Homeland - Chapter Three

[kalinara]

So last time, we saw Drizzt's entrance into the world amidst the family that is, to be honest, far more entertaining and interesting than he is.

Sadly, Drizzt isn't even the most interesting "non-evil and prone to purple prose and melodramatic monologue" member of his family. Oh well.

But to be honest, I'm actually having a lot more fun with this book than I've had for all the Icewind Dale Trilogy, so well done, Salvatore.



So as you may recall, we just saw House Do'Urden utterly destroy House DeVir. There is however one piece left on the table: the wizard Alton DeVir. Matron Malice, through her son Dinin, has enlisted the aid of a wizard known as "the Faceless One" to deal with him.

We start this chapter at Sorcere, the wizard academy in Menzoberranzan, with a young apprentice named Masoj. As an apprentice, he's basically relegated to cleaning duties, which means he's in a very good position to watch Alton DeVir go to meet his fate.

And indeed, the Faceless One has set up a spell that would kill Alton DeVir immediately. Dinin's instructions are to make Alton aware of his fate, but the Faceless One is smart enough to realize that he should just get it done instead. I appreciate that in a villain.

Poor Alton, of course, has no idea why he's here. (The POV of this chapter drifts a lot. It's a shame that wasn't tightened up a bit.) He worries that he had failed one of his lessons, which is a fatal mistake in Menzoberranzan. But as far as he knows, he's been doing well and is close to graduation.

Alton's smart enough to realize that he's probably NOT being summoned for a simple congratulations. Drow society doesn't tend to work that way. He's alert and ready, and when he hears chanting (spell casting), he's ready to act.

-

Our viewpoint shifts to Masoj, outside, who sees the doors explode. Alton DeVir is scrambling out of the room with his master in pursuit. The Faceless One does spare a moment to order Masoj to clean the mess up. Masoj instead intends to follow and see what happens.

Alton, for his part, is still running. He's reached an obstacle: the Faceless One's library. It's got candles, because heatvision isn't very useful when it comes to reading books. Fair enough. I was actually wondering about that. Alton isn't used to candlelight in the same way the Faceless One is, so it's very bright and distracting to him.

He reaches the library door, but it won't budge. He looks for another way out, finds what he thinks is a passageway, and instead a mirror. He tries to rush it, thinking it might be a dimension door. But nope. It's just a mirror. Crash.

-

We, sadly, shift away from this tense and interesting fight to something far less so: baby Drizzt. See, there's something odd about him:

“Look at his eyes,” Vierna whispered to Maya as they examined the newest member of House Do’Urden.

Truly the babe’s eyes were remarkable. Though the child had been out of the womb for less than an hour, the pupils of his orbs darted back and forth inquisitively. While they showed the expected radiating glow of eyes seeing into the infrared spectrum, the familiar redness was tinted by a shade of blue, giving them a violet hue.

Don't worry girls, he's just a Mary Sue.

Maya and Briza wonder if he's blind. Drow society is particularly ablest and don't allow children with any "physical deficiency" to live. But Vierna proves that Drizzt isn't blind by waving her hand in front of his face: he follows her fingers.

Just in case we didn't realize how special Drizzt is, we get this:

Maya saw that Vierna spoke the truth. She leaned closer to the babe, studying his face and strange eyes. “What do you see, Drizzt Do’Urden?” she asked softly, not in an act of gentleness toward the babe, but so that she would not disturb her mother, resting in the chair at the head of the spider idol.

“What do you see that the rest of us cannot?”

--

Okay, back to the fun part. Alton is on the floor surrounded by glass. The Faceless One has arrived and is angry about the mirror, of course. He uses some kind of spell to bind Alton and bitchily asks why Alton didn't just stand still and die.

Alton tries to pull rank as a member of the fourth House. Because of course, he doesn't know his family has just been obliterated. This gives the Faceless One the chance to follow Dinin's order after all and taunt him.

Alton asks who did this, but the Faceless One, still mad about the mirror, decides not to tell him... But then...

“But you broke my mirror!” the master growled. “Die stupid, stupid boy! Find your own answers!”

The Faceless One’s chest jerked out suddenly, and he shuddered in convulsions, babbling curses in a tongue far beyond the terrified student’s comprehension. What vile spell did this disfigured master have prepared for him, so wretched that its chant sounded in an arcane language foreign to learned Alton’s ears, so unspeakably evil that its semantics jerked on the very edge of its caster’s control? The Faceless One then fell forward to the floor and expired.

Stunned, Alton followed the line of the master’s hood down to his back—to the tail of a protruding dart. Alton watched the poisoned thing as it continued to shudder from the body’s impact, then he turned his scan upward to the center of the room, where the young cleaning attendant stood calmly.

