As well as the readers. SRD drops a hellva bomb on us readers when LA implants the Sandgorgon’s name into Covenant knowing/hoping that he will speak it before the Kemper could master him. Those in the dungeon, their reactions are no less than ours.That name seemed to stun the air, appalling the very stone of the Sandhold.
Of course Brinn and the Haruchai are as excited as ever.From a great and lonely distance, Covenant watched Kasreyn of the Gyre recoil. The Kemper dropped his eyepiece. Dismay and rage crumpled his old face. But he could not call back the word Covenant had spoken. An anguish of indecision gripped him for a moment, paralyzing him. Then the old fear rose up in him, and he fled to preserve his life.
The First’s reaction echoes the rest.A voice said flatly, "The Sandgorgon comes." Covenant recognized Brinn's characteristic dispassion.
Covenant of course was still clawing his way out of the Silence of the Elohim, neither hearing or paying heed to his companions for the moment. From these lines me-thinks that Covenant realizes for the first time (here) that he actually loves Linden, and possibly she loves him (??)."Thomas Covenant." No amount of iron self-command could conceal the First's dismay. "Giantfriend! Has the Chosen slain you? Has she slain us all? The Sandgorgon. comes!"
What pisses me off thatHe tried to blink his eyes free of tears. Once again, Linden had saved him. The only woman he had met in more than eleven years who was not afraid of his illness. For his sake, she had insisted time after time on committing herself to risks, situations, demands she could neither measure nor control. The stone under his hands and knees felt unsteady; but he meant to climb to his feet. He owed her that. He could not imagine the price she must have paid to restore him.
Spoiler
(later the Haruchai’s treatment of her despite the fact that she restored Covenant and freed them all.)
Findail of course can think of nothing but himself, since he knows that Nom and the inevitable destruction can’t touch him.
But “The Sandgorgon comes”...Findail sprang to Covenant's side. The Elohim's distress was as loud as a yell, though he did not shout. "Do not do this." Urgency etched his words across the trembling. "Will you destroy the Earth?" His limbs strained with suppressed need. "The Sun-Sage lusts for death. Be not such a fool. Give the ring to me."
I was moved by Pitchwife’s knowledge that ere they could die and his open expression to his wife using her real name (and what a beautiful name it is!) disavowing that she is still the First and in charge of the giants. He speaks as a man/giant in love.The distant boomings went on as if parts of the Sandhold had begun to collapse; but the peril was much closer. He heard heavy feet slapping the length of the outer corridor at a run.
I think we’ve seen enough movies to imagine the scene when Nom appears. Bursting down the door and then standing momentarily in the light silhouetted, outlining his form and power.Like a groan through his teeth, Pitchwife said, "Gossamer Glowlimn, I love you."
Yet Linden somehow knew the risks and knew that Covenant wouldn’t be as powerless against the beast as Hergrom and Ceer. The battle is on.
Yet incredibly Covenant instead of killing this wild, hugely powerful beast spares Nom and slowly the Sandgorgon realizes this and acquiesces to Covenant’s power and reasoning...Leaping like a roar down into the chamber, the beast charged as if it meant to drive him through the back wall.
No mortal flesh and bone could have withstood that onslaught. But the Despiser's venom had only been rendered quiescent by the Elohim. It had not been purged or weakened. And the Sandgorgon itself was a creature of power.
In the instant before Nom struck, Thomas Covenant became an eruption of white flame.
Wild magic: keystone of the Arch of Time: power that was not limited or subdued by any Law except the inherent strictures of its wielder. High Lord Mhoram had said like a prophecy of fire, You are the white gold, and Covenant fulfilled those words. Incandescence came upon him. Argent burst from him as if from the heart of a silver furnace.
At his side, Findail cried in protest, 'No!"
The Sandgorgon crashed into Covenant. Impact and momentum knocked him against the wall. But he hardly felt the attack. He was preserved from pain or damage by white fire, as if that flame had become the outward manifestation of his leprosy, numbing him to the limitations of his mortality. A man with living nerves might have felt the power too acutely to let it mount so high: Covenant had no such restraint. The venom was avid in him. The fang-scars on his forearm shone like the eyes of the Despiser. Almost without thought or volition, he buffered himself against Nom's assault.
