Fatal Revenant t3cotc-2

by Stephen R. Donaldson

  She wanted details about the condition of her friends and the state of the siege. But Liand and the others would soon arrive to answer such questions in person. And the Mahdoubt was one of the Insequent. She had rescued Linden-but she had also permitted Roger’s and the croyel’s treachery.

  While Linden tried to assemble her thoughts into some kind of order, she asked the first question that occurred to her.

  “Before I left-” At first, words came awkwardly to her, as though she had to drag them across a vast gulf of years. “When the ur-viles tried to stop Roger and the croyel from taking me. There weren’t any Waynhim.” According to Esmer, he had imposed peace between the ur-viles and the Waynhim. Together they had helped her weaken the Demondim so that Revelstone might survive. “Why didn’t they join the ur-viles? Did they want me to get lost in the past?”

  Her companion looked away. Apparently speaking to the rock of the Keep, she mused, “Does the Mahdoubt comprehend the lady’s concern in this? Oh, assuredly. The lady cannot grasp the speech of the Waynhim. Therefore she cannot inquire of them directly. And the sole interpreter known to her is betimes unworthy of credence. Do these reasons suffice to prompt a reply? They do.”

  Then the woman faced Linden again. “Lady, the Waynhim absented themselves because they foresaw peril to those who now deem themselves Masters. The esteem between the Waynhim and the mountain race of the Haruchai is both old and earned. The Waynhim do not desire your loss. They would do much to preserve you. Yet they declined to share in deeds which hazarded their olden allies.”

  Not for the first time, Linden felt that she had wasted a question. Nevertheless she was glad to have an answer. It relieved a nagging doubt. And it gave her time to decide what she most needed to know.

  “All right,” she murmured. “That makes sense.”

  Clenching Jeremiah’s racecar, she asked. Can you tell me how to save my son? Is he already lost?”

  A-Jeroth’s mark was placed upon the boy when he was yet a small child—

  The Insequent regarded Linden with one eye and then the other. “Sadly,” she said, “the Mahdoubt has no knowledge of this. It transcends her. In some measure, she has made of herself an adept of Time-as did the Theomach as well, assuredly, though in another form. But she beholds only the time in which she manifests herself, neither its past nor its future. Thus she is unable to witness her own future. Her present is here. Beyond this moment, she may estimate intentions and perils, but she cannot observe deeds and outcomes which lie ahead.

  “The Theomach’s powers were greater than the Mahdoubt’s.”

  Linden winced involuntarily; but she did not protest. She trusted the Mahdoubt. And Lord Foul had promised her through Anele, In time you will behold the fruit of my endeavours. If your son serves me, he will do so in your presence. If I slaughter him, I will do so before you. If you discover him, you will only hasten his doom. Roger had assured her that he and the Despiser still had plans for Jeremiah.

  I do not reveal my aims to such as you.

  For that reason, she chose to believe that her son was not beyond redemption. While Lord Foul still had a use for him, he would not be irreparably damaged-and she could hope to reach him.

  Steadying herself on the stone of her heart, Linden said, “In that case, tell me why you didn’t expose Roger and the croyel when they first arrived. In Garroting Deep, you said that you aren’t wise enough to interfere with what you considered “needful”. But that was ten thousand years ago. You had to be careful. This is now. How could what Roger and that monster did to me be needful?”

  The Mahdoubt could have spared her—

  In response, chagrin and sorrow closed the woman’s features. She lowered the contradiction of her eyes: for a moment, she seemed to fumble within herself. When she replied, her voice was thick with sadness.

  “Lady, the Mahdoubt comprehends your pain. Assuredly she herself must appear to be your treacher, for she stood aside while betrayal was wrought against you. If you choose condemnation, she cannot gainsay you.”

  The Insequent knotted her fingers together. Her hands twisted at each other. “But if in aught the Mahdoubt has won your regard, then she observes-with respect, aye, and mourning also-that you have gained knowledge which you did not formerly possess. And had you not suffered and striven as you did, you would not have become who you are. The Mahdoubt could not foresee such an outcome when you were taken by your foes. She was able only to perceive that you were not then equal to the Land’s plight.

