The Runes of the Earth

about them, the Ramen dearly valued kinship.

Finally the meal was over. When the younger Cords had passed around more water for the washing of hands, they cleared away the trenchers and waterskins. The other Ramen remained seated, however, now obviously waiting.

Hami gave Linden a long, probing look. Then the Manethrall rose lightly to her feet and moved into the centre of the circle so that she stood near the small fire.

As she did so, the Ramen in the clearing turned their seats so that the whole gathering faced her together.

To Linden, Hami announced, “It is not the way of the Ramen to give trust where trust has not first been offered. At another time, we would not speak of ourselves until you had described to us your past and purposes.”

Then she raised her voice and her eyes so that she addressed her assembled people. “But she is Linden Avery, called the Chosen by the sleepless ones. And she is the Ringthane. The presence of her white ring is plain to all who behold her. And with my Cords, I have witnessed her argent flame.

“The name of the Ringthane we remember with reverence. Seeing that the Ranyhyn both honoured and feared him, Covenant Ringthane refused their service. He rode no Ranyhyn into peril and death. Instead he hazarded only himself against the Render. Therefore he is honoured among us. Though our lives are as brief as grass upon the Earth, our memories are long, for we have told the tale until it cannot be forgotten.”

Manethrall Hami held her head up to the valley and the dark mountains. “And there is more. With her companions, Linden Avery Ringthane came among us hunted by kresh. She has befriended the mad old man whose plight has long touched our hearts. She consumes aliantha with respect and gladness. And she retrieved Sahah of my Cords from death when Sahah’s wounds had surpassed our skills.

“For these reasons, I will speak first, in gratitude and acknowledgment.”

Around the clearing, Manethralls and Cords nodded their acquiescence. And Linden nodded as well, although she had not been asked for her assent. She was simply glad that she would not be required to account for herself before she knew what was at stake.

“I will speak briefly, however,” Hami promised, “as our lives are brief, for the matters which must be resolved here are urgent and compelling.

“This place we name the Verge of Wandering.” Her words may have been meant for Linden, but she gave them to the whole assembly. “It is here that the Ramen first gathered when the Sunbane had driven us from the Plains of Ra. Here we considered how we might fulfil the meaning of our lives in exile.”

Hami paused to drop a faggot or two onto the campfire so that its flames rose higher. As she continued, her voice became bleak, almost desolate, devoid of the nickering inflections which occasionally enlivened it.

“Twice before, we had fled the Land, but now there were no Lords to promise us an ending. As we withdrew to this place, we prayed that one day the Sunbane would be quenched-that the Ringthane or another like him would arise to again cast down the Render-but our hopes did not console us. We could see no outcome to the Sunbane except extinction.”

Now her desolation was unmistakable. Recalled loss ached in her words.

“Our memories were long then, as they are now. Here we told the tale of ourselves, and found that the toll of bloodshed had become greater than we could countenance. The Render had exacted too much death. His slaying of the Ranyhyn must cease.

“Therefore we determined that we would never again subject the meaning of our lives to Fangthane’s ravage.”

The Manethrall sighed. “Yet we had no power against him, no means by which we might end his malice. We could not impose the relief we craved.” The muscles at the corners of her jaw bunched with remembered resolve. “For that reason, we swore then, as each generation has sworn anew, that we would not return to the Plains of Ra until the Land’s foe had met his last doom, and would nevermore arise to shed the blood of Ranyhyn.”

Linden listened with growing discomfort. The Ramen were as draconian as the Haruchai, as absolute in their judgments. Both people rejected the reality of Lord Foul’s malevolence and the Land’s vulnerability. Where the Masters sought to alter that reality, however, the Ramen had simply turned their backs on it.

Compared to the stance which the Haruchai had chosen, that of the Ramen was more human; certainly less ambitious. Nevertheless it disturbed Linden profoundly. The Land would never be saved by people who believed and judged as the Ramen did.

She feared suddenly that her need for help had misled her; that the Ramen were not the allies she required. Even the intransigence of the Masters might be of more use to her.

Still Hami continued her tale. However, her tone had eased. The memories she described now did not hold as much hurt.

“Thus this place became the Verge of Wandering, the northernmost limit of our exile. From this valley, we found our way southward among the mountains, sojourning by decades and centuries among strange and distant lands, living as nomads among peoples who knew nothing of the Land and Fangthane. Perhaps at another time we will speak of such things. For the present, I will say merely that we found no home there. But neither have we returned to the Land.

“Once in each generation, however, we visit the Verge of Wandering. Here we remain for a season, or a year, or for several years, scouting the Land until we have discovered that Fangthane yet lives-that the Land has not yet been healed of evil. Then we depart to wander again.

For a hundred generations and more, no Ramen has set foot beyond these mountains, except to observe the life of the Land, and to carry word.”

And do you like what you see? Linden might have asked. Has the life of the Land become better since you abandoned it? Have you made it better? But she said nothing. She was out of her depth, and she knew it.

The things that Hami had not said were as loud in the darkened gathering as those she had. Where were the children of the Ramen? The old people?

Where were the Ranyhyn?

Then the Manethrall’s voice took on a new edge, a sound of keen wrath. For the first time, her tale implied challenges.

“Once in each generation, therefore, we have witnessed the rise of the Masters in the Land, the men who were formerly the sleepless ones, the Bloodguard. We have discerned no sign of Lords, or of other powers, that might bring about Fangthane’s end. Instead we have watched with growing anger, generation after generation, as those who once served the Lords now name themselves Masters and do nothing.

“The Land is in their care, and in their care it has been made helpless. Now the Render flourishes once again, and there are only Masters to oppose him.

“We have known the Bloodguard. We have seen them turned to Fangthane’s service. We know that they do not suffice.”

Threats seemed to mount around the clearing as Hami spoke. The ancient animosity of the Ramen toward the Bloodguard had been vindicated by the attitude of the Masters.

“At last, however, a new Ringthane stands among us. Because she is here, we might feel hope. But because the Masters are also here, we fear that she will be thwarted.”

In that, at least, Linden understood Hami perfectly.

“The Ramen have kept faith,” the Manethrall concluded severely. “What have the Masters done? How will Linden Avery bear the burden of wild magic against the Render, when the Masters have quelled any strength which might have aided her?

“These questions, and more, we will have answered.”

For a moment, silence greeted her demand. Ramen nodded to themselves, and to her, grimly. They seemed to feel their exile as if they had experienced the loss themselves, although they had known no other life but wandering. Their tales had the force of commandments, compulsory beyond the limits of flesh and time.

Concentrating on Hami, Linden sensed rather than saw Stave surge erect in the circle where he had been sitting.