The Ropemaker Chapter 11 Summary

The Island

• Tilja wakes up on a tilting surface and gets water sprayed in her eyes (11.1). All she can remember is the magical lion, which didn't look like a normal animal to her, and reminded her of the cat on the walls of Talagh (11.2). The lion didn't look like it was put together quite right, Tilja thinks (11.3).
• Tilja realizes she's been unbelievably tired, probably because she feels like she's been fighting to keep something at bay for a long time but doesn't have to do so anymore (11.5).
• Tahl unties her (they strapped her down so she wouldn't fall off the raft), but Tilja knows it was Axtrig that woke her up (11.11-15).
• Meena was trying to use the spoon to find Faheel, but now she's not feeling well (11.19).
• The spoon is trying to point itself in one direction—south, yet again (11.23). Tahl and Alnor listen to the river to figure out exactly where that is from where they are, and Tilja goes back to sleep (11.25-26).
• When Tilja wakes up, Axtrig wants to go in her own direction, so Tilja holds the spoon as Meena says Faheel's name (11.37)—the other three fall over with the power of the resulting magic, but Tilja's fine (11.38). Axtrig is getting really excited as they approach Faheel (11.43).
• When Tilja wakes up the next morning, she sees an island (11.46). The other three are won't wake up—they're still alive, but Tilja can't seem to find their pulses or breath (11.47). She realizes it must be magic, and that the island is where she's supposed to go (11.48).
• The raft lands on the island's beach, and Tilja once again ties Axtrig to her arm, but the spoon feels peaceful, "with the calm of a cat sleeping by its own hearth" (11.50). She leaves Meena, Tahl, and Alnor behind "with a strange sense that all was well" and climbs the cliffs in front of her (11.51).
• When Tilja finally gets on solid ground, she sees a garden with a wall to keep out rabbits. She's surprised—what would a magician need with a garden wall when he could magic it himself (11.53-54)?
• The only thing that could overcome Faheel would be an even more powerful magician, but she realizes that—apart from Axtrig and her hair tie touched by the Ropemaker—Faheel's is the only magic on the island. In fact, Tilja realizes how strange it is that the magicked hair tie kept her hair in place for so long (11.57).
• A voice interrupts her thoughts, asking, "'So who are you…? And what brought you here?'" (11.59). An old man in an unfashionable linen garment and big straw hat is in front of her (11.60).
• Tilja introduces herself and the old man asks her questions at once. When Tilja tells him that her friends got knocked out by magic, he wonders what that other magic is and, when she explains about Axtrig, asks to see the spoon (11.66-69). The man says it's "'just a wooden spoon,'" but that he had felt its presence approaching him for a long time—after all, he was the one who created it (11.72).
• Now, for some reason, the spoon seems like it has no magic in it, but Tilja tells him that's because she's touching it (11.72-73). When he asks about her journey, she tells him the story of Asarta and the Valley (11.77).
• The man asks to hold Axtrig (11.80). When he gives it back to Tilja, Axtrig's magic is gone and it's just another wooden spoon (11.81). The man looks a bit more refreshed after this, and explains to Tilja that he's taken back some of the powers from the spoon that he'd deposited in it (11.83). He introduces himself to her as Faheel. Tilja feels let down—he's so calm and old (11.84). How can he magick the Valley against the Empire for twenty more generations?
• Tilja asks Faheel about her friends, but he says they couldn't endure his strong magic, so they're sleeping (11.87).
• Faheel invites her into his house, but then asks about another piece of magic she was carrying—the hair tie (11.89-90). Tilja tells him about the Ropemaker, to which Faheel replies, 'Ah... time is a great rope [...]'" (11.95).
• He brings her back to his house through his garden, which Tilja finds strangely ordinary for a magician who's supposed to be so powerful. Even his house is quite normal (11.101). As Tilja tells her story of their journey to Faheel, she eats and drinks (11.104).
• Faheel sighs when she's done and says she's brought him news he's been hoping for and news he's feared (11.105).
