The One Tree

by Stephen R. Donaldson

  They rejoined the company at the stairs to the Second Circinate. Pitchwife bore a spiked cudgel as gnarled and massive as his own arms. And over one shoulder Honninscrave carried a huge iron-bound timber which must have been part of some large siege-engine. The thrust of his beard threatened peril to anyone who dared oppose him.

  At the sight, Brinn’s gaze brightened; and a look like a smile passed over Ceer’s pain-disdaining visage.

  Together the companions started downward.

  But when they reached the Second Circinate, Linden halted them. Her tension was scaling toward hysteria. “Down there,” All her senses rang like hammered metal. Opposition too dense to be enumerated crowded the forecourt of the First Circinate. “He’s waiting for us.” Kasreyn’s presence was as unmistakable as his hunger.

  “That is well.” The First stroked her new sword. Her certainty was iron and beauty in her countenance. “His life in Bhrathairealm will no longer be what it was. If he is required to declare his tyranny, many things will be altered—not least among them the prosperity of this land.” Her voice was acutely eager.

  The company arrayed itself for battle. Knotting her fear in her throat, Linden took Covenant from Brinn, freeing the Haruchai to fight. The First and Honninscrave, Pitchwife and the two Haruchai, positioned themselves around Seadreamer,

  Ceer, Covenant, and Linden. Ignoring the Demondim-spawn and Findail, who needed no protection, the company walked defiantly down the stairs to the First Circinate.

  There Kasreyn of the Gyre awaited them with four or five score hustin and at least that many unmounted soldiers.

  He stood with his back to the gates. The gates were closed.

  The only illumination came from the sunlight striking in shafts through the unattainable windows.

  “Hold!” The Kemper’s shout was clear and commanding. “Return to your chambers! The gaddhi denies your departure.”

  Fired by the mad peril of her promises, Linden retorted, “He’d let us go if he dared!”

  The company did not stop.

  Kasreyn barked an order. The Guards leveled their spears. In a sharp hiss of metal, the soldiers drew their swords.

  Stride by stride, the forces converged. The company looked as insignificant as a handful of sand thrown against the sea. Without Covenant’s power, they had no chance. Unless they could do what Brinn had wanted to do earlier—unless they could get to Kasreyn and kill him.

  Then the First called like a tantara, “Stone and Sea!” and Honninscrave attacked. Heaving his timber broadside against the hustin, he broke their ranks halfway to Kasreyn’s position. At once, he sprang into the confusion, began felling Guards on every side with his great fists.

  The First and Pitchwife went with him, passed him. Pitchwife had neither the First’s grace nor the Master’s strength; but his arms were as sturdy as oaks, and with his cudgel he bashed assailants away from the First’s back while she slashed her way forward.

  She went for Kasreyn as if she meant to reap blood right to the wellspring of his heart. She was the First; and he had manipulated and slain her comrades while she had been weaponless. Her sword flashed like lightning among the sunshafts, first iron and then red as she flailed bloodshed about her.

  The spears of the Guards were awkward for such in-fighting. No soldier could reach the Giants with an ordinary sword. The three seafarers fought through the throng toward Kasreyn and were impossibly successful.

  Seadreamer, carrying Ceer, herded Covenant and Linden forward. On either side, Brinn and Cail seemed to blur as they fought. Whirling and striking in all directions, they dealt out blows and swift death. For long moments of inchoate attack and precise rebuff, the company moved down the length of the forecourt.

  But the task remained impossible. The questers were grievously outnumbered; and more hustin arrived constantly. Dodging the thrust of a spear, Seadreamer stumbled against Linden. She slipped in a swath of blood and fell. Warm fluid smeared her clothes, her arms. Covenant stopped moving. His empty eyes witnessed the movements around him; but he did not react to the clangor of combat, the cries of the wounded.

  Scrambling to her feet, Linden looked back at Vain and Findail for help. Soldiers hacked wildly at the Elohim, but their blades passed through him without effect. Before their astonished eyes, he melted away into the floor.

