Stephen Donaldson - Land 2a - Gilden-Fire

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Gilden-Fire -- Stephen R. Donaldson

(Version 1.0 -- 12/09/2001)

FOREWORD

GILDEN-FIRE is, in essence, an "out-take" from THE ILLEARTH WAR.

For that reason, it is not a complete story. Rather, it describes an

episode which occurred to Korik of the Bloodguard and his mission to

Seareach during the early days of THE ILLEARTH WAR, after Thomas

Covenant's summoning to the Land but before the commencement of the

actual war. This material survived through two drafts of the

manuscript, but is entirely absent from the published version of the

book

On that basis, I think it requires some explanation. As a general

rule, I use my out takes for wastepaper. But I've made an exception In

this case for a variety of reasons.

Some of them have to do with why GILDEN-FIRE was taken out of THE

ILLEARTH WAR in the first place. The version of the manuscript which

originally crossed the desk of Lester del Rey at

Ballantine Books was 916 pages long -- roughly; 261,000 words --

That was manifestly too long. With much regret, Lester gave me to

understand that I would have to cut 250 pages.

Well, I'm a notorious over-writer; and I was able to eliminate

100 pages simply by squeezing the prose with more than my usual

ruthlessness. But after that I had to make a more difficult decision.

As it happened, the original version of THE ILLEARTH WAR was

organized in four parts rather than the present three. Part II in that

version dealt exclusively with Korik's mission to Seareach; and it

eventually provided me with the 150 pages of cuts I still needed. Not

because I considered the material to be of secondary importance (I have

little sympathy for anyone who considers the fate of the Unhomed, the

fidelity of the Bloodguard, and the valour of the Lords to be of

secondary importance). On the contrary, I was quite fond of that whole

section. No, I put my axe to the roots of my former Part II for reasons

of narrative logic.

From the beginning, that section had been a risky piece of

writing. In it, I had used Korik as my viewpoint character. For the

first time in the trilogy, I had stepped fully away from Thomas

Covenant (or any direct link to the "real" world). And that proved to

be a mistake. It was crucial to the presentation of Covenant's

character that he had some good reasons for doubting the substantial

"reality" of the Land. But all his reasons were undercut when I

employed someone like Korik -- a character with no bond, however

oblique, to Covenant's world -- for a narrative centre. (THE ILLEARTH

WAR does contain two chapters from Lord Mhoram's point of view. But in

both cases Mhoram is constantly in the company of either Covenant or

Hile Troy. Korik's mission lacked even that connection to the central

assumptions on which LORD FOUL'S BANE and THE ILLEARTII WAR were

based.) In using Korik as I had, I had informed the reader that the

people of the Land were in fact "real": I had unintentionally denied

the logic of Covenant's Unbelief. Which was allready too fragile for

its own good.

Therefore I took the absolutely essential sections of that Part

II and recast them as reports which Runnik and Tull brought back to

Covenant and Troy -- thus preserving the integrity of the narrative

perspective from which the story was being viewed. And in the process I

achieved the 150 pages of cuts I needed.

But all of GILDEN-FIRE was lost.

That does not exactly constitute high tragedy. Cutting is part of

writing; and narrative logic is more important than authorial fondness.

My point is simply that GILDEN-FIRE was cut, not because it was bad,

but because it didn't fit well enough.

However, the question remains: if this. material didn't fit THE

ILLEARTH WAR, why am I inflicting it upon the world now?

The main reason, I suppose, is my aforementioned fondness. I like

Korik, Hyrim, and Shetra, and have always grieved over the exigency

which required me to reduce their role in the story so drastically.

But, in addition, I've often felt that the moral dilemma of the

Bloodguard is somewhat obscure in the published version of my books;

too much of their background was sacrificed when I cut GILDEN-FIRE. In

fact, too much development of the people who would eventually have to

face the destruction of the Unhomed was sacrificed. (How, for instance,

can Lord Hyrim's achievements be fully understood when so little is

known about him?) By publishing GILDEN-FIRE, I'm trying to fill a

subtle but real gap in THE ILLEARTH WAR.

