The One Tree

never tried to help Covenant, never tried to staunch his wound. This would never have happened if she had accepted her paralysis and simply let him die.

But the shaking of her shoulders and the light slapping across her face insisted that she had no choice. The rhythm became more personal; by degrees, it dragged her from her diamondraught- sopor. When she wrenched her eyes open, the moonlight from the open port limned Cail's visage. He stood on the stepladder so that he could reach her to awaken her. Her throat was sore, and the cabin still echoed her screaming.

“Cail!” she gasped. Oh my God!

“Your sleep was troubled.” His voice was as flat as his mien. “The Giants say their diamondraught does not act thus.”

“No.” She struggled to sit up, fought for self-possession Images of nightmare flared across her mind; but behind them the mood in which she had gone to sleep had taken on a new significance. “Get Covenant.”

“The ur-Lord rests,” he replied inflectionlessly.

Impelled by urgency, Linden flung herself over the edge of the hammock, forced Cail to catch her and lower her to the floor. “Get him.” Before the Haruchai could respond, she rushed to the door.

In the lantern-lit companionway, she almost collided with Seadreamer. The mute Giant was approaching her cabin as if e had heard her cries. For an instant, she was stopped by the similarity between her nightmare and the vision which had reft him of his voice-a vision so powerful that it had compelled his people to launch a Search for the wound which threatened the Earth. But she had no time. The ship was in danger! Sprinting past him, she leaped for the ladder.

When she reached open air, she was in the shadow of the wheeldeck as the moon sank toward setting. Several Giants were silhouetted above her. Heaving herself up the high stairs, she confronted the Storesmaster, a Giant holding Shipsheartthew, and two or three companions. Her chest strained to control her fear as she demanded, “Get the First.”

The Storesmaster, a woman named Heft Galewrath, had a bulky frame tending toward fat which gave her an appearance of stolidity; but she wasted no time on questions or hesitancy. With a nod to one of her companions, she said simply, “Summon the First. And the Master.” The crewmember obeyed at once.

As Linden regained her breath, she became aware that Cail was beside her. She did not ask him if he had called Covenant. The pale scar which marked his left arm from shoulder to elbow had been given him by a Courser-spur aimed at her. It seemed to refute any doubt of him.

Then Covenant came up the stairs, with Brinn at his back. He looked dishevelled and groggy in the moonlight; but his voice was tight as he began, “Linden-?” She gestured him silent, knotted her fists to retain her fragile grip on herself. He turned to Cail; but before Covenant could phrase a question, Honninscrave arrived with his beard thrust forward like a challenge to any danger threatening his vessel. The First was close behind him.

Linden faced them all, forestalled anything they might ask. Her voice shook.

“There's a Raver on this ship.”

Her words stunned the night. Everything was stricken into silence. Then Covenant asked, “Are you sure?” His question appeared to make no sound.

The First overrode him. “What is this 'Raver?' ” The metal of her tone was like an upraised sword.

One of the sails retorted dully in its gear as the wind changed slightly. The deck tilted. The Storesmaster called softly aloft for adjustments to be made in the canvas. Starfare's Gem righted its tack. Linden braced her legs against the

ship's movement and hugged the distress in her stomach, concentrating on Covenant.

“Of course I'm sure.” She could not suppress her trembling. “I can feel it.” The message in her nerves was as vivid as lightning. “At first I didn't know what it was. I've felt like this before. Before we came here.” She was dismayed by the implications of what she was saying-by the similarity between her old black moods and the taste of a Raver. But she compelled herself to go on. “But I was looking for the wrong thing. It's on this ship. Hiding. That's why I didn't understand sooner.” As her throat tightened, her voice rose toward shrillness. “On this ship.”

Covenant came forward, gripped her shoulders as if to prevent her from hysteria. “Where is it?”

Honninscrave cut off Covenant's question. “What is it? I am the Master of Starfare's Gem. I must know the peril.”

Linden ignored Honninscrave. She was focused on Covenant, clinching him for strength. “I can't tell.” And to defend him. Gibbon-Raver had said to her, You are being forged. She, not Covenant. But every attack on her had proved to be a feint. “Somewhere below.”

At once, he swung away from her, started toward the stairs. Over his shoulder, he called, “Come on. Help me find it.”

“Are you crazy?” Surprise and distress wrung the cry from her. “Why do you think it's here?”

He stopped, faced her again. But his visage was obscure in the moonlight. She could see only the waves of vehemence radiating from his bones. He had accepted his power and meant to use it.

“Linden Avery,” said the First grimly. “We know nothing of this Raver. You must tell us what it is.”

Linden's voice reached out to Covenant in supplication, asking him not to expose himself to this danger. “Didn't you tell them about The Grieve? About the Giant-Raver who killed all those-?” Her throat knotted, silencing her involuntarily.

“No.” Covenant returned to stand near her, and a gentler emanation came from him in answer to her fear. “Pitchwife told that story. In Coercri I talked about the Giant-Raver. But I never described what it was.”

He turned to the First and Honninscrave. 'I told you about Lord Foul. The Despiser. But I didn't know I needed to tell you about the Ravers. They're his three highest servants. They don't have bodies of their own, so they work by taking over other beings. Possessing them.' The blood in his tone smelled of Joan-and of other people Linden did not know.

“The old Lords used to say that no Giant or Haruchai could be mastered by a Raver. But turiya Herem had a fragment of the Illearth Stone. That gave it the power to possess a Giant. It was the one we saw in Coercri. Butchering the Unhomed.”

“Very well.” The First nodded. “So much at least is known to us, then. But why has this evil come among us? Does it seek to prevent our quest? How can it hold that hope, when so many of us are Giants and Haruchai? Her voice sharpened. ”Does it mean to possess you? Or the Chosen?' Before Linden could utter her fears, Covenant grated, “Something like that.” Then he faced her once more. “You're right. I won't go looking for it. But it's got to be found. We've got to get rid of it somehow.” The force of his will was focused on her. “You're the only one who can find it. Where is it?”

Her reply was muffled by her efforts to stop trembling. “Somewhere below,” she repeated.

The First looked at Honninscrave. He protested carefully, “Chosen, the under-decks are manifold and cunning. Much time will be required for a true search. And we have not your eyes. If this Raver holds no flesh, how will we discover it?”

Linden wanted to cry out. Gibbon had touched her. She carried his evil engraved in every part of her body, would never be clean of it again. How could she bear a repetition of that touch?

But Honninscrave's question was just; and an answering anger enabled her to meet him. The ship was threatened: Covenant was threatened. And here at least she had a chance to show that she could be a danger to Lord Foul and his machinations, not only to her friends. Her failures with Joan, with Marid, with Gibbon had taught her to doubt herself. But she had not come this far, only to repeat the surrender of her parents. Tightly, she replied, “I won't go down there. But I'll try to locate where it is.”

Covenant released his pent breath as if her decision were a victory.

The First and Honninscrave did not hesitate. Leaving the wheeldeck to the Storesmaster, they went down the stairs; and he sent a Giant hastening ahead of him to rouse the rest of the crew. Linden and Covenant followed more slowly. Brinn and Cail, Ceer and Hergrom formed a protective cordon around them as they moved forward to meet the Giants who came springing out of hatchways from their hammocks in Saltroamrest below the foredeck.