The Wounded Land, Chapter 23: Sarangrave Flat

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Fist and Faith
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The Wounded Land, Chapter 23: Sarangrave Flat

Post by Fist and Faith »

Sorry for the delay folks. As you might know, I was on vacation for a couple weeks. And as you surely never suspected, I’m a bit of a dope at times. I forgot that chapters are posted in pairs, and doubled how much time I had. Duh! Sorry. This chapter is a bit of a rush job, because I want to get it posted.

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:
”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.”
Quite the mystery, our Vain. |V

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.
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.
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.

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.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
-Paul Simon
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Re: The Wounded Land, Chapter 23: Sarangrave Flat

Post by matrixman »

Fist and Faith wrote: Now they all go into the Sarangrave Flat. (Actually a nice place, in the right light. Just a little damp.)
:haha:

This is another chapter that starts with a quiet scene between Covenant and Linden. I like these moments they have between them. Linden is especially touching to me here:
Her hand covered her eyes. For a moment, she could not steady herself. "Covenant, it hurts. It hurts to see him[Vain]. It hurts to see anything." Reflections formed orange-red beads below the shadow of her hand.
Though her health-sense tortures her, that doesn't stop Linden from using it to help her friends, as in her treatment of Cail's wound. She's coming into her power, and recognizes that it need not be something that's used against her. She is asserting it for the benefit of the company, thus empowering herself. When Linden first glimpses the weakening of the Sunbance, but her friends doubt her vision, I felt angry for her. Like they can just dismiss her senses after all they've been through!

About the Haruchai: their pain threshold is obviously remarkable, as shown by Cail's ability to accept Linden's treatment--quietly--without any anaesthetic. Does their telepathy help them to endure tremendous pain by distributing that pain among themselves?

We also see here how the venom is really putting pressure on Covenant's ability to contain the wild magic. That and the pressure of feeling responsible for, well, everything, makes him just a little frayed at the edges:
"Linden!" he snapped, as if her dread were an accusation he could not tolerate. The backs of his hands burned venomously, lusting of their own volition to strike her. Was she blind to the pressures building in him? Deaf to the victims of the Clave?
Okaaay, calm down there, Mr. Covenant. Keep your hands where we can see them. No slapping of the female protagonist, please. That's very bad form, even if you are the white gold wielder.

Poor Covenant also misinterprets the Stonedownors' apprehensions when they go up to him. He unintentionally insults them by blurting out, "You don't have to go," thinking they want to go no further than Landsdrop. Sunder, of course, merely wanted to voice his humble concern that he and Hollian may be useless to Covenant under a sun other than the Sunbane. Thomas, Thomas. :roll: Fortunately, he redeems himself by saying, "You're my friends. Let's try it and see."
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Post by Furls Fire »

HEY!! You did it!! Great lead-in Fist!! :)

I, for one, smiled big when Linden realized that Landsdrop was the border of the Sunbane's power. Her triumphant shout sent chills thru me...
Linden stared intently at it for a moment, then whirled and sent her gaze arcing up and down the length of Landsdrop. Covenant could hear insects burring as if they had been resurrected from the dead ground.

"By God." She was exultant. "I was right"
This chapter made my skin crawl...the Sarangrave under the Sunbane. Dear Gods...
And I believe in you
altho you never asked me too
I will remember you
and what life put you thru.


~fly fly little wing, fly where only angels sing~

~this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you~

...for then I could fly away and be at rest. Sweet rest, Mom. We all love and miss you.

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Post by dlbpharmd »

Thanks Fist!

So we come to understand the true meaning of the Sunbane - it's Earthpower-filtered solar energy. Amazing!
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Post by duchess of malfi »

That realization chilled my heart -- here was the Earthpower -- which once spoke to Berek, telling him how to use itself, and inspiring him to form the Council-- a force of such great good -- so corrupted that it is contributing to the daily rape of the Land and the destruction of life. 8O :(
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Post by Cord Hurn »

By this time in the story, I was getting tired of reading about the perils of journeying under the Sunbane, and took great heart in learning Linden's realization that the Sunbane was getting weaker, that they were about to cross a boundary and get away from the Sunbane's influence. But Covenant's relating Runnik's Tale effectively brought the danger of the Sarangrave back to me, and helped heighten the suspense concerning what the company would face next. I enjoyed the review of what the Sarangrave was all about, a strangely compelling and revolting place.
The sun was setting as the quest halted. The shadow of Landsdrop, three or four thousand feet high in this region, obscured all the east. But Covenant knew what lay ahead. The deadly marsh of Sarangrave Flat.

