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

Forestal to the Land? Has her fated boy provided for the preservation of the
Elohim
, and for an end to Kevin’s Dirt? Have you defeated Sandgorgons and
skurj
? Does the ur-Lord now seek to challenge Corruption in Kiril Threndor?”
    Branl lifted an eyebrow. Then he shrugged like a man who did not deign to take offense. “I am
Haruchai
,” he said. “More, I am Humbled. I do not sully my mind with lies.
    “Nor,” he added more sharply, “will I condone aspersion to the Ramen. As do you, Handir, Voice of the Masters, I require an account of their deeds. Yet they have been at all times steadfast and valiant companions. They have given of themselves utterly while the Masters remained effectless in Revelstone. I will endure no denunciation of them.”
    Handir studied Branl. He appeared to search Branl’s mind.
    “We are not effectless now,” the older man retorted. “Two hundred Masters have entered the Wightwarrens, seeking Linden Avery and Kastenessen as we were urged. Two hundred more strive toward
Melenkurion
Skyweir, where they, too, will give of themselves utterly against the Worm, if their arrival is not belated.”
    At once, Pahni countered, fierce and proud, “Did the Ranyhyn consent to bear you?”
    Handir glanced at her. “You know the truth of this, Cord Pahni. Do not aggravate your fault with insolence. You will be judged when you have justified your deeds.”
    Then he said to Covenant as much as to Branl, “Ranyhyn bore us hither. Without their aid, we could not have come so swiftly. But the Masters who ride to
Melenkurion
Skyweir do so on lesser beasts. The great horses declined to be ridden there.”
    The shining of Pahni’s eyes resembled exultation. “Thus the Ranyhyn approve Manethrall Bhapa’s purpose.”
    The Voice of the Masters permitted himself a vexed frown. “I do not hear you,” he told the Cord. “It becomes evident, however, that I must heed the last of the Humbled. By him, as by the ur-Lord’s presence, the lies of the Ramen are exposed. Now Linden Avery’s query must be answered.
    “Bhapa of the Ramen, it is not in the nature of your people to scheme and mislead. Why have you betrayed their legacy? Why have you concealed necessary truths?”
    Covenant was holding his breath. He forced himself to let it out. The idea that two hundred Masters intended to oppose the Worm directly appalled him. He shook his head to dispel images of pointless slaughter.
    Wary and unrelieved, Rime Coldspray and her Swordmainnir studied Bhapa, measuring the man in front of them against their memories of him. The Giants of Dire’s Vessel did not know the Cords, but they remained poised to support the Ironhand. Only Baf Scatterwit did not seem tense. She was chuckling to herself as if everyone in the cave amused her.
    Jeremiah muttered something that Covenant could not hear. The boy scowled darkly, as if he were contemplating murder. The absence in his eyes suggested that he was watching the Worm burrow into
Melenkurion
Skyweir.
    Bhapa rolled his head to loosen his bruised throat. He came closer to Linden and Covenant. In the open center of the gathering, he stopped: a man who needed room for the fire of his emotions. His eyes were white flames in the surrounding gloom.
    “
It was for this
,” he told Handir in a tone of throttled fury. “That you might here encounter the truth of the Ringthane, the Chosen, Linden Avery—encounter it and
know shame
.”
    Then he turned his back on the clenched repudiation of the Masters.
    “Ringthane”—he addressed his appeal directly to Linden—“you are dear to me. My esteem you won by your care of Sahah, who is both Pahni’s cousin and half my sister. No succor known to the Ramen could have brought her back from death, yet you contrived to do so.
    “My heart you won in the aftermath of First Woodhelven, when you redeemed Manethrall Mahrtiir’s life—aye, and preserved also his place as my Manethrall. At that time, I could not have met the peril of these times without his guidance. Sparing him, you spared me also.”
    Linden listened with tears spilling from her eyes, but she made no sound.
    The older Cord’s voice rose as he continued. Anger grated like thunder in the background of every word.
    “And since those great deeds, I have been stunned to the soul by your devotion to your son, by your valor in the greatest extremity, and by your enduring love for the Timewarden. I know nothing of
turiya
Herem, or of Forestals, or of
Elohim
. Yet I