Then he turned away and hid his face in his hands.

Liand's eyes were damp as he watched the old man.

Mahrtiir scowled fiercely, too proud for sadness; but his manner was gentle as he guided Anele back to his seat and offered vitrim to his lips.

For a while, Linden could not stop her tears. The day has not yet come-She believed him: there was no falsehood in him. But the thought that he needed to remain as he was hurt her more than she could express. With the Staff, she possessed the power to impose any healing that he might require. Yet he refused her. He was not ready-or his circumstances were not.

"Linden," asked Liand softly, "will you heed his desire for forbearance? Your weariness is extreme, but surely it does not outweigh his suffering?"

Hugging the Staff of Law to her chest, Linden cast her healthsense deeply into the old man, as she had done once before in the Verge of Wandering: again she sought the means to succor him. But he had changed in more ways than one. The same yearning or compulsion which had brought him close to sanity had also galvanized his native puissance. She would have to force her way past powerful defenses in order to reach him.

That violence might do him harm that she could not repair.

She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Look at him," she told Liand. "He's choosing to be this way." His madness, like his blindness, was necessary to him still.

"If I try to heal him, he'll fight me. And maybe he's right. He certainly has the right."

And she had neither the wisdom nor the arrogance to make his decisions for him.

After a moment, Liand answered sadly, "I see what you see, though it baffles me. Perhaps he must determine the time and place of his healing." Then the Stonedownor asked in a tone of pleading, "What does he desire, if not the Staff which he lost?"

"You heard him," Linden sighed. "He needs to believe in himself. He still thinks he's unworthy."

Grieving, she returned to her seat on the stone ledge.

Anele had assured her that he was content. And she, too, needed healing. Her tasks were far from complete.

She still had to return to her proper time, and could not do so without entering a caesure. But her first experience had nearly destroyed her. Until she became stronger, she would not be able to endure a second.

And Esmer had warned her of betrayals-The Waynhim are valiant, he had said, and too many of them will perish if you do not contrive their salvation.

He had brought with him or elicited some peril when he had appeared in this time. Now she and her companions as well as the Ranyhyn were in danger.

Fervidly she clung to the smooth wood of the Staff for comfort. When she had settled herself on the ledge, she drank a few swallows of the musty vitrim and let its potency carry the Staff's warmth like chrism into the depths of her weariness.

he had rested there for only a short time, however, when Stave and Esmer approached her together.

Animosity bristled between them, yet they were momentarily united in their resolve to question her.

Holding the Staff across her lap, she looked into the shifting green of Esmer's gaze and the steady brown of Stave's, and waited wearily for them to speak.

"What will you do," Esmer demanded abruptly, "now that you have obtained your desire? It appears that you are indeed the Chosen, for the Demondimspawn have chosen you. Perhaps they are not alone in their selection. Will you now cease to be the Wildwielder, setting aside white gold that you may dedicate yourself to the service of Law? If you do so, how will you return to your proper time? And if you do not, how will you bear the burden of such powers?

"Either alone will transcend your strength, as they would that of any mortal. Together they will wreak only madness, for wild magic defies all Law. That is its power and its peril.

"You must declare yourself, so that I"-he caught himself-"so that all those here may find their own paths."

He did not need to ask, If you set aside the ring, who will take it up? That question was implicit in every line of his face.

He may have wished to possess Covenant's ring himself.

While Esmer spoke, Stave stepped aside as if to dissociate himself from his antagonist's demand. But when Esmer was finished, the Master said, "I also ask this. We must not remain in this time. The hazard is too great. And you must not wield both wild magic and Law, lest you be torn asunder.

"Therefore I ask it. What is your intent?"

Linden considered both men through a blur of fatigue.

Stave remained suspicious of her, she was sure of that.

Yet she trusted him. Esmer, on the other handS Deliberately she turned to Mahrtiir and Liand.

"This depends on you," she told the Manethrall carefully, "at least to some extent. I already know what Liand will say. And Anele needs to stay near the Staff. But I haven't asked you.

