Kevin's Watch

Ah, the "blame" thing. He blamed himself sufficiently. He knew that he was to blame for Lena, Triock, Elena, Atarian, Trell...etc. But, at the last, they all forgave him. I think even Trell did, after death. They suffered at his hand, yet they also knew that he was probably their last hope for the survival of the Land. In their hearts, I believe they also knew that he punished himself over and over for the things he did. Even, Triock, who in his last breath, forgave Covenant.

"You are not to blame. She was--flawed from birth."

This was Triock's only way to tell him that at last he was forgiven. And he was the last hope.

Yet, Covenant never forgave himself.

Ryzel wrote:

Furls Fire wrote:This was so awesome, I remember cheering...YES! I was in class at the time, a senior in high school, and the teacher took my book away because I was reading it during his lecture.

Those teachers have no respect for professional, hardworking authors.

You can say that again! I had to go crawling back to him after school that day to get my book back. It was torture! It was a morning class so I had to wait until the end of the day to read on!

Mean ole Mr. Harlan!! curse him!

LOL!!!!!

And what you were reading was probably a lot deeper then anything you were studying in his class, too!

It was state history, like i really CARED at the time who came up with the state bird!!

oh, how we hatesss him, we hatesss him forever!!

(sorry, I know its off topic, but I couldn't resist)

LOL!!

Between Elena Foul-wife and She was flawed from birth, I could scream!!!

What a shock when we found Elena there!!! DAMN that's nasty!!! And hearing that she was still herself at the core, still loving the Land and hating what she now is!! I wonder if whoever wrote the Star Trek: TNG episode when Picard went back to his home in France read TCTC.

"Hellfire!" he shouted because he could not find any other reply. "What happened to your Oath of Peace?"

"It is dead," Triock growled hoarsely. "It is dead with a spike of wood in its belly!" He swung again, staggered Covenant. "The Law of Death is broken, and all Peace has been laid waste."

Covenant regained his balance and retreated farther. "Triock!" he gasped. "I didn't kill her. She died trying to save my life. She knew it was my fault, and she still tried to save me. She would fight you now if she saw you like this! What did that Raver do to you?"

The Stonedownor advanced with slow ferocity.

"You're not like this!" Covenant cried. "You gave your whole life to prove you're not like this!"

Springing suddenly, Triock caught Covenant by the throat. His thumbs ground into Covenant's windpipe as he snarled, "You have not seen what I have seen!"

"Covenant," she called like a lorn voice of desolation. "Beloved! Strike a blow for me!"

Then she was gone, reabsorbed into death. The gyre grew pale, paler, until it had disappeared in unruffled air.

Covenant was left alone with his victims.

Covenant hugged Triock's head with both arms and began to weep.

After a time, the Stonedownor sensed in some way who held him. Through the death thickening in his gullet, he struggled to speak. "Covenant."

His voice was barely audible, but Covenant fought back his tears to respond, "I hear you."

"You are not to blame. She was - flawed from birth."

That was as far as his mercy could go. After one final wisp, the smoke faded away. Covenant held him, and knew he had no pulse or breath of life left.

He understood that Triock had forgiven him. The Stonedownor was not to blame if his gift gave no consolation. In addition to everything else, Covenant was responsible for the flaw of Elena's birth. She was the daughter of a crime which could never be undone. So he could do nothing but sit with Triock's unanswerable head in his lap, and weep while he waited for the reversal of his summons, the end which would reave him of the Land.

But no end came. In the past, he had always begun to fail as soon as his summoner died; but now he remained. Moments passed, and still he was undiminished. Gradually, he realized that this time he would not disappear, that for reasons he did not understand, he had not yet lost his chance.

He did not have to accept Elena's fate. It was not the last word - not yet.

When Bannor and Foamfollower stirred, groaned, began to regain consciousness, he made himself move. Carefully, deliberately, he took his ring from his wedding finger and placed it on the index finger of his halfhand, so that it would be less likely to slip off.

Then, amid all his grief and regret, he stood up on bones that could bear anything, and hobbled over to help his friends.

-------------------

This was the first time that I cried while reading these books - because it's the first time Covenant really cries. It's the first time he allows others to see him cry. And that says a lot about him. It shows how much he's changing, how he's really growing attached to the Land and to its people - whether they're real or not.