In past ages, the Sarangrave had become what it was--a world of intricate waterways, exotic life, and cunning peril--through the effects of the river called the Defiles Course. This water emerged between the knees of Mount Thunder from the catacombs in the bowels of the mountain, where it had run through Wightwarrens and Demondim breeding dens, through charnals and offal pits, laboratories and forges, until it was polluted by the most irrefragable filth. As sewage spread throughout the Flat from the river, it corrupted a once-fair region, changed a marsh home for egrets and orchids into a wold haven for the misborn. During the last wars, Lord Foul had found much of the raw material for his armies in Sarangrave Flat.

Covenant knew about the Flat because at one time he had seen it for himself, from Landsdrop to the south of Mount Thunder. He had seen it with Land-sharpened eyes, vision he no longer possessed. But he had other knowledge of the region as well. He had heard some things during his visits to Revelstone. and he had learned more from Runnik of the Bloodguard. At one time, Runnik had accompanied Korik and two Lords, Hyrim and Shetra, on a mission to Seareach, to ask the aid of the Giants against Lord Foul. Lord Shetra had been slain in the Sarangrave, and Runnik had barely survived to bring back the tale.

Covenant's guts squirmed at the thought of the Sarangrave under a sun of pestilence. Beyond doubt, he was going to have to tell Runnik's tale to his companions.

The Haruchai set camp a stone's throw away from the great cliff because Covenat refused to go any closer in the dark; he already felt too susceptible to the lure of precipices. After he had eaten, fortified himself with metheglin, he huddled near the jumping allusions of the campfire, wrapped his memories around him, and asked the quest to listen.

Linden sat down opposite him. He wanted to feel that she was nearby; but the intervening fire distanced her. Sunder and Hollian were vague at the edges of his sight. His attention narrowed to the crackling wood and the recollection of Runnik's tale.

Fist and faith, the Bloodguard had said. We will not fail. But they had failed. Covenant knew that now. They had failed, and fallen into Corruption, and died. The Vow had been broken. And the Giants had been slain.

But such things were not part of what he had to tell. To control the old ache of remembrance, he envisioned Runnik's face before High Lord Elena, Lord Mhoram, Hile Troy, and the Unbeliever. A bonfire had made the night poignant. Covenat could recall Runnik's exact words. The attacks of the lurker. The fall of Lord Shetra. Bloody hell.

In a dull tone, he told the essentials of that tale. When he had first seen the Sarangrave, it had been a place of fervid luxuriance and subtle death: alive with shy water-bred animals and malicious trees; adorned with pools of clear poison; waylaid with quicksand; spangled with flowers and loveliness and insanity. A place where nature had become vastly treacherous, p0olluted and hungry. But not evil. It blamel;ess in the same way that storms and predators were blameless. The Giants, who knew how to be wary, had always been able to travel the Flat.

BUt forty years later, when Korik's mission had looked out from Landsdrop, the Sarangrave had changed. Slumbering ill had been stirred to wakefulness. And this ill, which Runnik had called the lurker of the Sarangrave, had snatched Lord Shetra to her death, despite the fact that she had been under the protection of fifteen Bloodguard. Fifteen-- The lurker had been alert to strength, attracted to power. First the Ranyhyn, then the Bloodguard themselves, had unwittingly brought peril down on Korik's mission. And of the messengers Korik had sent to carry the tale back to the High Lord, only Runnik had survived.

After Covenant fell silent, his companion remained still for a moment, Then Hollian asked unsurely, "May we not ride around this place of risk?"

Covenant did not raise his head. "That used to be a hundred leagues out of the way. I don't know what it is now." Had Sarangrave Flat grown or dwindled under the Sunbane?

"We have not such time," Sunder said immediately. "Do you desire to confront a second Grim? The Clave reads us as we speak of such matters. When I place my hand upon the iron, I feel the eyes of the Banefire fixed in my heart. They hold no benison."

"The Clave can't--" Linden began, then stopped herself.

"The Clave," Covenant responded, "kills people every day. To keep that bloody Banefire going. How many lives do you think a hundred leagues are going to cost?"

Hollian squirmed. "Mayhap this lurker no longer lives? The Sunbane alters all else. Will not Sarangrave Flat be altered also?"