  Vain stood motionless, offering his aimless smile to his attackers. Spear-tips and swords shredded his raiment, but left his flesh unmarked. Blows rang against him and broke into splinters of pain for those who struck. He appeared capable of mastering all the hustin alone, if he but chose to act.

  An assault rushed at Covenant, was barely beaten back. “Vain!” Linden raged. “Do something!” He had saved her life more than once. They all needed his help now.

  But the Demondim-spawn remained deaf to her.

  Then she saw the wide golden hoop which came shimmering through the air. Honninscrave roared a warning. Too late. The hoop settled toward Covenant’s head before anyone could save him.

  Desperately Seadreamer released one arm from Ceer, tried to slap the lambent circle away. But it was formed of mist and light, and his hand passed through it, leaving no mark.

  As the hoop dropped around Covenant, his knees folded.

  Another was already in the air. It came from Kasreyn.

  Toward Seadreamer.

  Suddenly Linden realized that the Guards and soldiers had fallen back, forming a thick cordon around the company.

  In a fury of frustration, the First gave up her attack. With Pitchwife and Honninscrave, she retreated to defend her comrades.

  Linden rushed to Covenant’s side, swept his head into her arms, thrust her vision into him. Her stained hands smudged red into his shirt.

  He was asleep. A slight frown marred his forehead like the implications of nightmare.

  Seadreamer sprang away from the shimmering gold. But the hustin were ready, holding their spears to impale him if he fled. Brinn and the First charged the cordon. Spears splintered and broke; hustin fell. But there was not enough time.

  Though the mute Giant struggled to evade it, the hoop encircled his head, wafted downward to cover Ceer. Seadreamer fell. The unconscious Haruchai sprawled across the floor.

  Kasreyn waved his ocular, barking incantations. A third circle of gold light lifted from the metal, expanding as it floated forward. Pitchwife beat at it with his club; but his blows meant nothing to such theurgy.

  With Covenant in her arms, Linden could not move. Gently the hoop settled over her and carried her down into darkness.

  EIGHTEEN: Surrender

  She awoke in dank dark, tugged step after step toward consciousness by the dull rhythmic repetition of a grunt of strain, a clash of metal.

  Her upper arms ached like the folly of all promises.

  She could see nothing. She was in a place as benighted as a sepulchre. But as her mind limped into wakefulness, her senses slowly began to function, giving names to what they perceived.

  She did not want to be roused. She had failed at everything. Even her deliberate efforts to make Kasreyn unsure of himself—to aggravate the implicit distrust between the gaddhi and his Kemper—had come to ruin. It was enough. Within her lay death and peace, and she yearned for them because her life was as futile as everything she had ever striven to deny.

  But the stubborn grunt and clash would not let her go. That even iteration rose from somewhere beyond her, repudiating her desire for sleep, demanding that she take it into account. Gradually she began to listen to the messages of her nerves.

  She was hanging upright: all her weight was suspended from her upper arms. Her biceps were clasped in tight iron circlets. When she found her footing, straightened her legs, the pressure of the fetters eased; and spears of renewed circulation thrust pain down her arms to her swollen hands.

  The movement made her aware of her ankles. They, too, were locked in iron. But those bonds were attached to chains and could be shifted slightly.

  The
fetters held her against a wall of stone. She was in a lightless rectangular chamber. Finished rock surrounded her, then faded into an immense impending weight. She was underground somewhere beneath the Sandhold. The walls and the air were chill. She had never expected anything in Bhrathairealm to be so chill.

  The faint sick smell of dead blood touched her nostrils—the blood of hustin and soldiers, soaked into her clothes.

  The sounds went on: grunt of effort, clash of resistance.

  Within the dark, another darkness stood before her. The nerves of her cheeks recognized Vain. The Demondim-spawn was perhaps ten feet from her. He was harder than any granite, more rigid than any annealed metal. The purpose he obeyed seemed more sure of itself than the very bones of the Earth. But he had proven himself inaccessible to appeal. If she cried out, the walls would be more likely to answer her than he.

  After all, he was no more to be trusted than Findail, who had fled rather than give the company aid.