~Foamy~

This is a long dead posting, but I came across it, so, well, here I am.

There isn't much more I can say - the enthusiasm here is identical to my own. In a review I wrote on TPTP I noted that "Lord Mhoram's Victory" is so good it should be studied by up-and-coming fantasy writers.

Both chapters, for that matter, are superb. TPTP is easily one of the so-called "best books" in contemporary fantasy. Certainly of the high/heroic type. They don't get much better.

I'm glad you brought it back up. Just reading the dissection brought tears to my eyes. I'll have to resist the urge to ignore my list of books and start in on TC again now. Thanks alot everyone, you certainly deepen my appreciation for this story.

No, it just doesn't get any better than this!

Interesting Morham, Why do you feel Samadhi’s body is wearing out?

Lord Morham wrote:"We-and ur-Lord Covenant-must find the wisdom to attain both Peace and power."

Which is why Covenant needed to be flawed to do the job right. A person of Pure purpose and well adjusted, without the Oath of Peace, couldn’t tap into Desperation far enough to wield Lore as strong as Wild Magic (Or Morham’s Secret) without Desecrating.

does anyone know of an exsisting painting,or picture of lord mhorams victory?

Ta da!
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_page.php?pic_id=1026


This is excellent, although it's not what's described in the book. But it's a few minutes later.
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_page.php?pic_id=1035

Lord Mhoram had a beard?

Sure does. Photos don't lie.


Looks like it here, too:

Or does he have a really pointy chin?


Can't look up how he's described at the moment.

In Chapter 15 of TPTP was wrote:His words seemed to ring in the Close, and time passed before Amatin said painfully, "You offer us things which contradict each other, and tell us that we must preserve both, achieve both together. Such counsel is easily spoken."

In silence, the High Lord strove to share with her his sense of how the contradiction might be mastered, made whole; he let his love for the Land, for Revelstone, for her, flow openly into her mind. And he smiled as he heard Lord Trevor say slowly, "It may be done. I have felt something akin to it. What little strength I have returned to me when the Keep's need became larger for me than my fear of the Keep's foe."

"Fear," Loerya echoed in assent.

And Mhoram added, "Fear--or hatred."

A moment later, Amatin began to weep quietly in comprehension. With Loerya and Trevor, Mhoram wrapped courage around her and held her until her dread of her own danger, her own capacity to Desecrate the Land, relaxed. Then the High Lord put down the krill and opened his eyes to the Close.

This chapter 15 of TPTP is just fantastic, with many moving moments, of which the above is one of them. I always have been touched by Lord Amatin and her serious devotion to lore to protect and promote the Land. She seems like such a quiet sweet soul, and it kind of hurts when she sees within her the ability to Desecrate, and it causes her sorrow. But it's wonderful that her fellow Lords can instantly strengthen and comfort her in the mind-meld that they do.

As I said, it's a great moment in a chapter that's just chock-full of great moments!!!

With the "Colossus" chapter following '"Lord Mhoram's Victory"', we have the pleasure of reading two fantastic chapters back-to-back! (And I say that with all sincerity; these two chapters are some of the most awesome in all of the ten Chronicles books--I find them to be utterly riveting & emotionally engaging!)

First, I am going to focus on how this 16th TPTP chapter starts out.

[quote="In the sixteenth chapter of The Power That Preserves, entitled "Colossus", was"]There were gaps in the darkness during which Covenant knew dimly that rank liquids were being forced into him. They nourished him despite their rancid taste; his captors were keeping him alive. But between these gaps nothing interrupted his bereavement, his loss of everything he could grasp or recognize. He was dismembered from himself. The shrill vermilion nail of pain which the ur-viles had driven through his forehead impaled his identity, his memory and knowledge and awareness. He was at the nadir--captured, conquered, bereft--and only that iron stab in his forehead stood between him and the last numbness of the end.

So when he began to regain consciousness, he jerked toward it like a half-buried corpse, striving to shift the weight which enfolded him like the ready arms of his grave. Cold ebbed into him from the abyss of the winter. His heart labored; shuddering ran through him like a crisis. His hands clutched uselessly at the frozen dirt.

