The Last Dark: The climax of the entire Thomas Covenant Chronicles (Last Chronicles of Thomas Cove)

glanced at him. Other concerns already gripped her. Her attention shifted from Covenant to the Giants. Her eyes widened in shock.
    “God!” she panted. “What have you done?”
    Abruptly she flung herself from Hyn’s back. Unfurling fire as black as the distant storm, she strode toward the Swordmainnir. Toward Cabledarm.
    In that instant, Covenant saw that the grass stains were gone from her jeans. She no longer needed them. And she looked clean, as if she had been refined by fire. Even her hair and clothes—But the tatters of her shirt remained: the tearing of thorns, the bullet hole, the rent hem.
    She ignored his scrutiny, his surprise. Focused on the dying Giant, she advanced as if she meant to hurl an attack.
    Onyx Stonemage and Stormpast Galesend flinched reflexively, then stood their ground, upholding Cabledarm between them. The other Giants stepped away to make room.
    “God
damn
it.” Linden’s voice was a raw mutter, barely audible, as if she did not expect to be heard. “What happened to you? What have you done to yourself?”
    Then she sent a torrent of flame at the damaged woman. Swift as empathy, she inundated Cabledarm with Earthpower.
    She remained a healer, Covenant told himself, no matter how she judged herself. Wounds came first, pains and afflictions which she was able to treat. She had been through an ordeal: that was obvious. She must have been desperate to do
some
thing that felt like restitution.
    Her effect on Cabledarm was not gentle. It was too urgent, too full of need. And perhaps she had not yet realized that the hindrance of Kevin’s Dirt was gone. She seemed to scourge Cabledarm with healing.
    The woman’s head jerked back. Twisting against the grasp of her comrades, she gave a groan like a throttled scream. But she was not being harmed. Her pain was the hurt of internal organs violently mended, of bones roughly reset and sealed, of bleeding stanched as if it were being cauterized. When she fainted, her slackness—and the new ease of her respiration—suggested that she had already begun to recuperate.
    Watching, Covenant leaned on Branl as if he needed the comfort of the Humbled. He wanted to tell Linden that she was wonderful—that he had been terrified for her—that he was sorry—that the world would
not see her like again
. But still he could not speak. He had no language for the extremity of his heart.
    “That is well done, Linden Giantfriend,” murmured Coldspray. “Well done in all sooth. Now only Stave Rockbrother requires similar care.”
    Unsteadily, as if she had assumed Cabledarm’s fever, Linden looked around for Stave, who stood on the far side of Covenant’s aborted fire. For a moment, she appeared to fix her senses and her bewilderment on the ashen remains of Longwrath’s corpse. Her mouth opened for a cry of protest.
    Then she must have felt Jeremiah rushing toward her. She spun away from the fallen Giant and the wounded
Haruchai
to catch her son in her arms.
    “Jeremiah,” she breathed. “Oh, Jeremiah. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that I had to leave you. I’m sorry that you had to do everything without me. You must have felt so abandoned—”
    “Mom, stop.” Jeremiah gripping her with flames. “
I’m
sorry. I acted like a kid. You did what you had to do, and I didn’t even tell you I love you. I didn’t tell you I understand.”
    Some distance beyond the gathered company, Caerwood ur-Mahrtiir had paused in front of the fane, singing softly, rapt in contemplation.
    “And we did it,” Jeremiah added. Linden’s return appeared to galvanize him. Abruptly he pulled away from her and gestured at the temple. “We did it right. I mean, the Giants and Stave did it. They were amazing. And they came. The
Elohim
came. They’re inside. Even—”
    There he faltered. His whole body seemed to clench at the memory of Kastenessen.
    “I believe you,” Linden assured him. “I can’t see them, but they left traces. They must have gone in to somewhere else, just like you said that they would. It must have been extraordinary.”
    She was making an effort to affirm her son. Nevertheless her tone was thick with tension.
    “But are you all right? Did anything happen to you?”
    She must have been able to see farther into Jeremiah than Covenant could.
I’m sorry you didn’t kill him
.
I want him
dead.
    Jeremiah ducked his head. “There are worse things than being afraid, Mom. Being useless is worse.” He indicated the fane again. “The Giants did