Sunlight. Not the fatal blackness of caverns: sunlight. The pale shapes of hills. A blue sky like a gift, untainted by violation.

Somewhere among the secrets of her spirit, the bane’s wailing still echoed. But it was only a memory.

When she blinked her eyes clear, she saw Pahni swimming near her. With one hand, the young Cord offered the Staff of Law, black as a shaft of ebony, and written in runes. With the other, she held Covenant’s shoulder, helping Stave keep his head above water.

Opposite Pahni, Stave kicked strongly to support both Linden and Covenant.

Covenant hung limp in the water, drifting. His head lolled back. He looked unconscious; abandoned.

Beneath the surface, faint flowers of blood bloomed from his forearms; blossomed and dissipated. Linden must have scratched him. Like Joan—Long ago, when Linden had first met Covenant, Joan had dragged her nails across the back of his hand, tasted his blood, and become briefly sane.

Feebly Linden began trying to move her legs. She needed Covenant. She wanted to reach out.

But she was too weak. Too full of shared screams. Floundering, she clutched at her Staff.

It was the Staff of Law, articulate with Earthpower. Under Melenkurion Skyweir, she had used it to channel more power than she could imagine. She had transformed it to blackness. She had never been able to read its runes. Nevertheless she could interpret its fundamental rightness. It was hers. In its own way, it was as natural to her as the blood in her veins. When she closed her fingers on it, it seemed to call her back from a terrible absence.

The sky became brighter: the water, colder. As the Staff’s vitality ran along her hands and arms into her chest, Stave and Pahni gained substance until they were as definite as promises. Gradually the sounds of torment sank back into their abyss. The sunshine on her face felt like the light of resurrection.

Holding the Staff after her immersion in the bane, she could almost believe in hope.

Instinctively she began kicking against the water. Then she reached out to grip one of Covenant’s arms. Perhaps she helped Pahni and Stave prevent him from sinking.

She did not know how his ring had been restored to her, and did not care. She did not want to think about anything, remember anything, except Covenant and sunlight, Pahni and Stave.

Then Pahni accepted Covenant’s slack weight from Stave. While Stave impelled Linden across the current, the young Cord swam away from the rocks, drawing Covenant after her on his back.