Just love that sentence in the middle: ”It’s unfettered passion…”Covenant’s ring shone like a beacon through the fabric of her shirt, lighting her way to survival. Wild magic was in some sense as disruptive as the caesure, untrammeled by restriction. For that reason, it had the power to violate the strictures of time. For the same reason, however, white gold formed the keystone of the Arch Of Time. Its unfettered passion anchored the paradox which made finite existence possible within the infinite universe.
Similarly the hot blaze of Linden’s heart anchored her within herself, enabled her to continue to be who she was when every mote and particle of herspecific being had been torn asunder.
Only moments later they arrive on a grassy slope somewhere in broad daylight with the sun shining. Stave, Liand with the Staff of Law, Anele, Marthiir, Phani, Bhapa, the Waynhim, ur-viles...and then the Demondim...And above and behind, the huge fall.She had brought them to this time to fight them but for a while they would be able to outrun them and gather their strength. Linden intends to strike at them as soon as she knows where and when she is. She soon realises that "where" isn't where they entered the Fall, that is certain. The company rushes onward pulling slowly away from from The Horde of Demondim. Now, a score of heartbeats later, that would be seconds then after leaving the fall, perhaps a minute, she decides to turn against the horde. She reaches for the Staff which is held by Liand and leaves the company and rushes back from where she exited the fall. Stave and Liand accompanies her. All the others rushes on forward. Riding past Martiir and Phani, ur-viles and Waynhim, those are the last, she stops and looks out at the horde.
Some creatures! Pulsating kind of, in and out of existence...Linden could not discern them precisely. They wavered in and out of definition as they passed in front of rippled glass. At one moment, they appeared as tangible as flesh and pain: at the next, they were translucent, nearly invisible. Whenever she tried to focus on a specific creature, it blurred away and then emerged several paces closer to her. And as the Demondim advanced, their forms steamed and frothed like acid.
Still not sure of when and where she steps down from Hyn, puts the Staff to the ground andchallenges the Demondim. The "confusion" among them gives her the time that she needs.
Oh, this means...Linden can rid the Land of Falls! (At least those of her own making). We have encountered three before but her own haven't we...Tired now, unable to move Stave saves her, throughs her up on Hyn and leaves. She gains her power anew by using the Staff on her self. Stave and Liand is unhurt but the approacheng Ramen and Marthiir and Phani are sorely so, even the horses are "scorred with corrosion"Nevertheless they had given Linden enough time. As the horde paused she leaped past it in her mind to confront the fall...
...With percipience to guide her, she raised the Staff, directed it over the heads of the Demondim, and unleashed it's warm puissance into the swarming core of the caesure. From the iron shod end of the wood, flame the rich yellow hue of sunflowers and corn lashed out, a streaming ceaseless flail of fire. The Fall was huge: she had made it so And it had fed on millenia of severed instants. But the Staff Of Law could draw on the fathomless reservoir of Earthpower which defined the Land. Indeed, it's possibilities were limited only by the capacities of it's wielder. YeAnd Linden had already proved herself equal to the sunbane. The evil before her now was enormous and consuming. Yet it was a small thing in comparison. Challenged by the direct vitality of the Staff, the Fall failed rapidly.
Then Liand points out to her:
Revelstone, they are just outside Revelstone, a few hundred paces. Linden can't believe her eyes and demand of Stave to explain it:Have you beheld it?
The Ranyhyn seem truly to be time-traveller of sorts, being able to choose both time and space-coordinates at will. Or is it the closeness to white gold that makes it possible, or have they been able to do it as long as there has been caesures. Also, they agreed to Staves will, that would imply that it was perhaps their purpose to end up at Revelstone, they do his bidding because they believe it is the right thing to do. And besides, why didn't Stave tell Linden about what he was doing. Was he not certain he would succeed. It was of utmost importance to Linden to know what time and place she would end up at....Anyway, SRD writes at lenght here, where only seconds or perhaps minutes passes, bare that in mind, this goes for the whole chapter actually..."I have said that I would bear tidings to the Masters. When we entered the Fall, you asked no clear destination of the Ranyhyn. Therefore they heeded me. Answering my will, they have borne us hither."
The importance of Revelsone becomes clear to Linden as she remembers Jeremiah's Lego-image of it, and Stave wanting them there...and watching the condition of her companions, the damaged Ramen Marthiir, Phani, the unconsious Bhapa, Waynhim, few and exhausted ur-viles, she realises she's the only one who can oppose the Demondim. She confronts Stave once more, demanding answers, what can they do, the Haruchai?
