The Runes of the Earth

would be able to find their way. “But if we do that, I can’t stay with you. I have too many-”

“Ringthane,” Mahrtiir put in before she could explain, “this is needless.” The light from the stone pots glinted in his eyes. “I will accompany you wherever your purpose leads. I seek a tale which will remain in the memories of the Ramen when my life has ended. Such renown I will never earn among them. They are”- his mouth twisted- ”too cautious to be remembered.”

Then he shrugged. “In this I will not command the Cords. However, they feel a debt which they wish to repay.” He grinned at a thought which he kept to himself. “And you have found favour in their sight. They will not be parted from you.”

“All right.” Linden did not try to argue with him, although he and the Cords might well perish in her company. She needed as much rest as she could get. And some buried part of her had already made her decision. Raising her eyes to Esmer and Stave again, she repeated, “All right.

“I’m going to Andelain. I know I’ve got too much power. And I don’t know where to look for my son.” Long ago, the spirits of Covenant’s friends had guided and comforted him there. Perhaps she, too, would find her loved Dead. “I’m hoping that someone there can tell me what to do.”

Esmer made a sound like a hiss of vexation and turned away; but Stave continued to face her with his usual flat stoicism. Whatever her answer meant to him remained shrouded. When her silence made it clear that she had no more to say, however, his manner seemed to intensify.

“Very well,” he replied. “You wish to enter Andelain. Perhaps you will do so. Yet you have not named a more immediate intention. What will you do now?

“As I have said, we must not remain in this time. And the peril grows with every moment of delay. Esmer has threatened a betrayal which it would be unwise to confront. And the hazard that our actions may violate Time accumulates against us. It is folly to indulge in rest when the need for departure becomes ever more urgent.”

Linden groaned to herself. She had hoped to postpone arduous questions for a while; until the benignant warmth of the Staff could knit together her frayed resources. Yet Stave deserved an answer. All of her companions did, the Waynhim as much as the Ramen and Liand.

Searching for a way to convey what she felt, she turned to the Stonedownor as to a touchstone of honesty. “Liand?”

At once, he stopped tending Anele to look at her. “Yes?”

“What was it like for you? In the caesure? What happened to you while we were there?”

His eyes widened, then seemed to grow dark, benighted by memory. “Linden-” He ducked his head to hide his discomfort. Yet he concealed nothing. “To speak of it is difficult. The pain-I had not conceived it possible to experience such pain.

“And to endure it-” His voice sank until it was barely audible. “That I could not have done, had the ur-viles left me unprotected. But I felt their blackness about me through the pain, warding away the worst of the Fall.”

Then he raised his head again. “There is a disturbance in their lore which sickened me,” he told Linden’s concerned gaze. “Yet it was a little thing in the greater evil of the Fall. I would not have survived to speak of it if the ur-viles had not preserved me.”

Linden thanked him quietly, and released him.

“That’s bad enough,” she said to Stave. “The rest of us aren’t Haruchai. And we don’t have Anele’s Earthpower. We’re”- she shuddered- “vulnerable.

“But it’s not the only problem. I don’t know if you realise that I failed. In the caesure. I almost let us all- ” Her own memories nearly choked her. “I couldn’t use Covenant’s ring. I was in too much pain.

“We’re only here because the ur-viles saved us. The ur-viles and the Ranyhyn.” And because she had found a way to make use of Joan’s madness-which she would not have been able to do if the creatures had not given her their strength. “Since I healed you, I’ve been cut off from wild magic.”

A moment of restless movement passed among the Waynhim; but Linden ignored it. “I’m aware of the danger. I need rest”- badly- ”but that wouldn’t stop me if I knew how to get us out of here. I wouldn’t let the fact that I’m terrified of all that pain stop me. But somehow I’m going to have to relearn how to use Covenant’s ring, and I’m not sure I can do that.”

The Staff of Law would restore her, if she gave it time. It would ward her against the Fall’s torment. But it would not give her access to argence. That she had to rediscover within herself; and she did not know how she had lost the way.

Stave stood before her, impassive and unswayed. “The pain will be less severe,” he pronounced. “You will not be required to oppose the current of the Fall.” He paused to glance around the cave. When he faced Linden again, he said, “And you will not be blocked from wild magic. That hindrance is caused by Esmer’s presence, as he has said, and he is gone.”

Startled, Linden looked quickly for Cail’s son. But Stave was right. Esmer had simply faded away; evaporated like water.

She tried to ask, “Why-?” but she could not complete the question.

Moments ago, the Waynhim had seemed restive. They must have been reacting to Esmer’s disappearance.

“Your intention to enter Andelain displeased him,” replied the Master. “Therefore he has departed.”

Displeased-?

While Linden stared at Esmer’s absence, she scrambled to understand Stave’s revelation.

Esmer had refused to enter the caesure with her. In my presence, you will surely fail. And he had said that the Waynhim were blinded to the proximity of white gold. It is an effect of my nearness.

Damn it, she should have known-

But he could not have caused her failure in the Fall. That was the result of her own weakness, not of his interference.

“Chosen.” Stave’s concentration gave his tone a cutting edge. “We must depart now, while Esmer is absent, and his betrayal has not yet come upon us.”

Abruptly Liand jumped to his feet. “You mislead us, Master,” he put in. “The decisions which Linden must make are not as plain as you wish them to appear.”

Before Stave could retort, Liand rushed on. “If I comprehend aright, our presence here endangers the Arch of Time. And we are in peril of Esmer’s betrayal. But there is another peril which you do not name.” He seemed suddenly furious at everything that the Masters had done in the name of their unyielding convictions. “If we hasten to depart, the harm which Esmer has wrought will fall upon the Waynhim alone. Without our aid, it may be that they will be destroyed.

“You are a Master of the Land. Do you deem the Waynhim unworthy of our concern?”

The young man’s anger-and his loyalty-raised an echo of determination in Linden. With an effort, she set aside her confusion and self-doubt. Tightening her grip on the Staff, she concentrated instead on the hope that Stave had given her; and on the passion of Liand’s support.

Stave’s mien hinted at scorn as he answered the young man. “Esmer’s harm is directed against the Chosen. If she is no longer present in this time, the peril to the Waynhim will dissipate. He gains naught by their destruction.”

“Nothing,” Linden countered, defending Liand in her turn, “except a violation of the Land’s history.”

Stave studied her as though she had surprised him.

“You said yourself,” she continued, “that there haven’t been any significant battles or powers in the South Plains. If the danger doesn’t dissipate, and the Waynhim defend themselves, that might change.

“But even if they let themselves be exterminated-” They know their plight, yet they do not flinch from it. “We don’t know what Esmer might have unleashed. Whatever it is, it could be powerful enough to change history no matter what the Waynhim do.”

Liand’s eyes shone as if Linden had vindicated him.

Stave gave a slight shake of his head. “If he were capable of such things, he would have done so ere now. The Arch of Time would already have fallen.”