Ahira's Hangar

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:









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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]

You're right, there's no way anyone could've stopped reading after Chapter 11. Absolutely no way!

[spoiler]



Tragedy always seems to follow the Blood of the Earth. Death, grief, horror...these things haunt the deeps of Melenkurion Skyweir.

My mind is reeling...stunned...this is one of the most emotionally overpowering episodes in all the Chronicles. I admit, I was in tears too. But at least we (and Linden) have gained the truth along with the tragedy of it all.

Duchess, your instincts served you well. I was thinking up until the very last moments that, even though something was off-kilter about Covenant, it was still Covenant. See, this is why I avoid mystery novels - I'm hopeless at putting clues together. But now, with the benefit of hindsight, it's all painfully clear. I feel so incredibly bad for Linden, that she got used so thoroughly by Roger. His ruthless manipulations make him as bad as the Despiser. I wonder how much Roger knows of the grand designs of Foul and/or the mad schemes of Kastenessen. He has certainly made himself literally the right-hand man of Kast. I mean, the Elohim cut off his own hand and gave it to Roger?? At first, that scenario makes no sense, because how can you chop off a part of a fluid being like an Elohim? But then I thought: okay, if Kast had truly merged with a skurj, then I guess that would make him a more concrete, physical being. Anway, that's all academic. Nasty Kasty!

The croyel's possession of Jeremiah is horrifying. The croyel is just maybe the single creepiest thing in all the Earth. Its complete ownership of Jeremiah is intensely disturbing:

"A small hairless creature like a deformed child clung to his back. Its clawed fingers dug into his shoulders: its sharp toes gouged his ribs. Its malign yellow eyes regarded Linden while its teeth chewed ceaselessly at the side of Jeremiah's neck and its mouth drank his life."

Ugh. The stuff of nightmares indeed.

This is all dizzying. How can Linden help her son now? Like you said, if one kills the croyel, then the host body dies, too. At the same time, I'm just so relieved that Linden has finally discovered the truth. And I agree, it was a very clever Command on her part - it could hurt no one but herself. But what a deep hurt it is.

This part of the book has already been seared into my mind. I applaud SRD for how masterfully he built everything up to this heart-rending climax!



[/spoiler]

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Some of his greatest writing in all of the Chrons comes along in this first part of FR. From the heights of Berek's camp to the heartbreaking revelations to Linden under Skyweir...

I am still trying to encompass it all, myself.


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[spoiler]


Again, I have nothing to add to what has already been said, other than that I am stunned at how close my instincts were...


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yeah, you were right there, but I did not want to say anything to you about it because of spoilers

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*blush*

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Seriously...

I have never called a reveal in a book that close before in my life...



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