Fatal Revenant

which you did not formerly possess. And had you not suffered and striven as you did, you would not have become who you are. The Mahdoubt could not foresee such an outcome when you were taken by your foes. She was able only to perceive that you were not then equal to the Land’s plight.

“Lady, you have become greater. That the Mahdoubt deemed needful.”

Linden scowled at her companion; but her anger was for herself, not the Mahdoubt. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean that to sound like an accusation.” It was certainly true that she knew more now. “I’m proud to call you my friend. I’m just trying to understand as much as I can.”

She had not become greater. She had simply been made harder and more certain.

Slowly the Mahdoubt raised her head. Her blue eye was damp with relief or gratitude, but the orange one glared like a promise of ferocity. “Pssht, my lady,” she said again. “You have no need of the Mahdoubt’s forgiveness. It is given before it is asked. Assuredly so. Your gratitude”- she indicated her robe- “has claimed her old heart.

“Inquire what you will. The Mahdoubt will attempt better answers.”

Now it was Linden who looked away. While she prepared herself, she muttered. “My real problem with what you did is that I feel so damn stupid. I should have seen the truth for myself. About Roger, anyway.” Jeremiah’s presence had confounded her utterly. “But he did things-

“How could he drink springwine?” she blurted. “How could either of them? It has aliantha in it.”

That was only one of the many means by which Covenant’s son had confused her. The Ramen believed that No servant of Fangthane craves or will consume aliantha.

“Ah.” The Mahdoubt nodded in recognition. “Assuredly. That chicane arose from the halfhand’s portion of the nature of the Elohim. The Elohim are not hampered by mortal distastes. With the cursed gift of such a hand, your betrayer received both the power of glamour, of seeming, and the capacity to set aside his revulsion for the goodly health of the Land. These given strengths he also employed to veil and ward the cruel beast which rules your son. Thus his loathing, and your son’s, for aliantha in springwine was hidden.

“Your wits did not fail you, my lady,” she added kindly. “Think no ill of yourself. Your foes’ deeds and appearances were prepared one and all for your consternation. You were hastened from event to event to assure that you found no occasion to imagine their concealment.” The woman nodded again. “There was no fault in you.”

“Then-” With an effort, Linden dragged her attention away from Roger’s and the croyel’s manipulations. If she considered them too closely, she might founder in outrage. They have done this to my son. For a moment, she closed her eyes, gathered herself. When she opened them again, she faced her companion squarely.

“The Theomach told me that he would protect history from what I did, but I don’t know whether I can trust him. I don’t know how that’s even possible.”

How had she not set in motion ripples which would change everything?

The Mahdoubt shook her head, turning it from side to side so that first her orange eye and then her blue one regarded Linden brightly. “My lady,” she said with an air of intention, urging Linden to believe her, “you may be assured that the Theomach did not neglect such matters. Does your heart not beat? Do your words not convey their meaning? And do these simple truths not proclaim that the Law of Time endures? It is manifest that you have not broken faith with the past.

“Yet the Mahdoubt may observe,” she added as if Linden had expressed doubt, “that Law seeks its own path. Diverted, it strives to return. Your exertion of Earthpower among Berek Heartthew’s warriors was easily transmuted to serve the Theomach’s purpose. You have not forgotten-assuredly not-that the Theomach found a place as the Lord-Fatherer’s tutor. Thus he was able to account for your presence and deeds in any manner which conformed to his own intentions-and to his knowledge of Time.

“My lady, he made of you the first of the Unfettered, those who in the time of the Lords sought lore and wisdom solitarily, as do the Insequent, according to their private natures. At the Theomach’s word, a tradition and a legend began from the wonderment of your aid, and all that has since transpired in the Land has confirmed it.

Linden listened in surprise and gradual comprehension. She had heard of the Unfettered-Covenant had told her a little about them after Sunder’s half-mad father had called himself a descendant of the Unfettered One.

“Understand, my lady,” the Mahdoubt continued, “that the Theomach did not require your presence or your aid. He merely made use of you. Had you not appeared, he would have contrived to win the Heartthew’s trust by other means. And he would have proposed the legend of the Unfettered to justify his own knowledge and power. Such ploys were needful to preserve the Arch.

“Nor did the visitation of your betrayers challenge the Theomach’s cleverness.” The older woman sighed heavily. “Among the Lords of later ages, there endured a belief that the Halfhand, the Lord-Fatherer, would one day return to meet the Land’s need. As events befell, the Theomach was not greatly troubled to bring forth such a tale from the form of those who accompanied you.”

For a moment, her voice held an edge of disapproval. “His purposes were his own, and selfish. All that he did conduced to his own aggrandisement. Therefore he did not scruple upon occasion to offer the Lord-Fatherer instruction which was either flawed or incomplete. Assuredly, however, he would have drawn upon the full depth of his knowledge to preserve the wholeness of that which ensued from his desires.

“The Insequent and the Elohim share only this, my lady, that we do not desire the destruction of the Earth.”

The Theomach had said virtually the same thing. Even Roger had said it.

And Linden had seen for herself how little Berek had known or understood in the aftermath of his encounter with the Fire-Lions. The Theomach could have told him anything, and he would have had no choice except to credit it.

As she drank more of Glimmermere’s waters, her mind grew sharper. There were so many things that she wanted to know. Because the Mahdoubt had said that she would depart soon, Linden began to hurry.

“All right,” she said. “I don’t really understand how the Theomach knew what his own future required. But if you explained it, I probably still wouldn’t understand.

“What can you tell me about that box? The way the croyel transported us into the mountain?” She winced at the memory. “Or used my son to do it. Is Jeremiah really capable of making portals? Doors through time and distance? And if he is, what does that have to do with the Elohim?”

Had Roger told her the truth about Jeremiah’s deadwood construct?

The Mahdoubt spread her hands to suggest a warning. “Is the lady’s query condign?” she asked herself. “The Mahdoubt deems it so. Yet there is peril here. She must display great care.

“My lady,” she said to Linden. “your son’s gifts are certain. The Mahdoubt can estimate neither their extent nor their uses. However, their worth is beyond question. Both the Vizard’s interest and a-Jeroth’s machinations proclaim that there is power concealed within your chosen child.”

According to Jeremiah-or the croyel- the Vizard had coveted a gaol for the Elohim.

“The Mahdoubt,” she continued, “has averred that neither Insequent nor Elohim desire the destruction of the Earth. Assuredly such havoc was the intent of your treachers. But they outdistanced the Theomach’s perception, as he selfishly permitted them to do, relying upon your strength to oppose them. Therefore your companions saw no further threat in him. And they conceived that your defeat was certain. For that reason, they feared only the Elohim.

“The purpose of the ‘box,’ as you name it, was to blind the eyes of the Elohim. They are”- she searched visibly for a cautious description- “susceptible to such structures. Its nature interacted with their fluidity, enabling your companions to elude detection. Thus were you compelled to meet the crisis of the EarthBlood alone.”

Susceptible to such structures? Linden wondered. Roger had said essentially the same thing. And she had seen how the Elohim had reacted to Vain, who had been a construct of the ur-viles.

If Jeremiah’s talent could “blind” the Elohim, what else might it accomplish?

But there again Linden hit a barrier of comprehension. Her thoughts were too sequential: she could not