I really feel like this chapter is too big for me, so please help me out here. This chapter is just HUGE, with so much going on – I’m a bit daunted…..
Linden has been asleep but is awakened by a knock on her door, and finds Liand and Galt waiting for her. Liand says:
Linden realizes her health-sense is gone again, blunted by Kevin’s Dirt. Galt tells her that the Demondim have withdrawn from Revelstone.The Voice of the Masters has summoned you. The time has come to speak of Anele’s imprisonment and of other matters.
Linden retrieves the Staff but realizes that without her health-sense she cannot feel the power of the Staff. She realizes that she has never used power without health-sense to guide her. But Liand helps her to see that she has to be able to regain her health-sense through the Staff. Hugging the Staff to her heart, she feels the warmth of the wood and her health-sense returns. She uses the Staff to restore Liand’s Landsight as well.
Linden, Liand and Galt leave the apartment and walk to the Close, to meet with Handir and be reunited with their companions. Linden has never seen the Close (the Banefire was in the Sacred Enclosure.) The Close was where Trell performed his Ritual of Desecration, and that will have relevance here again.
When they enter the Close, the Ramen come to meet them, and but they too are blinded by Kevin’s Dirt. Linden uses the Staff to restore their sight. Mahrtiir turns to confront the Masters:
The Masters do not answer, and Linden restrains Mahrtiir, and goes to the floor of the Close to meet the Masters. After a few opening words, Handir speaks:Sleepless ones, your purpose here has no meaning. Doubtless you will require the Ringthane to defend her actions and intentions. Stave has promised a reckoning, has he not? And you will attempt to account for your mistreatment of sad Anele, who harms no one. But your words and your choices are empty.
The Ranyhyn have accepted the Ringthane. More, they have honored her, bowing their heads when they have never bowed to any living being. And in her name they have likewise accepted all of her companions, not excluding Anele. Indeed, at their will they have been ridden by Ramen, a thing which no Ramen has ever done before.
Sleepless ones, Bloodguard, you who have ridden so many Ranyhyn to their deaths, there is no more to be said. No more! All of your doubts and arrogance have been answered. If you will not serve the Ringthane, then you must set aside your Mastery, for you have declared your infidelity to the Land!
Linden agrees to hear them, and soon Stave steps forward. He says that she is indeed Linden Avery the Chosen, and that when he at first learned who she was, he offered the support of the Masters against Corruption, but:Then I bid you further welcome to the Close of Revelstone, where in ages long past the Council of Lords gathered to consider the perils of their times. We have selected this to be our meeting place because it has been harmed by despair and Earthpower…..here Trell Atiaran-mate performed a Ritual of Desecration which nearly brought about the ruins of Lord’s Keep. The outcome of his mad grief is written in this wounded stone. Here you may behold clearly the reasons which have led us to assume the Mastery of the Land. You stand upon the consequences of mortal power and passion…..It is here that you will be accused. Here you will make answer as you are able. And here the judgment of the Masters will be rendered.
Stave admits that through Linden’s defiance the Ranyhyn and Ramen are found to be alive, and the Staff has been regained. However, through her defiance they encountered Esmer, created a new Fall and then ran into Demondim and allowed them to come forward in time. But:She has responded with unfailing defiance. At every turn, she has acted against my counsel.
Stave continues by saying that now she holds both white gold and the Staff, and both powers are too much for one person to bear:However, the greatest accusation is this. She has a son who has been captured by Corruption. Her desire to redeem him is both proper and seemly. Yet her actions in his name have threatened the destruction of the Arch of Time…..
I am Haruchai and fear nothing. Yet I fear to inquire what else she may attempt in her son’s name.
As Stave concludes his case against her in lawyerly fashion, Linden is given a chance to respond, but she first asks how the Demondim are able to use the Illearth Stone. Handir replies that the Demondim are using a Fall and are accessing the Illearth Stone at its source, thousands of years ago. As Linden accepts his answer, she then asks if the Haruchai are capable of defeating the Demondim. Handir replies:As did Korik, Sill and Doar, she commands powers which exceed her……The first principle of our Mastery is that the uses of such power must ultimately serve Corruption. Is it not therefore certain that Linden Avery the Chosen will in the end become a servant of the Despiser?
So much for “We suffice.”We cannot.
(Aside – does Linden know the story of Korik, Sill and Doar? I remember that Covenant excluded that part of the story when he told the Search about Coercri.)
Linden and Handir continue their debate; Linden points out that the Masters need help against the Demondim, Handir refuses such help. Linden tries to show that by denying the people of the Land knowledge of their history and of Earthpower, the Haruchai have doomed the Land, but Handir denies any alternative to doing so.
Linden turns to the Humbled, and points out the futility of their maiming, and says that any potential sacrifice for the Land that the Masters might make would not be the equal of Brinn’s sacrifice at the One Tree. Handir’s response:
But Linden isn’t finished, and calls for Anele. She explains that his madness is controlled by the type of stone or ground on which he is standing. She also says that when he is standing on bare dirt or grasses, then he is possessed by others – the hot possessor, even Lord Foul. She proposes to use this to their advantage, to learn the activity of their enemies and to use Anele to plant false information in return. She disregards Liand’s protests at this plan. Handir does not accept this, and asks for evidence of Anele’s worth. Linden asks Anele to read the stone.It is enough….Perhaps you have described us justly. Perhaps not. It alters nothing. Your recriminations do not pertain to the hazard of your actions in the Land. The truth remains that you have dared the destruction of all the Earth for the sake of your son. And no you do not assure us that the danger is past.
