The One Tree

he was not the one who had uttered them. But Brinn was casting accusations at her, and she could not ignore him.

“No, Giant,” the Haruchai replied to Pitchwife. “The haste is yours. Bethink you. While the silence of the Elohim was upon him, ur-Lord Thomas Covenant performed no act. He betrayed neither knowledge nor awareness. Yet was she not capable of action?”

Pitchwife started to retort. Brinn stopped him. “And have we not been told the words which Gibbon-Raver spoke to her? Did he not say, 'You have been especially chosen for this desecration'? And since that saying, have not all her acts wrought ill upon us?” Again, Pitchwife tried to protest; but the Haruchai overrode him. “When the ur-Lord fell to the Raver, her hesitance”-he stressed that word mordantly- 'imperilled both him and Starfare's Gem. When the Elohim sought to bereave him of our protection, she commanded our dismissal, thus betraying him to the ill intent of those folk. Though she was granted the right of intervention, she refused to wield her sight to spare him from his doom.

“Then, Giant,” Brinn went on, iterating his litany of blame, 'she did not choose to succour the ur-Lord's silence. She refused us to assail Kasreyn in Hergrom's defence, when the Kemper was alone in our hands. She compelled us to re-enter the Sandhold when even the Appointed urged flight. Her aid she did not exercise until Hergrom had been slain and Ceer injured-until all were imprisoned in the Kemper's dungeon, and no other help remained.

“Hear me.” His words were directed at the First now-words as hard as chips of flint. 'Among our people, the old tellers speak often of the Bloodguard who served the former Lords of the Land-and of Kevin Landwaster, who wrought the Ritual of Desecration. In that mad act, the old Lords met their end, for they were undone by the Desecration. And so also should the Bloodguard have ended. Had they not taken their Vow to preserve the Lords or die? Yet they endured, for Kevin Landwaster had sent them from him ere he undertook the Ritual. They had obeyed, not knowing what lay in his heart.

'From that obedience came doubt among the Bloodguard, and with doubt the door to Corruption was opened. The failure of the Bloodguard was that they did not judge Kevin Landwaster-or did not judge him rightly. Therefore Corruption had its way with the old Lords and with the Bloodguard, And the new Lords would have likewise fallen, had not the ur-Lord accepted upon himself the burden of the Land.

'Now I say to you, we will not err in that way again. The purity of any service lies in those who serve, not in that which they serve, and we will not corrupt ourselves by trust of that which is false.

“Hear you, Giant?” he concluded flatly. “We will not again fail of judgment where judgment is needed. And we have judged this Linden Avery. She is false-false to the ur-Lord, false to us, false to the Land. She sought to slay Ceer in his last need. She is the hand of Corruption among us. There must be retribution.”

At that, Covenant flinched visibly. The First glowered at Brinn. Pitchwife gaped aghast. But Linden concentrated on Covenant alone. She was not surprised by Brinn's demand.

Outside the Sandwall, his apparent callousness toward Hergrom's death had covered a passion as extravagant as his commitment. But Covenant's silence struck her as a final refusal. He was not looking at her now. From the beginning, he had doubted her. She wanted to go to him, pound at him with her fists until he gave some kind of response. Is that what you think of me? But she could barely lift her arm from the shoulder, still could not flex her elbow.

A stutter of canvas underscored the silence. Gusts beat Linden's shirt against her. The First's expression was hooded, inward. She appeared to credit the picture Brinn had painted. Linden felt herself foundering. All of these people were pushing her toward the darkness that lurked like a Raver in the bottom of her heart.

After a moment, the First said, “The command of the Search is mine. Though you are not Giants-not bound to me-you have accepted our comradeship, and you will accept my word in this matter.” Her assertion was not a threat. It was a statement as plain as the iron of her broadsword. “What retribution do you desire?”

Without hesitation, Brinn replied, “Let her speak the name of a Sandgorgon,”

Then for an instant the air seemed to fall completely still, as if the very winds of the world were horrified by the extremity of Brinn's judgment. The deck appeared to cant under Linden's feet; her head reeled. Speak-?

Is that what you think of me?

Slowly, words penetrated her dismay. The First was speaking in a voice thick with suppressed anguish.

“Chosen, will you not make answer?”

Linden fought to take hold of herself. Covenant said not one word in her defence. He stood there and waited for her, as the Giants and Haruchai waited. Her numb hand slapped softly against the side of her leg, but the effort was futile. She still had no feeling there.

Thickly, she said, “No.”

The First started to expostulate. Pitchwife's face worked as if he wanted to cry out. Linden made them both fall silent.

“They don't have the right.”

Brinn's mouth moved. She cracked at him in denial, “You don't have the right.”

Then every voice around the afterdeck was stilled. The Giants in the rigging watched her, listening through the ragged run of the seas, the wind-twisted plaint of the shrouds. Brian's visage was closed against her. Deliberately, she forced herself to face the raw distress in Covenant's eyes.

“Did you ever ask yourself why Kevin Landwaster chose the Ritual of Desecration?” She was shivering in the marrow of her bones. “He must've been an admirable man-or at least powerful”- she uttered that word as if it nauseated her- “if the Bloodguard were willing to give up death and even sleep to serve him. So what happened to him?”

She saw that Covenant might try to answer. She did not let him. “I'll tell you. The goddamn Bloodguard happened to him. It wasn't bad enough that he was failing-that he couldn't save the Land himself. He had to put up with them as well. Standing there like God Almighty and serving him while he lost everything he loved.” Her voice snarled like sarcasm; but it was not sarcasm. It was her last supplication against the dark place toward which she was being impelled. You never loved me anyway. “Jesus Christ! No wonder he went crazy with despair. How could he keep any shred of his self-respect, with people like them around? He must've thought he didn't have any choice except to destroy everything that wasn't worthy of them.”

She saw shock in Covenant's expression, refusal in Brinn's. Quivering, she went on, “Now you're doing the same thing.” She aimed her fierce pleading straight at Covenant's heart. “You've got all the power in the world, and you're so pure about it. Everything you do is so dedicated.” Dedicated in a way that made all her own commitments look like just so much cowardice and denial. “You drive everyone around you to such extremes.” And I don't have the power to match you. It's not my—

But there she stopped herself. In spite of her misery, she was not willing to blame him for what she had done. He would take that charge seriously-and he did not deserve it. Bitter with pain at the contrast between his deserts and hers, she concluded stiffly, “You don't have the right.”

Covenant did not respond. He was no longer looking at her. His gaze searched the stone at her feet like shame or pleading.

But Brinn did not remain silent. “Linden Avery.” The detachment of his tone was as flat as the face of doom. “Is it truly your claim that the Bloodguard gave cause to Kevin Landwaster's despair?”

She made no reply. She was fixed on Covenant and had no room for anyone else.

Abruptly, something in him snapped. He jerked his fists through the air like a cry; and wild magic left an arc of argent across the silence. Almost at once, the flame vanished. But his fists did not unclose. “Linden.” His voice was choked in his throat-at once harsh and gentle. “What happened to your arm?”

He took her by surprise. The Giants stared at him. Cail's brows tensed into a suggestion of a scowl. But that brief flare of power took hold of the gathering. In an instant, the conflict changed. It was no longer a contest of Haruchai against Linden. Now it lay between Covenant and her, between him and anyone who sought to gainsay him. And she found that she had to answer him. She had lost any defence she might have had against his passion.

Yet her sheer loathing for what she had done made the words acid. “Cail kicked me. To stop me from killing Ceer.”