Stephen Donaldson - Fatal Revenant

“I also was baffled by her,” Mahrtiir put in. In some fashion, she appeared to alter herself from moment to moment, yet I could not be certain of my sight. Another woman inhabited her place, or she herself inhabited-” He muttered in irritation. “I do not comprehend it.”

“Me neither,” Linden admitted. But she swallowed her disappointment. If the Mahdoubt had not warned her to Be cautious of love , she would never have thought to ask for the older woman’s guidance.

“All right,” she went on. “Since that doesn’t make any sense, maybe you can tell me something that does. How did you convince the Humbled to leave me alone? If they don’t trust me, shouldn’t they be guarding me?”

Stave considered briefly before saying, “Other concerns require precedence. A measure of uncertainty has been sown among the Masters. They know nothing of the peril which Esmer has revealed. But they have heard Anele speak of both Kastenessen and the skurj . And they are chary of the Demondim. That such monsters front the gates of Revelstone, holding among them the might of the IIIearth Stone, and yet do nothing, disturbs the Masters. In addition, the Unbeliever’s presence is”- he appeared to search for a description- “strangely fortuitous. It is difficult to credit.

“Your power to create Falls, or to efface the ur-Lord by other means, troubles the Masters deeply. However, I have reminded the Humbled that your love for both the Unbeliever and the Land is well known-and that your son will be lost by any act of theurgy. Further, I have assured them that you are not a woman who will forsake those companions who remain in Revelstone. This your fidelity to Anele confirms.

“Also”- Stave shrugged eloquently- “the Humbled will not willingly forego their duty to the Halfhand, regardless of their disquiet. Therefore they heeded my urging.”

Stave’s tone reminded Linden that the Humbled would not otherwise have listened to him.

“They are fools,” growled Mahrtiir.

“They are Haruchai ,” Stave replied without inflection. “I thought as they do. Had I not partaken of the horserite, I would do so still.”

He deserved gratitude, especially because of his own bereavement; and Linden thanked him as well as she could. Then she asked a different question. “You mentioned the skurj . Why didn’t you say anything about them before we came here’?”

“Chosen?” Stave cocked an eyebrow at her question.

“You’ve heard Anele talk about them. You were there when that Elohim appeared in Mithil Stonedown,” warning Liand’s people that a bane of great puissance and ferocity in the far north had slipped its bonds and had found release in Mount Thunder. “And you told me yourself that “Beasts of Earthpower rage upon Mount Thunder.” But you haven’t said anything else.”

Until now, she had not needed to know more-

“Your people are the Masters of the Land. If something that terrible has been set loose,” something which resembled fiery serpents with the jaws of krakens, something capable of devouring stone and soil, grass and trees, “someone must have at least noticed . I assume that the Masters can’t fight the skurj , but they must be watching, studying, trying to understand.”

Now Stave nodded. “There has been misapprehension between us. The Masters have no knowledge of the skurj which has not been gleaned from Anele. We-” He stopped himself. “They have beheld no such evil upon the Land. If the skurj have come, they have done so recently, or without exposing themselves to the awareness of the Masters.

“When I spoke of “beasts of Earthpower,” I should perhaps have named the FireLions of Mount Thunder. I did not because I believed them unknown to you. Their life within Gravin Threndor is ancient, far older than the history of Lords in the Land. They came first to human knowledge in the time of Berek Halfhand, the Lord-Fatherer, who called upon them to destroy the armies of his foes. So the tale was later told to the Bloodguard during the time of Kevin Landwaster. Indeed, it has been sung that the Landwaster himself once stood upon the pinnacle of Gravin Threndor and beheld the FireLions. Thereafter, however, they were not again witnessed until the time of the Unbeliever’s first coming to the Land, when he called upon Gravin Threndor’s beasts for the salvation of his companions.”

“So it is remembered among the Ramen,” Mahrtiir assented, “for Manethrall Lithe accompanied the Ringthane and his companions into the Wightwarrens, though we loathe the loss of the open sky. She it was who guided the defenders of the Land from those dire catacombs to the slopes of Gravin Threndor. She witnessed the Ringthane’s summoning of the FireLion- and of the Ranyhyn who bore the Ringthane’s companions to safety.”

“That also the Haruchai have not forgotten,” said Stave. “The courage of the Raman enabled hope which would otherwise have been lost utterly.”

Linden bit her lower lip and waited for Stave to continue his explanation.

“Now, however,” he said, “the FireLions are restive. After millennia of concealed life, they may be observed at any time rampaging upon the slopes of Mount Thunder. They present no peril to the Land, for they are beings of Earthpower, as condign after their fashion as the Ranyhyn. But the cause of their restlessness must be a great peril indeed. When the unnamed Elohim spoke of “a bane of great puissance and ferocity” from the far north which had “found release” in Mount Thunder, no Master knew the form or power of that evil, though all presumed it to be the source of the FireLions’ unrest.

“Upon that occasion, the Elohim also named the skurj .”

“As they did among the Ramen also,” Mahrtiir put in.

The Haruchai nodded again. And Anele has indeed uttered that name repeatedly. But his words revealed nothing of what the skurj might be, or of the FireLions’ unrest. Only when he spoke in the Close did he declare beyond mistake that Kastenessen had been Appointed to contain the skurj , that he has now broken free of his Durance, and that therefore the skurj are a present danger to the Land.

“For that reason, we”- again he stopped himself- “the Masters, and I as well, conceive that the skurj are not the bane which has been released in Mount Thunder. The FireLions have been too long restless, and such devouring harm as Kastenessen was Appointed to imprison would surely have become manifest to our senses. Rather I deem, as do the Masters, that the bane of which the Elohim spoke, and the cause of the FireLions’ unrest, is Kastenessen himself. We surmise that when he had broken free of his Durance, he came alone to Mount Thunder, preceding his former prisoners. Those creatures are the skurj , as Anele has plainly proclaimed. Only now does Kastenessen summon them to his aid.”

Kastenessen again, Linden thought darkly. She did not doubt Stave: his explanation fit Anele’s cryptic references to the skurj , the Durance, and the Appointed. Nor did she doubt that when Lord Foul had whispered a word of counsel here and there, and awaited events , he had been speaking to Kastenessen. He may even have told Kastenessen how to shatter or evade his Durance.

Whether or not the Despiser had also advised Esmer, she could not begin to guess.

But Lord Foul had Jeremiah. Her son had constructed images of Revelstone and Mount Thunder in her living room. And the Masters had reason to think that Kastenessen now inhabited Mount Thunder.

Perhaps he was also responsible for Kevin’s Dirt-

Such speculations left her sick with frustration. They were too abstract: she needed a concrete explanation for what had happened to Covenant and Jeremiah. And she feared the storm of her own emotions when she stood before them again. If they still rejected her touch, she might not be able to think at all.