The company has been under attack of the the Grim of the Clave. Their way to the east has been blocked by thousands of Sunbane warped creatures, bizarre monsters which look like some sort of nightmarish cross of cavewights and army ants. Memla sacrificed herself in fighting both the creatures, trying to create a gap in their ranks for the company to move through, and also in fighting the Grim. Linden and Cail have been injured. Thomas Covenant, Sunder, and Hollian are exhausted. But the Haruchai urge the questors onward.Sunbane power: bloodshed and fire
Brinn points out that the gap in the monsters is closing. Yet Covenant has eyes only for the unconcious Linden, held in Hergrom's arms.
He called out to her, but did not know how to reach her.
Sunder adds his urging to Brinn's, and they set forth.The monsters would have surely gotten them, had they not paused to eat their own dead. And the haruchai are magnificent, as usual, breaking off the monsters' antennae so they cannot find their prey. And every creature that touches Vain drops dead! All that is left of Memla and Din are a few scraps of red cloth -- and her rukh, which is recovered by Ceer. But there are thousands of creatures, far too many for the haruchai to face, so the company is forced to run.
Cail finds a defensible place...
a pile of boulders rising incongrously out of the savannah, like a cairn left by Giants.
Spoiler
a nice little reminder that Giants exist, given what will be coming soon. 
and worse, much worse --He was useless to her.
Covenant is horrified by the thought that Linden might be dying...and the thought that if any cure is known, only Memla would have known it, and she had given her life for the quest, so that Covenant would not have to risk using his ring.Sunder and Hollian climbed up to him. Kneeling beside Linden, Sunder scrutinized her. Fatigue and trepidation dragged at his features. "Ah, Linden Avery," he breathed. "This is a sore mischance."
Covenant stifled a groan and sought to contradict the dismay in Sunder's tone. "It doesn't look that serious."
The Graveler avoided Covenant's stare. "The injury itself - Perhaps even Cail's hurt does not threaten his life. But this is a sun of pestilence." He faltered into silence.
"Ur-Lord," Hollian said tightly,"any wound is fatal under a sun of pestilence. There is no healing for the Sunbane sickness."
And the Coursers, with all of the baggage, all of the food and water, were gone, and cannot be recalled or controlled without Memla.The attack from the creatures soon comes. The Haruchai spring to defense immediately. But only five could not defend such a large area by themselves. Thomas Covenant joins the fight, armed with the Krill.
Sunder and Hollian also join the defense.Moving as if he was accursed, he slashed at them. the krill sliced their plating like bare felsh, cut through atannae, even mandibles, as if the blade were a broadsword with the weight and puissance of a Giant behind it. The krill was a tool of Law and the creatures were the lawless spawn of the Sunbane.
Spoiler
another reference to Giants, and a description of a Giant who might as well be the First with her broadsword.
Spoiler
Do the creatures die when they touch Vain because he holds the Law inside of himself?
Hollian then adds even more miserable news. She has consulted her lianar, and has found that the next day will be a desert sun (and they, of course, have no water). And even worse -- her reading has shown fire, horrible fire, as nothing she has ever seen before. She insists that they must flee immediately. But Covenant refuses, as Linden and Cail are far too sick to be moved.The sun of pestilence has infected her wound. From this sickness none recover.
The Sunbane rises, a desert sun.
The ground begins to glow. Vain climbs the boulders. The muck begins to burn. Covenant realizes the glow reminds him of firestones, of gravelling...Vain takes Linden from Covenant's arms. And then he climbs down and walks away, across the gravelling, though it is as hot as lava. Hergrom thows himself across Vain's shoulders, and the three disappear --Vain, Linden in his arms, Hergrom clinging to his back...As the Sunbane colored the savannah, the pampas grass began to melt. Its fiber turned to a dead gray sludge, and slumped to the ground like spilth. This, Covenant mused in a mood of canted detachment, was what had happened to Morinmoss. To Grimmerdhore and Garroting Deep. A desert sun had risen over them, and tens of thousands of yers of sentient forest had simply dissolved into muck.And the glory of the world becomes less than it was.
Covenant has one of his flashes of insight. He demands the rukh. He gives it to Sunder.
Together, Sunder and Hollian figure out how to attune Sunder to the rukh. He recalls the remaining Coursers, with their burdens of food and precious water.You're the Graveler. Use it.
(Sunder kicks such serious butt!) The company rides the Coursers over what seems to be miles and miles of the gravelling, hot as lava. And then they finally find hard dirt, a blessed relief -- and Vain.Vain had carried Linden to safety. Hergrom has placed her in the shade, and stood guard over her.
She is in convulsions, but recognizes Covenant. She keeps insisting that he give her the insect repellant, voure, to drink. No one wishes to give it to her, but Covenant insists. After taking it, she whispers
The Haruchai then believe that her mind is, indeed clear, as she can understand how sick Cail is. Linden slowly grows limp, as Covanant holds her hand. He cannot tell if she is healing or dying, until Brinn tells them that Cail is mending, and she gives a sigh of relief.Now Cail.
Two things here -- even when Linden is sick, dying, having convulsions, she feels concern for Cail. And she tries the cure on herself first...as a test before giving it to him. You could not ask for more from a doctor, a healer.
And the Land is still supplying healing for its people, even though the Hurtloam is gone. But this healing power has possibly been concealed from the people of the Land by the Clave. If an eh-brand and a Graveler do not know of it, no person outside of Revelstone would know. Do the Riders of the Clave carry voure just because it is an insect repellant, or do they also know its power to cure Sunbane sickness?
Er, Guest, sorry if I sound like a curmudgeon, but in what way does the message in the spoiler spoil anything? It's information that has already been established up to this point.
!! The entire southwest region of the Land may be nothing but a hell on earth under the desert sun!
The connection between the graveling and Grimmerdhore never clicked in my head all these years until I was rereading the chapter for this Dissection. Then I put 2 and 2 together...