OK, so Linden and Cail are recovering, thanks to the voure. Linden tells Covenant how horribly violated everything makes her feel. Her health sense doesn’t have many pleasant things to show her. And the venom in him, which she got a real good look at earlier, makes it very difficult for her to look at him.
She also tells him what she sees when she looks at Vain:
Quite the mystery, our Vain.”I’ve tried. But I don’t understand. He isn’t alive. He’s got so much power, and it’s imperative. But it’s – it’s inanimate. Like your ring. He could be anything.”
Sunder announces that the Clave can track them through Memla’s rukh, now that he has mastered it. Like they needed more bad news!
Linden takes care of Cail’s injured arm, in a way that would be pretty horrific to us, but not much of a problem for a Haruchai. She sterilizes Hollian’s dirk in the fire, cuts open his wound to let out puss, wraps the arm, and pours boiling water over the whole thing. Cail’s reaction to the pain was “a slight tension between his brows” while she was cutting him. Wimp. Linden “stumbled to her feet, moved away from him and sat down against the gully wall, as if she could not bear the sight of his courage.”
Cool stuff now. Linden seems to think the Sunbane starts the mornings weaker, before gaining its full strength. After a few days, she realizes what’s going on. The Sunbane is not coming from the sun itself, it’s coming from the Earth. The Earthpower itself has been corrupted! It’s twisted power now emanates from the ground, and the sunlight is twisted when it shines through! DAMN that’s nasty! As they approach Landsrop, the border of the Land - the border of the corrupted Earthpower - the sun shines through less of the strong ill in the air. Linden’s sight lets her see this days earlier than anyone else.
Now they all go into the Sarangrave Flat. (Actually a nice place, in the right light. Just a little damp.) At one point they notice glowing green lights in the distance, which eventually surround them.
How cool, and crazy, are those Haruchai? Willing to risk Hergrom’s life so we can learn what’s up. And I’d have been, “What the heck’s that flying through the air??” That telepathy sure is handy. So when Hergrom touches the yucky things with the wood, they’re destroyed. But there’s plenty more of them, and they just fill in the gap. But they don’t seem to be attacking.The creatures came seething noiselessly through the dark. The ones beyond the water stopped at its edge; the others continued to approach. They were featureless and telic, like lambent gangrene. They looked horribly like children.
Hergrom dismounted, became a shadow moving to meet the line. For a moment, he was limned by slime fire. Rain stippled his silhouette.
Then Linden coughed, “No! Don’t touch them!”
“Chosen.” Brinn’s voice was stone. “We must breach this snare. Hergrom will make trial, that we may learn how to fight.”
“No.” Her urgency suffocated her. “They’re acid. They’re made out of acid.”
Hergrom stopped.
Pieces of darkness whirled at him from Ceer’s direction. He caught them, two brands from the quest’s store of firewood.
Meanwhile, the lurker starts howling, and the Courser’s go nuts. They start attacking Sunder and Stell. Linden’s yelling at Covenant to not use his ring. Sunder goes down under their hooves. Covenant’s trying to figure out how the lurker even knew the company was around. It's really crazy at the moment!!
Suddenly Covenant realizes the lurker can sense the power of the Clave in the Coursers. He yells for Sunder to throw the rukh away, because that’s the only reason the Coursers were staying near everyone in their maddened – and highly dangerous – state. Stell grabs it and throws it into the quagmire. All the Coursers charged after it. In their terror, they strove to destroy the thing which prevented them from flight.
Unfortunately, one of them knocks the uncaring Vain into the muck. Brinn lassos his head before he sinks. (I guess the Bloodguard learned something from the Ramen.) But Vain sinks, and the rope comes free.
And the green children are gone.