the krill here as an act of faith in the Land’s future. Surely he had believed the blade to be beyond reach. Covenant would never be able to swim that far down. And he could not ask Brinn to do it. He felt dismayed by the implications of Brinn’s companionship; he could not force himself to utter an active acceptance of Brinn’s service. The krill seemed as distant as if it had never existed.

  Perhaps none of this had ever existed. Perhaps he was merely demented, and Vain’s grin was the leer of his insanity. Perhaps he was already dead with a knife in his chest, experiencing the hell his leprosy had created for him.

  But when he peered past the flaming silver and midnight, he saw a faint echo from the depths. The krill. It replied to his power as it had replied when he had first awakened it. Its former arousal had led ineluctably to Elena’s end and the breaking of the Law of Death. For a moment, he feared it, feared the keenness of its edges and the weight of culpability it implied. He had loved Elena—But the wild magic was worse. The venom was worse. He could not control them.

  “How many—?” His voice tore the silence clenched in his throat. “How many of them did I kill?”

  Brinn responded dispassionately out of the night, “One score and one, ur-Lord.”

  Twenty-one? Oh, God!

  For an instant, he thought that the sinews of his soul would rend, must rend, that his joints would be ripped asunder. But then a great shout of power blasted through his chest, and white flame erupted toward the heavens.

  Glimmermere repeated the concussion. Suddenly the whole surface of the lake burst into fire. Flame mounted in a gyre; the water of the lake whirled. And from the center of the whirl came a clear white beam in answer to his call.

  The krill rose into view. It shone, bright and inviolate, in the heart of the lake—a long double-edged dagger with a translucent gem forged into the cross of its guards and haft. The light came from its gem, reiterating Covenant’s fire, as if the jewel and his ring were brothers. The night was cast back by its radiance, and by his power, and by the high flames of Glimmermere.

  Still the krill was beyond reach. But he did not hesitate now. The whirl of the water and the gyring flames spoke to him of things which he understood: vertigo and paradox; the eye of stability in the core of the contradiction. Opening his arms to the fire, he stepped out into the lake.

  Earthpower upheld him. Conflagration which replied to his conflagration spun around him and through him, and bore his weight. Floating like a flicker of shadow through the argence, he walked toward the center of Glimmermere.

  In his weakness, he felt that the fire would rush him out of himself, reduce him to motes of mortality and hurl him at the empty sky. The krill seemed more substantial than his flesh; the iron more full of meaning than his wan bones. But when he stooped to it and took hold of it, it lifted in his hands and arced upward, leaving a slash of brilliance across the night.

  He clutched it to his chest and turned back toward Brinn.

  Now his fatigue closed over him. No longer could he keep his power alight. The fingers of his will unclawed their grip and failed. At once, the flames of Glimmermere began to subside.

  But still the lake upheld him. The Earthpower gave him this gift as it had once gifted Berek Halfhand’s despair on the slopes of Mount Thunder. It sustained him, and did not let him go until he stumbled to the shore in darkness.

  Night lay about him and in him. His eyes descried nothing but the dark as if they had been burned out of his head. Even the shining of the gem seemed to shed no illumination. Shorn now of power, he could no longer grasp the krill. It became hot in his hands, hot enough to touch the nerves which still lived. He dropped it to the ground, where it shone like the last piece of light in the world. Mutely he knelt beside it, with his back to Glimmermere as if he had been humbled. He felt alone in the Land, and incapable of himself.

  But he was not alone. Brinn tore a strip from his tunic—a garment made from an ochre material which resembled vellum—and wrapped the krill so that it could be handled. For a moment, he placed a gentle touch on Covenant’s shoulder. Then he said quietly, “Ur-Lord, come. The Clave will attempt to strike against us. We must go.”

  As the gleam of the krill was silenced, the darkness became complete. It was a balm to Covenant, solace for the aggrievement of power. He ached for it to go on assuaging him forever. But he knew Brinn spoke the truth. Yes, he breathed. We must go. Help me.

  When he raised his head, he could see the stars. They glittered as if only their own beauty could console them for their loneliness. The moon was rising. It was nearly full.

  In silence and moonlight, Covenant climbed to his feet and began to carry his exhaustion back toward Revelstone.

  After a few steps, he accepted the burden of the krill from Brinn and tucked it under his belt. Its warmth rested there like a comfort against the knotted self-loathing in his stomach.

  Stumbling and weary, he moved without knowing how he could ever walk as far as Revelstone. But Brinn aided him, supported him when he needed help, let him carry himself when he could. After a time that passed, like the sequences of delirium, they gained the promontory and the mouth of the na-Mhoram’s Keep.

  One of the Haruchai awaited them outside the tunnel which led down into Revelstone. As Covenant lurched to a halt, the Haruchai bowed; and Brinn said, “Ur-Lord, this is Ceer.”

  “Ur-Lord,” Ceer said.

  Covenant blinked at him, but could not respond. He seemed to have no words left.