Then rough hands flopped him onto his back. A grim visage advanced, receded. Something struck his chest. He gasped at the force of the blow. Yet it helped him; it seemed to break him free of imminent hysteria. He began to breathe more easily. In a moment, he became aware that he was beating the back of his head against the ground. With an effort, he stopped himself. Then he concentrated on trying to see.

He wanted to see, wanted to find some answer to the completeness of his loss. And his eyes were open--must have been open, or he would not have been able to perceive the shadowy countenance snarling over him. Yet he could not make it out. His eyeballs were dry and blind; he saw nothing but cold, universal gray smeared around the more compact gray of the visage.

"Up, Covenant," a harsh voice rasped. "You are of no use as you are."

Another blow knocked his head to the side. He lurched soddenly. Through the pain in his cheek, he felt himself gaping into the raw wind.

He blinked painfully at the dryness of his eyes, and tears began to resolve his blindness into shapes and spaces.

"Up, I say!"

He seemed to recognize the voice without knowing whose it was. But he lacked the strength to turn his head for another look. Resting on the icy ground, he blinked until his sight came into focus on a high, monolithic fist of stone.[/quote]

The ur-viles, who enabled TC's capture and devised ingestible liquids to keep him going, have been stated to have mysterious lore unmatched by any other beings of the Land. We know they can raise the dead, slay fiery wraiths, and can coerce even white gold wielders to become captives and be made to move where and when they want. They could become a serious problem for even Lord Foul if he should ever lose their loyalty (HMMM... ). Anyway, by the beginning of this chapter they have apparently served their purpose, getting Covenant to this place with the monolithic fist of stone, and have departed the scene.

Donaldson's writing as usual helps me to feel like I'm right there with Covenant, feeling the coldness, dryness, and rawness of it all.

There's the hissing wind here, like the unending, ravenously rending, biting force of Lord Foul's winter. And a booming sound, too, which I take to be the sound of the River Landrider falling over Landsdrop into the depths of the Lower Land. (And seeing as how we're in the Plains of Ra once again, you can take this Ramen's word about something like that! )

Slowly, fragments of other senses returned to him. He discovered that he could hear the wind hissing ravenously past him like a river thrashing across rapids; and behind it was a deep, muffled booming like the thunder of a waterfall.

"Up!" the harsh voice repeated. "Must I beat you senseless to awaken you?"

Mordant laughter echoed after the demand as if it were a jest.

Abruptly, the rough hands caught hold of his robe and yanked him off the ground. He was still too weak to carry his own weight, too weak even to hold up his head. He leaned against the man's chest and panted at his pain, trying with futile fingers to grasp the man's shoulders.

"Where--?" he croaked at last. "Where--?"

The laughter ridiculed him again. Two unrecognizable voices were laughing at him.

"Where?" the man snapped. "Thomas Covenant, you are at my mercy. That is the only where which signifies."

Straining, Covenant heaved up his head and found himself staring miserably into Triock's dark scowl.

Triock? He tried to say the name, but his voice failed him.

"You have slain everything that was precious to me. Think on that, Unbeliever"--he invested the title with abysms of contempt--"if you require to know where you are."

Triock?

Oh, God, Triock. He has so much reason to despise Covenant, from the rape of Lena to the destruction of Elena & The Law of Death, to the death of Lena. If there had been any uncertainty that Covenant was going to face a reckoning in this part of the story, that uncertainly has vanished with the mention that Triock is here.

One thing I feel I must note, though: Triock's statement about beating Covenant senseless to awaken him is not very logical, as continued beating of Covenant is likely to send him back into unconsciousness. But I suppose Triock is much too upset at this moment to truly be thinking logically.

Cord Hurn wrote:One thing I feel I must note, though: Triock's statement about beating Covenant senseless to awaken him is not very logical, as continued beating of Covenant is likely to send him back into unconsciousness. But I suppose Triock is much too upset at this moment to truly be thinking logically.

There are other influences at work degrading Triock's judgement and whetting his justifiable hate of Covenant. With him there are two Cords, Lal and Whane, who are possessed by turiya and moksha. Surely they are exerting a malign influence on Triock's thinking...