But Linden senses that they haven’t seen anything yet: their course will take them directly to the very worst part of the storm.She feared that Starfare’s Gem was in danger for its life – that any increase in the storm might break the ship apart.
Oh, great.A hurricane crouched there, titanic and monstrous. The two storms were crowding together, with Starfare’s Gem between them. Every heave and crash of the dromond ‘s keel angled it closer to the savagery of the stronger blast.
I find that I have to write about this chapter from an ironic distance, to avoid incandescing from its intensity. "Sea-Harm" starts at fever pitch, and that’s the lowest temperature. Yet Honniscrave has unshakable faith in his ship, and he is practically dancing his delight at the challenge.
Now Linden has an idea. A simple one, you might think, but SRD builds up the suspense for it, by dragging out the difficulty of getting to the ship’s prow in all the wind. Findail's response, when asked for help, is of course to refuse to help in any way. Grieving, he watches as the Sun-Sage is swept overboard into the ocean. It is Vain, immutable Vain, and the accusing Haruchai, who drag her out again. For the sake of the drama, we get to see this through SRD’s eyes, because Linden is too busy drowning to notice the heroics of her rescuers.Yelling like ecstasy, Honniscrave sent Giants to replace the lost canvas.
Linden has barely recovered when she notices the desperate condition of the ship.
On every level of her senses, the granite vessel burned with strain. It radiated pain like a wracked animal caught in the unanswerable snare of the blast. From stem to stern, mast-top to keel, all the stone was shrill with stress, tortured...
Starfare’s Gem races across the ocean lying almost on its side, throughout the long hours of wind. Half of belowdecks is filling with water, but Covenant has been brought up from his cabin, and Linden takes a hollow comfort in his proximity. Finally night falls and depression overtakes the exhausted, disheartened crew.The wind’s fury howled at the hull as if it meant to chew through the stone to get at her.
Pitchwife has barely managed to rouse them all with his contagious clowning when a Raver strikes. This time it is electric eels. They swarm up the sides of the ship, up the canted deck, up the walls of Foodfendhall, and up the mast, where Seadreamer has carried the limp form of Covenant. Giants and Haruchai fall to electric shock before Seadreamer and Linden find ways to beat the eels off and destroy them.
The Raver has barely dissipated with a scream of frustration and Linden held the rescued Covenant emptily in her arms, when the tipped Starfare’s Gem begins to sink to its side. The necessary but painful step is to cut away the topheavy mainmast, which, falling, leaves dangerous crush wounds in the hull.
Unsteadily, the ship runs south into the clear. At this point, we can see the end of the chapter and the next chapter title is “Bhrathairain Harbor,” so we know Starfare’s Gem is done with crises for now.
Throughout this chapter, the Giant Galewrath has stood locked at the wheel, in varying degrees of strength and desperation, but unyielding. Her condition is always a reflection of the condition of the ship, as if her will has fused her into its structure.
The entire chapter is like a continuous roll of tsunami crests, one crisis hitting when the last has barely receded. At any moment, we think, something will break, whether in the story or in us, because the tension will go beyond what can be borne. Yet the Giants, SRD among them [how many brownie points do I get for saying that?], bear us bodily over the next unendurable wave and we find ourselves intact on the other side.
Aw shucks...you earned it! 