"No," Linden said. But when Covenant and the Stonedowners looked at her sharply, she muttered, "I'll tell you about it in the morning." Wrapping blankets around her as if they were a buckler against being touched, she turned away.

For a while after Sunder and Hollian had gone to their rest, Covenant sat and watched the fire die, striving with himself, trying to resist the way Landsdrop plucked at the bottom of his mind, to guess what Linden had learned about the Sunbane, to find the courage he needed for the Sarangrave.

You are mine.
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Post by dlbpharmd »

I never tire of TWL. I consider the Sunbane to be one of the greatest inventions of the imagination that I've encountered in fantasy literature.

(GRRM's idea of long, unpredictable winters has become a close second, IMO.)
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Post by Cord Hurn »

Agreed that the Sunbane is one of the best fantasy inventions ever, DLB. But it was starting to wear me down, and I was needing some hope they'd get out of that mess for awhile. And just when I needed that relief in the story, SRD provided it! It was a very pleasant surprise for me on that first read, years ago (as you may have guessed, I'm currently doing a Second Chronicles re-read, and having fun with it). :)
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Post by Cord Hurn »

When Thomas Covenant exerted power without being consciously aware of it in Crystal Stonedown to defeat Sivit na-Mhoram-wist and rescue Hollian, it didn't bother me.
Likewise, I didn't mind when Covenant used to wild magic to kill 21 Riders to accomplish the freeing of his friends and Vain and destroy the last piece of the Illearth Stone.
Why didn't I mind? Because I liked what was accomplished. But NOW, I'm starting to worry about his control getting out of hand. The image of "Thomas Covenant the butterfly-fryer" just doesn't sit so well with me. :P
The Haruchai passed around a pouch of voure. As he dabbed the pungent sap on his face and arms, Covenant became aware that the air was alive with butterflies.

Fluttering red and blue, yellow like clean sunshine, gleams of purple and peacock-green, they clouded the spaces between the trees like particolored snow, alert and lovely. The dance of the Sarangrave-- Sarangrave Flat under a sun of pestilence. The insects made him feel strangely bemused and violent. They were beautiful. And they were born of the Sunbane. The venom in him answered their entrancement as if, despite himself, he yearned to fry every lambent wing in sight. He hardly noticed when the company began moving again through the clutches of the marsh. At one time, he had watched helplessly while Wraiths died. Now every memory increased the pressure in him, urged him toward power. But in this place power was suicide.
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Post by Cord Hurn »

Covenant's memory is both long and short in this chapter, paradoxically enough. He remembers the long-ago slaughter of the Wraiths, but completely forgets Brinn's hours-earlier warning about the Coursers attracting the lurker, until it's almost too late.
The lurker was already aware. It was--

Why was it aware? What had alerted it?
:? :hithead:
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Post by Cord Hurn »

At noon, Brinn halted the company on a hillock covered with pimpernels, and defended on two sides by a pool of viscid sludge which smelled like tar. In it, pale flagellant creatures swam. They broke the surface, spread sluggish ripples about them, then disappeared. They looked like corpses, wan and necrotic, against the darkness of the fluid.

Then Linden pointed through the branches toward the sun. When Covenant peered at the faint aura, he saw it change, just as she had predicted. The full power of the Sunbane returned, restoring pestilence to the Sarangrave.

At the sight, a nameless chill clutched his viscera. The Sarangrave under a sun of pestilence--

Hollian's gasp yanked the company toward her. She was gaping at the pool, with her knuckles jammed between her teeth.

At every spot where sunlight touched the dark surface, pale creatures rose. They thrust blind heads into the light, seemed to yearn upward. A slight wind ruffled the trees, shifting pieces of sunshine back and forth. The creatures flailed to follow the spots of light.

When any creature had kept its head in the light for several moment, it began to expand. It swelled like ripening fruit, then split open, scattering green droplets around the pool. The droplets which fell in shadow quickly turned black and faded. But the ones which fell in light became bright--

Covenant closed his eyes; but he could not shut out the sight. Green flecks danced against red behind his eyelids. He looked again. The droplets were luminescent and baleful, like liquid emeralds. They grew as they swam, feeding on sludge and pestilence.

"Good God!" Horror compacted Linden's whisper. "We've got to get out of here!"
This is one of the creepiest moment in all of The Wounded Land for me, if not the creepiest. Reading along, I find myself sharing Linden Avery's desire to not know what exactly the danger was. 8O :hairs:
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