As the lights go out on the motionless Starfare’s Gem, Linden realizes that the rat that he fried with wild magic has bitten Covenant. Linden has a flashback to the prophetic dream she had earlier in which she tried to staunch the flow of blood from Covenant’s chest, and she is frozen until the Raver leaves the ship.
When she begins to examine Covenant’s wound, the combination of rat saliva and Raver essence takes effect, and Covenant begins to seize.
Linden attempts to enter Covenant’s consciousness with her health-sense, but she lacks the power to stop the venom, and a blast of wild magic rocks the night.Already, his right forearm had begun to darken as if an artery were hemorrhaging.
This was the way the venom affected him. Whether it was triggered by bee stings or spider bites, it focused on his forearm, where Marid’s fangs had first pierced his flesh. And every relapse multiplied the danger horrendously.
“Hellfire!” His desperation sounded like fury. “Get back!”
The Giants and Haruchai look to Linden for guidance, as this is the first time that they have seen a venom attack. But Linden refuses to attempt to help him, and leaves the deck.The concussion flung Linden away like a bundle of rags. It knocked Brinn back against the railing. Several of the Giants staggered. Before the blast ended, it tore chunks from the rook of Foodfendhall and burned through two of the sails from bottom to top.
While Starfare’s Gem remains idle on the windless seas, several attempts are made to reach Covenant, without success. At last Cail makes this appeal to Linden:
But Linden’s inherent fear and loathing of possession compels her to refuse:“Chosen….we have done what lies within our reach. But none can approach him. His fire lashes out at all who draw near. Brinn has been burned – but that is nothing. Diamondraught will speed his healing. Consider instead the Giants. Though they can withstand fire, they cannot bear the force of his white ring. When the First sought to near him, she was nigh thrown from the deck. And the Anchormaster, Sevinhand, also assayed the task. When he regained consciousness, he named himself fortunate that he had suffered no more than a broken arm….We believe that he will not strike at you. You are his nearest companion….surely even in his madness he will know you and withhold his fire. We have seen that he holds you in his heart.”
And so Starfare’s Gem remains still under the heat of the sun throughout the remainder of the day and into the night. Pitchwife attempts to approach Linden but realizes that she doesn’t want him near. Then Seadreamer comes, and Linden tries to explain her distaste for possession:“I’m already too much like Gibbon.”
At last Linden is confronted by the one person on the ship who can’t be denied: The First of the Search.“There’s a part of me that wants to do it. Take over him. Take his power. I don’t have any of my own, and I want it…..That’s what paralyzes me. I’ve spent my life trying to deny evil. When it shows up, I can’t escape it.”
The First places her broadsword on the deck in front of Linden and challenges her to pick it up and use it as a Swordmain, making this point:“I grant that the burden is terrible to you. That is plain….But the Search has been given into his hands. It must not fail.”
Realizing that any such act by the First would almost certainly end Covenant’s life, Linden at last is moved to action. She climbs through the ship onto the deck to see for herself how critically ill Covenant has become. She appreciates his febrile condition and grossly swollen right arm, and realizes that there is little she can do to stop this course of illness, so:“You are Linden Avery the Chosen. I am the First of the Search. We cannot bear each other’s burdens. Yet if you do not shoulder the lot which has befallen you, then I swear by my glaive that I will perform whatever act lies within my strength. He will not accept any approach. Therefore I will risk my people, and Starfare’s Gem itself, to distract him. And while he strikes at them, with this sword I will sever the envenomed arm from his body. I know no other way to rid him of that ill – and us of the peril of his power. If fortune smiles upon us, we will be able to staunch the wound ere his life is lost.”
Using her percipience, Linden penetrates Covenant’s mind, to see:She decided to aim herself against his mind. That seemed the lesser evil.
Linden is unconscious for some time, and awakens to find everyone gathered over her. Pitchwife remarks that it is a wonder that she survived Covenant’s blast of power. The First tries to console her for her failure to reach Covenant. When Linden brings herself to look at Covenant, she sees that he has totally encapsulated himself in a cocoon of wild magic, and cut himself off from any attempts to help him.Images whirled insanely into her: the destruction of the Staff of Law; men and women being bled like cattle to feed the Banefire; Lena and rape: the two-fisted knife blow with which he had slain a man she did not know; the slashing of his wrists. And power – white fire which crashed through the Clave, turned Santonin and the Stonemight to tinder, went reaving among the Riders to garner a harvest of blood. Power. She could not control him. He shredded her efforts as if her entire being and will were made of brittle old leaves. In his madness, he reacted to her presence as if she were a Raver.
She cried out to him. But the outrage of his ring blew her away.
*alas*
Damn You Foul!!! 
You are MINE!