  Expressionlessly Ceer extended a leather pouch toward him.

  He accepted it. When he unstopped the pouch, he recognized the smell of metheglin. At once, he began to drink. His drained body was desperate for fluid. Desperate. He did not lower the pouch until it was empty.

  “Ur-Lord,” Ceer said then, “the Clave gathers about the Banefire. We harry them, and they make no forays—but there is great power in their hands. And four more of the Haruchai have been slain. We have guided all prisoners from Revelstone. We watch over them as we can. Yet they are not safe. The Clave holds coercion to sway our minds, if
they but choose to exert it. We know this to our cost. We must flee.”

  Yes, Covenant mumbled inwardly. Flee. I know. But when he spoke, the only word he could find was, “Linden—?”

  Without inflection, Ceer replied, “She has awakened.”

  Covenant did not realize that he had fallen until he found himself suspended in Brinn’s arms. For a long moment, he could not force his legs to straighten. But the metheglin helped him. Slowly he took his own weight, stood upright again.

  “How—?”

  “Ur-Lord, we strove to wake her.” Suppressing the lilt of his native tongue to speak Covenant’s language made Ceer sound completely detached. “But she lay as the dead, and would not be succored. We bore her from the Keep, knowing not what else to do. Yet your black companion—” He paused, asking for a name.

  “Vain,” Covenant said, almost choking on the memory of that grin. “He’s an ur-vile.”

  A slight contraction of his eyebrows expressed Ceer’s surprise; but he did not utter his thoughts aloud. “Vain,” he resumed, “stood by unheeding for a time. But then of a sudden he approached Linden Avery the Chosen.” Dimly Covenant reflected that the Haruchai must already have spoken to Sunder or Hollian. “Knowing nothing of him, we strove to prevent him. But he cast us aside as if we were not who we are. He knelt to the Chosen, placed his hand upon her. She awakened.”

  A groan of incomprehension and dread twisted Covenant’s throat; but Ceer went on. “Awakening, she cried out and sought to flee. She did not know us. But the Stonedownors your companions comforted her. And still”—a slight pause betrayed Ceer’s uncertainty—“Vain had not done. Ur-Lord, he bowed before her—he, who is heedless of the Haruchai, and deaf to all speech. He placed his forehead upon her feet.

  “This was fear to her,” Ceer continued. “She recoiled to the arms of the Stonedownors. They also do not know this Vain. But they stood to defend her if need be. He rose to his feet, and there he stands yet, still unheeding, as a man caught in the coercion of the Clave. He appears no longer conscious of the Chosen, or of any man or woman.”

  Ceer did not need to speak his thought; Covenant could read it in his flat eyes.

  We do not trust this Vain.

  But Covenant set aside the question of Vain. The krill was warm against his belly; and he had no strength for distractions. His path was clear before him, had been clear ever since he had absorbed the meaning of the soothtell. And Linden was awake. She had been restored to him. Surely now he could hold himself together long enough to set his purpose in motion.

  Yet he took the time for one more inquiry. “How is she?”

  Ceer shrugged fractionally. “She has gazed upon the face of Corruption. Yet she speaks clearly to the Stonedownors.” He paused, then said, “She is your companion. You have redeemed us from abomination. While we live, she and all your companions will suffer no further hurt.” He looked toward Brinn. “But she has warned us of a Raver. Ur-Lord, surely we must flee.”

  A Raver, thought Covenant. Gibbon. Yes.

  What did he do to her? The nightmare on her face was still vivid to him. What did that bastard do to her?

  Without a word, he locked himself erect, and started stiffly down the tunnel into Revelstone.

  The way was long; but metheglin and darkness sustained him. Vain’s grin sustained him. The Demondim-spawn had awakened her? Had knelt to her? The ur-viles must have lied to Foamfollower. Hamako’s rhysh must have been mistaken or misled. Did Vain bow in acknowledgment of Gibbon’s effect on her?

  What did that bastard do to her?

  If Covenant had doubted his purpose before, or had doubted himself, he was sure now. No Clave or distance or impossibility was going to stand in his way.

  Down through the city he went, like a tight curse. Down past Haruchai who scouted the city and watched the Riders. Down to the gates, and the passage under the watchtower. He had already killed twenty-one people; he felt that for himself he had nothing left to fear. His fear was for his companions; and his curse was for the Despiser. His purpose was clear.

  As he moved through the tunnel, a score of Haruchai gathered around him like an honor-guard. They bore supplies which they had scoured from Revelstone for the flight of the prisoners.

  With them, he passed the broken outer gates into the night.

  Below him on the rocky slope of the foothill burned a large bonfire. Stark against the massed jungle beyond it, it flamed with a loud crepitation, fighting the rain-drenched green wood which the Haruchai fed to it. Its yellow light enclosed all the prisoners, defending them from darkness.