  The sounds of effort went on, articulating themselves across the blackness. Every exertion produced a dull ringing like the noise of a chain leaping taut.

  With an inchoate throb of ire or anguish, Linden turned away from Vain and identified Honninscrave.

  The Master stood upright no great distance from her. The chamber was not particularly large. His aura was a knurling of anger and resolve. At slow, rhythmic intervals, he bunched his great muscles, hurled all his strength and weight against his chains. But their clashing gave no hint of fatigue or failure. She felt raw pain growing where the fetters held his wrists. His breathing rasped as if the dank air hurt his chest.

  From another part of the wall, the First said hoarsely, “Honninscrave. In the name of pity.”

  But the Bhrathair had tried to sink Starfare’s Gem, and he did not stop.

  The First’s tone revealed no serious physical harm. Linden’s senses began to move more swiftly. Her ears picked out the various respirations in the chamber. Her nerves explored the space. Somewhere between the First and Honninscrave, she located Pitchwife. The specific wheeze with which his crippled chest took and released air told her that he was unconscious. The pain he emitted showed that he had been dealt a heavy blow; but she felt no evidence of bleeding from him.

  Beside her, she found Cail. He held himself still, breathed quietly; but his Haruchai flesh was unmistakable. He seemed no less judgmental and unyielding than the stone to which he was chained.

  Brinn was bound against another wall, opposite the First. His abstract rigidity suggested to Linden that he had made the same attempt Honninscrave was making—and had judged it to be folly. Yet his native extravagance responded to what the Master was doing.

  Seadreamer stood near Brinn, yearning out into the dark toward his brother. His muteness was as poignant as a wail. Deep within himself, he was a knot of Earth-Sight and despair.

  For a moment, his intensity deafened Linden to Ceer. But then she became aware of the injured Haruchai. He also was chained to the wall across from the First, Pitchwife, and Honninscrave. His posture and respiration were as implacable as Brinn’s or Cail’s; but she caught the taste of pain-sweat from him. The emanations of his shoulder were sharp: his bonds held him in a position which accentuated his broken clavicle. But that hurt paled beside the shrill protest of his crushed knee.

  Instinctive empathy struck at her legs, taking them out from under her. She could not stand upright again, bear her own weight, until the misery in her upper arms brought her back to herself. Ceer was so hurt, and held the damage in such disdain—All her training and her long labor cried out against what had happened to him. Groaning she wrestled with the memory of Kasreyn’s defalcation, tried to think of something she might have done to alter the outcome.

  But there was nothing—nothing except submission. Give Covenant to the Kemper. Help Kasreyn work his will on Covenant’s irreducible vulnerability. Betray every impulse which bound her to the Unbeliever. No. That she could not have done—not even to save Ceer from agony, Hergrom from death. Thomas Covenant was more to her than—

  Covenant!

  In the unaneled midnight of the dungeon, he was nowhere to be found.

  Her senses clawed the dark in all directions, searching manically. But she discovered no glimmer of pulse or tremor of breath which might have been the Unbeliever. Vain was there. Cail was beside her. The First, Honninscrave in his exertions, Ceer bleeding: she identified them all. Opposite her, beyond Vain, she thought she perceived the flat iron of a door. But of Covenant there was no sign, nothing.

  Oh dear God.

  Her moan must have been audible; some of her companions turned toward her. “Linden Avery,” the First said tightly. “Chosen. Are you harmed?”

  The blackness became giddy and desperate, beating about her head. The smell of blood was everywhere. Only the hard accusation of the bonds kept her from slumping to the floor. She had brought the company to this. Covenant’s name bled through her lips, and the dark took it away.

  “Chosen,” the First insisted.

  Linden’s soul cried for an end, for any blankness or violence which would put a stop to it. But in return came echoes of the way her mother had begged for death, mocking her. Iron and stone scorned her desire for flight, for surcease. And she had to answer the concern of her friends. Somehow she said, “He’s not here. I lost him.”

  The First released a taut sigh. Covenant gone. The end of the quest. Yet she had been tempered to meet extremities; and her tone acknowledged no defeat. “Nonetheless it was a good ploy. Our hope lay in setting the gaddhi and his Kemper at each other. We could not have done otherwise.”

