The Wounded Land

They heard a soft thud-the impact of Sunder's mirkfruit- followed by a groan, and the sound of a body falling on the stone over their heads.

The Graveller dropped with alacrity back into the riverbed. “Now we must make haste,” he warned, “before another comes to ward in his place.” He sounded angry. Turning on his heel, he strode away as if what he had just done to someone he had known all his life were unsupportable.

He set a stiff pace. Covenant and Linden had to hurry to keep up with him.

Moonlight gave the night a crisp patina of old silver, as if the darkness itself were a work of fine-spun craft. Stars winked like instances of perfection above the rims of the mountains, which rose rugged into the unattainable heavens on either side. While his strength held, Covenant took pleasure in this opportunity to recover the tangible loveliness of the Land.

But as the moon declined toward setting, and the spur of mountains on his left began to shrink, his momentum faltered. He was too weak. His heart limped as if it could not keep up with him; his muscles felt like sand. And escape was not enough; there was something else he had to do as well. With a dry croak, he called Sunder to a halt. Then he dropped to the ground, stretched out on his back, and sucked air.

Linden stopped nearby, winded but still capable. And Sunder stood erect and impatient; he was tough as well as strong, inured to fatigue by a lifetime of difficult survival. The little he had seen and heard had taught Covenant that life in Mithil Stonedown was arduous and costly. Why else were these villagers willing to sacrifice their own parents-willing to condemn strangers and innocents to death? It was intolerable, that the bountiful Land he loved had come to this.

He was still hunting fortitude when Sunder said stiffly, “Here we are safe enough until the sun's rising-at least while our absence remains undiscovered in the Stonedown. But it avails nothing merely to abide here, awaiting chance or doom. The Rider who approaches Mithil Stonedown may come upon us. He will surely pursue when he is told of our flight. You have asked me to guide you. Thomas Covenant, where will you go?”

Groaning, Covenant pried himself into a sitting position. “First things first.” He had learned enough to be sure Sunder would not like the larger answer to that question. So he concentrated on his immediate purpose. “First I want to find Marid.”

“Marid?” The Graveller gaped. “Did I not tell you the judgment of the Stonedown? He is condemned by ancient Rede and custom to the mercy of the Sunbane. It has already been done.”

“I know,” Covenant muttered. “You told me. And I told you. He's innocent.”

“Guilt or innocence,” retorted Sunder, “it avails nothing. It has already been done! The men and women entrusted with his doom returned before I came to speak with you.”

Weariness eroded Covenant's self-mastery. He could hardly restrain his old rage. “What exactly did they do to him?”

Sunder cast a look of exasperation at the stars. “They bore him into the Plains, and left him hound to await his judgment.”

“Do you know where they left him?”

“Somewhat. They spoke of their intent before departing. I was not among them to behold the very spot.”

“That's good enough.” Covenant felt as weak as water; but he climbed to his feet and faced the Graveller. “Take us there.”

“There is not time!” Sunder's visage was a tangle of darkness. “The distance is too great. We must find protection, lest we also fall prey to the sun's rising.”

“But Marid is innocent.” Covenant sounded wild to himself, but did not care. “The only reason that Raver used him was because of us. I'm not going to let him be punished. Goddamn it.” He grabbed roughly at Sunder's jerkin. “Guide us! I've got too much blood on my hands already.”

In a low strained tone, as if he had just glimpsed some crucial and frightening truth, the Graveller said, “You do not understand the Sunbane.”

“Then explain it. What are you so afraid of?”

“We will suffer Marid's doom!”

From behind Sunder, Linden said, “He means it. He thinks something awful is going to happen when the sun comes up.”

With an effort, Covenant forced himself to release Sunder. He faced Linden, bit down on his voice to keep it quiet. “What do you think?”

She was silent for a moment. Then she said harshly, “I didn't believe you when you said Joan was possessed. But I saw that Raver myself. I saw Marid afterward. The Raver was gone.” She carved each word distinctly in the night air. “If you want to stay with Sunder, I'll go looking for Marid myself.”

“Heaven and Earth!” protested Sunder. “Did I betray my home merely so that you may meet ruin for a man you cannot save? If you place one foot amiss, you will end in beseeching the stones themselves for death!”

Covenant gazed into the darkness where Linden stood, gathering strength from her. Softly, he replied to Sunder, “He was your friend.”

“You are mad!” Sunder raged. “Nassic my father was mad!” He snatched up a stone, hurled it against the riverbank. “I am mad.” Then he whirled on Covenant. Anger hammered in his voice. “Very well. I will guide you. But I will not”- his fist hit at the night — “suffer the destruction of the Sunbane for any man or woman, mad or sane,”

Wrenching himself into motion, he turned and scrambled up out of the riverbed.

Covenant remained looking toward Linden. He wanted to thank her for her support, her willingness to risk herself in the name of Marid's innocence. But she brushed past him after Sunder. “Come on,” she said over her shoulder. “We've got to hurry. Whatever it is he's afraid of, I don't think I'm going to like it.”

He watched her while she climbed the bank. End in beseeching — He rubbed his right hand across his chin, verified his ring against the stiff stubble of his beard. Then he marshalled his waning resources and struggled to follow his companions.

On level ground, he found himself in an entirely different landscape. Except for the ragged weal of the Mithil, the Plains were nearly featureless. They spread north and west as far as he could see, marked only by the faint undulations of the terrain-bare even of shrubs or piles of rock. The low moonlight gave them an appearance of ghostly sterility, as if they had been weathered barren by ages of implacable thirst.

Sunder headed slightly east of north at a canter, roughly paralleling the mountains which still lay to the east. But Covenant could not endure such a pace. And he did not understand his guide's compelling dread. He called for Sunder to slow down.

The Graveller spun on his heel. “There is not time.”

“Then there's no reason for us to wear ourselves out.”

Sunder spat a curse, started moving again. But in spite of his almost frantic anxiety, he went no faster than a brisk walk.

Some time later, the moon fell below the horizon. But the scant light of the stars sufficed. The terrain was not difficult, and Sunder knew his way. Soon a vague wash of grey from the east began to macerate the night.

The paling of the horizon agitated Sunder. He searched the earth near him while he walked, made digressions from his path like spurts of fright to study irregularities in the ground. But he ' could not find what he wanted. Within half a league, dawn had become imminent. Urgently, he faced Covenant and Linden. ”We must find stone. Any hard rock free of soil. Before the sun's rising. Search, if you value a hale life and a clean death.'

Covenant halted woodenly. His surroundings seemed to sway as if they were about to fall apart. He felt stunned by weariness.

“There,” Linden said. She was pointing off to her right.

He peered in that direction. He could discern nothing. But he did not have her eyes.

Sunder gaped at her for a moment, then hastened to investigate. With his hands, he explored the surface.

“Stone!” he hissed. “It may suffice.” At once, he jumped erect. “We must stand here. The stone will ward us.”

Fatigue blurred Covenant's sight. He could not see the Graveller clearly. Sunder's apprehension made no sense to him. Sunrise was only moments away; luminescence cast the horizon into stark relief. Was he supposed to be afraid of the sun?