The Runes of the Earth

privation, he outdistanced her easily. Already he had begun to fade from sight, evanescent as a spectre in the fog. In another moment she would lose him altogether.

She thought she heard him cackle as he ran, overflowing with mad glee. She would have begged him to slow down if she could have made any sound except gasping.

Then without transition she saw him clearly for an instant, and a glimpse of sunlight flared ahead of her. The outer edge of the storm-? Goading herself forward, she struggled after him.

Another flash of sunlight: a sweep of hillside, sloping mildly downward. Abruptly the cerements of the strange storm unwound from her limbs, and she broke free into dazzling light and clean day.

Momentarily exhausted, she dropped to her hands and knees, panting while the grass seemed to sway under her and the low breeze tugged her sideways.

For a while, she heard nothing except her hoarse breathing and the unsteady labour of her heart. The hills around her seemed silent as a grave, deprived of birds and life by the passage of the storm. She meant to lift her head, look for Anele, but the muscles in her neck and shoulders refused to obey her. For all she knew, he had continued running; would continue until he had left her behind forever.

After a few moments, however, the sound of movement upon the grass reached her, and a pair of old feet, abused and bare, appeared at the edge of her vision. Anele had returned for her.

He chortled in tight bursts like a man who could not catch his breath for mirth.

Linden tried to say his name, but she had no breath. How far had she stretched her frail attempt at escape? A hundred yards? Two hundred? The Masters would recapture her swiftly when the attack on Mithil Stonedown ended.

“Pathetic,” Anele cackled in Lord Foul’s voice. “Entirely abject. You disappoint me, Linden Avery. I would delight to see you grovel thus, but I have not yet earned your prostration.

“If you had not released this failing cripple, my servants the Haruchai would have aided you. They would have fostered your false hopes. Now they will hunt you down and imprison you.

“This displeases me.”

She had no stamina; but she could still feel outrage. At once, she surged to her feet, clutching for Covenant’s ring with fury in her gaze.

Anele flinched involuntarily. His blind eyes wept dread and misery as his mouth articulated the Despiser’s bitter laughter.

“Damn it, Foul!” she panted through her teeth. “Leave him alone. If you need a victim, try me. Take your chances.”

“And if I do not?” Lord Foul retorted. “If I elect rather to mock you with this cripple’s torment? What then? Insipid woman! Will you scour the life from these displaced bones for my amusement?”

Linden yearned for strength; for the validation of white fire. Wild magic would have given force to her repudiation. If Covenant’s ring had not lain inert in her grasp she might have been able to daunt even the Despiser. But she was not Covenant. His power did not belong to her.

Nevertheless her anger was enough for her. With ire and determination, if not with fire, she confronted Anele’s anguish.

“Are you having fun, asshole?” she lashed out. “Enjoy it while you can. Sooner or later, I’m going to recover my health-sense.” Somehow. “And when I do, you will leave Anele alone. That I guarantee.

“If you don’t, I’ll be able to get at you.” More than once, percipience had enabled her to take possession of Covenant. “I’ll tear you out of him with my bare hands.”

For what he did to Jeremiah as much as for his cruelty to Anele.

The old man recoiled in fright. The spirit within him chortled harshly.

“Do you believe so?” he retorted. “That would please me. I would find satisfaction in such a contest. And this mad vessel, that clings so stubbornly to continuance when he should have perished ages ago”-Lord Foul laughed outright “ah, he would be quite destroyed.”

Not necessarily, Linden assured him in silence. You have no idea what I can do.

As matters stood, however, she posed no true threat. She knew that. Though Anele’s plight wrung her heart, she gained nothing by exhausting herself with anger.

Sagging, she released the ring. “Then what is all this for?” she countered bitterly. “Does mocking us please you so much that you just can’t resist? Hell, you can’t escape unless you destroy the whole Earth. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Come on, Foul. Reveal something I can use. Tell me what you’ve done.

“At this moment?” the Despiser asked merrily. “Indeed I do. You must be restored, lest you prove unable to serve me. I mean to assist you.”

Abruptly her companion turned away, beckoning her to follow. “Come, woman. Accept our guidance. We will show you hurtloam.”

For the first time since she had regained her feet, Linden looked past him and saw the Mithil River at the bottom of the slope, bright with sunshine hardly a stone’s throw away. Beyond it, mountains reared upward, jagged as teeth, forbidding the sky. Off to her right, they declined toward the plains; but in the south they gathered into a rugged wall at the head of the valley.

Behind her, partially hidden by the shape of the terrain, the storm still boiled and frothed over Mithil Stonedown. Apart from the occasional thunderclap of violence, the only sounds she could hear were the damp rush of the river between its banks, murmuring of high cold and distant seas, and her own laboured respiration.

Somewhere she had heard of “hurtloam,” but she could not remember what it was, or who had mentioned it.

In spite of the storm, the air held a crisp tang that hinted at snow and ice among the distant peaks. The breeze on her flushed cheeks felt like spring; and the Mithil’s current was turbulent, heavy with melted winter.

The Haruchai would come in pursuit as soon as the attack on Mithil Stonedown ended.

Seeing that she had not moved, Anele beckoned more urgently. “You require healing,” Lord Foul assured her. “Without it, these self-maimed Masters will ensnare you blithely and this time you will not win free. They will hold you helpless until I am forced to foil them on your behalf.

“Without hurtloam, also,” he added as though he were explaining himself to a dotard, and weary of it, “you will not regain the discernment which renders you able to serve me.

“Come, I say. I find little sport in your wretchedness. Be assured that this abject old man does not wish harm upon you.”

The sweat had begun to dry on Linden’s forehead. Hurtloam? She could not run farther: escape was no longer possible. But she could think, and probe, and stand her ground.

I mean to assist you.

She did not believe him for an instant; could hardly credit that Lord Foul had spoken such words. Nevertheless his bizarre offer gave her an opportunity which she did not intend to miss.

Feigning boldness, she retorted, “And you think I’ll do what you tell me why? Because I’ve lost my mind? I’m suddenly stupid? Shit, Foul, you’ve had things your own way too long. You’re getting complacent.”

“Blind fool!” the Despiser jeered. Anele’s moonstone eyes rolled in desperation. “Do you doubt that the Haruchai will give chase? Do you conceive that they will now offer you friendship and aid?”

Linden replied with a laugh full of warning. “Of course not. But I know you, Foul. I know better than to believe anything you say.”

“Paugh!” he spat. “You have never known wisdom or discernment sufficient to comprehend my designs. Your defiance serves no purpose. It merely feeds my Contempt. You disdain me at your peril.”

“So convince me,” she countered promptly. “Give me a reason to listen to you.

Anele squirmed as though she had threatened him with fire. Tears formed a sheen on his seamed cheeks. His head flinched from side to side as if he feared to speak. But the Despiser ruled him, and he could not remain silent.