I am going to combine these two chapters, as I do not think that anyone could stop at the end of chapter 11 without going on to read chapter 12, unless they are literally forced.
Holy cats!!!
and off we go to the races:
[spoiler]
Linden, Covenant, and Jeremiah travel to the plateau before Melenkurion Syyweir in mid afternoon, after a series of disorienting gates.
This is not Elena's Skyweir.
There is no Rivenrock, and only one peak rather than two.
It's eastern face is 15,000-20,000 perpendicular feet. To give you an idea, the tallest of the magnicent Rockies are in the range of 14,000-15,000 feet in total elevation, but they are coming up from a surrounding area that is already about 5,000 feet above sea level. So when you are driving on I-25 along the Front Range in Colorado, when you see those awe inspiring snow clad mountains, you are driving on the High Plains and are already at over 5,000 feet. The hugest mountains, such as Pike's Peak (which I can personaly attest you can see from tens of miles away) are a bit over 14,000 feet - so less than 10,000 feet above the surroundings. We're talking possibly three times that much for Skyweir. I do not know if you can even see a mountain like that in our world? Maybe in Nepal?
Linden can feel that there are huge forces building up in the Earth, and that there will be an immense earthquake here someday. Covenant tells her that here will indeed be an earthquake, which will split the summit and form Rivenrock - but that it will not happen now, and will happen before Damelon ever finds his way to the mountain. No one will witness it, and no one will be hurt.
Jeremiah takes his woodstack that he obtained from Garroting Deep and he builds a door to the Earth Blood. Apparently his lego and racecar tracks were other doors he had built, back in the real world, to access the Land. But where could have obtained such power in the real world to do such things???
And, if he can build such doors, why do they need Linden? Are they telling the truth when they say that as long as they have her with them, the Elohim will leave them alone? At this point, I never know what to believe when Covenant and Jeremiah say anything.
All of Linden's doubts crash in on her. So many secrets, so many lies - her doubts are completely justified. So she tricks Covenant and Jeremiah, so that she can get to the Earth Blood first. Good girl! And quite cleverly, she makes a command that can hurt no one but herself - she asks to see the truth.
And that truth is heart rending for her to see.
It is not Thomas Covenant - it is his horrible murderous son, Roger, in a huge betrayal of his father.
And even worse - it is Jeremiah - slain in the real world by bullets - and quite mindleesly possessed by a croyel ever since he was just a tiny little kid, and placed his hand in Lord Foul's summoning fire.
All of those years of love and care she lavished on Jeremiah - and he was never even really there.
I wonder strongly about the implications of this. Can Jeremiah ever even be rescued? In the second chrons we see two croyels, and in slaying them you also slay their hosts.
That is how Findail stopped the Kemper...and how Hamako and the waynhim stopped the snow monster invasion... So, how can you save this little boy? And since he was taken so young, is there even a little boy left in there to save???After some talk with the horrid Roger, where we find that Kasty cut off one of his hands to give him one of Kasty's hands (and power) in its place - and that they did indeed try to keep her away from anyone and anything that could have revealed the truth about them - Linden battles with RC and Jeremiah. She does not want her son to get away, as she feels she will never be able to find him again, will not be able to help him if he gets away.
She is furious over what was done to her son - he was so little when he became possessed that he could have never agreed to it so she knows any agreement was between the croyel and Foul - and heartbroken beyond measure.
The power of the battle between the Staff of Law powered up by the Seven Words and the Earth Blood, the power of Kasty as expressed through RC's hand, and the powers of the croyel set off the earthquake. The croyel uses its powers to fend off the falling rock from the ceiling of the cavern - and it and RC get away through one of their gates. The earthquake and river take Linden.
holy cats
holy cats holy cats So much treachery from so many different beings. So many lies. So many betrayals. So many layers of evil, and I bet we cannot even see the bottom of those layers yet...
And thus ends the first half of the book - without our even knowing if Linden is alive.
[/spoilers]
to the heartbreaking revelations to Linden under Skyweir... 
