change. But the air-”
He did not interrupt. But in the back of his mind he sifted what she said. Some of it made sense: the power required literally to change the sun was inconceivable.
“The Sunbane is like a filter. A way of warping the normal energy of the sun. Corrupting it.” She aimed her words at him as if she were trying to drive insight through his blindness. “And it's all west from here. The Upper Land. What you see out there”- she jerked her head eastward — “is just spill-over. That's why it looks weak. The Clave won't be able to reach us anymore. And the Sarangrave might be just as you remember it.”
All-? Covenant thought. But how? Winds shift-storms-
Linden seemed to see his question in his face. “It's in the air,” she insisted. “But it's like an emanation. From the ground. It must have something to do with the Earthpower you keep talking about. It's a corruption of the Earthpower.”
A corruption of the Earthpower! At those words, his head reeled, and his own vague intuitions came into focus. She was right. Absolutely. He should have been able to figure it out for himself. The Staff of Law had been destroyed-
And Lord Foul had made his new home in Mount Thunder, which crouched on the edge of Landsdrop, facing west. Naturally, the Despiser would concentrate his Sunbane on the Upper Land. Most of the east already lay under his power. It was all so clear. Only a blind man could fail to see such things.
For a long moment, other facets of the revelation consumed him. Lord Foul had turned the Earthpower itself against the Land.
The Sunbane was limited in its reach. But if it became intense enough, deep enough-
But then he seemed to hear for the first time something else Linden had said.
Bloody hell! He forced himself into motion, drove his reluctant bones toward Landsdrop so that he could look over the edge.
The shadow of the horizon had already descended halfway down the cliff. Faint, pink light began to reflect off the waters of the Sarangrave. Pale jewels, rosy and tenuous, spread across the bottom of the shadow, winking together to form reticular lines, intaglios, like a map of the vanishing night. Or a snare. As the sun rose, the gems yellowed and grew more intricate. In links and interstices, they articulated the venous life of the Flat-explication, trap, and anatomy in one. Then all the waterways burned white, and the sun itself shone into Sarangrave Flat.
After five days in the wasted plains, Covenant felt that the lush green and water below him were exquisite, lovely and fascinating, as only adders and belladonna could be. But Linden stood beside him, staring white-eyed at the marsh. Her lips said over and over again, Oh, my God. But the words made no sound.
Covenant's heart turned over in fear. “What do you see?”
“Do you want to go down there?” Horror strangled her voice. “Are you crazy?”
“Linden!” he snapped, as if her dread were an accusation he could not tolerate. The backs of his hands burned venomously, lusting of their own volition to strike her. Was she blind to the pressures building in him? Deaf to the victims of the Clave? “I can't see what you see.”
“I'm a doctor,” she panted as if she were bleeding internally. “Or I was. I can't bear all this evil”
No! His anger vanished at the sight of her distress. Don't say that. You'll damn us both. “I understand. Better than anybody. Tell me what it is.”
She did not raise her eyes, would not look at him. “It's alive.” Her voice was a whisper of anguish. “The whole thing's alive.” Gibbon had promised her that she would destroy the Land. “It's hungry.” Covenant knew nothing about her. “It's like a Raver.”
A Raver? He wanted to shout, What kind of person are you? Why did Foul choose you? But he crushed himself to quietness. “
She shook her head. She went on shaking her head, as if she could not reach the end of all the things she wanted to deny. “Ravers are more-” She had to search herself for an adequate description, “-more specific. Self- conscious. But it's still
“No.” He did not mean to refuse her; his arms ached to hold her. But that was not what she needed. “You can stand it. That old man chose you for a reason.” Groping for ways to succour her, he said, “Concentrate on it. Use what you see to help yourself. Know what you're up against. Can that thing see us? Is it that specific? If we try to cross — will it know we're there?”
She closed her eyes, covered them to shut out the sight. But then she forced herself to look again. Struggling against revulsion, she jerked out, “I don't know. It's so big. If it doesn't notice us-If we don't attract its attention-”
If, he finished for her, we don't show the kind of power it feeds on. Yes. But a sudden vision of wild magic stunned him. He did not know how long he could contain the pressure. With a wrench, he made himself move, turned to Brinn, then winced at the way his voice spattered emotion. “Get the Coursers ready. Find a way down there. As soon as we eat, we're going through.”
Swinging away from the
The sight was momentarily more than Covenant could bear. Why was he forever so doomed to give pain? With unwanted harshness, he rasped, “You don't have to go.”
Sunder stiffened. Hollian blinked at Covenant as if he had just slapped her face. But before he could master himself enough to apologize, she reached out and placed her hand on his arm. “Ur-Lord, you miscomprehend us.” Her voice was like the simple gesture of her touch. “We have long and long ago given up all thought of refusing you.”
With an effort, Sunder loosened the clenching of his teeth. “That is sooth. Do you not understand this of us? The peril is nothing. We have sojourned so far beyond our knowledge that all perils are become equal. And Linden Avery has said that soon we will be free of the threat of the Clave.”
Covenant stared at the Graveller, at the eh-Brand.
“No, Covenant,” Sunder went on. “Our concern is otherwise. We journey where the Sunbane does not obtain. We do not love the Sunbane. We are not mad. But without it-” He hesitated, then said, “What purpose do we serve? What is our value to you? We have not forgotten Andelain. The Sunbane has made us to be who we are. Perhaps under another sun we will merely burden you.”
The frankness of their uncertainty touched Covenant. He was a leper; he understood perfectly what they were saying. But he believed that the Sunbane could be altered, had to believe that it was not the whole truth of their lives. How else could he go on? Against the sudden thickness in his throat, he said, “You're my friends. Let's try it and see.”
Fumbling for self-control, he went to get something to eat.
His companions joined him. In silence, they ate as if they were chewing the gristle of their apprehensions.
Shortly, Ceer brought word of a path down the cliff. Hergrom and Cail began to load the Coursers. Long before Covenant had found any courage, the quest was mounted and moving.
Ceer, Hergrom, and Cail led the way on Annoy. With Linden's care and the native health of the
They went northward for half a league to a wide trail cut into the face of Landsdrop. This was a vestige of one of the ancient Giantways, by which the Unhomed had travelled between Seareach and Revelstone. Covenant locked his hands in Clash's hair, and fought his vertigo as the company began to descend.
The sheer drop to the Lower Land pulled at him constantly. But the trail had been made by Giants; though it angled and doubled steeply, it was wide enough for the huge Coursers. Still, the swing of Clash's back made him feel that he was about to be pitched over the edge. Even during a brief rest, when Brinn halted the company to refill the waterskins from a rill trickling out of the cliff-face, the Flat seemed to reel upward at him like a green storm. He spun, sweating, down the last slope and lurched out into the humid air of the foothills with a pain in his chest, as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
