It occupied a wide, low valley which stretched beyond the for in the northwest and curved away to the east; a slow crescent of soil made arable by a bright brook and seasonal flooding. As Stave had suggested, the lowland was contained by hills like mounds of shale, dirt, and marl. But centuries of water and overflow had made the bottom of the valley as hospitable as pasturage.
At one time-perhaps as long as half an hour ago-the tree-village must have been extraordinary: a magnificent banyan straddling the stream, sending down tendrils in thick cl.u.s.ters to become new roots and secondary trunks until the single tree formed an extensive grove. Ma.s.sive boughs by the thousands must have offered their leaves to the heavens, growing between and among each other until they provided abundant opportunities for homes as well as for paths from trunk to trunk. And the homes themselves must have been extraordinary as well, for they would have been fashioned, not of planks and timbers, but of interwoven limbs and branches, and sheltered by a dense thatch-work of twigs and leaves. All along the brook, the crops of the Woodhelvennin would have flourished.
If Linden had seen First Woodhelven before the caesure hit, the sight might have gladdened her sore heart. She would have been so proud of Sunder and Hollian-But she and her companions had not reached the tree-village in time to save it.
Now it looked like a cyclone had torn through it. Ancient trunks as thick as five or six Giants standing together had been shattered; split apart and scattered like kindling. Their oozing stumps were jagged as fractured bones. Broken boughs made a trail of wreckage in the wake of the Fall: rent wood in jumbled cl.u.s.ters resembled the piles of pyres: leaves littered the ground like bloodshed.
After millennia of growth and health, generation following generation, a thriving community had become a catastrophe.
Yet for Linden that was not the worst of it, although the damage cried out to her senses. The tree was only wood. Precious beyond measure, its ruin nonetheless did not communicate the full cost of the caesure. More poignant to her was the condition of the fields-and of the Woodhelvennin themselves.
On either side of the Fall"s path, the fields remained untouched. They had been recently plowed and tended, and wore the fresh vulnerable green of new crops. But where the caesure had pa.s.sed, it had dragged carnage through the soil, maiming First Woodhelven"s hopes for food; for a future. Raw dirt ached in the sunlight like a weeping gall in the body of the Land.
And all around the calamity of their homes stood the banyan-dwellers, hundreds of men, women, and children milling in shock and dismay, utterly lost.
Among them moved two Masters. No doubt that explained why the Woodhelvennin were still alive: the unblinded senses of the Masters had warned the villagers to gather their families and flee before the Fall struck. And a few horses had been saved as well. But the Haruchai could do nothing to ease the effects, the force and impact, of the disaster. The Woodhelvennin gazed dumbly upon the devastation of their lives, too appalled to think or take action. They did not know how to bear the sheer casualness, the complete lack of purpose or desire, with which their homes and possessions and tasks had been reduced to debris.
Lacking any knowledge of the Land"s history, they had no context for atrocity.
In Berek Halfhand"s camp, Linden had gone without hesitation to do what she could for the victims of his war. This was different. The Woodhelvennin were not wounded: their hearts rather than their bodies had been pierced. With all of her power, she could not make their spirits whole again.
And she had shared no responsibility for the sufferings of Berek"s warriors. First Woodhelven"s razing she could have prevented, if she had insisted on haste hours earlier, when her company had broken camp- If she had not restored Joan"s wedding band- She hardly noticed that the Ranyhyn, the whole company, had slowed to a halt on the rise above the shattered grove. A deep rage held her attention.
Roger had said of Falls, Wherever they are at a particular moment, every bit of time in that precise spot happens at once. He had tried to explain why the fabric of reality had not already been irreparably shredded. Since they"re moving, they give those bits of time back as fast as they pick up new ones. In addition, the Law of Time strove to preserve itself. Presumably Thomas Covenant himself fought to defend it. And Joan"s inability to concentrate prevented the caesures from expanding to consume everything. Thus the larger integrity of causality and sequence endured despite the severity of the Falls.
