Stephen Donaldson - The One Tree

To the Storesmaster, who was standing near him, Covenant said, “How long will this keep up?”

Galewrath folded her arms over her heavy breasts, fixed her gaze on the sails. “In this region of the Earth,” she returned, “such freakish winds as we have fled are rare. This blow we name the Questsimoon . The Roveheartswind. We will sight Bareisle ere it falters.” Though her tone was stolid, her eyes glistened at the white thrust of the canvas and the humming of the sheets.

And she was right. The wind held, rising so steadfastly out of the southwest that at night Honninscrave felt no need to shorten sail. Though the full of the moon had passed some nights ago, and the stars gave scant light by which to manage the dromond , he answered the implicit needs of the Search by maintaining his vessel in its tireless run. The wind in the rigging and the canted roll of the deck, the constant slap and susurrus of water like an exhalation along the sides, made Starfare's Gem thrill under Linden's feet. Constantly now she felt the dromond breathing through the swells, a witchery of stone and skill-as vibrant as the timbre of life. And the straight thrust of the Questsimoon accorded the crew a rest from their earlier exertions.

Their pace gave the First a look of stern satisfaction, eased Honninscrave's work until at times he responded to Pitchwife's jests and clowning like a playful behemoth. Grins took even Sevinhand Anchormaster's old sorrow by surprise, and the healing of his arm gave him a clear pleasure.

But no speed or Giantish gaiety etiolated Covenant's mounting tension. He appeared to enjoy the good humour around him, the spray from the dromond 's prow, the firm vitality of the wind. At times, he looked like a man who had spent years yearning for the company of Giants. But such pleasures no longer sustained him. He was in a hurry. Time and again, he carried his anxiety across the listing deck toward wherever Linden happened to be standing and awkwardly engaged her in conversation, as if he did not want to face his thoughts alone. Yet he seldom spoke of the memories and needs which lay uppermost in his mind, so near the surface that they were almost legible through the bones of his forehead. Instead, he picked up more distant threads, questions, doubts and worried at them, trying to weave himself into readiness for his future.

During one of their colloquies, he said abruptly, “Maybe I did sell myself for Joan.” He had spoken about such things before. “Freedom doesn't mean you get to choose what happens to you. But you do get to choose how you react to it. And that's what the whole struggle against Foul hinges on. In order to be effective against him — or for him — we have to make our own decisions. That's why he doesn't just possess us. Take the ring by force. He has to take the risk we might choose against him. And so does the Creator. That's the paradox of the Arch of Time. And white gold. Power depends on choice. The necessity of freedom. If Foul just conquers us, if we're under his control, the ring won't give him the power to break out. But if the Creator tries to control us through the Arch, he'll break it.” He was not looking at her; his eyes searched the rumpled waves like a VSE. “Maybe when I took Joan's place I gave up my freedom.”

Linden had no answer for him and did not like to see him in such doubt. But she was secretly pleased that he was healthy enough to wrestle with his questions. And she needed his reassurance that she might be able to make choices that mattered.

At another time, he turned her attention to Vain. The Demondim-spawn stood on the afterdeck near Foodfendhall exactly as he had since the moment when Covenant had fallen there. His black arms hung slightly crooked at his sides as if they had been arrested in the act of taking on life; and the midnight of his eyes gazed emptily before him like an assertion that everything which took place on the Giantship was evanescent and nugatory.

“Why — ?” Covenant mused slowly. “Why do you suppose he wasn't hurt by that bloody Grim ? It just rolled off him. But the Riders were able to burn him with their rukhs . He actually obeyed them when they forced him into the hold.”

Linden shrugged. Vain was an. enigma. The way he had reacted toward her-first bowing to her outside Revelstone, then carrying her away from her companions when she was helpless with Sunbane-fever- disturbed her. “Maybe the Grim wasn't directed at him personally,” she offered. “Maybe the” — she groped for the name-“the ur-viles? Maybe they could make him immune to anything that happened around him-like the Sunbane, or the Grim — But not to something aimed at him.” Covenant listened intently, so she went on guessing. “Maybe they didn't want to give him the power to actually defend himself. If he could do that, would you trust him?”

“I don't trust him anyway,” muttered Covenant. “He was going to let Stonemight Woodhelven kill me. Not to mention those Sunbane-victims around During Stonedown. And he butchered-” His hands fisted as he remembered the blood Vain had shed.

“Then maybe,” she said with a dull twist of apprehension, “Gibbon knows more about him than you do.”

But the only time his questions drew a wince from her was when he raised the subject of Kevin's Watch. Why, he asked, had Lord Foul not spoken to her when they had first appeared in the Land? The Despiser had given him a vitriolic message of doom for himself and the Land. She still remembered that pronouncement exactly as Covenant had relayed it to her: There is despair laid up for you here beyond anything your petty mortal heart can bear . But Lord Foul had said nothing to her. On Kevin's Watch, he had let her pass untouched.

“He didn't need to,” she replied bitterly. “He already knew everything he needed about me.” Gibbon-Raver had revealed the precision of the Despiser's knowledge.

He regarded her with a troubled aspect; and she saw that he had already considered that possibility. “Maybe not,” he returned in denial. "Maybe he didn't talk to you because he hadn't planned for you to be there. Maybe when you tried to rescue me you took him by surprise and just got swept along. If that's true, then you weren't part of his original plan. And everything Gibbon said to you is a He. A way to defuse the danger you represent. Make you think you don't have a chance. When the truth is that you're the biggest threat to him there is."

“How?” she demanded. His interpretation did not comfort her. She would never be able to forget the implications of Gibbon's touch. “I don't have any power.”

He grimaced crookedly. “You've got the health-sense. Maybe you can keep me alive.”

Alive, she rasped to herself. She had expressed the same idea to Pitchwife, and it had not eased her. But how else could she hope to alter the course of her life? She had an acute memory of the venom in Covenant, the accumulating extremity of his need. Perhaps by dedicating herself to that one task-a responsibility fit for a doctor-she would be able to appease her hunger and hold the darkness back.

The Roveheartswind blew as steadily as stone for five days. Since the sails required so little care, the crew busied itself with the manifold other tasks of the ship: cleaning away every hint of encrusted salt; replacing worn ratlines and gear; oiling unused cable and canvas to preserve them against the weather. These smaller chores the Giants performed with the same abiding enthusiasm that they gave to the more strenuous work of the dromond . Yet Honninscrave watched them and the ship, scanned the Sea, consulted his astrolabe, studied his parchment charts as if he expected danger at any moment. Or, Linden thought when she looked at him closely, as if he needed to keep himself busy.