  “Lady, you have become greater. That the Mahdoubt deemed needful.”

  Linden scowled at her companion; but her anger was for herself, not the Mahdoubt. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean that to sound like an accusation.” It was certainly true that she knew more now. “I’m proud to call you my friend. I’m just trying to understand as much as I can.”

  She had not become greater. She had simply been made harder and more certain.

  Slowly the Mahdoubt raised her head. Her blue eye was damp with relief or gratitude, but the orange one glared like a promise of ferocity. “Pssht, my lady,” she said again. “You have no need of the Mahdoubt’s forgiveness. It is given before it is asked. Assuredly so. Your gratitude”- she indicated her robe- “has claimed her old heart.

  “Inquire what you will. The Mahdoubt will attempt better answers.”

  Now it was Linden who looked away. While she prepared herself, she muttered. “My real problem with what you did is that I feel so damn stupid. I should have seen the truth for myself. About Roger, anyway.” Jeremiah’s presence had confounded her utterly. “But he did things-

  “How could he drink springwine?” she blurted. “How could either of them? It has aliantha in it.”

  That was only one of the many means by which Covenant’s son had confused her. The Ramen believed that No servant of Fangthane craves or will consume aliantha.

  “Ah.” The Mahdoubt nodded in recognition. “Assuredly. That chicane arose from the halfhand’s portion of the nature of the Elohim. The Elohim are not hampered by mortal distastes. With the cursed gift of such a hand, your betrayer received both the power of glamour, of seeming, and the capacity to set aside his revulsion for the goodly health of the Land. These given strengths he also employed to veil and ward the cruel beast which rules your son. Thus his loathing, and your son’s, for aliantha in springwine was hidden.

  “Your wits did not fail you, my lady,” she added kindly. “Think no ill of yourself. Your foes’ deeds and appearances were prepared one and all for your consternation. You were hastened from event to event to assure that you found no occasion to imagine their concealment.” The woman nodded again. “There was no fault in you.”

  “Then-” With an effort, Linden dragged her attention away from Roger’s and the croyel’s manipulations. If she considered them too closely, she might founder in outrage. They have done this to my son. For a moment, she closed her eyes, gathered herself. When she opened them again, she faced her companion squarely.

  “The Theomach told me that he would protect history from what I did, but I don’t know whether I can trust him. I don’t know how that’s even possible.”

  How had she not set in motion ripples which would change everything?

  The Mahdoubt shook her head, turning it from side to side so that first her orange eye and then her blue one regarded Linden brightly. “My lady,” she said with an air of intention, urging Linden to believe her, “you may be assured that the Theomach did not neglect such matters. Does your heart not beat? Do your words not convey their meaning? And do these simple truths not proclaim that the Law of Time endures? It is manifest that you have not broken faith with the past.

  “Yet the Mahdoubt may observe,” she added as if Linden had expressed doubt, “that Law seeks its own path. Diverted, it strives to return. Your exertion of Earthpower among Berek Heartthew’s warriors was easily transmuted to serve the Theomach’s purpose. You have not forgotten-assuredly not-that the Theomach found a place a
s the Lord-Fatherer’s tutor. Thus he was able to account for your presence and deeds in any manner which conformed to his own intentions-and to his knowledge of Time.

  “My lady, he made of you the first of the Unfettered, those who in the time of the Lords sought lore and wisdom solitarily, as do the Insequent, according to their private natures. At the Theomach’s word, a tradition and a legend began from the wonderment of your aid, and all that has since transpired in the Land has confirmed it.

  Linden listened in surprise and gradual comprehension. She had heard of the Unfettered-Covenant had told her a little about them after Sunder’s half-mad father had called himself a descendant of the Unfettered One.

  “Understand, my lady,” the Mahdoubt continued, “that the Theomach did not require your presence or your aid. He merely made use of you. Had you not appeared, he would have contrived to win the Heartthew’s trust by other means. And he would have proposed the legend of the Unfettered to justify his own knowledge and power. Such ploys were needful to preserve the Arch.

