Kevin's Watch

The Ranyhyn were eager for a run after long days of constricted climbing, and they cantered out onto the flat rock. With surprising fleetness, Amok kept ahead of them. He laughed as he ran, and even increased his pace. The Ranyhyn stretched into full stride, began to gallop in earnest, leaving Covenant's mustang behind. But still Amok's prancing step outran them. Gaily, he led the riders east and then south down the center of the plateau.

"By hell," Covenant muttered. "By hell."

"Indeed?" said Amok with a boyish grin that seemed to light up the laughing curls of his hair. "Well, that is not for me to say."

Irritated by Amok's riddling, Drinishok interposed, "Boy, do you bear knowledge that belongs to the Warlore?"

Amok laughed. "Old man, I was old when the grandsire of your grandsire's grandsire was a babe. Do I appear to be a warrior?"

"Can it be used to defeat the Despiser?"

"Power is power. Its uses are in the hands of the user."

"Amok," Amatin said, then hesitated. She seemed almost afraid of her next question. But she clenched her resolve, and spoke it. "Does the Seventh Ward contain knowledge of the Ritual of Desecration?"

"Lord, Desecration requires no knowledge. It comes freely to any willing hand."

Abruptly, she lifted the Staff of Law, held it horizontally before her like a weapon. "Amok," she commanded, "place your hands upon the Staff."

The youth looked without flinching into the authority of her face. Slowly, he obeyed. His hands rested lightly between hers on the rune-carved wood.

She gave a high, strange cry. At once, fire blossomed along the Staff; viridian flames opened from all the wood. The blaze swept over her hands and Amok's; it intensified as if it were feeding on their fingers. It hummed with deep power, and radiated a sharp aroma like the smell of duress.

"Kevin-born Amok!" she exclaimed through the hum. "Way and door to the Seventh Ward! By the power of the Staff of Law - in the name of High Lord Kevin son of Loric who made you - I adjure you. Tell me the name of the Seventh Ward's power!"

Covenant felt the force of her command. Though it was not leveled at him - though he was not touching the Staff - he gagged over the effort to utter a name he did not know.

But Amok met her without blinking, and his voice cut clearly through the flame of the Staff. "No, High Lord. I am impervious to compulsion. You cannot touch me."

"By the Seven!" she shouted. I will not be denied!: She raged as if she were using fury to hold back a scream. "<I>Melenkurion abatha!</I> Tell me the name!"

"No," Amok repeated.

Savagely, she tore the Staff out of his hands. It's flame gathered, mounted, then sprang loudly into the sky like a bolt of thunder.

He gave a shrug, and disappeared.

"Ah, Kevin! Life is sweet, and I have lived so short a time! Must I pass away?"

Fist and Faith wrote:And, his final moment:

"Ah, Kevin! Life is sweet, and I have lived so short a time! Must I pass away?"