The Sandgorgon staggered backward.
Like upright magma, he flowed after it. Nom dealt out blows that would have pulverized monoliths. Native savagery multiplied by centuries of bitter imprisonment hammered at Covenant. But he responded with blasts like the fury of a bayamo. Chunks of granite fell from the ceiling and burst into dust. Cracks webbed the floor. The architrave of the door collapsed, leaving a gap like a wound to the outer corridor. Findail's protests sounded like the wailing of rocks.
Covenant continued to advance. The beast refused to retreat farther. He and Nom wrapped arms around each other and embraced like brothers of the same doom.
The Sandgorgon's strength was tremendous. It should have been able to crush him like a bundle of rotten twigs. But he was an avatar of flame, and every flare lifted him higher into the ecstasy of venom and rage. He had already become so bright that his companions were blinded. Argence melted and evaporated falling stone, enlarging the dungeon with every hot beat of his heart. He had been so helpless! Now he was savage
with the desire to strike back. This Sandgorgon had slain Hergrom, crippled Ceer. And Kasreyn had set that harm in motion. Kasreyn! He had tortured Covenant when Covenant had been utterly unable to defend himself; and only Hergrom's intervention had saved him from death-or from a possession which would have been worse than death. Fury keened in him; his outrage burned like the wrath of the sun.
The beast leaves “..turning with animal dignity...” (another noble description by SRD), the company is now free. Pitchwife is laughing and crying at it all, he sees hope and understands vividly what LA has done because has he not avowed that she “was well Chosen?” Findail is astounded by Covenant’s control. The other Giants and Haruchai are renewed from what Covenant has done. Shown mercy to the unmerciful and freed them to give them another fighting chance. All except Seadreamer:Covenant clenched his fist, sending a spew of fire into the ring he had created above him. But he did not strike. Instead-he fought his rusty voice into use.
"If you don't kill me, you won't have to go back to the Doom."
Nom froze as if it understood him. Trembling in every muscle, it lowered its arm. A moment later, the beast surprised him by sinking to the floor. Its quivering grew stronger, then began to subside. Deliberately, the Sandgorgon touched its forehead to the stone near Covenant's feet like an offer of service.
Seadreamer seemed unaware of Covenant. The mute Giant's gaze was glazed and inward. His manacled hands strained toward his head as if he ached to cover his face.
Nearing the fear panic of one who loves another he turns to Findail, grabbing the Elohim and demanding to know what happened to her. I chuckled when Findail at first was whining about “the fate of the earth is fragile in your ungentle hands..” and Covenant flares out and Findail quickly responded “I will answer.” Not stupid that one... Yet he was still trying to justify the Elohim’s actions.Then Covenant saw Linden.
She staggered him. She hung from her rigid fetters as if both her arms had been broken. Her head had slumped forward; her wheaten hair veiled her face and chest. Covenant could not tell if she were breathing, if he had hurt or killed her in his struggle with Nom.
Fortunately (for) Findail tells him that it will not endure and she’ll come back to herself because the Silence was for Covenant. He frees her and holds her in his arms. Brinn and the First remind Covenant that they are still in danger. He frees the others, Seadreamer before Ceer so that the Haruchai can be carried. The quest readies themselves best as they may. The First leads the way out."She has been silenced," Findail said carefully, studying Covenant as he spoke, "as you were silenced at the Elohim-fest. Entering you, she took the stillness which warded you into herself." He spoke as if he were trying to make Covenant hear another message, an implied justification for what the Elohim had done. But Covenant had no ears for such things. Only the clench of his fists kept him from exploding.
En route they bump into the Lady Alif, she looks as if she ran into the Sandgorgon herself but instead met a more dangerous creature. The Lady Benj. Alif none the less helps guides the company out of the ruins of the Sandgorgon’s passage. Despite the initial distrust the First has, Alif shows her own true colors and unerringly leads them all to safety, outside the Sandwall explaining that they would be able to find safer passage on top of the Sandwall itself to the Harbor. The First agrees and begins, but Covenant has other ideas.
But Covenant was already saying, "All right. I'll find you on the wall. Somewhere. If I don't show up before then, wait for me at the Spikes."