  “Nor did the visitation of your betrayers challenge the Theomach’s cleverness.” The older woman sighed heavily. “Among the Lords of later ages, there endured a belief that the Halfhand, the Lord-Fatherer, would one day return to meet the Land’s need. As events befell, the Theomach was not greatly troubled to bring forth such a tale from the form of those who accompanied you.”

  For a moment, her voice held an edge of disapproval. “His purposes were his own, and selfish. All that he did conduced to his own aggrandisement. Therefore he did not scruple upon occasion to offer the Lord-Fatherer instruction which was either flawed or incomplete. Assuredly, however, he would have drawn upon the full depth of his knowledge to preserve the wholeness of that which ensued from his desires.

  “The Insequent and the Elohim share only this, my lady, that we do not desire the destruction of the Earth.”

  The Theomach had said virtually the same thing. Even Roger had said it.

  And Linden had seen for herself how little Berek had known or understood in the aftermath of his encounter with the Fire-Lions. The Theomach could have told him anything, and he would have had no choice except to credit it.

  As she drank more of Glimmermere’s waters, her mind grew sharper. There were so many things that she wanted to know. Because the Mahdoubt had said that she would depart soon, Linden began to hurry.

  “All right,” she said. “I don’t really understand how the Theomach knew what his own future required. But if you explained it, I probably still wouldn’t understand.

  “What can you tell me about that box? The way the croyel transported us into the mountain?” She winced at the memory. “Or used my son to do it. Is Jeremiah really capable of making portals? Doors through time and distance? And if he is, what does that have to do with the Elohim?”

  Had Roger told her the truth about Jeremiah’s deadwood construct?

  The Mahdoubt spread her hands to suggest a warning. “Is the lady’s query condign?” she asked herself. “The Mahdoubt deems it so. Yet there is peril here. She must display great care.

  “My lady,” she said to Linden. “your son’s gifts are certain. The Mahdoubt can estimate neither their extent nor their uses. However, their worth is beyond question. Both the Vizard’s interest and a-Jeroth’s machinations proclaim that there is power concealed within your chosen child.”

  According to Jeremiah-or the croyel- the Vizard had coveted a gaol for the Elohim.

  “The Mahdoubt,” she continued, “has averred that neither Insequent nor Elohim desire the destruction of the Earth. Assuredly such havoc was the intent of your treachers. But they outdistanced the Theomach’s perception, as he selfishly permitted them to do, relying upon your strength to oppose them. Therefore your companions saw no further threat in him. And they conceived that your defeat was certain. For that reason, they feared only the Elohim.

  “The purpose of the ‘box,’ as you name it, was to blind the eyes of the Elohim. They are”- she searched visibly for a cautious description- “susceptible to such structures. Its nature interacted with their fluidity, enabling your companions to elude detection. Thus were you compelled to meet the crisis of the EarthBlood alone.”

  Susceptible to such structures? Linden wondered. Roger had said essentially the same thing. And she had seen how the Elohim had reacted to Vain, who had been a construct of the ur-viles.

  If Jeremiah’s talent could “blind” the Elohim, what else might it accomplish?

  But there again Linden hit a barrier of comprehension. Her thoughts were too sequential: she could not gauge the implications of ideas or abilities which appeared to defy linear cause and effect. And she sensed that she was running out of time. Her other friends were coming—

  Swallowing bafflement, she said carefully, “That’s something else I may never understand. Can you answer one more question?”

  The older woman appeared to consult the evening air through the shutters of the window. Then she gave Linden a comfortable smile. “Assuredly. If the Mahdoubt may reply briefly.”

  “We keep coming back to the Theomach and the Elohim,” Linden said at once. An Elohim had given warning of the croyel as well as the halfhand. Is it true that your people are the shadow on the heart of the Elohim?” The Elohim had called themselves the heart of the Earth. And they had admitted that within the Earth’s heart, or their own, lay darkness. To account for her query, she added. “I’ve heard other explanations.”

