Snorting angrily, the beast surged to its feet. At once, it wheeled away. Like an animal reborn, it headed toward the chamber’s egress. Without regard for the Feroce, it lunged out of sight in the direction of the ledge and the towering cliff.

Gradually dangerous green receded as the flames of the Feroce shrank. “We have not given it strength,” the creatures said as if admitting their limitations frightened them. “We cannot. But we have caused it to remember what it is. While it lives, it will not forget.”

“That’s enough,” Covenant breathed. “It’ll get me there.” He could not ask for anything more: not from the descendants of the jheherrin, whose lives had been distorted by mistaken belief. If he were honest, he would have told the truth. The Pure One had died in the destruction of Foul’s Creche. But Covenant needed this alliance. He was convinced that he needed it.

Still wrestling with himself, he asked unsteadily, “What do you want from me? What does your High God expect in exchange?”

The Feroce hesitated briefly, then countered, “What does the Pure One offer?”

Stop calling me that. “Let me think. I need to be clear.”

In fact, Covenant had nothing to offer the lurker; nothing that he could bargain away; no aid that he might provide. Only the krill and his air of authority had brought the Feroce this far: those things, and perhaps the manner in which Linden had saved her Staff. What else did he have that the lurker might want? A promise that he would rush to the monster’s defense? No. He had already condoned too much misapprehension. He was not willing to compound his faults with lies.

Sitting as if he were as obdurate as the Masters, he answered the Feroce.

“Understand me. I don’t promise life. I can’t swear to you I’ll keep your High God alive. I may not have enough power. There may not be enough power.” The Worm was coming, the Earth’s final apotheosis. He could not imagine stopping it. “That ‘lesser power’ I’m going to face isn’t my only problem. There’s Kastenessen. Kevin’s Dirt. Sandgorgons and Cavewights and skurj.” He did not care whether the creatures or the lurker recognized those names. He listed his enemies and obstacles for his own sake. “She Who Must Not Be Named. Ravers. My own son. And the Despiser, who took the skest. They all have to be dealt with before I can face the ‘havoc’ you actually fear.