Against All Things Ending (30 page)

Distracted, she let a blast of Roger’s rage brush her cheek. He may have burned her badly, perhaps disfigured her; yet she felt no pain. Her cracked kneecap did not trouble her. She had not forgotten Jeremiah and the
croyel
, or the waiting threat of the
skest
: she had not forgotten Stave or Liand. For the moment, however, she fought as though nothing mattered except what had been done to Covenant’s hands.

Goading herself with the Seven Words, she forced Roger to retreat from his father.

Somehow Covenant regained his feet. Every movement was shrill with pain; but he did not retreat. Instead he advanced on Roger, still aiming the
krill
at Kastenessen’s hand.

Together, he and Linden might be able to beat Roger. She knew that Roger feared death. And she did not believe that he would allow harm to his grafted power; his halfhand. If Covenant could endure his suffering a little longer, he and Linden might succeed at driving Roger from the chamber.

Inadvertently Stave broke her concentration. Thwarted in his attack on the
croyel
, Stave countered by tossing Covenant’s ring toward the ceiling.

Surprise and avarice drew the
croyel
’s gaze to follow the rise and fall of white gold. Avid for wild magic, the creature dropped its defenses; tried to claw the ring out of the air.

With all of his
Haruchai
muscle and speed, Stave punched the
croyel
between its gleaming eyes.

The creature’s head jolted back, ripping its fangs out of Jeremiah’s neck. Quickly, however, the deformed head whipped forward again. Its eyes focused fury on Stave.

As Stave caught the ring, closed it in his fist, Jeremiah’s arm swept upward. Stave was flung into the air; hurled toward the waiting
skest
.

Stave—! Even his extraordinary reflexes could not save him now. He would land on living acid. His heart, or Linden’s, might have time to beat as much as twice before the corrosion of the
skest
scoured the skin from his bones. He would die hideously, in swift torment.

Helpless to do otherwise, Linden wheeled away from Roger. With the Staff blazing in both hands, she swept all of her power like a scythe among the
skest
, trying frantically to cut them down, burn them to ash; clear a space for Stave.

She almost succeeded. Creatures by the score burst into flame and fell apart, spilling viscid conflagration across the floor. Vitriol ate at the Harrow’s corpse. Twisting to right himself, Stave came down on his feet in a pool of fiery fluid.

He tried to leap away. But acid splashed his feet and calves; bit into his legs. Nearly crippled, he managed to sprawl beyond the edge of the vitriol. Then he tried to stand, and could not. Corrosion had eaten too deeply into his muscles. It was still burning.

Linden took a moment that she could not afford to slap her own fire at Stave’s legs. Expecting death, she stopped the damage with Earthpower. Then she abandoned Stave to his injuries; spun away to face Roger’s assault, and the
croyel
’s, and doom.

As she turned, however, she saw that Roger had not used her distraction to muster a killing blast. The
croyel
had not followed its attack on Stave. They had not joined together against Covenant.

Instead they had hastened toward each other. Already they had raised their arms, extending their magicks to form a portal. They were about to disappear—

Their powers would translate them to a time or a place where she could not hope to discover them again.

Covenant had seen what they were doing: he must have understood it. He stumbled toward them, aiming to thrust the
krill
between them before they could complete their sorcery. But he was too late. Linden felt their might gather while he was still too far away.

And he was directly between her and them. She could not fling fire at Roger and the
croyel
without scathing Covenant.

Stave may have been shouting at her, urging her to strike. He may have believed that Covenant would forgive her.

Nonetheless she froze for a moment.

In that small space of time, a concussion like a burst of thunder shook the chamber.

The floor split in a dozen places. Stone like geysers of rubble or scree spouted upward. The whole chamber lurched as though it had cracked free of its moorings.

Riding a jolt of theurgy, Esmer appeared between Roger and Jeremiah. “
No!
” Cail’s son roared in a voice of horns and storm. “
This I will not permit!
”

The blast of his arrival knocked Roger and Jeremiah apart. Fuming, acid leaked away into fissures and upheavals.