  Esmer had told her, The Elohim believe that they are equal to all things. This is false. Were it true, the Earth entire would exist in their image, and they would have no need to fear the rousing of the Worm of the World’s End. That is shadow enough to darken the heart of any being.

  The Mahdoubt’s smile sagged, and she sighed. “My lady, the Theomach has given the Elohim cause to doubt their surquedry. Oh, assuredly. For that reason, many among the Mahdoubt’s race name him the greatest of all Insequent. Yet she deems that her kind are not a shadow cast by the unspoken Wurd of the Elohim. Nor do the Insequent themselves cast such shadows. They are merely men and women who crave knowledge as diligently as the Elohim desire the sopor of self-contentment.

  “In its fashion, my lady, your comprehension of these matters is as great as the Mahdoubt’s-or the Theomach’s. Assuredly so. Have you not grown familiar with shadows?” Her mismatched eyes searched Linden deeply. And is your heart not filled with darkness still? You require no guidance to interpret the evils of the Earth, for you have encountered them within you.”

  Involuntarily Linden squirmed. She had known Ravers: she recognised the nature of the passions which had driven her ever since she had coerced Roger Covenant and the croyel to reveal themselves. Her own shadow had responded to Gallows Howe. But she had gone beyond doubt, and did not question herself. Instead she chose to ignore the warning implicit in her companion’s reply.

  “That’s probably true,” she said, dismissing the subject. She had confronted Lord Foul’s snares now. She would not fall into them again. “But I’m still confused about the details.

  “How do I know the Theomach’s true name? Where did I hear it’?”

  The Insequent had made themselves important to her. She wanted to know their weaknesses.

  But the Mahdoubt did not react as Linden expected-or hoped. Leaning forward intently, the woman braced her plump arms on her knees. In a voice that seemed to resonate strangely, although it was as soft as a whisper, she answered, “My lady, you have not inquired of the Mahdoubt’s true name.”

  Instinctively Linden pressed her back against the stone at the head of the bed. The Staff of Law lay across her lap: white gold hung against her sternum: one hand gripped her son’s toy while the other held a sheet over her breasts. Yet she felt unexpectedly exposed and vulnerable, as if all of her inadequacies had been laid bare.

  Whispering herself, she said, “I’m not convinced that I deserve to know. And I’m sure that I don’t have the right to ask. Your people don�
�t use titles instead of names by accident. When the Theomach does it, he’s hiding something. That makes me suspicious. But you’re my friend. You didn’t just save my life. You saved my reasons for living. Obviously you know all kinds of things that you’ve decided not to tell me. And I don’t care. I respect whatever you do. Or don’t do.”

  The Mahdoubt’s orange eye burned at Linden; but her blue one seemed to plead, asking for sufferance-or for discretion. “Then the Mahdoubt will reveal that her true name is Quern Ehstrel. Thus she grants the power to compel her. And in return she requests both wisdom and restraint.”

  No, Linden wanted to protest. Please. Don’t you understand that I’ll use you? I need every weapon I can get. But she had already missed her chance to forestall the older woman’s gift.

  Suddenly hoarse with chagrin, she asked. Is that why the Insequent hide their true names? Because they can be compelled?”

  If so, she understood their loyalty to each other. The Insequent had too much power over their own people. Without loyalty, none of them would survive.

  But the Mahdoubt did not respond directly. Instead she rose to her feet, pushing herself upward with her hands on her knees. Her gaze she turned away, although she was smiling fondly.

  “My lady, those who have claimed your friendship draw nigh. The Mahdoubt must now depart. Her time of service to Revelstone is ended, for she awaited only the lady.

  “Your raiment has been prepared.” She nodded toward the bathroom. And she has placed a tray before the hearth, for she does not doubt that you are hungry.

  If you will permit the Mahdoubt a last word of counsel”- she gave Linden a teasing sidelong glance- “you will clothe yourself ere your companions attend upon you. Oh, assuredly. If you do not, you will disturb their wits.”