What you can’t see is how much it hurts that I’m not just here.
What were Esmer’s surprises-or his betrayals-compared to that?
Fiercely she set aside her failures. Supporting her resolve, if not her heart, on the Staff of Law, she met Stave’s flat gaze.
“I’m worried about the same things. Maybe Covenant can explain them.” Or perhaps the Mahdoubt might share her obscure knowledge. “Is he ready to see me yet? Has something else happened? I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”
“There is no new peril,” replied the Haruchai. “The Demondim remain in abeyance, without apparent purpose. But the ur-Lord has indeed announced his readiness to speak with you. I have been instructed to summon you.”
His manner suggested that he disliked being “instructed” by either Covenant or the Masters.
“Then let’s go.” At once, Linden started into motion. “Foul still has my son.” Somehow. “If I don’t do something about that soon, it’s going to tear me apart.”
Lord’s Keep was at least a league away.
Stave and the Manethrall joined her promptly, walking at her shoulders like guardians. She set a brisk pace, borne along by Glimmermere’s lingering potency; but they accompanied her easily. Either one of them could have reached Revelstone far more swiftly without her-
As they followed low valleys among the hills and trees, Linden asked Stave, “Did you find the Mahdoubt? Will she talk to me?”
The Haruchai shook his head. It is curious. It appears that the Mahdoubt has departed from Revelstone. How she might have done so is unclear. Demondim in abundance guard the gates, the passage to the plateau is watched, and Lord’s Keep has no other egress. Yet neither the Masters nor those who serve the Keep can name her whereabouts.
“I was shown to her chambers, but she was not there. And those who have known her cannot suggest where she might be found.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Nor are they able to account for her. Indeed, they profess to know nothing certain of her. They say only that she conveys the sense that they have always known her-and that she seldom attracts notice.”
Stave shrugged slightly. “In the thoughts of the Masters, she is merely a servant of Revelstone, unremarkable and unregarded. To me, also, she has appeared to be entirely ordinary. Yet her absence now demonstrates our error. At a time of less extreme hazard, the Masters would seek to grasp her mystery. While Revelstone remains besieged, however, their attention is compelled by the Demondim.”
“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.