“Nice weapon, Faceless One!” Masoj beamed, rolling a two-handed, crafted crossbow over in his hands. He threw a wicked smile at Alton and fitted another dart.

I think apprentice Masoj might be my favorite so far.

That's quite an entrance.

--

UGH, back to Drizzt's special eyes. Malice wants to know what's going on. They show her. She's stunned. She has them bring a candle to see how his eyes will appear in the world of light (I suppose because infravision makes most drow eyes glow red?) and they are still purple.

Yes, we get it. He's Elizabeth Taylor.

Interestingly, Drizzt doesn't cry, even in the stinging light. And they all get dramatic:

“Purple again,” whispered the matron, paying no heed to her daughter’s rambling. “In both worlds, the child’s eyes show as purple.”

Vierna gasped audibly when she looked again upon her tiny brother and his striking lavender orbs.

“He is your brother,” Matron Malice reminded her, viewing Vierna’s gasp as a hint of what might come. “When he grows older and those eyes pierce you so, remember, on your life, that he is your brother.”

This leads to a weird bit:

Vierna turned away, almost blurting a reply she would have regretted making. Matron Malice’s exploits with nearly every male soldier of the Do’Urden house—and many others that the seductive matron managed to sneak away from other houses—were almost legendary in Menzoberranzan. Who was she to be spouting reminders of prudent and proper behavior? Vierna bit her lip and hoped that neither Briza nor Malice had been reading her thoughts at that moment.

In Menzoberranzan, thinking such gossip about a high priestess, whether or not it was true, got you painfully executed.

...why would it get someone executed? Why is Malice's behavior somehow not prudent or proper?

Drow society is matriarchal, status of male drow is based on their mothers, unless status is granted to them as a "patron" or consort. Vierna is choosing not to slut shame her mother, but why is that even a question.

As it turns out, of course, this is a clumsy way to introduce the idea that Drizzt is Zaknafein's son, not Rizzen's. But who the fuck cares?

Anyway, Malice picks up on the reaction and decides to order Vierna to "prepare", meaning to raise him until he's ready to go off to the academy. This is a significant obstacle for Vierna, who is close to obtaining the level of high priestess.

For her part, misandrist Briza volunteers. She's already a high priestess and enjoys "teaching males their place in our world". But nope:

Malice glared at her. “You are a high priestess. You have other duties more important than word-weaning a male child.” Then to Vierna, she said, “The babe is yours; do not disappoint me in this! The lessons you teach Drizzt will reinforce your own understanding of our ways. This exercise at ‘mothering’ will aid you in your quest to become a high priestess.” She let Vierna take a moment to view the task in a more positive light, then her tone became unmistakably threatening once again. “It may aid you, but it surely can destroy you!”

So Vierna's now stuck child rearing for ten years. She's not particularly happy about this, but pissing off her mom is worse.

--

Back to Alton and Masoj. Alton wants to know why Masoj acted. It wasn't for Alton specifically, Masoj says. But he's insulted that as a prince of the sixth House...well, fifth now, he was relegated to cleaning staff.

Apparently, he'd been plotting to kill the Faceless One for a while. He'd been serving as apprentice, as is customary before one is admitted properly into Sorcere, but the Faceless One intended to keep him out and send him to the Fighter Academy (Melee-Magthere) instead. He's very close to his twenty-fifth birthday and running out of time.

So perfect opportunity, kill both Alton and the Faceless One and blame it on their wizard's duel. I respect that.

But Alton has a better suggestion: HE takes the role of the Faceless One and can give Masoj the training and mentorship needed. (Fortunately, the Faceless One was something of a hermit.) Masoj wisely points out that Alton could decide to get rid of him too, but Alton would rather not anger House Hun'ett, now fifth in the city, without a family at his back. So...marriage of convenience in a way.

Masoj is on board, and goes rattling through the cupboards (so carelessly that Alton thinks that he might be better suited to the fighter's school), but he's actually reclaiming an onyx statuette of a panther. He'd been given it from a lower plane denizen, but the Faceless One took the reward and credit. Everything else will remain Alton's. Masoj can show him what is what.

But there is one final detail:

“Where are you going?” Alton asked.

“To get the acid.”

“Acid?” Alton hid his panic well, though he had a terrible feeling that he understood what Masoj meant to do.

“You want the disguise to appear authentic,” Masoj explained matter-of-factly. “Otherwise, it would not be much of a disguise. We should take advantage of the web while it lasts. It will hold you still.”

“No,” Alton started to protest, but Masoj wheeled on him, the evil grin wide on his face.

The Faceless One has no face after all. Alton hesitates, but when reminded that the alternative is death, he's on board. There's something he wants, of course: revenge.

The chapter ends here, with an eager, smiling Alton indeed ordering Masoj to fetch the acid.