Finally, I should say that I think the logic which originally

required me to cut out this material no longer applies. Since it cannot

stand on its own as an independent story, GILDEN-FIRE will surely not

be read by anyone unfamiliar with "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

the Unbeliever". And those readers know that the question of whether or

not the Land is ultimately real" (whether or not a character like Korik

is sufficiently "actual" to serve as a narrative view-point) no longer

matters. In reality as in dreams, what matters is the answer we find in

our hearts to the test of Despite. By publishing GILDEN-FIRE, I hope to

give more substance to the answers Korik, Hyrim, and Shetra found.

GILDEN-FIRE

AS SUNRISE ECHOED the fire of farewell which High Lord Elena had

launched into the heavens from the watchtower of Revelstone, Korik

Bloodguard and his mission to Seareach wheeled their Ranyhyn, tightened

their resolve about them, and went running into the east.

With the new sun in his eyes, Korik could not see clearly. Yet he

moved comfortably to the rhythm of Brabha's strides, faced the prospect

ahead without a qualm. He had been riding Brabha for nearly fifty years

now; but his experience of Ranyhyn was far longer than that: the great

horses of Ra by the score had borne him in turn, one after another as

their individual lives ended and their fidelity passed from generation

to generation. He knew that the Ranyhyn would not miss their footing.

The terrain near Revelstone was much-travelled and reliable; yet even

in the cluttered rigour of the Northron Climbs, or in the subtle

deceptions of Sarangrave Flat, the Ranyhyn would remain sure-footed.

Their instincts were founded on something more constant than the

superficial details of hills and plains. They bore Korik's mission down

through the foothills of Revelstone as confidently as if the great

horses were part of the ground itself -- a part made mobile and

distinct by their quicker life-pulse, but still sharing the same bone,

the same ancestry, so that no orphaning misstep or betrayal could occur

between hoof and earth.

And around Korik rode his companions, those who shared his

mission to the Giants of Seareach: fourteen more Bloodguard and two

Lords, Hyrim son of Hoole, and Shetra Verement-mate. The memory of

their parting from the people of Revelstone -- Shetra's grief over her

separation from her un-Ranyhyn-chosen and self-doubting husband,

Hyrim's argute attempts to probe the difference between what the

Bloodguard remembered and what they knew, Thomas Covenant's refusal to

share this mission -- was vivid to Korik. But more vivid still was the

urgent need which gave cause to this journey. Summon or succour. A need

so compulsory that it had been given into his hands, to the Bloodguard

themselves, rather than to the Lords, so that if Hyrim or Shetra fell

their defenders would go on.

For there had been a special timbre of exigency in Terrel's

silent voice earlier that night as he had sent out his call to First

Mark Morin.

-- Summon the High Lord, Terrel had said, following a grim-eyed

and haggard Lord Mhoram toward the Close. There is a peril upon the

Giants of Seareach. He has seen it.

Lord Mhoram had seen it. Seer and oracle to the Council, he had

described the death of the Unhomed stalking them across all the leagues

between Revelstone and Coercri -- a death no more distant than a score

of days. When the High Lord and all the Council had gathered with him

in the Close, he had told them what he had seen. His vision had left

them grey with many kinds of dread.

In this Korik knew the Lords well. With-out sleep or let, he had

served the Council in all its manifestions for two millenia: he knew

that the pain in Hyrim and Callindrill and Mhoram, the bitten hardness

of Shetra. and Verement, the wide alarm of the Lords Amatin, Loerya,

and Trevor arose from concern for the life-loving Unhomed -- a concern

as deep as the. ancient friendship and fealty between the Giants and

the Land. But Korik also understood the other dreads. Corruption was

mustering war against the Council; and that jeopardy had become so

imminent that only scant days ago the High Lord had felt compelled to

summon the Unbeliever from his unwilling world. In such a need, all the

eyes of the Land naturally turned toward Seareach for assistance. And

for three years there had been silence between the Giants and

Revelstone.