"Do you want to go back to your people? It should be possible." Once she had created a Fall, the Ranyhyn would be able to find their way. "But if we do that, I can't stay with you. I have too many-"

"Ringthane," Mahrtiir put in before she could explain, "this is needless." The light from the stone pots glinted in his eyes. "I will accompany you wherever your purpose leads. I seek a tale which will remain in the memories of the Ramen when my life has ended. Such renown I will never earn among them. They are"-his mouth twisted"too cautious to be remembered."

Then he shrugged. "In this I will not command the Cords. However, they feel a debt which they wish to repay." He grinned at a thought which he kept to himself. "And you have found favor in their sight.

They will not be parted from you."

"All right." Linden did not try to argue with him, although he and the Cords might well perish in her company. She needed as much rest as she could get.

And some buried part of her had already made her decision. Raising her eyes to Esmer and Stave again, she repeated, "All right.

"I'm going to Andelain. I know I've got too much power. And I don't know where to look for my son."

Long ago, the spirits of Covenant's friends had guided and comforted him there. Perhaps she, too, would find her loved Dead. "I'm hoping that someone there can tell me what to do."

Esmer made a sound like a hiss of vexation and turned away; but Stave continued to face her with his usual flat stoicism. Whatever her answer meant to him remained shrouded. When her silence made it clear that she had no more to say, however, his manner seemed to intensify.

"Very well," he replied. "You wish to enter Andelain.

Perhaps you will do so. Yet you have not named a more immediate intention. What will you do now?

"As I have said, we must not remain in this time. And the peril grows with every moment of delay. Esmer has threatened a betrayal which it would be unwise to confront. And the hazard that our actions may violate Time accumulates against us. It is folly to indulge in rest when the need for departure becomes ever more urgent."

Linden groaned to herself. She had hoped to postpone arduous questions for a while; until the benignant warmth of the Staff could knit together her frayed resources. Yet Stave deserved an answer. All of her companions did, the Waynhim as much as the Ramen and Liand.

Searching for a way to convey what she felt, she turned to the Stonedownor as to a touchstone of honesty.

"Liand?"

At once, he stopped tending Anele to look at her.

"Yes?"

"What was it like for you? In the caesure? What happened to you while we were there?"

His eyes widened, then seemed to grow dark, benighted by memory. "Linden-" He ducked his head to hide his discomfort. Yet he concealed nothing. "To speak of it is difficult. The pain-I had not conceived it possible to experience such pain.

"And to endure it-" His voice sank until it was barely audible. "That I could not have done, had the urviles left me unprotected. But I felt their blackness about me through the pain, warding away the worst of the Fall."

Then he raised his head again. "There is a disturbance in their lore which sickened me," he told Linden's concerned gaze. "Yet it was a little thing in the greater evil of the Fall. I would not have survived to speak of it if the urviles had not preserved me."

Linden thanked him quietly, and released him.

"That's bad enough," she said to Stave. "The rest of us aren't Haruchai. And we don't have Anele's Earthpower. We're"-she shuddered-"vulnerable.

"But it's not the only problem. I don't know if you realize that I failed. In the caesure. I almost let us all-"

Her own memories nearly choked her. "I couldn't use Covenant's ring. I was in too much pain.

"We're only here because the urviles saved us. The urviles and the Ranyhyn." And because she had found a way to make use of Joan's madness-which she would not have been able to do if the creatures had not given her their strength. "Since I healed you, I've been cut off from wild magic."

A moment of restless movement passed among the Waynhim; but Linden ignored it. "I'm aware of the danger. I need rest"-badly-"but that wouldn't stop me if I knew how to get us out of here. I wouldn't let the fact that I'm terrified of all that pain stop me. But somehow I'm going to have to relearn how to use Covenant's ring, and I'm not sure I can do that."

The Staff of Law would restore her, if she gave it time.

It would ward her against the Fall's torment. But it would not give her access to argence. That she had to rediscover within herself; and she did not know how she had lost the way.

Stave stood before her, impassive and unswayed. "The pain will be less severe," he pronounced. "You will not be required to oppose the current of the Fall " He paused to glance around the cave. When he faced Linden again, he said, "And you will not be blocked from wild magic. That hindrance is caused by Esmer's presence, as he has said, and he is gone."

