her go with me.
“The sooner you release her, the sooner I can free her from all this.”
Over my dead body, Linden told his ambiguous smile and his bland eyes. Over my dead body.
Chapter Two: Gathering Defences
“Outside,” Linden ordered him aloud. “Now.”
She was fortunate that he complied at once. If he had resisted, she might have hit him, trying to strike the certainty from his face.
As soon as she had closed Joan’s door behind her, she wheeled on him. “You knew that would happen.”
Joan’s screaming echoed in the corridor, reflected by the white tile floor, the unadorned walls. Her monitor carried its alarm to the nurses’ station.
He shrugged, untouched by Linden’s anger. “I’m her son. She raised me.”
“That’s no answer,” she retorted.
Before she could go on, a woman’s voice called out, “Dr. Avery? What’s wrong?”
A nurse came hurrying along the hall: Amy Clint. Her young, diligent face was wide with surprise and concern.
Roger Covenant smiled blandly at Amy. “Give her a taste of that blood,” he suggested as though he had the right to say such things. “It’ll quiet her down.”
Amy stopped. She stared in dismay at Linden.
“Ms. Clint”- Linden summoned her authority to counteract Amy’s shock- “this is Roger Covenant. He’s Joan’s son. Seeing him has upset her.”
“She’s never-” For a moment, the nurse fumbled to control her reaction. Then she said, more steadily, “I’ve never heard her scream like that.” Joan’s wailing ached in the air. “What should I do?”
Linden took a deep breath, mustered her outrage. “Do what he says. Let her taste her blood.” To ease Amy’s consternation, she added, “I’ll explain later.
“Now,” she insisted when the nurse hesitated.
“Right away, Doctor.” With distress in her eyes, Amy entered Joan’s room, shut the door.
At once, Linden confronted Roger again. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Still smiling as though his mother’s screams had no effect on him, he held up his hand, asking Linden to wait.
Moments after Amy had entered the room, Joan suddenly fell silent. The abrupt end of her cries throbbed in the hallway like an aftershock.
“You see, Dr. Avery?” replied Roger. “I’m really the only one who can take care of her. No one else is qualified” Before Linden could protest, he added, “I knew what would happen because I’m her son. I know exactly what’s wrong with her. I know how to treat it.
“You can’t justify keeping her now.”
“You’re wrong.” Linden kept her voice down. “I can’t justify releasing her. What you just did is unconscionable.”
“I reached her,” he objected. “That’s more than you can do.”
“Oh, you reached her, all right,” Linden returned. “That’s pretty damn obvious. It’s the results I object to.”
Roger frowned uncertainly. “You think she’s better off the way she is.” He appeared genuinely confused by Linden’s reaction.
“I think-” Linden began, then stopped herself. He was beyond argument. More quietly, she stated, “I think that until you bring me a court order to the contrary, she stays here. End of discussion.
“The front door”- she pointed along the hall- “is that way.”
For an instant, anger seemed to flicker in his dissociated eyes. But then he shrugged, and the glimpse vanished.
“We’ll resolve this later, Dr. Avery,” he said as if he were sure. “There’s just one more thing.
“Can you tell me what happened to my father’s wedding ring?”
Without transition, Linden went cold. In the Land, Covenant’s white gold ring was the symbol and instrument of his power. With it, he had wielded wild magic against the Despiser.
Roger wanted more than a chance to take his mother’s place. He wanted his father’s theurgy as well.
“I understand he always wore it,” he went on, “but it wasn’t found on his body. I’ve asked Megan Roman and Sheriff Lytton, but they don’t know where it is. It’s mine now. I want it.”
Old habit caused her to raise her hand to the irrefusable circle of the ring under her blouse. Roger meant to bear white gold to the Land so that he could tear down the Arch of Time, set Lord Foul free. The Despiser had already renewed his assault on the beauty of the Earth, and an ordeal that had nearly destroyed Linden once before was about to begin again-
No.
Nevertheless she believed it. Or she believed that Roger Covenant believed it.
And if he believed itHe smiled his vacant smile at her.
– then she could not afford to let him know that she had guessed his intent. If he realised that his plans were endangered, he might do something she would be unable to prevent.
Already she might have given away too much. He could have seen the ingrained movement of her hand.
People were going to die-
A heartbeat later, however, she recovered her courage. “I have it,” she answered. She did not mean to diminish herself with lies. And she would not disavow her loyalty to his father. “I’ve had it ever since he died.”
Roger nodded. “That’s why Sheriff Lytton didn’t find it.”
“Your father left it to me,” Linden stated flatly. “I intend to keep it.”
“It belongs to me,” he countered. “His will left everything to my mother. I inherited it yesterday.”
She shook her head. “No, you didn’t. It came to me before he died. It isn’t part of his estate.”
In fact, Covenant had not handed her the ring directly: she had retrieved it when the Despiser had slain him with its argent fire. Nevertheless she considered it hers as much as if he had wedded her with it.
“I see.” Roger frowned again. “That’s a problem, Dr. Avery. I need it. I can’t take her place without it. Not entirely. And if I don’t take her place, she’ll never be completely free.” He seemed unconcerned that he had revealed so much. Perhaps he did not consider Linden discerning enough to understand him.
“But it’s not my problem,” she said precisely. “We’re done here. Good-bye, Mr. Covenant. The door is-”
“I know,” he interrupted. “The door is that way.
“
Oh, she had some idea. Despite his power to disturb his mother, he clearly understood nothing about the woman who opposed him. But she could not imagine that she had any advantage over him.
She could only guess what he might do next.
Urgently she wanted to know how he had earned his knowledge.
Her stomach clenched as she re-entered Joan’s room to explain the situation as best she could to Amy Clint.
By the time she returned to her office, her resolve had hardened, taken shape. She could not allow herself to be drawn into Roger Covenant’s mad designs, whatever they might be. She had made her life and her commitments here: people whom she had chosen to serve and love were dependent on her. And Joan deserved better than whatever her son might do to her.
