Noise filled the air like the clatter of dropped bells or swords as Infelice vanished.

No. “Melenkurion abatha!” Black fire burst from Linden’s Staff, fierce as a volcanic detonation. “Duroc minas mill!” Her whole being was flame: she lashed at the Fall with every passion of her life. “Harad God damn khabaal!”

You will not have my son!

She was becoming an adept, elevated by extremity. For a moment, she seemed to hear Joan screaming in the heart of the storm. I’ve been good! Against Linden’s onslaught, the caesure staggered; flickered. Make it stop! Then it lurched backward. I can’t bear it!

Struck to the core, the time-storm curled into itself and imploded. Scant instants after it appeared, it was gone.

It won’t be much longer. Roger had promised his mother that. We’ll make it stop together.

Covenant! Oh, Covenant, watch out. She’s getting stronger.

Jeremiah was still at work as though nothing had happened. Empty of every form of consciousness except concentration on his construct, he sealed phalanges in place, propped crooked bones among them, rested a scapula off-center and left it, imponderably secure. To Linden’s urgent glance, this side of his structure appeared to be an exact mirror of the other. If she had looked more closely, she might have noticed that he had set dozens of details deliberately askew. But she did not have time.

Announced by chiming, Infelice incarnated herself between Linden and Jeremiah as though she had never been absent. Her sendaline murmured of disdain and supplication as it moved, stirred by a breeze that Linden could not feel.

“Oh, good,” Linden panted, shaken by her own exertions and the caesure’s inrush. “You haven’t given up. I still have questions.”

In scorn, the Elohim retorted, “And I continue to reply, imploring you to set aside your opposition. If you will not permit me to deflect the boy from the path of this atrocity, I pray that you yourself will thwart him, for the sake of the Land and the Earth, since you care naught for the Elohim. Remove him from his task. Unmake what he has done. Set him upon his beast and ride hence. If you do so, while they live the Elohim will ensure that he does not fall under the Despiser’s dominion a second time. Thus the worst of all evils may be forestalled.”

“Wait a minute,” Linden demanded. She no longer held the Staff aimed at Infelice, but she was ready. “You’re going too fast for me.

“Never mind that Jeremiah probably doesn’t care about you any more than I do. I was about to ask you why getting caught in one of his doors is worse than being eaten by the Worm. They sound about the same to me. Either way, you’re finished. Why is a prison worse than dying?”