Startled, Linden looked quickly for Cail's son. But Stave was right. Esmer had simply faded away; evaporated like water.

She tried to ask, "Why-?" but she could not complete the question.

Moments ago, the Waynhim had seemed restive. They must have been reacting to Esmer's disappearance.

1F.

11."Your intention to enter Andelain displeased him,"

replied the Master. "Therefore he has departed."

Displeased-?

While Linden stared at Esmer's absence, she scrambled to understand Stave's revelation.

Esmer had refused to enter the caesure with her. In my presence, you will surely fail. And he had said that the Waynhim were blinded to the proximity of white gold. It is an effect of my nearness.

Damn it, she should have known But he could not have caused her failure in the Fall.

That was the result of her own weakness, not of his interference.

"Chosen " Stave's concentration gave his tone a cutting edge.. "We must depart now, while Esmer is absent, and his betrayal has not yet come upon us."

Abruptly Liand jumped to his feet. "You mislead us, Master," he put in. "The decisions which Linden must make are not as plain as you wish them to appear."

Before Stave could retort, Liand rushed on. "If I comprehend aright, our presence here endangers the Arch of Time. And we are in peril of Esmer's betrayal.

But there is another peril which you do not name." He seemed suddenly furious at everything that the Masters had done in the name of their unyielding convictions. "If we hasten to depart, the harm which Esmer has wrought will fall upon the Waynhim alone.

Without our aid, it may be that they will be destroyed.

"You are a Master of the Land. Do you deem the Waynhim unworthy of our concern?"

The young man's anger-and his loyalty-raised an echo of determination in Linden. With an effort, she set aside her confusion and self-doubt. Tightening her grip on the Staff, she concentrated instead on the hope that Stave had given her; and on the passion of Liand's support.

Stave's mien hinted at scorn as he answered the young man. "Esmer's harm is directed against the Chosen. If she is no longer present in this time, the peril to the Waynhim will dissipate. He gains naught by their destruction."

"Nothing," Linden countered, defending Liand in her turn, "except a violation of the Land's history."

Stave studied her as though she had surprised him.

"You said yourself," she continued, "that there haven't been any significant battles or powers in the South Plains. If the danger doesn't dissipate, and the Waynhim defend themselves, that might change.

"But even if they let themselves be exterminated-"

They know their plight, yet they do not flinch from it. "We don't know what Esmer might have unleashed. Whatever it is, it could be powerful enough to change history no matter what the Waynhim do." Liand's eyes shone as if Linden had vindicated him.

Stave gave a slight shake of his head. "If he were capable of such things, he would have done so ere now.

The Arch of Time would already have fallen."

Yet time remained intact: she knew that. Stave's words still reached her in sequence. One thing still led to another "No," she said like a sigh. "It doesn't work that way for him. He's too conflicted. We're his friends, or his enemies. He hates you and approves of me. Or maybe it's the other way around. As far as I can tell, the only simple thing about him is his respect for the Ranyhyn." Nothing else had compelled him to refrain from killing Stave. "He doesn't want them hurt."

Mahrtiir nodded in confirmation.

Closing her eyes, Linden rubbed at the frown knotted between her brows. "Maybe he is powerful enough to bring down the Arch. I don't know. But he can't do it.

He needs a balance of some kind. He can't do anything really destructive if he doesn't help us at the same time. He can't help us without betraying us.

"He had to at least warn us. He needs that. And if he didn't, we wouldn't have a chance to save the Ranyhyn."

The Master regarded her closely. "You cannot be certain of this."

"No," she admitted. When had she ever been certain of anything except her loves? "But neither can you.

And until we are sure, I'm not leaving. The Waynhim have already suffered enough. I won't leave them until I know they aren't going to be wiped out."

Esmer had threatened even the urviles with destruction.

For a long moment, Stave appeared to consider her words. Then he lifted his shoulders in a small shrug.

"Very well," he said. "You will do as you wish, and I will serve you as well as I am able. In this time, it is useless to oppose you. But understand that nothing has been resolved between us."

As he turned away, Linden bowed her head over the Staff. She was content with his response. He was Haruchai, inflexible by nature as well as conviction.