Stephen Donaldson - Fatal Revenant

“That’s the other thing. The Elohim . They’re-I don’t know how to put it.” His mouth twisted in disgust. “They’re vulnerable to certain kinds of structures. Like Vain. Maybe because they’re so fluid. Specific constructs attract them. Exactly the right materials in exactly the right shape. Other structures repel them. Or blind them.

“That’s one reason Findail haunted you the way he did. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t get away from Vain.

“With the right materials, Jeremiah could make a door to lure the Elohim in and never let them out. Which is what the Vizard wanted. They wouldn’t be able to stop themselves. But this door they just won’t look at. It’ll take us where we want to go, and they won’t know we’re doing it.” Covenant gave another stiff shrug. “Hell, they won’t even know they don’t know.”

Linden stared in awe. Her son could do such things. The idea filled her with wonder and reverence; potential joy. Jeremiah had always been precious to her, but now he seemed priceless in ways which she could not have imagined.

Yet the mystery of his abilities was also fraught with anguish. She had not known: she had never known. Now he was going to be taken from her. Again. Just when she had finally been granted a glimpse of his true nature-

We’re only an hour or two away-

Beyond question, she needed to be clear.

Abruptly Covenant changed directions. “Of course, we don’t have to do this. It’s not too late. You can still give me my ring.”

She met his lightless gaze without faltering. “Then what?”

He failed to hold her stare. Something within him appeared to cringe or hide. Glancing aside, he frowned at the uneven rock of the plateau.

“Then we go back where you and your kid belong,” he said flatly. “I stop Foul. And put Kastenessen out of his misery. With that kind of power, I can find where Foul’s been keeping Jeremiah. When Joan dies, the caesures stop. Everybody lives happily ever after.”

“And what if-?” Linden began. Then she halted. For Jeremiah’s sake, she did not wish to provoke Covenant.

“Go on, say it,” he urged without rancour. “What if I’m not telling the truth? Isn’t that what scares you? Isn’t that why you’re afraid to trust me?’

Instead of answering directly, she countered. “Covenant, what’s happened to you?” Encouraged by his restraint, she risked saying. “You talk about how much strain you’re under, but it was always like that. Ever since I’ve known you, everything has always mattered too much, there were always too many lives at stake, the Land was always in too much peril.” And he had judged himself harshly, accepting his own hurts while he struggled to spare the people around him. “But you didn’t react the way you do now.” He had tended her when she had been most frail; wounded and broken. Even when she had opposed him, possessed him, he had covered her with forgiveness. “Now you don’t seem to care about anything except making me do what you want.”

For a moment, he looked at her, still frowning. His eyes were empty, unreadable; devoid of depth. Then he bowed his head. His fingers tapped against his thighs as if he required an outlet for a tension which he was determined to conceal.

“I miss my life, Linden.” He seemed to address the grass stains on her jeans. “I miss living. When you made that Staff, you trapped me. I know it’s not what you intended, but it’s what you did. I’ve been stuck for millennia. It’s made me bitter.

“I yell because I hurt. And I don’t tell you everything because you don’t trust me. I don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m sure you won’t hurt your kid, but I don’t know what you might do to me. If you won’t give me my ring-” His tone suggested that she might destroy him out of spite.

Slowly he raised his eyes until he appeared to be studying the band hidden under her shirt. “That’s why I need to be sure we’re clear. I’m stretched too thin for any more surprises. I have to know what you’re going to do.”

There Linden reached her decision.

Jeremiah had made his choice. He wanted her to prevent Joan’s death from banishing him. He wanted to stay in the Land, conscious and whole. With Covenant. The EarthBlood would enable her to grant his desire.

Then she would lose him forever. For his sake, she could bear that. In addition, she would be lost herself, trapped ten thousand years before her proper present. And in this time, she and her Staff and Covenant’s ring would pose a profound threat to the Arch of Time; a living affront to the Land’s history. But she could worry about that later, after Jeremiah and the Land had been spared. She could even set aside the conundrum of Roger, the peril of Joan’s white gold. Such things were problems for a future in which she would play no part.

Nevertheless Covenant’s underlying falseness surpassed her. She could not suffer it.

He feared the Staff of Law. He insisted that any contact with her would unmake the distortion of Time which allowed him-and Jeremiah-to exist in her presence. Yet Berek’s touch, Berek’s awakening strength, had not harmed him. And he showed no fear when he proposed to approach the Land’s purest and most potent source of Earthpower.

He wanted her to believe that she was more fatal to him than Berek Halfhand or the Blood of the Earth.

When he had said to her in dreams, Trust yourself, and, You need the Staff of Law, and, Linden, find me, he had sounded more true to himself, more like the man who had twice redeemed the Land, than he ever did when he spoke in person.

More than once long ago, she had believed that he was wrong; that his actions would lead to loss and doom. More than once, she had tried to prevent him. And he had shown her that he had made the right choice. By the simple force of his courage and love and will, he had forged salvation from the raw materials of disaster.

But he had done so without imposing his desires on her. Nor had he ever-not once-suggested that she was responsible for his dilemmas.

Do you not fear that I will reveal you?

Therefore she did not hesitate. Carefully neutral, and deliberately dishonest, she replied. “We’re clear. Jeremiah will take us to the EarthBlood.” She was astonished that her voice did not tremble. Yet it remained steady, as if she were stronger than the stone of Rivenrock. “You’ll drink it and use the Power of Command. After that, you’ll disappear,” undone by the scale of the powers which he had released. “and I’ll take my turn so that I can save Jeremiah.”

She had made her choice. Nevertheless she prayed that she was wrong; that she would be given a reason to change her mind; that Covenant would do or say something to account for his lies-or perhaps merely to show that he cared about her fate. The man whom she remembered would not have been content to abandon her in the depths of Melenkurion Skyweir.

But this Covenant seemed to have no room in his heart for her. Lifting his head, he let her see the flicker of embers in his eyes as he said. “Good.”

With that one word, he sealed her decision.

Beware the halfhand.

When they returned to the centre of the plateau, Linden found her son constructing what appeared to be a crude cage. Around a clear space large enough for at least three people to stand without touching each other, he stacked crooked branches to form walls. Some of the limbs looked so heavy that he must have had difficulty lifting them: others seemed too slight and brittle to support the weight above them. And they gave the impression that they were precariously balanced, almost haphazardly poised on top of each other. Yet he worked steadily, without faltering or hesitation. Guided by an instinct beyond her comprehension, he used his stolen boughs and twigs as if they were Tinker toys or pieces of an Erector set, and all of his movements were certain. Even his maimed hand never fumbled.