Nevertheless the restoration of Law as the caesure pa.s.sed contributed to its destructiveness. Every instant of First Woodhelven"s life had been superimposed-and then those instants had been flung back into their natural order. The result was a doubled violation. In effect, the Fall"s departure did as much harm as its arrival.
Linden concentrated on such things in an effort to control the wild scramble of guilt and sorrow that made her want to rage at the heavens rather than seek some means to ease the villagers. In another moment, she might turn her back on them. She hungered to ride like vengeance after the Fall and rip it out of existence. The eldritch storm surrounding it she would sweep aside. She had stood on Gallows Howe: she yearned to repay savagery with destruction.
"Chosen." Stave put his hand on her arm as if to pull her back from a kind of insanity. "The fault is mine. I urged caution when you craved haste."
In response, Mahrtiir made a fierce spitting sound. "Do not speak of fault here, Haruchai. Neither you nor the Ringthane is gifted with foreknowledge. There is no fault. There is only the need of these stricken Woodhelvennin."
Fault, Linden thought, biting her lip until it bled. Oh, there was fault, and plenty of it. The Manethrall was right: she could not have known. Even Joan, abused and broken, did not deserve blame. But Lord Foul was another matter. Kastenessen and Roger, the Ravers and the skurj and the croyel: the Despiser had aimed them like a barrage at the Land.
"All right," she said with her mouth full of blood. "I understand. Let"s go see what we can do for those poor people."
But she did not move. Instead she struggled to suppress her outrage. She needed a moment of clarity, of containment, in which she might regain some aspect of the Linden Avery who healed. That woman had never fully emerged from the depths of Melenkurion Skyweir.
There must be something*
Rubbing the blood from her lip with the back of her hand, she tightened the grip of her heels on Hyn"s flanks; mutely asked the mare to approach the remains of First Woodhelven. But as Hyn began to walk, Galt called sharply.
"Linden Avery!"
He rode a short way off to her right, guarding the company from the south. When she jerked a look at him, he announced, "The Fall"s course has been altered. It turns toward us, compelled by some power which we do not recognize. And it moves swiftly. If it does not veer aside, it will soon be upon us."
Flinching, Linden s.n.a.t.c.hed her percipience toward the south and saw that he was right. The caesure was retracing its ruin, harried by a palpable cloudless storm. And it was coming fast- Some silent part of her snarled curses, but she paid no attention to them. The Fall"s advance evoked a different clarity than the one that she had tried to impose on herself.
"Go!" she shouted at Galt and his comrades as though she had the right to command them. "Get those people out of there," away from their riven homes, their lost lives. "Take them west. I"ll try to snuff that thing. But I don"t know what I"m up against. If something goes wrong, they"ll be right in front of it."
If the skurj came, they would approach from the east.
Because he was a Master, she expected him to refuse. Yet he did not. Wheeling his Ranyhyn, he headed at a gallop into the lowland.
Immediately Branl joined him. Clyme took a moment to unsling the slate from his back and pa.s.s it in its harness to Stave, transferring responsibility for Anele. Then he sped after the other Humbled.
In their minds, all three of them may have been calling to the Masters among the Woodhelvennin.
So many people-It would take time to rally them. They were too stunned to think for themselves.
"Mahrtiir!" Linden flung a gesture after the Humbled. "Help those people. What"s coming isn"t just a Fall. Somebody is pushing that thing." Someone nearby: someone who wanted the caesure to devour the Woodhelvennin-or to a.s.sail her. "Get as many of them on horses as you can. Make them move."
When the Manethrall hesitated, she urged him, "Go! Leave Liand and Anele with me." She could not ask Liand to watch over Anele and aid the villagers at the same time; and the old man was close to panic, filled by the old dread which had driven him to climb Kevin"s Watch. If he left Hrama"s back and tried to fend for himself-if his feet touched barren ground-"Stave will take care of them."
"Ringthane." Mahrtiir nodded an acknowledgment, then turned Narunal to follow the Humbled. As the Ranyhyn gathered speed, the Manethrall shouted. "Cords!"
Bhapa was already in motion, racing to catch up with Mahrtiir. Pahni gave Liand a quick desperate look before she sent Naharahn after Whrany.
