Stephen Donaldson - Fatal Revenant

“Why haven’t the Masters talked to him? Why won’t they let anyone go out there?”

Stave lifted his shoulders in a Haruchai shrug. “They are uncertain. His puissance is manifest. They question the wisdom of accosting him. In addition”- he hesitated slightly- “there are other matters which I would prefer to name when more is known.”

Other matters, Linden thought. Like the Mahdoubt. Stave and the Masters knew something which they did not wish to reveal.

She wanted to pursue her instinctive assumptions immediately. She had slept for a long time. She had eaten well. And the unexpected doom of the Demondim distracted her from loss and rage. She was eager to act on her decisions.

But her companions had preparations to make. In addition, she had promised the Humbled that they would be told whatever they needed to know. She could not justify concealing the truth about Roger Covenant and the croyel from Stave’s kinsmen.

“All right,” she said while her thoughts ran in several directions at once. “We’ll let that go for now.” She had to resist an impulse to pace as she said, “We should start getting ready. Manethrall, I hope you’ll take care of that for me, you and your Cords. And Liand.”

When she felt the Stonedownor’s protest, she faced him squarely. “Pahni will explain some things while you’re finding supplies. Tomorrow I’ll answer your questions.” With her eyes, she added mutely, If they aren’t about me. “In the meantime, please take Anele with you. I need a chance to think.”

Then she said to Stave, “You should talk to the Humbled. Tell them”- she opened her free hand in a small gesture of surrender- “everything.” More sharply, she went on. “But when you’re done with that, I want to see you again. You can tell me how they take the news.”

That was only a portion of what she had in mind. However, she felt sure that Stave understood the rest.

She saw in the concentration of Mahrtiir’s mien that he understood as well, or guessed it. Yet he made no objection. He was a Raman, bred from childhood to unquestioning service. Without hesitation, he turned to the door, drawing Bhapa and Pahni in the wake of his authority.

For a moment, Liand continued to study Linden with a perplexed frown. But he was capable of dignity. And he had shown repeatedly that he could set his own desires and confusion aside whenever she asked that of him. Drawing himself up, he inclined his head in acquiescence. Then he approached Anele, urged the old man gently to his feet, and led him after the Ramen.

Stave bowed before he withdrew. Linden could only guess what sharing her story with Galt and Clyme might cost him; but he did not flinch from it.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, she began to stride back and forth in front of the hearth, stamping the Staff of Law lightly on the floor with each step. She had told the truth: she needed to think. But she was also restless for action. She had let too much time pass. Surely her foes had already formed new plans and started to carry them out? Roger and the croyel had escaped the convulsion under Melenkurion Skyweir. Moksha Jehannum’s role remained hidden. If they and the skurj and Kastenessen and Esmer and Kevin’s Dirt and Joan’s caesures did not suffice to achieve Lord Foul’s desires, he would devise new threats. The stranger outside Revelstone’s gates might be one such peril. Or he might be an ally as unexpected as the Mahdoubt.

Yet Linden could not leave her rooms without Stave. She did not know her way through Lord’s Keep. And she needed him for other reasons as well. Therefore she had to wait.

While she paced, she tried to imagine what she would have done if she had been free to exact answers from the Theomach.

Slowly the flames in the hearth dwindled, allowing a chill to fill Linden’s rooms. But she did not close the shutters, or put more wood on the fire. The darkness outside Revelstone would be colder.

When she heard a knock at her door, she called out immediately. “Come in!”

As the door opened to admit Stave, she saw all three of the Humbled behind him. But they did not follow him inside, or prevent him from closing the door. Apparently they were content to ensure that she could not leave her quarters without their consent.

“Chosen.” Perhaps to reassure her, Stave bowed yet again. “I have fulfilled your word. All that you have elected to relate, I have conveyed to the Masters.”

Poised and impatient on the verge of attempting to take charge of her fate, Linden found that her mouth and throat had gone dry. She could feel her heart’s labour in her chest. Her voice was unnaturally husky as she asked. “How did they react?”

He gave a small shrug. They are the Masters of the Land.”

She tried to grin, but succeeded only at grimacing. “In other words, they didn’t react at all.”

Stave faced her with his one eye and his flat countenance. “They chafe at my ability to silence my thoughts. For that reason, they seek to mute their own. But they cannot. Their communion precludes them from acquiring my skill.

“They conclude that you propose to confront the stranger who has brought an end to the Demondim. This they conceive in part because it is your way to leave no obstacle unchallenged, and in part because you have declined to speak of the Mahdoubt.”

And that’s why,” muttered Linden harshly. “there are now three of them outside my door.” Then she forced herself to soften her tone. “But do they believe me’?”

“That you have spoken sooth,” he replied without inflection. “is plain to me. Therefore I have made it plain to them.”

“Good.” A small relief lessened her tension briefly. “Thank you.”

While she could still bear to remain passive, she drank the last of Glimmermere’s water. Anele had not touched it, presumably for the same reason that he refused to bathe in the lake, or suffer the touch of hurtloam.

“Tell me,” she said, striving to sound conversational; undemanding. “Why don’t you want to talk about that stranger? Or about the Mahdoubt?”

He did not look away. “Like the Masters, I am uncertain. Therefore I prefer to await the resolution of my doubts.”

Linden scrutinised him. “Uncertain?”

“The Mahdoubt and the stranger are entwined in my thoughts. I speculate concerning them, but my imaginings are unconfirmed. If I am mistaken, I do not wish to compound my error by speaking prematurely.”

She nodded. “I understand. I don’t know why the Mahdoubt disappeared when she did, but she’s my friend. She saved my life. That’s why I didn’t say anything. As far as I’m concerned, she should be allowed to keep her secrets.” Then Linden added, “But I don’t feel that way about our stranger. He’s a bit too fortuitous for my taste.” His defeat of the horde resembled Roger’s and the croyel ’s arrival in glamour. “I think that we should go relieve some of our ignorance.”

Stave appeared to hesitate. “Do you conceive that the Masters will permit it’?”

Linden tightened her grip on the Staff. “Oh, they’ll permit it, all right. You told them my story. Right now, they need answers as badly as we do.

“I’m sure that they still don’t trust me. And the fact that they were so wrong about Roger and my son might make them even more suspicious. Now they really don’t know who to trust.

“But you told them about the Theomach. And they know that the Mahdoubt isn’t just a servant of Revelstone. If they want to go on calling themselves the Masters of the Land, they need to know who that stranger is. They need to know how he disposed of the Demondim.” And why. “If I’m willing to risk talking to him, I don’t see how they can object.”