This is a dark time, it is a time for grieving, a time of sorrow. Danger looms closer with every step taken by Covenant, Linden, the First, Pitchwife, and Sunder - and already death has claimed one of Covenant's companions, one who joined his quest almost at the beginning, and dear to Sunder above all else.
How can we even begin to understand Sunder's suffering? Hollian had been to him a symbol of hope and redemption, almost a blessing to reward him for his choice - to follow Covenant, and trust in his vision of the Land of old. But above all: Hollian had brought light into a life that had been darkened due to the demands of the Clave, the Sunbane, and Mithil Stonedown... The demands which had claimed Sunder's wife, child and mother, and which only his father had had the faith to reject. Is it a wonder then, that Sunder is the true protagonist of this chapter? Something breaks within him when Hollian dies, that much is certain: but is it madness or percipience that leads him to carry her corpse with him through the miles between where she died and Andelain?
Darkness is slowly swallowing the small group of people - headed towards a confrontation with the Despiser himself, surrounded by reminders of the evil caused by the Sunbane, now witnessing the loss of a loved one, and the madness of another... was there any other time during the Quest in which they found themselves in such a dark and terrible situation? The spirits of the whole Quest are weary and anguished with Hollian's death - for she gave her life so that they might be saved, and this is not a sacrifice easily repaid: and the confrontation with Lord Foul looms ever closer."He's going to Andelain," Covenant grated, "He's going to carry her all the way to Andelain. Who do you think he wants to find?"
[...] Linden stared after them and groaned. His Dead! The Dead in Andelain. Nassic his father. Kalina his mother. The wife and son he had shed in the name of Mithil Stonedown.
Or Hollian herself?
Sweet Christ! How will he stand it? He'll go mad and never come back.
Yet something is fundamentally different now from the many other moments in which a crisis was reached during the Quest - Bhrathairealm, the Isle, Revelstone. Look at it a little closer. Yes, Sunder is broken, but even though he is oblivious, he walks forward - he seeks still a way through which he might be reunited with his Hollian, and in the meantime, he slowly dies to the eyes of his companions. As we will see in Andelain, he still is fundamentally himself - he is not yet lost. But the First and Pitchwife, Covenant and Linden... is there despair in their hearts? No. There is sadness, of course, and concern for Sunder - sorrow for Hollian's loss, and a burning desire - a real, deep need - to see Andelain, even though it might already be too late. But there is no burning despair, no total loss of hope - they have changed. The fact that the First and Pitchwife appear less and less as we approach Andelain, the fact that Covenant and Linden are closer now, leads us to see how much the Quest has changed both of them - the saviors of the Land, but above all, those who were in need of redemption themselves. It is almost over now - look at the whole journey as the path their souls needed to walk on so that they might be redeemed.
In Linden's heart, the wound dealt by her father's suicide and the murder of her mother no longer festers... the dreadful secret she had been hiding for so many years is now shared, and Covenant's acceptance brings her some solace: but above all, maybe for the first time in her life, she feels not alone - oh, remember how her heart beat when Covenant summoned her after the Banefire caamora! Remember how much she feared his refusal... and how he had held her, he had shared with her all that he is, he had accepted her for who she was, no more and no less. It doesn't matter anymore that he might die, that he might suffer, that they might both perish: she is no longer alone, and all that she has seen, all that she has been through, allowed her to slowly understand what Covenant wants to fight for, the Land that he so loved, and the reasons why he did so. One last thing remains, so that she might see the final truth - a token of what the Land once was, and might yet be, if they succeed. Andelain. It is a need so severe, such a burning desire, only marred by the fact that Linden still feels too powerless, she still feels a little helpless, and her anger towards Foul and his ravages, the Sunbane he crafted to suit his purpose, is mounting. When Covenant suggests that maybe Andelain might not have lasted, Linden can only think that
She still must learn a final lesson, for which the seeds will be planted in Andelain's fertile soil. And it is time - she could have not learned such lesson anytime before, and so, as Caer-Caveral said, it was good that she didn't enter Andelain when Covenant first did.if it hasn't, I don't care what happens. I'll tear that bastard's heart out. I'll get the power somewhere, and I'll tear his heart out.
Linden doesn't know yet what could the price be... But Andelain's beauty cuts at our hearts. As Covenant himself screams..."Laughing and weeping rose in her together and could not be uttered. This was Andelain, the heart of the Land Covenant loved. He lay on his face in the grass, arms outspread as if to hug the ground; and she knew that the Hills had changed everything. Not in him, but in her. There were many things she did not understand; but this she did; the bale of the Sunbane had no power here. She was free of it here. And the Law which brought such health to life was worth the price any heart was willing to pay.