Liand had already taken out his orcrest. He gripped it tightly while he murmured to Hrama and Rhohm, imploring them to stay together.
The sight of Liand"s Sunstone made Anele cower as if he feared it-feared sanity*more than the caesure.
On all sides of Linden and her remaining companions were flint, shale, eroded sandstone, dirt. Hardly a hundred paces away lay the torn path of the Fall. If Anele dismounted, even for a moment, Kastenessen would find him. The pain-maddened Elohim would know where to send the skurj. And if he gained full possession of the old man, he might attack Linden directly while she fought the caesure and its unseen drover.
Kastenessen might already be somewhere nearby. Surely he was capable of herding a Fall wherever he wished?
"How long-"?" Abruptly she found that she could not speak: her throat was too dry. She had to swallow several times before she could ask Stave, "How much time do we have"?"
The Haruchai gazed into the south for a moment, then glanced behind him to consider the tree-dwellers. "If the Woodhelvennin comprehend their peril, and do not refuse to be commanded, they will be spared."
If the Fall did not change directions to pursue them- "In that case"-Linden took a deep breath, held it, let it out-let"s go down there." She indicated the furrowed ground where the Fall had pa.s.sed. "We"ll be able to see farther."
On this terrain, one place would not be more dangerous than another for Anele.
Stave nodded. Beckoning for Liand and Anele to follow, he nudged Hynyn into a trot, angling across the slope to keep his distance from the blasted village while he sought an un.o.bstructed view to the south.
Fighting her urgent anger, Linden dropped back briefly to ride beside Liand. "You know what you have to do?"
His black eyebrows accentuated the apprehension in his eyes. "Linden?"
"Remember what I told you," she ordered brusquely. "Protect Anele. Whatever happens. Get Stave to help you if you need him. I"ll stop the caesure." Somehow. "But you have to keep Anele away from Kastenessen. We can"t face another attack right now."
Of any kind.
When the Stonedownor said, "I will," biting off the words as though they caused him pain, she left him, riding faster to catch up with Stave.
"Did you hear me?" she asked as she reached Stave"s side. On his back, he bore the pane of slate. "I know how you feel about protecting me. But you can"t fight a Fall. You can"t fight that storm. Helping Liand keep Anele safe is the best thing that you can do for me."
For a moment, Stave appeared to contemplate what she requested of him. Then he replied evenly, "Your fate is mine, Chosen. I will have no other. Yet while I may, I will do as you desire." Without expression, he met her gaze. "Have I not shown that I am able to abandon you for the old man"s sake"?"
He had left her to retrieve Anele from the horde of the Demondim- Trying to smile, Linden bared her teeth.
"You have. I should know better than to tell you what to do."
As soon as she reached the center of the caesure"s raked path, she turned to face the south. For a few heartbeats, Hyn"s muscles quivered as if she were afraid; as if she longed to carry Linden out of danger. Then Hynyn snorted a.s.sertively, and the mare seemed to calm herself.
The Fall was moving faster than Linden had antic.i.p.ated. It was already clear to her ordinary sight: a swirling miasma of wrongness in the shape of a tornado. Its emanations burrowed along her nerves as though hornets hived in her belly. And it was growing-The storm driving it seemed to increase its virulence and size as well as its speed. It would strike like the bludgeon of a t.i.tan.
Now she could discern the storm itself distinctly, although it had no clouds to account for the lurid punch of its thunder or the bright flare and sizzle of its lightning. Her health-sense perceived the turmoil in etched detail: it resembled a squall at sea. But its forces were too great for a mere squall. Its vehemence suggested the fury of a hurricane.
She had never seen theurgy like that before. More than once, however, she had felt a similar puissance: when Esmer had attacked Stave; and again when he had blocked the ur-viles from a.s.sailing Roger and the croyel. Before she and her companions had risked the Land"s past to search for the Staff of Law, the Ramen had informed her that he wields a storm among the mountains- With it, he had summoned a caesure for her.
"d.a.m.n it," she breathed more to herself than to Stave. "That"s Esmer."