One hundred Haruchai, riding out of the Keep. What a sight!Stave regarded her steadily. Instead of speaking, he extended his hand toward the high bulk of Lord's Keep against it's background of mountains, and at that moment the interlocking stone gates in the base of the watchtower swung open. From the tunnel under the tower, riders cantered outward as if he had summoned them forth. Four abreast, they emerged row after row, first a dozen of them, then a score, two score; more- And still they appeared: more men on horseback than Linden had ever seen at one time. When the last of them had left the darkness under the watchtower, they must have numbered eighty or a hundred.
And at the same time Stave informs Linden that it is the second day since they entered the Fall. This he has learned by the Haruchai's mind to mind communication.
It is well then, all is set for a great battle...
The horde of Demondim slows down, preparing to make battle to the charging Haruchai. And Anele starts to react, keeps repeating Revelstone, talking about being betrayed...suddenly he starts running, running towards the horde if Waynhim. His aura changes, he becomes the "fire-creature" he once was, leaving burnmarks on the ground and glowing like hot iron...and the Haruchai getting closer, closer still, towards the horde. Linden reaches for her power and finds nothing! Neither ring nor Earthpower. Again, the "fire-creature" is possessing Anele, Esmer? Something else? Of course...But Linden also notices that the transformation took place when Aneles feet touched bare dirt...Another clue. A lot of references to Magma, Lava and so regarding Aneles condition, but again nothing more, very mysterious...
So, Anele, possessed, running against the Demondim, the Haruchai on their horses against the Demondim, Linden, at the moment powerless...and the forces meet!
This is SRD at his best, describing and depicting intense moments with several plots of action intervowen...The last three pages of this chapter is foremost a description of the battle that has begun. With Linden in the midst as our POV, perceptively taking it all in...As the riders struck, conserted emerald as vehement and fatal as the despiser's own ichor erupted in response, coruscating through hues of gems and verdure to the blinding incandescence of sunfire.
In an instant, the conflict became chaos.
Without transition, the screaming horses filled the air. Blood and shredded flesh articulated the dust. The first row of Masters went down like mown wheat, scythed from their mounts by the viscious strenght ot the Vile-spawn and the incarnate puissance of the Illearth Stone.
The trumpet metaphore has SRD used before. Earlier in Runes and in Mordant's Need of course. And the Spaceship Trumpet in The Gap. Anele acts more and more strangely, even when possessed!...Yet among the tumult Anele remained palpable, vivid to to Linden's discernment: a figure of compacted scoria and rage. He strode some distance into the battle, then paused there as if contemplating carnage. But he struck at none of the creatures. None struck at him. Instead he appeared to gather them about him in swirling eddies which veered closer and then were flung away by the forces of the fight. Her ear for him snatched Linden out of her confusion. Banishing Covenant's ring from her mind, she raised the Staff high; and from it's end shone forth a beacon of flame as yellow as sunshine and as compelling as trumpets.
Linden ries into battle. Liand Mahrtiir and Phani follows as her protection.
The Demondims force is too large to battle, the Haruchai changing tactics, the Demondim not having used the Stone at it's most powerful, and when "killing" Demondim new forms were rising from the Ground, what horrors...only a matter of time before all Haruchai was killed, and suddenly Anele was gone, disappeared, Linden attempts to go after him but Stave beats her to it, he returns with Anele but is sorely hurt, almost dead, only because he is Haruchai does he still live...And Anele lives, Earthpowewr has sustained him. Linden now uses the power of the Staff to hold the Demondim at bay so that they all can retreat to the Keep, Waynhim, ur-viles, Ramen...they gallop towards the gates of Revelstone, but it seems as if the horde of Femondim let them all slip away, herding them towards the gates...and finally they enter the relative safety of Lord's Keep Revelstone.
Closing comments:The Gates stood open as if in welcome. But no lamps or torches lit the hall beyond them, and the wide jaws of Lord's Keep offered only Darkness.
Not the meatiest of chapter, it is mainly what the title of it says; pursuit, they are pursued by demondim and end up inside Revelstone, though we learn a few things: Linden can bring the caesures down, Ranyhyn can choose when and where as time-travellers. Doesn't Stave's will imply that he is also aware of this fact? Tere is the Illearth Stone, but where is it?
SRD is such a meticulous writer that every twist and turn in the story is commented on from some point of view, mainly Linden's. Every thought brought as far as it can go, reflections made concerning something also elaborated on. Seconds in the story can take a page or something. So somehow SRD wrest everything he can out of every situation and occasionally it becomes pretty difficult reading, you have to read very carefully, the text demands several readings...There are so many beautiful passages even in this chapter of which I have quoted a few, but they seem sometimes get lost in all observations. The decription of the Demondim are especially vivid, all use of magic is always beautifully written, the description of the battle, Anele possessed...well that was a few comments
kast
Before Anele is possessed, he cries, "Anele is betrayed. You have given him to them." With "them" being delightfully ambiguous. He has never claimed that "they" are the Masters, has he?
