Kevin's Watch

"Here is a habitation, in good sooth - a dwelling fit for Giants. Such work our people do not lightly undertake or inconsiderately perform. Perhaps the Giants of this place knew that they were lost to Home. But they were not lost to themselves. They have given pride to all their people."

"Can you read it? Do you know what it means? I've been here three times" - four counting the brief translation during which he had refused Mhoram's summons - "but no one's ever been able to tell me what it means."
(snip)
Swallowing heavily, Pitchwife murmered, "No words. There are none. Your scant human tongue is void-" Tears spread through the creases of his face, mapping his emotion.
But the First said for him, "All tongues, Giantfriend. All tongues lack such language. There is that in the granite glory of the world's heart which may not be uttered with words. All other expression must be dumb when the pure stone speaks. And here that speech has been made manifest. Ah, my heart!" Her voice rose as if she wanted to both sing and keen. But for her also no words were adequate. Softly, she concluded, "The Giants of the Land were taught much by their loss of Home. I am humbled before them."

"Forsooth," responded Pitchwife with a light chuckle. "Had this Demondim-spawn not been gifted to the ur-Lord by a Giant, I would fear he means to ravish the maidenhood of our foremast."
At that, laughter spouted from the nearby crewmembers, then spread like a kinship of humor through the rigging as his jest was repeated to those who had not heard it.

"A costly choice, Unbeliever. Costly. Much harm might have been averted-"
Foamfollower interrupted him. "Costly! Might!" A fierce grin stretched his lips, echoed out of his deep eyes. "A child was saved! Covenant - my friend - even reduced as I am, I can hear joy in such a choice. Your bravery - Stone and Sea! It astounds me."

"Gently, my friend. He has turned his back on vengeance. Two thousand years and more of pure service were violated for him - yet he chooses not to avenge them. Such choices are not easily made. They are not easily borne. Retribution - ah, my friend, retribution is the sweetest of all dark sweet dreams."

duchess of malfi wrote:I sobbed like a baby, I am not ashamed to admit, when TC gave the dead giants their release from damnation at the end of TWL.

Foamfollower's voice went on in Covenant's mind, giving him words. "They put away their tools."

But a change had come over the night. The air grew taut. The sound of the waves was muffled by the concentration of the atmosphere. Strange forces roused themselves within the city.

"And banked their fires."

The ramparts teemed with shadows, and the shadows began to take form. Light as eldritch and elusive as sea phosphorescence cast rumors of movement up and down the ways of <I>Coercri</I>.

"And made ready their homes."

Glimpses which resembled something Covenant had seen beore flickered in the rooms and solidified, shedding a pale glow like warm pearls. Tall ghosts of nacre and dismay began to flow along the passages.

"As if in preperation for departure."

The Dead of The Grieve had come to haunt the night.

Pitchwife led the way. With a sharp wail of aggrievement, he rushed to the bonfire and plunged his arms to the shoulders in among the blazing forewood. Flames slapped his face, bent his head back in a mute howl against the angle of his crippled chest.

Linden cried out. But the <I>Haruchai</I> understood, and did not move.

The First joined Pitchwife. Kneeling on the stone, she clamped her hands around a raging log and held it.

Seadreamer did not stop at the edge of the flames. Surging as if the Earth-Sight had deprived him of all restraint, he hurled his whole body into the fire, stood there with the blaze writhing about him like the utterance of his agony.

"So, Thomas Covenant, do you tell stories?"

"I did, once."

"Once? In three words as sad a tale as any I've heard. But tell me, how do you live without stories?"

"I live."

"In two words a tale more tragic than the first. Pray, Thomas Covenant, say no more. With one word you shall break my heart."

"Foamfollower?" he wept. "My friend?" With his voice, he begged the Giant to understand him; he lacked the strength to articulate what he had to do.

"Do not fear for me", Foamfollower replied. He sounded strangely proud, as if Covenant had honored him in some rare way. "Thomas Covenant, Ur-Lord and Unbeliever, brave white gold wielder--I desire no other end. Do whatever you must, my friend. I am at Peace. I have beheld a marvelous story."

That stone surprised Linden. Instinctively, she had questioned the nature of the Giantship, believing that granite would be too brittle to withstand the stress of the seas. But as her vision sprang into the ship, she saw her error. This granite had the slight but necessary flexibility of bone. Its vitality went beyond the limitations of stone.

And that vitality shone through the dromond's crew. They were Giants; but on their ship they were more than that. They were the articulation and service of a brave and breathing organism, the hands and laughter of a life which exalted them. Together, the stone and the Giants gave Starfare's Gem the look of a vessel which contended against the powerful seas simply because no other test could match its native exultation

..."The Giants of the Land were taught much by their loss of Home. I am humbled before them."

For a moment, Covenant could not respond. But then a memory came back to him--a recollection of the formal salutation that the people of Revelstone had formerly given to the Giants. Hail and welcome, inheritor of the Land's loyalty. Welcome whole or hurt, in boon or bane--ask or give. To any requiring name we will not fail. In a husky voice, he breathed:

"Giant-troth Revelstone, ancient ward--
Heart and door of Earthfriend's main:
Preserve the true with Power's sword,
Thou ages-keeper, mountain-reign."

At that, the First turned toward him; and for an instant her face was concentrated with weeping as if he had touched her deep Giantish love of stone. Almost immediately she recovered her sterness--but not before he had seen how absolutely she was ready now to serve him. Gruffly, she said, "Thomas Covenant, I have titled you Giantfriend, but it is not enough. You are the Earthfriend. No other name suffices."

Then she went and put her arms around her husband.