"So I deem," replied Stave as though he had not been almost beaten to death by Cail"s son.
For the first time, Linden wondered whether Esmer himself might be the havoc for which he had blamed Stave and the Haruchai.
Yet she could not believe that Esmer intended to threaten her like this. His conflicting inheritances precluded a direct a.s.sault. And a desire to ravage the Woodhelvennin seemed out of character. He had never shown the kind of omnivorous malice that delighted Lord Foul, or that Kastenessen and Roger might have enjoyed.
But why, then-?
An instant later, she saw an explanation. Ahead of the caesure, a rider fled desperately. He flogged his horse straight toward her. The Fall and the storm seemed to be chasing him.
She recognized him before Stave stated flatly. It is the Harrow."
He was mounted on a brown destrier as large and strongly made as Mh.o.r.n.ym, although the beast was not a Ranyhyn: it lacked the characteristic star-shaped blaze on its forehead; the unmistakable tang of Earthpower. Froth splashed from the horse"s mouth and nostrils, and its eyes glared with dumb terror, as its rider lashed its hindquarters with a short quirt. Hunched low over his mount"s neck, with his chlamys flapping, the Harrow rode for his life just ahead of the caesure.
He had promised Linden his companionship. Now he raced toward her as though he hoped that she would save him.
He was her enemy: she believed that.
Oh, he had unmade the threat of the Demondim. But he had also tried to swallow her mind. He had cost her the Mandoubt"s friendship and support; the Mandoubt"s life.
And he coveted Covenant"s ring. He wanted the Staff of Law. To tempt her, he had said, There is a service which I am able to perform for you, and which you will not obtain from any other living being.
Nevertheless she did not hesitate. Unfurling plumes of fire from her Staff, she began to tune her percipience to the exact pitch and timbre of the Fall. Her private rages and bereavements had no significance now. The Woodhelvennin were still in peril, and they had already lost too much.
If Esmer sought to destroy the Harrow, he did not do so for Linden"s benefit, or for the Land"s. In him, aid and betrayal were indistinguishable. Perhaps he saw some threat to one of his ruling compulsions in the Harrow"s proposed service. If so, she needed to know more about the Insequent.
With the back of her neck, she felt the villagers stumbling slowly westward. They did not resist the shepherding of the Masters and the Ramen. But there were too many of them-and too many were still in shock. Their progress was sluggish, hampered by grief.
The caesure was no more than a stone"s throw for a Giant away: it towered over her, feral and deadly. The Harrow raced less than ten strides ahead of it, and the gap was narrowing-If she ran out of time, she would be devoured by the conflagration of instants.
She could do this, she told herself. She had done it before. And Esmer"s storm did not camouflage the caesure, or confuse her health-sense. If anything, his efforts to flail the Fall only emphasized its specific ferocity.
Muttering, "Melenkurion abatha," she raised Law and Earthpower in sunlight flames to meet the impending chaos. "Duroc minas mill." In one sense, every Fall was different: it occurred in a different place; shattered different fragments of time. But in another, they were all the same, and she knew them well. "Harad khabaal!"
Fervid as a bonfire, her power geysered into the heavens.
The Harrow gestured at her frantically, urging her to rescue him. Lightning in fatal bursts blasted the dirt between her and the destrier. Concussions of thunder shook the ground. Each searing bolt liquefied the shale and flint, leaving molten pools where it struck.
"Aneler Liand"s yell nearly broke Linden"s concentration. She felt the old man fling himself headlong from Hrama"s back; felt him hit the stony soil rolling, wild to escape the caesure or the storm, she did not know which. With every nerve, she sensed the eruption of bitter magma that took hold of him.
Instantly Stave wheeled Hynyn away from Linden. At the same time, Liand sprang after Anele, still shouting.
She had no choice: she could not stop Kastenessen now. If she did not quench the Fall, she would do nothing ever again.
Fear for Anele hampered her-and for Stave and Liand as well. Kastenessen would savage the old man; but he would not kill a vessel that could still serve him. Stave and Liand were another matter. The insane Elohim might incinerate them.