Anele says the stone is speaking of fathers – first Trell, who desecrated the stone of the Close in despair, then:
After mentioning Berek, Anele can read no more from the stone, but he turns to Linden and begs her to tell him that he has not failed her. Linden embraces him, then addresses the Masters, and says:[The stone] speaks of the Elohim Kastenessen in his Durance, father to the malice of the merewives. His daughters are the Dancers of the Sea, and they swim the fathomless deeps in hunger and cruelty, insatiable for retribution, while their own scion is torment. Yet they know glee as well as hunger, for their father has broken his imprisonment, and at his behest the skurj which he once unwillingly restrained have unleashed their cunning and frenzy against the Land.
And in the same breath, it speaks of the Haruchai Cail, who succumbed to the merewives and fathered their scion. He also is remember with compassion, for only death has spared him from desolation at his son’s torment. Indeed, there is keening here on his behalf, keening and great sadness. He had been repudiated by his kindred, and his heart could not distinguish between its own yearning and the desire of the merewives. Yet that desire was malice.
And it speaks of Thomas Covenant, of the white gold wielder, whose daughter rent the Law of Death, and whose son is abroad in the Land, seeking such havoc that the bones of mountains tremble to contemplate it. For the wielder also this stone grieves, knowing him betrayed.
It speaks of Sunder son of Nassic, Graveler of Mithil Stonedown, who abandoned all that he had known for the sake of the wielder and the Land. Him the stone names because the son whom he brought back from death in Andelain lost the Staff of Law. In spite of this father’s valor and love, his legacy is sorrow.
Also it names the Despiser, who is the father of woe. Yet of him the stone says little. His darkness is beyond its ken.
Expecting Handir to respond, it is Stave that steps forward, and speaks:I hope you’re satisfied. I’ve had enough of this. Don’t trust us, or do. Just make up your minds. I’m done trying to convince you.
Stave tells about his refusal to take part in the horserite, but how Linden had shamed him and convinced him to drink from the tarn by telling him that the Ranyhyn had brought them there to warn them. When Stave drank from the waters, he was transformed. The Ranyhyn do fear for Linden and for her future, but Stave received no warnings; instead:.....I have named your perilous deeds. And I have said that I fear what you may do in your son’s name. I do fear it. For such reasons the Masters withhold their trust. Yet one other matter remains unaddressed….I have not yet spoken of the will of the Ranyhyn.
Linden detects a change in the atmosphere of the Close:When I had drunk from the mind blending waters, I learned that the Ranyhyn laughed at me. Their laughter did not resemble Corruption’s, scornful and demeaning…..rather it was kindly….and affectionate. The Ranyhyn conceived no ill of me. They merely wished to express that they found amusement in my belief that our service is sufficient to the Land’s need. Our Mastery amuses them. In their sight, we are too small to comprehend or gauge all of the paths which may lead to triumph or Desecration. Though they are beings of Earthpower and mystery, they do not claim for themselves either the discernment or the courage to determine the Land’s defense.
At the same time, laughing, they desired me to grasp that they have declared themselves utterly to the service of the Chosen. They will bear her wheresoever she wills, until the end of days…..Indeed, the deem themselves fortunate to serve her. It is sooth that she may damn the Land. Yet the Ranyhyn believe that she will not. In their eyes, the Land’s life and hope require them to believe that she will not.
Stave continues:Stave’s kinsman were taking umbrage.
Masters, you will decide as you must, according to your beliefs. Doubtless it is difficult for the people who gave birth to the Guardian of the One Tree to consider themselves small. But the Manethrall has spoken aptly, though he knew it not.
I have shared the horserite of the Ranyhyn, and have learned that we are not greater than they. Nor are we greater than the Ramen, who are content with service, and who do not attempt to alter that which lies beyond them.
Nor are we greater than this Stonedownor, the least of the Chosen’s companions, for he seeks only to join his cause with hers, and to partake in beauties and powers which we have withheld from him.
Turning to face the Voice of the Masters, Stave concludes:As he spoke, the assembled Masters watched him with darkness in their eyes….slowly the Humbled closed their fists.
Because I have heard the laughter of the great horses, I will cast my lot with the Chosen. I cannot do less than the Ranyhyn. Whatever may befall her, I will endeavor to prove that I am the equal to my fears.
Linden hugged the Staff of Law to her chest with both arms, blinking furiously to hold back her tears. She wept too easily and did not mean to do so now.
At last – she breathed to herself. God, at last!
Stave of the Haruchai had brought her to Revelstone for this: so that he could declare himself in front of his people.
He had finally become her friend.
*** Sorry there were so many quotes; I tried to minimize quoting as much as possible but some of the dialogue is just too important. We learn some valuable information in this chapter, and to me this is the most moving chapter of ROTE.
Linden wonders, What had Anele's possessor said to the Demondim? What did that fiery being want? And why were its desires heeded by the Demondim?
