Now free from the calm, Starfare’s Gem rides eastward through storms, and Covenant’s condition slowly improves. The injured Giant, named Mistweave, also improves rapidly, to the surprise of Linden. On the second day, Linden is able to set Misweave’s ribs. On the third day, Covenant begins to regain consciousness, and Linden feeds him. By the fifth day, Starfare’s Gem is out from under the storms, and Covenant has improved a lot, which makes Linden feel good, but also wary, because she realizes how attached she is to him, and it’s not a feeling she’s used to.
Linden goes up on deck, and sees Pitchwife doing something with a large slab of rock in one hand, and a stone cauldron in the other. Curious, she goes to see what he’s doing. Pitchwife explains:
Pitchwife then fills a hole in the broken wall with the pitch, then snaps a small chip off the slab, and carefully places it on the pitch, snatching his hand back so it won’t get stuck to the ship. The pitch instantly hardens, fixing the breach in the wall. Linden watches as Pitchwife finishes the repairs to the damaged ship, and her mood sours once again. Once again, Pitchwife goes to bring her out of her mood.”Ah, Chosen, you behold me about my craft. Doubtless you have observed the workings of Starfare’s Gem and seen that each Giant serves the needs of the ship. And doubtless you have noted that the exception is myself. Pitchwife rides no rigging, bears no duty at Shipsheartthew. He labors not in the galley, neither does he tend either sail or line. What purpose then does he serve among this brave company?”
Reaching into the stone pot, he stirred the contents with one hand, then brought out a rank brown mass which looked like partially-hardened tar. “Chosen,” he said as he worked the mass with both hands, “I am condignly named Pitchwife. This is my ‘pitch,’ which few Giants and no others may grasp with impunity, for without Giant-flesh and Giant-craft any hand may be turned to stone. And the task for which I mold such pitch is called ‘wiving’.”
”Ah, Chosen. Since first I beheld you in the dire murk of the Sarangrave, I have witnessed no lightening of your spirit. From dark to dark it runs, and no dawn comes. Are you not content with the redemption of Covenant Giantfriend and Mistweave-a saving which none other could have performed?” He shook his head, frowning to himself. Then, abruptly, he moved forward, seated himself against the wall near her. “My people have an apothegm-as who does not in this wise and contemplative world?” He regarded her seriously, though the corners of his mouth quirked. “It is said among us, ‘A sealed door admits no light.’ Will you not speak to me? No hand may open that door but your own.”
Pitchwife said that he is on board because of his skills at mending the ship. Well, perhaps that’s why he is also so good at mending broken people, too. Or maybe it’s vice-versa. Whatever it is, Pitchwife is to Linden what Foamfollower was to Covenant in the first series; a steadfast companion that never allows his friend’s darkness to weaken his own inner light. In any event, Linden is just as much the dark brooder that Covenant was in the first series, and she just can’t open up without a fight.
Linden goes on to share her dependence on Covenant, her fear that he might die, her inability to see the Land he fell in love with, and her lack of power to change anything about all that. And then she hits Pitchwife with this gem:After a moment, she said, “Tell me there’s a reason.”
Before Linden can continue, Pitchwife says:”I don’t think I’ve ever done anything in my life except deny. I didn’t become a doctor because I wanted people to live. I did it because I hate death.”
Now Pitchwife tells Linden the story of how he met the First, how she lost both her parents, and how they came to be husband and wife. Gossamer Glowlimn’s mother, Spray Frothsurge, died during childbirth, and she was raised by her father, Brow Gnarlfist. Gnarlfist was the Master of the dromond Wavedancer, and Glowlimn grew up on her decks. Pitchwife worked on that Giantship, too. One day, Wavedancer ran into the Soulbiter, a perilous sea that had never been accurately charted, and everyone tried to avoid. While trapped in the Soulbiter, Wavedancer struck the reef known as Soulbiter’s Teeth, and the ship’s hull was breached. Pitchwife immediately went to repair the breach before the ship sank. As he fought against the rising water below deck, the gush of water was stopped by Gnarlfist. The master had swam outside the ship and pressed up against the breach, blocking it with his chest. Pitchwife hurried to fill the breach before Gnarlfist ran out of air. In his haste, Pitchwife forgot an important fact:”Chosen, I hear you. There is doubt in you, and fear, and also concern. But these things pass as well by another name, which you do not speak.”
”With pitch and setrock, I sealed the breach. And in so doing I sealed Gnarlfist to the side of Wavedancer. My pitch took his chest in a grip of stone and held him.”