Linden had no chance to notice the sudden bile in her throat, the nausea in her guts. Sick with shock, she saw that Esmer’s condition had worsened since his last appearance. Clearly he was unable to treat the wounds inflicted on him during the battle of First Woodhelven. The grime and blood that fouled his rent cymar were unchanged; but now the festering burns and tears in his flesh wept rank fluids. The purulent reek of his hurts was both more human and more painful than the stench of Roger’s halfhand.

He had told Linden that Kastenessen wanted him to suffer for aiding her.
His wrath is boundless
. But he retained his strength in spite of his bodily distress. He could be as devastating as a hurricane.

“Fool!” he raged at Linden. Spume boiled in the dark seas of his eyes. “You have revealed your discovery of your son to Kastenessen!”

Falling stone hit Linden’s head and shoulders; battered Covenant, Stave, and Liand. Belatedly she raised Earthpower to fend off the detritus of Esmer’s might. As she had during the earthquake under
Melenkurion
Skyweir, she protected herself: she shielded her companions. As then, she was hardly aware of what she did.

“So what?” she shouted back at Esmer. “You’re already here!” Aid and betrayal. “You’ll do whatever he wants!”

A hail of rock ruptured more of the
skest
, spilling their substance across the rent floor. The creatures that survived fled into their tunnels.

“In this,” retorted Esmer, “
I do not serve him!
The
skurj
will do so! She Who Must Not Be Named will do so!”

Shattered rock continued to erupt, tossing Roger and Jeremiah from side to side, coercing them to defend themselves; holding them at bay. With the Staff, Linden deflected granite rain.

Where—? She expected ur-viles and Waynhim to swarm around her.
They keep watch against me
. Whenever Esmer had helped or endangered her, the creatures had appeared. They had been profligate with their own lives in her defense.

This time, however, they did not come. Esmer had been too swift for them, or too sudden—

While she warded herself and her friends with flame, Esmer surged like a running wave at Roger; crashed like a breaker over Covenant’s son.

At once, the two of them vanished. For his own reasons, or Kastenessen’s, or Lord Foul’s, Esmer carried Roger away.

The fall of rock ceased as abruptly as it had begun.

The
croyel
’s dismay drew a yelp from Jeremiah. Frantically the boy brandished his arms. With one hand, he hailed or harried
skest
back into the chamber. With the other, he slapped Covenant aside as though Covenant’s opposition and anguish were trivial. Then he hurled frenzy like a battering ram at Linden.

She met the burst with Earthpower; blocked it. But it hit her barrier so fiercely that the Staff bucked in her grasp. The creature’s fury shoved her backward.

Its desperation matched hers.

Skest
rushed to attack. Covenant tumbled away. His hands seemed fused to the
krill
.

By sheer force of will, Stave wrenched himself to his feet. He still clenched Covenant’s ring. Its chain swung between his fingers. Limping on savaged legs, he struggled toward Liand.

“Defend yourself, Chosen,” he panted hoarsely. “Preserve your son. I cannot combat the
skest
. I will aid Liand.”

It was too much. There were too many
skest
. The
croyel
was too strong. And Linden could not call on the EarthBlood to make her greater than she was.

Nevertheless she flung herself forward, driven by love and need—and by a new surge of despair. Covenant and Liand and Stave were about to die; and she could not bear to abandon Jeremiah to the
croyel
’s cruelty.

But her plight required her to strike at her son. In abhorrence, she wielded Earthpower as if she were screaming.

Esmer had aided her. Where was the betrayal required by his conflicted nature?
I am made to be what I am
. Was it this, that she could only save Jeremiah by attacking him? By
killing
him? If so, her horror would delight the Despiser.

But she did not believe it. Lord Foul did not desire Jeremiah’s death. Esmer had told her,
Your son is beyond price
. No matter how keenly Lord Foul relished her distress, he did not wish her to kill Jeremiah. He still had a use for her son——
of my deeper purpose I will not speak
.

No, this fight did not serve the Despiser’s purposes, or Kastenessen’s: not now that the
croyel
had been prevented from escaping with Jeremiah. Esmer had not yet revealed his treachery; or he had masked it too cunningly for Linden to see it.