  He could see a group of Stonedownors and Woodhelvennin huddling uncertainly near the fire. Haruchai moved around the area, preparing supplies, wresting more firewood from the jungle, standing watch. Vain stood motionless among them. Sunder, Hollian, and Linden sat close together as if to comfort each other.

  He had eyes only for Linden. Her back was to him. He hardly noticed that all Brinn’s people had turned toward him and dropped to one knee, as if he had been announced by silent trumpets. With the dark citadel rising behind him, he went woodenly toward Linden’s back as if he meant to fall at her feet.

  Sunder saw him, spoke quickly to Linden and Hollian. The Stonedownors jumped upright and faced Covenant as if he came bearing life and death. More slowly, Linden, too, climbed erect. He could read nothing but pain in the smudged outlines of her mien. But her eyes recognized him. A quiver like urgency ran through her. He could not stop himself. He surged to her, wrapped his arms around her, hid his face in her hair.

  Around him, the Haruchai went back to their tasks.

  For a moment, she returned his embrace as if she were grateful for it. Then, suddenly, she stiffened. Her slim, abused body became nausea in his arms. He tried to speak, but could not, could not sever the knots in his chest. When she tried to pull away from him, he let her go; and still he could not speak. She did not meet his stare. Her gaze wandered his frame to the old cut in the center of his shirt. “You’re sick.”

  Sick? Momentarily he failed to understand her. “Linden—?”

  “Sick.” Her voice trailed like blood between her lips. “Sick.” Moving as if she were stunned by abhorrence or grief, she turned her back on him. She sank to the ground, covered her face with her hands, began to rock back and forth. Faintly he heard her murmuring, “Sick. Sick.”

  His leprosy.

  The sight almost tore away his last strength. If he could have found his voice, he would have wailed, What did that bastard do to you? But he had come too far and had too many responsibilities. The pressure of the krill upheld him. Clenching himself as if he, too, could not be touched, he looked at Sunder and Hollian.

  They seemed abashed by Linden’s reaction. “Ur-Lord,” Sunder began tentatively, then faltered into silence. The weal around his neck appeared painful; but he ignored it. Old frown-marks bifurcated his forehead as if he were caught between rage and fear, comradeship and awe, and wanted Covenant to clarify them for him. His jaws chewed words he did not know how to utter.

  “Ur-Lord,” Hollian said for him, “she has been sorely hurt in some way. I know not how, for Gibbon na-Mhoram said to her, ‘You I must not harm.’ Yet an anguish torments her.” Her pale features asked Covenant to forgive Linden.

  Dumbly he wondered where the eh-Brand found her courage. She was hardly more than a girl, and her perils often seemed to terrify her. Yet she had resources—She was a paradox of fright and valor; and she spoke when Sunder could not.

  “You have bought back our lives from the na-Mhoram,” she went on, “at what cost to yourself I cannot know. I know not how to behold such power as you wield. But I have tasted the coercion of the Riders, and the imprisonment of the Clave. I thank you from my heart. I pray I may be given opportunity to serve you.”

  Serve—? Covenant groaned. How can I let you serve me? You don’t know what I’m going to do. Yet he could not refuse her. Somewhere in his own inchoate struggle of need and conviction, he had already a
ccepted the service of the Haruchai, though their claim on his forbearance was almost forty centuries older than hers. Gripping himself rigid because he knew that if he bent he would break, he asked the only question he could articulate in the poverty of his courage. “Are you all right?”

  She glanced at Sunder, at his neck. When he nodded, she replied, “It is nothing. A little hunger and fear. We are acquainted with such things. And,” she continued more strongly, “we have been blessed with more than our lives. The Haruchai are capable of wonders.” With a gesture, she indicated three of Brinn’s people who stood nearby. “Ur-Lord, here are Cail, Stell, and Harn.” The three sketched bows toward Covenant.

  “When we were guided from the hold, I was content with my life. But the Haruchai were not content.” Reaching into her robe, she brought out her dirk and lianar. “They sought throughout Revelstone and recovered these for me. Likewise they recovered Sunder’s Sunstone and blade.” Sunder agreed. Covenant wondered vaguely at the new intimacy which allowed Hollian to speak for Sunder. How much had they been through together? “How does it come to pass,” Hollian concluded, “that the Land has so forgotten the Haruchai?”

  “You know nothing of us,” the one named Harn responded. “We know nothing of you. We would not have known to seek your belongings, had not Memla na-Mhoram-in revealed that they had been taken from you.”

  Memla, Covenant thought. Yes. Another piece of his purpose became momentarily lucid. “Brinn.” The night seemed to be gathering around him. Sunder and Hollian had drifted out of focus. “Find her. Tell her what we need.”

  “Her?” Brinn asked distantly. “What is it that we need?”

  Until he understood the question, Covenant did not perceive that he was losing consciousness. He had lost too much blood. The darkness on all sides was creeping toward vertigo. Though he yearned to let himself collapse, he lashed out with curses until he had brought his head up again, reopened his eyes.