It was not. Now Linden saw the truth. The bane only appeared to surge upward because it, or she, was so enormous; so potent. Worse, she was sentient—Oh, God in Heaven, the malevolence was not merely alive: it was a conscious being. Asleep, yes—Linden could feel that—but restive, and capable of intention. In its—her—virulence, she exceeded the Illearth Stone as a sea exceeded a lake. She did less harm only because she was so much more deeply entombed. Nonetheless to Linden she looked more terrible than a host of skurj and Sandgorgons.

Only wild magic could oppose such a being. The Staff of Law would be useless against her. Staring downward, Linden realized with horror that this evil was the source of Kevin’s Dirt. Unconsciously, perhaps, but unmistakably, the bane supplied the raw force which Kastenessen and Esmer and moksha Raver had shaped to form their heinous brume.

If Linden’s company failed to rescue Jeremiah and escape before that entity came fully awake—

A cry for Covenant’s help caught in Linden’s throat. Surely it was for this that she had compelled him to resume his life? So that he would spare her the burden of confronting abominations? She lacked his instinct for impossible solutions. Without him, she and Jeremiah and all of her friends were lost.

But he also was lost.

While she floundered, the Harrow commanded abruptly, “Speak, lady.” He made a palpable attempt to sound severe, but flashes of alarm marred his tone. “How fare your efforts to demonstrate that I must have your aid?” In a smaller voice, he added, “We dare not linger here.”

He was lorewise enough to recognize the peril dozing restlessly in the depths.

Stung by her own fears, Linden jerked her head to face him. Still gripping the Staff with both hands, she snapped, “You don’t know, do you. You talk and talk, you like to tell us how you’re going to save the world, but you have no idea what to do if that thing wakes up.”

The Insequent flinched. Something in the gulfs of his eyes suggested fear. Yet he did not unclose his fingers from either the Staff of Law or the white gold ring. In his dreams of glory, he had found the trick of unbinding the wards before his presence disturbed the cavern’s bane.