  But Linden had no heart for such cold comfort. “Kasreyn has him,” The chill of the air sharpened her gall. “We played right into his hands. He’s got everything he wants.”

  “Has he?” The First sounded like a woman who could stand upright under any doom. Near her, Honninscrave strained against his fetters with unceasing ferocity. “Then why do we yet live?”

  Linden started to retort, Maybe he just wants to play with us. But then the true import of the First’s words penetrated her. Maybe Kasreyn did want to wreak cruelty on the questers, in punishment or sport. And maybe maybe he still needed them for something. He had already had one chance at the white gold and had not succeeded. Maybe now he intended to use the company against Covenant in some way.

  If that were true, she might get one more chance. One last opportunity to make herself and her promises mean something.

  Then passion burned like a fever through her chilled skin. The dark made a distant roaring in her ears, and her pulse labored as if it had been goaded.

  Sweet Christ. Give me one more chance.

  But the First was speaking again. The need in her voice caught and held Linden’s attention. “Chosen, you have eyes which I lack. What has befallen Pitchwife my husband? I hear his breath at my side, yet he gives no response.”

  Linden felt the First’s suppressed emotion as if it were a link between them. “He’s unconscious.” She had become as lucid as perfect ice. “Somebody hit him pretty hard. But I think he’s going to be all right. I don’t hear any sign of concussion or coma. Nothing broken. He should come out of it soon.”

  The ferocity of Honninscrave’s exertions covered the First’s initial relief. But then she lifted up her voice to say clearly, “Chosen, I thank you.” The intervening dark could not prevent Linden from tasting the First’s silent tears.

  Linden gripped her cold sharp lucidity and waited to make use of it.

  Later, Pitchwife roused himself. Groaning and muttering, he slowly mastered his dismay. The First answered his questions simply, making no effort to muffle the ache in her voice.

  But after a few moments, Linden stopped listening to them. From somewhere in the distance, she seemed to hear the sounds of feet. Gradually she became sure of them.

  Three or four sets of feet. Hustin—and someone else?

  The iron clatter of the door silenced the company. Light spra
ng into the cell from a brightly lit corridor, revealing that the door was several high steps above the level of the floor. Two Guards bearing torches thudded heavily down the stairs.

  Behind them came Rant Absolain.

  Linden identified the gaddhi with her nerves. Blinded by the sudden illumination, she could not see him. Ducking her head, she blinked and squinted to drive the blur from her vision.

  In the light on the floor between her and Vain lay Thomas Covenant.

  All his muscles were limp; but his arms were flat against his sides and his legs were straight, betraying that he had been consciously arrayed in that position. His eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling as if he were no more than the husk of a living man. Only the faint rise and fall of his chest showed that he was not dead. Smudges of blackened blood marked his shirt—the handprints of Linden’s culpability.

  The cell seemed to become abruptly colder. For a moment like the onset of hysteria, Linden could not grasp what she was seeing. Here was Covenant, plainly visible—yet he was completely invisible to the other dimension of her senses. When she squeezed her eyes shut in wonder and fear, he appeared to vanish. Her percipience found no evidence of him at all. Yet he was there, materializing for her the instant she reopened her eyes.

  With an inward quaver, she remembered where she had sensed such a phenomenon before. The Kemper’s son. Covenant had become like the infant Kasreyn bore constantly on his back.

  Then she noticed the golden band clasped around Covenant’s neck.

  She was unable to read it, did not understand it. But at once she was intuitively certain that it explained what had happened to him. It was Kasreyn’s hold on him; and it blocked her senses as if it had been specifically designed for that purpose. To prevent her from reaching into him?

  Oh, Kasreyn, you bastard!

  But she had no time to think. The Guards had set their torches on either side of the door, and Rant Absolain advanced between them to confront the quest.

  With a fierce effort, Linden forced her attention away from Covenant. When she looked at the gaddhi, she saw that he was feverishly drunk. Purple splashes besotted his raiment; his orbs were raw with inebriation and dread.