A year of silence was not unusual. Therefore the first year had

not been questioned. But the second gave birth to anxiety, and so

messengers were dispatched to Seareach. None of them returned. In the

third year, one Eoman was sent and not seen again. Unwilling to hazard

more of the Warward, the High Lord had then commanded the Lords

Callindrill and Amatin to carry word of the Land's need eastward. But

hey had been turned back by Sarangrave Flat; and still the silence

endured. Thus the Council had already known fear for the Giants as well

as for themselves. Lord Mhoram's vision gave that fear substance.

The High Lord did not hesitate to conceive aid for the Giants.

Summon or succour. But Corruption's hordes were believed to be marching

for the Land's ruin; and few warriors and little power could be spared

from the defence. So the mission was given to the Bloodguard. Given by

First Mark Morin to Korik by reason of his rank and years. And by the

High Lord to the Lords Hyrim and Shetra: Hyrim son of Hool, a

corpulent, humorous, and untried man with an avowed passion for all

fleshly comforts and a silent love of Giants; and Shetra Verement-mate,

whose pain at her husband's self-doubt made her as bitter as the hawk

she resembled. It was a small force to hurl into the unknown path of

Corruption's malice. No Bloodguard required reminder that there were

only two roads to bear the Despiser westward one to the south of

Andelain, then northward against Revelstone; the other to the north of

Mount Thunder, then westward through Grimmerdhore Forest. And Korik's

way toward Seareach also lay through Grimmerdhore.

However, the road of Corruption's choice was uncertain; and the

Bloodguard did not pang themselves with uncertainties. Korik and his

people were not required by their Vow to know the unknown: they were

required only to succeed or die. It was not in that fashion that they

had been taught doubt. The test of their service was one of judgement

rather than knowledge.

When Korik left the Close, he went without hesitation about the

task of selecting his comrades.

He had no qualm about his choices. the Bloodguard shared a

community of prowess and responsibility; and any individual member of

the community could be elected or replaced without causing any falter

in the service of the Vow Yet he exercised care in his decisions.

Cerrin and Sill he included as a matter of course: they had borne the

direct care of Shetra and Hyrim since those Lords had first joined he

Council. Then he added Runnik and Pren because they were among the

senior members of the two ancient Haruchai clans, the Ho-aru and

Nimishi, that in the mountain fastnesses of their home had warred

together for generations until the Bond which had united them.

Similarly, he Included five younger Bloodguard from each clan, so that

both would have a fair hand in the mission. Among these was Tull, the

youngest of the Bloodguard.

Some time ago, when Lord Mhoram had made his scouting sojourn to

the Spoiled Plains and Hotash Slay, and had been forced to flee, the

Bloodguard with him had fallen. In keeping with the ritual of the Vow,

the fallen had been Ranyhyn-borne to Guards Gap and the Westron

Mountains for burial in native grave-grounds, and the Haruchai had sent

new men to replace them. Tull was among them. He was centuries younger

than Korik; and though the Vow bound him and straitened him and

sustained him and kept him from sleep, so that he was a Bloodguard like

any other, still he did not know the Giants as his older comrades did.

For this reason, Korik chose him. It would gratify Tull to see that the

unflawed fealty of the Bloodguard was not unmatched: the Giants of

Seareach could also be trusted beyond any possibility of Corruption.

As he walked soundlessly through the halls of Revelstone, sending

out his mental summons, Korik considered the advantages in taking

either Morril or Koral with him. They were the Bloodguard who watched

over the Lords

Callindrill and Amatin: Morril and Koral had accompanied. those

Lords when they had attempted to reach the Giants and were driver back

by some lurking power in the Sarangrave Both these Bloodguard had

previous experience with the dangers which faced the mission. But Korik

had heard all that Morril and Koral could tell concerning the danger.

And they had the right to remain with the Lords whom they had

personally warded.

The choosing completed, Korik went to the place where his

comrades would meet him -- the one place in Revelstone reserved for the

Bloodguard. It was a dim uncompromising hall, with unrubbed walls and a

rough raw floor on which no one but a Bloodguard would walk barefoot.