• He wants to test Tilja's magic, so they climb up to his attic (11.112-115). Faheel acknowledges that Tilja must be disappointed in what she sees—he himself has aged, though his powers have not (1.116). Before he leaves this Earth, he has to finish something, though he doesn't describe it.
• He's been saving his strength for one last task—but now the time has come for him to use his magic again. "'The whole of the next age is poised in the balance.'" (11.117).
• Faheel takes a small gold ring out of a box (11.118). When he puts it on, he looks younger and more powerful—this is his magic ring (11.121). He looks ageless, like Silena did in Talagh (11.125).
• Faheel then asks for the hair tie, and Tilja finds a golden hair in it (11.130). He observes that the magic in it was pretty strong, not just any "village charm" (11.131).
• Tilja looks down at a marble table that turns into a map of the Empire and the valley (11.132). Faheel tells her to put the blond hair anywhere on the map; she does so, noticing that the hair is an unusual color of gold and also unusually shiny (11.38).
• Tilja realizes that the hair, which must have come from the Ropemaker, has the same shininess as the unicorn and the dog. In fact, all of the magical animals she ran into on her journey to Faheel—the unicorn, dog, lion, cat, and donkey—must have all been the Ropemaker in disguise (11.139).
• Tilja now gets why Silena said that Til herself didn't do all the work, but had help. Remember that donkey?
• Back to the map. Faheel zooms in on the road to Talagh and the Imperial palace, where a procession of soldiers is going (11.141-142).
• Faheel puts the hair away, but first asks Tilja to hold her finger closer and closer to the ring (11.145). She doesn't feel anything until she actually holds it, and then only picks up on a hum (11.146). Faheel's astonished—he's never seen anything like that (11.148).
• Now it's time for Faheel to gush—about his plan to save the world, of course. Unfortunately Tilja's Valley will have to wait until Faheel can do the one thing he has left to do before he dies (11.150). He's about to croak, so it's got to be done soon.
• Faheel must destroy the power of the Watchers, which he created for the Emperor years ago—it turns out they were meant to help him control the floods of magic in the Empire, but they turned nasty.
• But his magic ring needs a new finger to sit on—and past heirs haven't proven worthy (11.151). The Ropemaker sounds perfect for it—he's so far uncorrupted, but he's currently at the palace in Talagh, which means the Emperor wants the Ropemaker to become a Watcher. It's too late…
• ... or is it? The ceremony at the palace means the Watchers are all hanging out together, so Faheel can destroy them in one fell swoop. After he's done that, he can drop the ring off with the Ropemaker (11.153) and finally kick the bucket. He's got to go to Talagh pronto, but he has to bring the ring with him and get past the Watchers (11.154), which wouldn't leave him with enough strength to do what he's gotta do (11.155). Hmm…
• Tilja offers to come along to get the ring past the city's wards, but Faheel can't teleport himself and her there together (11.157). He can, however, hold time still and bring her there in a magic bubble so that, when they arrive in the city, time won't have passed—which sounds like a pretty good alternative if you ask us.
• Faheel asks Tilja to go back downstairs, where she contemplates the Ropemaker as these strange animals. They all were perfectly nice, except that one weird, menacing unicorn that reminds her of her mother's dream, in which a unicorn hit her with its horn (11.163).
• Tilja's brought back to reality when she sees a huge brown bird with a red crest in the garden (11.164). But before she can do anything, time stops (11.165).
• Everything is temporarily frozen, and time only stops around Tilja herself (the "bubble" revolves around her) (11.17). When she and Faheel approach the bird, it moves again, and they settle into a litter that the bird, called a roc, will use to carry them to Talagh.
• And now they're flying. The view is great, but Tilja stows away the box with the ring in it for safekeeping (11.177); she ponders the odd business of changing time and what could have happened if she screwed things up (11.177).
• On their journey, she peeks out from behind the curtain to see how things have frozen in time (11.182)—and before she knows it, they're at Talagh (11.183).