One Tree by Stephen R. Donaldson Read Free Book Online Page A

the sails from bottom to top.
    It also caught Cail. But he contrived to land in a way which absorbed Linden’s fall. She was unhurt. Yet for a moment the sheer force of the detonation—the violence severing her from Covenant—stunned her. White fire and disease recoiled through her, blinding her senses. The entire Giantship seemed to whirl around her. She could not recover her balance, could not stifle the nausea flaming in her.
    But then her sight veered back into focus, and she found herself staring at Vain. Sometime during the confusion, the Demondim-spawn had left his position on the foredeck, come aft to watch. Now he stood gazing at Covenant with a ghoulish grin on his teeth, as if he were near the heart of his secret purpose. The iron bands on his right wrist and left ankle—the heels of the Staff of Law—gleamed dully against his black skin.
    Cail lifted Linden to her feet. He was saying, “You are acquainted with this ill. What must be done?”
    Her nerves were raw with power-burn, shrill with anguish. Flame flushed across her skin. She wrenched free of Cail’s grasp. Another spasm shook Covenant. His muscles tautened almost to the ripping point. His forearm was already black and swollen, fever-hot. Fire flickered on and off his ring. And every flicker struck at her exacerbated heart.
    She did not know what to do.
    No, that was not true. She knew. In the past, he had been brought back from this death by
aliantha
, by Hollian’s succor, by the roborant of the Waynhim. Perhaps
diamondraught
would also serve. But he was already in the grip of delirium. How could he be induced to drink the liquor?
    Brinn tried to approach Covenant. A white blast tore half the rigging from the midmast, compelling Brinn to retreat. Its force heated Linden’s cheeks like shame.
    All the
Haruchai
were looking at her. The Giants were looking at her. The First held her silence like a sword. They were waiting for her to tell them what to do.
    She knew the answer. But she could not bear it. To possess him? Try to take over his mind, force him to hold back his power, accept
diamondraught
? After what she had seen in Joan?
    His blast still wailed in her, Gritting her teeth against that cry, she rasped, “I can’t do it.”
    Without conscious decision, she started to leave, to flee.
    The First stopped her. “Chosen.” The Swordmain’s tone was hard. “We have no knowledge of this illness. That such harm should come from the bite of one rat is beyond our ken. Yet he must be aided. Were he merely a man, he would require aid. But I have named him Giantfriend. I have placed the Search into his hands. He must be given succor.”
    “No.” Linden was full of fear and revulsion. The horror was too intimate: Gibbon had taught her to understand it too well. That she was powerless—that all her life had been a lie! Her eyes bled tears involuntarily. In desperation, she retorted, “He can take care of himself.”
    The First’s stare glinted dangerously; and Honninscrave started to expostulate. Linden denied them.
    “He can do it. When we first showed up here, he had a knife stuck in his chest, and he healed that. The Clave slit his wrists, and he healed that. He can do it.” As she articulated them, the words turned to falsehood in her mouth. But the alternative was heinous to her beyond bearing.
    In shame, she thrust her way past the First toward Foodfendhall. The combined incomprehension and anger of so many brave, valuable people pressed against her back. To
possess
him? His power had come close to burning through her as virulently as Gibbon’s touch. Was this how Lord Foul meant to forge her for desecration? Pressure and protest sent her half running through the hall to the empty foredeck.
    Afterimages of Covenant’s blast continued to dismay her senses for a long time. She had been hugging one of the cross-supports of the rail near the prow for half the morning before she realized that the ship was not moving.
    Its motionlessness