That affirmation came to her like a clean sunrise. It was the positive conviction for which she had been so much in need. Any price. To peserve the last beauty of the Land. Any price at all.
And Covenant, even though now fundamentally different, still feels nagging doubts and uncertainties. Not about his purpose or his plan - but about the wisdom of some of his choices, such as accepting Sunder and Hollian. And what of Andelain? He needs to see it one last time - put yourself in his place, knowing what he knows about what is going to happen. You know you are going to Mount Thunder to die. You are going to sacrifice yourself in order to save the Land from Lord Foul, after all you have already done, after becoming an integral part of the world itself... Let us then hope and see the beauty of Andelain one last time, to gather the strength of will you need, the peace you crave, the last glimpse of the Land as it once was, and the comfort of familiar voices and faces, the Dead who welcomed you when you last came to the heart of the Land, and whom you will join in a little while. Your old friends, who gave so much for the Land - Bannor, Mhoram, Elena, Foamfollower... Those who loved you when you thought you were unworthy of any love."Andelain!"
How could one not need such love and such serenity to make peace with the world, and prepare for what is to come? For Covenant knows that a terrible trial is ahead of him - a trial in which he will be tested more severely than he has ever been. He holds Linden close, but he dares not share his plan with her - for he knows she would never accept it: she loves him too much, to accept such a plan; and so, the only people from which he may gather strength, the only people who know and who can comfort him, are his Dead.
We are coming full-circle here - as Covenant entered Andelain in search of answers when he came to the wounded Land, he now enters Andelain in search of comfort as he approaches the end of his journey. And as we enter Andelain with him - oh, it's like falling in love for the first time, all over again! From the twisted growth of the fertile sun to the peace and beauty of the hills of Andelain, to every blade of glass, every flower, every nuance of color and fragrance, the sun of loveliness!
Here Sunder looms ever closer to madness and death - and yet he stands on the brink of life. Believing Hollian can be saved through mundane means, he tries to force aliantha through her dead lips, and weeps and cries when he realizes she is gone. But this is the darkest hour, just before dawn: for even the tragedy of Hollian's death can be sanctified and turned to good. It is the moment Caer-Caveral waited for all these millennia: a time to be released from service, by giving himself to the Land so that it might be saved. The Dead know the future, and Covenant's intent; and so does the Forestal, after all. And he comes, knowing the hour is upon him: like Glimmermere, he, too, recognizes Covenant's new status, and asks him to step aside, that what needs to be done be done.As they neared the demarcation, Linden saw it more acutely. Here thronging, tormented brush and bracken, mimosas cracked by their own weight, junipers as grotesque as the dancing of demons, all stopped as if they had met a wall; there a greensward as lush as springtime and punctuated with peonies like music swept up the graceful hillslopes to the stately poplars and red-fruited elders that crowned the crests. At the boundary of the Forestal's reign, mute hurt gave way to aliantha, and the Sunbane was gone from the pristine sky.
Gratitude and gladness and relief made the world new around her as the Soulsease carried the company out of the Land's brokenness into Andelain.
When she looked behind her, she could no longer see the Sunbane's green aura. The sun shone out of the cerulean heavens with the yellow warmth of loveliness.
In the end, though, it is not Caer-Caveral, but Hile Troy who speaks his farewell to Covenant, begging him not to interfere - because within the ageless Caer-Caveral a part of Hile Troy still lives. It is the farewell of a man to a man, of men who, willingly or not, shared a kinship once because of a woman they both loved, rather than of a Forestal to the Unbeliever.
A last Law must be broken for Covenant to defeat Foul: and as he says to Linden when all is over, as she is going back home:
So he comes to Sunder, and Hollian's spirit comes with him. It is Sunder who must help him break that last Law: and Hollian now knows the necessity for it. While Caer-Caveral speaks, a battle rages in Sunder's heart - despair against morality. Sunder may be broken, but the reinforced morality he gained during the Quest now stands out as he makes the choice not to attack Caer-Caveral, even though that is what he and Hollian ask of him. He still is the Sunder who always abhorred death, and never forgave himself for the lives he had taken."Caer-Caveral made it possible. Hile Troy." An old longing suffused his ton. "That was the 'necessity' he talked about. Why he had to give his life. It was the only way to open that particular door. So that
Hollian could be brought back. And so that I wouldn't be like the rest of the Dead - unable to act. He broke the Law that would've kept me from opposing Foul. Otherwise I would've been just a spectator."