Howling fire, she tried to divide her focus between the
croyel
and the
skest
, and could not. The creature feeding on Jeremiah was too strong. And it appeared able to summon an endless number of misshapen children, glowing and fatal.

Stave had wrestled Liand into his arms, but the damage to his legs crippled his efforts to escape. Rife with hurts, Covenant had climbed back to his feet, bracing himself against the wall where Jeremiah had thrown him. In his ruined hands, the light of the
krill
wavered and pulsed as though it were unsure of its use. For the moment, at least, he was spared Joan’s virulence. In that brief reprieve, he staggered arduously toward the lost boy. Like Stave, however, he had been too badly hurt to move quickly. Agony galled his face. Only stubbornness kept him upright.

Frantic and failing, Linden alternated her attacks. She hit the
croyel
’s defenses as hard as she could. Then she swept flame through the
skest
until they ruptured and burned. As soon as she had beaten them back, she scrambled to assail the
croyel
again.

If she did not flail Earthpower from place to place fast enough, the monster would have time to muster a lethal blast—or one of the
skest
would touch her companions—or—

It was altogether too much. When Covenant stumbled and fell, she could do nothing to save him.

Galt caught Covenant before his knees struck the floor again. A flicker of an instant later, Clyme also reached the Unbeliever. At the same time, Branl committed his whole body to a blow at Jeremiah’s head.

Flinching, the
croyel
punched Branl with a fist of theurgy. The Humbled was knocked backward: he collided with the far wall hard enough to shatter bones. Only his preternatural
Haruchai
toughness spared him from injuries worse than Stave’s.

Before the
croyel
could attack again, Rime Coldspray charged into the chamber with Grueburn and Cabledarm roaring at her back. From the passage leading to the palace, ribbands like lurid snakes squirmed outward. They coiled around Stave and Liand, snatched the
Haruchai
and the Stonedownor back from the
skest
. Another strip of cloth retrieved Liand’s
orcrest
.

As soon as their path was clear, more Giants rushed to join the fray.

They used their swords, iron and stone, instead of their feet. Their native immunity to fire did not shield them from living acid, although it gave them a measure of protection from the spilth and spray of slain
skest
. They were not burned as badly as Stave had been. The
croyel
tried to blast them from their feet, but the Swordmainnir were too many and too strong. And when Jeremiah’s possessor strove to concentrate its force on any single foe, ribbands slapped at its face, flicked at its eyes.

Bluntfist and then Stonemage unclosed their cataphracts, shrugged the stone from their shoulders. Using their armor like spades or bludgeons, they crushed
skest
; deflected the spatter of green corrosion. In moments, they cleared a space around Covenant, Galt, and Clyme. The whole floor steamed as acid consumed itself on rock. Together, the Giants guarded Linden.

Feverishly the
croyel
struggled to fling its powers everywhere; but its blows had less and less effect. Galvanized by the arrival of her friends, Linden lashed the creature with Earthpower. While fumes bit into her lungs, she intercepted the creature’s magicks, deflected them, turned them against the
skest
. From the comparative safety of the corridor, the Ardent extended his raiment to harass the
croyel
. Bands of color harried the creature as if they were alive.

Dying, the
skest
filled the chamber with their liquid wails. Chunks of the broken floor boiled and melted, but the lore-hardened stone and iron of the Giants withstood the acid.

Abruptly the
croyel
stopped striking out. In a chorus of frayed screams, the surviving
skest
turned and ran, abandoning their master. The Giants seemed to freeze in place. Twisting around each other, bands of viridian and garnet and azure withdrew into the passage.

Instinctively Linden quenched her fire.

Covenant stood behind Jeremiah. At Covenant’s back, Galt supported the Unbeliever. Clyme gripped Jeremiah’s shoulders so that the boy could not pull away.

With both marred fists, Covenant had slipped the
krill
between Jeremiah’s neck and the
croyel
’s throat. The lore-forged keenness of the dagger had already drawn a thin line of rank blood across the creature’s skin.