Pitchwife felt guilt over the death of Gnarlfist, and avoided Glowlimn because of it. But instead of blaming Pitchwife for her father’s death, the First instead looked at him as the man who gave that death meaning. She was able to help Pitchwife put aside his own blame. But, now that her dad was gone, Glowlimn no longer wanted to be on the sea, and turned her pursuits to the work of the Swordmainnir, and to Pitchwife himself.
It strikes Linden deeply that two daughters-herself and Glowlimn- would take such different paths because of their father’s deaths. It also saddens her that the Giants came out of their experiences free and whole, while hers still has so much power over her.
Linden can find no response to give to Pitchwife, so she decides to check on Covenant again. She wants Covenant to tell her why he can save anybody but himself. And she wants to tell him why she keeps failing to do the same in return. When she gets to his room, Brinn tells her Covenant has been waiting for her. Linden sees that he is recovering, and in a few days will be well enough to get out of bed. She tries to go to him, but cannot muster the courage. Tom tells her what he got Brinn to tell him. Expecting some kind of verbal abuse, she asks him if he knew the ‘mistakes’ she made while he was unconscious; full of poison. Linden tells Covenant she almost let him die, she tried to possess him, and her failure is why the Giants had to summon the Nicor. Instead of being angry, however, Thomas is glad she did things the way she did, and explains he doesn’t see things the same way that the Haruchai do. He is glad that she didn’t let Mistweave die so she could save him.
Instead of being relieved, though, Linden becomes angry at Covenant.
Unfortunately, Covenant has troubles of his own. Together, the venom and white gold combine to give him unlimited power, but no control. He fears the next time he ties to use it, he’ll kill everybody around him.His constant assumption of responsibility and blame for everything around him infuriated her. He seemed to deny her the simple right to judge her own acts. The Haruchai at least she could understand.
Covenant believes that is why Linden is here in the Land, to help him. Linden is the only one with the knowledge of what leprosy is; the only one with the ability to fix what’s wrong with him. Also, she’s the only person he knows that isn’t scared to be near a leper. But Linden isn’t convinced. She thinks any doctor could do what she has done; she wants to know why she was picked. Covenant speaks:That’s why I’ve got to get to the One Tree. Got to. Before I become too deadly to go on living. A Staff of Law is my only hope.”
”I can’t tell you why you. I know something about the needs that drive people into situations like this. But I don’t know your needs. I don’t know you. You were chosen for this because of who you are, but from the beginning you haven’t told me a thing. My life depends on you, and I don’t really have any idea what it is I’m depending on. Linden.” He appealed to her without looking at her, as if he feared that his gaze would send her away. “Please. Stop defending yourself. You don’t have to fight me. You could make me understand.” Deliberately, he closed his eyes against the risk he was taking. “If you chose to”.
If it weren’t for Pitchwife’s story earlier that day, Linden would refuse to answer Covenant. But, she had to respond, both to Covenant’s appeal, and to Pitchwife’s example. She begins by telling Thomas about her ‘black’ moods, and how they started after her dad killed himself. Then she tells him the whole story of her father’s uselessness, her mother’s indifference, and being locked in the attic with her dad while he slowly bled to death. The last thing he said to her was “You never loved me anyway”. Naturally, her mother blamed Linden for her dad’s death, once even publicly.
Covenant took all of this in, and then says ”And you’ve never forgiven her. You’ve never forgiven either of them.”
Linden, stung by the comment, answers ”You’re g--damn right I never forgave them! They raised me to be another bloody suicide!” To be a servant of the Despiser. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to prove they were wrong!”
Covenant asks ”Is that why you think people shouldn’t tell each other their secrets? Why you didn’t want me to tell you about Lena? Because you’re afraid I’ll say something you don’t want to hear?”
Linden says she doesn’t do the secrets thing because it doesn’t matter to the person hearing the secret, but to the person telling it, it makes them guilty all over again.
Covenant ends with one last comment: “You can’t forgive yourself, so you refuse to forgive anyone else.”
Linden, showing herself to be every bit the enigma Covenant is, says “I don’t love him (her father). I can’t. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to keep on living.”
The conversation over, Linden makes Covenant drink some more diamondraught and get some more sleep. She sat there with her face in her hands, considering their conversation.
He was right; she could not forgive herself. But she had failed to tell him why. The darkness was still in her, and she had not confessed what she had done with it.
* 
”I don’t think I’ve ever done anything in my life except deny. I didn’t become a doctor because I wanted people to live. I did it because I hate death.” 
Just because the leaves turn red doesn't mean your hair will. 
Bad Dromond! 