Nevertheless Linden had grown stronger, annealed under Melenkurion Skyweir. And Caerroil Wildwood"s runes defined her Staff; sharpened its black possibilities. Hindrances of which she had been unaware had been carved away. Between one heartbeat and the next, she gathered Law and flame into a detonation as great as any that Esmer had unleashed. Shouting the Seven Words, she hurled Earthpower into the core of the caesure.
Time seemed to have no meaning. For an instant or an eternity, she threw her fire at the Fall; and the Harrow raced toward her in a fever of dread; and dire lava gathered at her back. Lightning coruscated near Hyn"s hooves. The caesure appeared to swell as though it feasted on flame.
Then she felt the sudden brilliance of orcrest behind her.
Through Liand"s glaring light, the storm thundered in a voice like a convulsion of despair. "Wildwielder, do not!"
Abruptly Kastenessen"s lava imploded, sucked back into itself.
As if fetters had been struck from her limbs, Linden felt freedom and energy surge through her. Almost calmly, she thought, No, Esmer. Not until I know what"s at stake. Not until one of you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds tells me the truth.
With Law and Earthpower and repudiation, she lit a deflagration in the Fall"s heart and watched while the tumult of sundered instants swallowed itself whole. Like the scoria of Kastenessen"s rage, the migraine tornado appeared to consume its own substance. Moments before the caesure caught the heels of the Harrow"s mount, the fabric of time was rewoven; restored where it had been rent.
Briefly Esmer"s storm became a stentorian wail of frustration and dismay. Then it started to fray as though intangible winds were pulling it apart. Swirling like the Fall, lightning and thunder dissipated, drifting away toward all of the horizons simultaneously.
The Harrow hauled at his horse"s reins; stopped short of a collision with Linden. At the same time, Esmer stepped out of the air behind the Insequent. Gales seething in his eyes, Cail"s son strode forward as if he meant to a.s.sail the Harrow as he had once attacked Stave.
In Esmer"s presence, Linden"s viscera squirmed with an almost metaphysical nausea. But she ignored the sensation. Turning her back on both men, she looked for her friends.
Fifteen or twenty paces away, in the middle of the caesure"s wide gall, Stave stood on the pane of slate, holding Anele upright and unconscious against his chest. On his knees near them, Liand cupped his quenched Sunstone in one hand and gazed at it in wonder, studying it as if he were amazed that the flesh had not been scalded from his fingers.
In the distance beyond them, the Masters and the Ramen continued herding the villagers into motion, a pitiful few on horseback, the rest walking. Frightened and distraught, men, women, and children trudged away from the wreckage of First Woodhelven in the general direction of Lord"s Keep. As a group, they radiated numbness and misery that ran too deep for utterance.
She could not help them: not with Esmer advancing on the Harrow behind her. In another moment, they might begin to lash at each other-or at her-with forces as lethal as the Fall"s.
Gritting her teeth, she returned her attention to Liand, Stave, and Anele.
When she had a.s.sured herself that Liand and Stave were unharmed, and that Anele was only asleep, apparently exhausted by mere moments of possession and imposed sanity, she asked unsteadily. "How did you do that? Why aren"t you hurt?"
Liand still stared at his hand and the Sunstone as though they astonished him. "I would not have credited it," he breathed. "In my heart, I believed that my hand would be destroyed, and perhaps the orcrest with it. But when I touched the stone to Anele"s forehead, the conflagration within him ended. In some fashion that I do not comprehend, Kastenessen has been expelled."
"I can"t explain it." Liand"s success confounded Linden. She had hoped only that an imposed sanity might forestall Kastenessen"s violation. She had not expected Liand to exorcise the Elohim once Kastenessen had established his possession. Perhaps contact with orcrest enabled Anele to draw upon his inborn magic. "I"m just glad that you"re all right. All of you."
"Chosen," Stave said distinctly, warning her. "attend."
Instinctively she looked to the Woodhelvennin again. They had stopped moving; stood crowded together on the near side of the brook. Most of them now faced in her direction.