The whole space was unfurnished and unadorned, but it served them as it

was. They needed only an open space with a punishing floor and freedom

from observation.

Korik did not have to wait long for his chosen comrades. They

came promptly, though without any appearance of hurry, for the word of

Mhoram's vision had gone out ahead of Korik's summons: they had heard

it in the mental talk of the Haruchai, in the orders of the Lords, in

the altered and quickened beat of Revelstone's rhythms. But when Cerrin

and Sill, Runnik and Pren; Tull and the others gathered around him,

Korik still took the time to speak to them. The mission which First

Mark

Morin had given him was special, perhaps higher than any other

burden the Bloodguard would bear in this war. Their responsibility had

always been to the Lords: they had Vowed to preserve the Lords while

the Council went about its work. Rarely had any Bloodguard been given a

command which was not part of his direct service. But the mission to

the Giants had been entrusted to the Haruchai. Summon or succour. To

meet this uncommon charge, Korik gathered his company about him for the

old rites.

-- Faith, he greeted them.

-- Fist and faith, they replied together.

-- Hail, chosen brothers, Korik returned. The mission to the

Giants of Seareach is in our hands. These are Bloodguard times. War

marches. The end of the Giants' exile is near, as foretold by Damelon

Giantfriend. Dour fist and unbroken faith prevail.

The Bloodguard answered in the words of the ancient Haruchai Vow:

-- Ha-man rual tayba-sah carab ko-eeal neeta par-raoul. We are

the Bloodguard, the keepers the Vow -- the keepers and the kept,

sanctified beyond decline and the last evil of death. Tan Haruchai. We

accept.

-- Tan-Haruchai, Korik said. Bowing to his comrades, he repeated

the old war-cry: Fist and faith

They bowed in turn, stepped back so that there was a clear space

around him. Then they began the trial of leadership, as prescribed by

the rites he had invoked. One by one, they came forward to fight with

him, to measure their strength against his.

Although he had been given the mission by the First Mark, Korik

wanted to affirm his leadership among his company, so that in any

future extremity no question of his right to command could arise.

Therefore he fought for his leadership as he had once fought to be

among the commanders of the army which had invaded the Land in the

early years of High Lord Kevin son of Loric.

This trial came instinctively to the proud Haruchai, for they had

been born to fighting in the same way that their forefathers had been

born to it, and their forefathers before them, as the old tellers

described. For them, it was not enough that they made their home in one

of the most demanding places of the Earth. It was not enough that the

fastnesses which they inhabited, the caves and crags, the ice-grottoes

and crevasses and eyries, were snow-locked three seasons a year and in

places perpetually clamped in blue glaciers -- that simple survival

from day to day, the preservation of the home-fires, and the tending of

the goats and the bare gardening they did when in summer some of the

valleys were free of snow and ice, took all the strength and fortitude

which any people could ask of themselves -- that blizzards and mountain

winds and avalanches provided them with so much disaster that even the

hardiest and most cunning of them could not look to have a long life.

No, in addition the Haruchai were always at war.

Before the Bond, they had fought each other, battling Ho-aru

against Nimishi, generation after generation, across cliffs and cols

and scree and ravines, wherever they met. They were a hot people,

strong-loined and prolific: but without food and shelter and warmth,

children died at birth -- and often the women died as well. Caught thus

constantly between the need to replenish the people and the mortality

of love, the clans strove to wrest every possible scrap of food or

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摘要：

Gilden-Fire--StephenR.Donaldson(Version1.0--12/09/2001)FOREWORDGILDEN-FIREis,inessence,an"out-take"fromTHEILLEARTHWAR.Forthatreason,itisnotacompletestory.Rather,itdescribesanepisodewhichoccurredtoKorikoftheBloodguardandhismissiontoSeareachduringtheearlydaysofTHEILLEARTHWAR,afterThomasCovenant'ssummo...

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Stephen Donaldson - Land 2a - Gilden-Fire

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