The First swung toward him, burned a stare at him. "Where do you go?"
He was acute with venom and power. "It won't do us any good to fight our way through the Guards. Kasreyn is the real danger. He can probably sink the ship without setting foot outside Kemper's Pitch." Memories swirled in him-flaring recollections of the way he had once faced Foamfollower, Triock, and Lena after the defense of Mithil Stonedown and had made promises. Promises he had kept. "I'm going to bring this bloody rock down around his ears."
Sound familiar? Foul’s Creche comes to mind.
Brinn of course doesn’t leave his side. So the two head deeper into the Sandhold as the rest head towards the ship. Findail follows, protesting all the way.
Brinn and Covenant (never mind Findail... for the moment), meet heavy opposition yet effortlessly Covenant sweeps them away with his fire. They work their way upwards through the Sandhold, nothing can stand against them.
As they begin to climb the Kemper’s Pitch Covenant gives Brinn a task that manages to find a way to make himself useful besides Covenant’s might by guarding Covenant’s back up the long narrow stair.
Now Covenant reaches Kasreyn’s lair, where he was tortured and nearly broken until Hergrom broke the spell by breaking the back of a Hustin guard. Kasreyn is impressed at first by Covenants presence...The Haruchai looked at him with an inflection of surprise. In response, Covenant jerked a nod upward. "That's my job." His voice was stretched taut by restraint. Already, the lid he had placed over the pressure seemed to bulge and crack. "You can't help me there. I won't risk you. And I need you here." The sounds of pursuit rose clearly through the open doorway. "Keep those Guards off my back."
Brinn measured Covenant with a stare, then nodded. The stairway was narrow. Alone, he might be able to hold this chamber against any number of hustin. The task appeared to please him, as if it were condign work for an Haruchai. He gave the ur-Lord a formal bow. Covenant moved toward the stairs.
But of course Covenant has a surprise for him."So you have mastered a Sandgorgon."
His voice rustled like the folds of his robe. For centuries, he had demonstrated that nothing could harm him. Honninscrave's blow had left no mark. "That is a mighty deed. It is said among the Bhrathair that any man who slays a Sandgorgon will live forever."
Covenant cares nothing for these words and he warns Kasreyn that he has the capability to kill him if his friends aren’t allowed to reach their ship in safety. But Kasreyn (like all good villains) isn’t going to give up that easily.He answered hoarsely, like a rasp of bereavement, "I didn't."
That caught Kasreyn's attention. "Not?" Suddenly, he was angry. "Are you mad? Without death, no power can recompel that beast to its imprisonment. Alone, it may bring down upon us the former darkness. You are mighty, in good sooth," he snapped. "A mighty cause of ruin for all Bhrathairealm."
Again Covenant uses his Wild Magic to defend and attack. But now the might of his white gold and venom cannot be held back. Findail cries in anguish at the release of the magic of Covenant. He pleads with Covenant to withhold his might but Covenant demands answers. Instead Findail sadly morphs into a bird and flies to Kasreyn and before touching down settles like a blanket over the child's head on the Kemper’s back and smothers it, in effect smothering Kasreyn. Findail morphs back to human form and explains:
Covenant of course does not answer, for here is another death on his head though not by his hand. As he descends the stair and reaches Brinn he loses control and erupts into a “blaze of destruction.”Softly, he said, "That which he bore was no son of his flesh. It was of the croyel, beings of hunger and sustenance which demnify the dark places of the Earth. Those who bargain thus for life or might with the croyel are damned beyond redemption." His voice sounded like mist and tears. "Ring-wielder, are you content?"
Two battle scenes against mighty opponents and the Wild Magic still shows us that it cannot be beaten, and reminds us that it barely can be contained. It’s still a mystery at this point why Findail continues to be silent on his purpose(s) and why Covenant must hold back his might. The Elohim does not trust him because he lacks the sight to control his magic but Mhoram says that Covenant is the White Gold.
I wonder at how Brinn managed to survive Covenant’s explosion?
Excited indeed!
(is too lazy to walk to the garage to look in dictionary) Super-intense chapter and you've done a stellar job with it SF! Thank You! 
that... was... too... awful for words...