White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson Page A

with murder outstretched in its mighty arms.
    Tremors shook Cail. Strain made steam puff between his teeth. But the cold held him.
    For an instant, the implacable structure of Ceer’s face registered the fact that the Giantship was not going to help him. His gaze shivered in Covenant’s chest like an accusation that could never be answered. Then he sped to Hergrom’s defense.
    The Sandgorgon struck with the force of a juggernaut. Cracks sprang through the ice. A flurry of blows scattered Hergrom’s blood across the floe. Ceer’s strength meant nothing to the beast.
    And still no one moved. The Giants were ice themselves now, as frigid and brittle as the wilderland of the sea. Linden’s weeping gasped in her throat. Droplets of blood ran from Covenant’s palms as he tried to rip his bands from the railing. But the grasp of the cold could not be broken.
    Ceer.
Hergrom
.
    But the plate of ice slowly drifted away, and no one moved.
    After that, the waiting seemed long for the first time since Covenant had fallen under the spell of the Soulbiter.
    At last another hunk of ice floated near the Giantship. It was small, hardly a yard wide, its face barely above the water. It seemed too small to be the bringer of so much fear.
    For a moment, his vision was smeared with light. He could see nothing past the bright assault of the sun’s reflections. But then his eyes cleared.
    On that little floe stood Cable Seadreamer. He faced the
dromond
, stared up at the watchers. His posture was erect; his arms were folded sternly over the gaping wound in the center of his chest. Above his scar, his eyes were full of terrible knowledge.
    Stiffly he nodded a greeting. “My people,” he said in a voice as quiet and extreme as me cold. “you must succor me. This is the Soulbiter. Here suffer all the damned who have died in a false cause, unaided by those they sought to serve. If you will not reach out to me, I must stand here forever in my anguish, and the ice will not release me. Hear me, you whom I have loved to this cost. Is there no love left in you for me?”
    “
Seadreamer
,” Linden groaned. Honninscrave gave a cry that tore frozen flesh around his mouth, sent brief drops of blood into his beard. The First panted faintly, “No. I am the First of the Search. I will not endure it.” But none of them moved. The cold had become irrefragable. Its victory was accomplished. Already Seadreamer was almost directly opposite Covenant’s position. Soon he would pass amidships, and then he would be gone, and the people of Starfare’s Gem would be left with nothing except abomination and rue and cold.
    It was intolerable. Seadreamer had given his life to save Covenant from destroying the Earth. Prevented by muteness from sharing the Earth-Sight, he had placed his own flesh in the path of the world’s doom, purchasing a reprieve for the people he loved. And Covenant had refused to grant him the simple decency of a
caamora
. It was too much.
    In pain and dismay, Covenant moved. With a curse that splintered the silence, he burned his hands off the rail. Wild magic pulsed through him like the hot ichor of grief: white fire burst out of his ring like rage. “We’re going to lose him!” he howled at the Giants. “Get a rope!”
    An instant later, the First wrenched herself free. Her iron voice rang across the Giantship: “No!”
    Jerking toward the mooring of a nearby ratline, she snatched up one of the belaying-pins. “Avaunt, demon!” she yelled. “We will not hear you!”
    Fierce with fury and revulsion, she hurled the pin straight at Seadreamer.
    The Giants gaped as her projectile flashed through him.
    It struck a chip from the edge of the ice and skipped away into the sea, splashing distinctly. At once, his form wavered. He tried to speak again; but already he had dissolved into mirage. The floe drifted emptily away toward the south.
    While Covenant stared, the fire rushed out of him, quenched again by the cold.
    But an instant later