The Wounded Land

The truth of Hollian's augury became clear when the sun rose high enough, and the grass sank low enough, for light to contact the bare ground around the knoll. And with the light came a faint shimmer which seemed to transmogrify the texture of the soil. The dirt began to glow.

Covenant believed that he was hallucinating.

Without warning, Vain ascended the boulders. Everyone stared at him; but his black eyes remained unfocused, private, as if he were unaware of his own intentions.

Brinn and Hergrom placed themselves to guard Covenant and Linden. But Vain stopped without acknowledging the Haruchai and stood gazing like a void into the blank air.

Slowly, the soil took on a reddish tinge enriched with yellow. The colour deepened, hardened.

Heat radiated from the ground.

Around the edges of the clearing, the sludge started to smoulder. Viscid smoke went up in wisps, then in billows which thickened steadily, clogging the atmosphere.

In moments, the muck was afire.

As it burned, smoke began to mount in other places across the savannah. Soon there were blazes everywhere.

And the bare dirt continued to darken.

The company watched tensely; even the Haruchai seemed to be holding their breath. Only Linden and Cail were oblivious. Vain was not. He studied Linden between the shoulders of Brinn and Hergrom, and his visage sharpened, as if vague purposes were being whetted toward clarity within him.

Numbly, Covenant studied the ground. That rich, half-orange light and heat brought up recollections. Gradually, the face of Lena's father, Trell, became vivid to him; he did not know why. He could see Trell standing like granite in Lena's home. The big Stonedownor's face was ruddy with light. Reflections gleamed in his beard-the precise colour of these emanations.

Then Covenant remembered.

Graveling. Fire-stones.

Under the touch of the desert sun, this entire savannah was being transformed into a sea of graveling.

Fire consumed the sludge; and under it lay clear graveling which sent one long, silent shout of heat into the heavens.

Covenant and his companions might as well have been perched above a flow of lava.

He sat and stared as if his eyeballs had been scorched blind. He could feel death lying like a familiar in his arms.

Memla had sacrificed herself. Linden and Cail were going to die. Everyone was going to die.

Vain gave no hint of his intent. The suddenness of his movement took even the wary Haruchai by surprise. With a frightening swiftness, he thrust Brinn and Hergrom aside and stepped between them toward Covenant and Linden.

Hergrom caught himself on an outcropping of rock. Brinn was saved from a fall into the graveling only by the celerity with which Ceer grabbed for him.

Effortlessly, Vain took Linden from Covenant's arms.

Stell surged forward, pounded Vain between the eyes. The Demondim-spawn did not react; he went about his purpose as if he had not been touched. Stell was knocked back against Harn.

Cradling Linden gently, Vain stepped to the eastern edge of the mound and leaped down into the fire- stones.

“Vain!”

Covenant was on his feet. His hearing roared as if the heat had become a gale. Venom pulsed in his veins. He wanted wild magic, wanted to strike-!

But if he hit Vain, hurt him, the Demondim-spawn might drop Linden into the graveling.

Linden!

Vain paid no heed to the danger behind him. Firmly, surely, he strode away.

At that instant, Hergrom sprang pantherish from the boulders. At the farthest stretch of his leap, he impacted against Vain's shoulders.

The Demondim-spawn did not even stumble. He walked on across the graveling with Linden held before him and Hergrom clinging to his back as if he were unconscious of them both.

Covenant's shouting died in his chest. He was hardly aware that Brinn and Sunder were holding his arms as if to prevent him from pursuing Vain.

“He does not feel the fire,” Brinn remarked distantly. “Perhaps he will save her. Perhaps he intends to save her.”

To save-? Covenant sagged. Was it possible? The muscles of his face hurt, but he could not unclench his grimace. To save her so that she could serve Lord Foul? “Then why”- his voice knotted — “didn't he help her before? During the Grim?”

Brinn shrugged. “Perhaps he saw then that his aid was not needed. He acts now to save her because we are helpless.”

Vain? Covenant panted. No. He could not suppress the tremors in him. “We're not helpless.” It was unbearable. Not even a leper could bear it. We are not helpless.

He cast one abrupt glance toward Vain. The Demondim-spawn was running, fading into the shimmer of the graveling.

Covenant wrenched free of Brinn and Sunder. He confronted his companions. The effort to control his trembling made him savage. “Ceer. Give me the rukh”

Sunder scowled. Hollian's eyes widened as if she felt an intuitive hope or fear. But the Haruchai showed no surprise. Ceer took Memla's rukh from his tunic and handed it to Covenant.

With a jerk, Covenant thrust the iron toward Sunder. “All right. You're the Graveller. Use it.”

Sunder's lips formed words without sound: Use it?

“Call the Coursers back. They're bred to the Sunbane. They can carry us out of here.”

The Graveller breathed a strangled protest. “Covenant!”

Covenant jabbed the rukh against Sunder's chest. “Do it. I can't. I don't know the Sunbane the way you do. I can't touch it. I'm a leper.”

“And I am not a Rider!”

“I don't care.” Covenant clinched ire around his dread. “We're all going to die. Maybe I don't count. But you do. Hollian does. You know the truth about the Clave.” Again, he punched Sunder with the rukh. “Use it.”

The heat spread sweat across Sunder's face, made his features look like they were about to melt like the grass. Desperately, he turned an imploring gaze toward Hollian.

She touched his scarred forearm. The stature of her calling was upon her, “Sunder,” she said quietly. “Graveller. Perhaps it may be done. Surely the Sunstone empowers you to the attempt. And I will aid you as I can. Through the Iianar, I am able to perceive the state of the Sunbane. It may be that I can guide you to mastery.”

For a moment, they held each other's eyes, measuring what they saw. Then Sunder swung back to Covenant. The Graveller's expression was rent by fear of failure, by instinctive loathing for anything which belonged to the Clave. But he accepted the rukh.

Grimly, he climbed to sit atop the highest boulder, near the white radiance of the krill.

Hollian stood on a lower rock so that her head was level with his. She watched gravely as he set his orcrest in his lap, then fumbled to uncap the hollow handle of the rukh.

Covenant's legs quavered as if they could no longer bear the weight of who he was. But he braced himself on the rocks, remained erect like a witness and a demand.

Sunder poured the last fluid from the rukh into his hand. Hollian placed her palm in his, let it rest there for a moment, sharing the blood like a gesture of comradeship. Then she wrapped her stained fingers around the Iianar, and began to chant softly to herself. Sunder rubbed his hands