But the need of the Land is great, and Sunder does not know the reason why Caer-Caveral and Hollian ask him to strike: they know, however, that good will come from that blow, and they also know that no amount of words will be enough to force Sunder to act. So, it is Caer-Caveral who must act himself, and Hollian with him - even though she grieves due to the suffering she is causing to Sunder."Son of Nassic" - the music contained no command now, but only sorrow - "you must strike me."
Covenant flinched as if he expected Sunder to obey. The Graveller was desperate enough for anything. But Linden watched him with all her senses and saw his inchoate violence founder in dismay. He lowered the krill. His eyes were wide with supplication. Behind the mad obsession which had ruled him since Hollian's death still lived a man who loathed killing - who had shed too much blood and never forgiven himself for it. His soul seemed to collapse inward. After days of endurance, he was dying.
The Forestal struck the turf with his staff, and the Hills rang. "Strike!"
His demand was so potent that Linden raised her hands involuntarily, though it was not directed at her. Yet some part of Sunder remained unbroken, clear. The corners of his jaw knotted with the old obduracy which had once enabled him to defy Gibbon. Deliberately, he unbent his elbow, let the krill dangle from his weak hand. His head slumped forward until his chin rested on his chest. He no longer made any effort to breathe."
Sunder! There is but one thing that forces him to act - Hollian's leaving, and with her, all happiness he had found among the dead. He cannot allow her to go - even if it means shedding more blood. To see her spirit and hear her words once more, just to lose her again... who could ever endure such a terrible trial? Who could accept to stand true to his abhorrence of death, and lose the woman he loves forever, after having just found her again?! Linden could stop him, but"Very well", he trilled angrily. "Withhold - and be lost. The Land is ill served by those who will not pay the price of love." Turning sharply away, he strode back through the company in the direction from which he had come. He still bore Hollian's physical form clasped in his left arm.
And the dead eh-Brand went with him as if she approved. Her eyes were silver and grieving.
It was too much. A strangled cry tore Sunder's refusal. He could not let Hollian go: his desire for her was too strong. Raising the krill above his head in both fists, he ran at the Forestal's back."
With this one act, a fundamental Law is broken. It is broken through the love that bound Hollian and Sunder as one, so that the blow he deals to the Forestal is dealt by her hand as well. It is broken by the last song of Caer-Caveral, which restores life into Hollian and infuses both she and Sunder with the power of Andelain itself; it is broken when that last song and that last act of love bring Hollian's spirit back into the world. This is the moment in which Foul's defeat becomes possible. It is a moment of hope, of impossible wishes suddenly fulfilled. When Sunder and Hollian come, how can we not be moved? They are together again, in the flesh, and now can we not rejoice at this omen of hope?"Yet she did not. She had no way to measure the implications of this crisis. But she had seen the pain in Hollian's eyes, the eh-Brand's recognition of necessity. And she trusted the slim, brave woman. She made no effort to stop Sunder as he hammered the point of the krill between Caer-Caveral's shoulder-blades with the force of his life."
[...]
"Smoke curled upward to mark the place where the Forestal had been slain. Yet the night was not dark. Other illuminations gathered around the stunned companions.
From beyond the stump, Sunder and Hollian came walking hand-in-hand. They were limned with silver like the Dead; but they were alive in the flesh - human and whole. Caer-Caveral's mysterious purpose had been accomplished. Empowered and catalysed by the Forestal's spirit, Sunder's passion had found its object; and the krill had severed the boundary which separated him from Hollian. In that way, the Graveller, who was trained for bloodshed and whose work was killing, had brought his love back to life. Around the two of them bobbed a circle of Wraiths, dancing a bright cavort of welcome. Their warm loveliness seemed to promise the end of all pain."
Yet, it was paid for in sorrow as well as love. It is the moment in which Caer-Caveral, the last of the Forestals, leaves the world - a man we once had known when he was still a human being, with his failures and his flaws, and probably the only living being on the Land who still remembered Elena and the Lords. He was, in a very real sense, the memory of the Land, and with the passing of the last Forestal, the Land itself loses a blessing, and the Earthpower, a song. Foul's defeat might now be possible...
"But in Andelain there was no more music."
