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i_read_what2021-09-12 01:21 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2021-09-12 01:21 pm
Homeland - Chapter Four
So last time, we saw that the last DeVir victim did not actually die, instead he got an assist from a wizard apprentice with a very familiar statue.
And also, Drizzt is annoyingly special even as a baby. I'm sure that surprises no one though.
So we're four "cycles of Narbondel" (or days) later. House Do'Urden find themselves summoned by House Baenre, who are apparently the bigwigs of the city.
They're all nervous, as they realize by the timing that it has to be about their overthrow of House DeVir. They're all speaking in "silent code", and I wonder how that works. Salvatore's done a good job so far in remembering that normal sight is not very useful in Menzoberranzan. And while infravision is useful in a lot of ways, I don't remember infravision goggles being great with small details like finger movements.
Anyway, Malice, endearingly is just like "fuck it" and speaks aloud. Every house knows they overthrew DeVir, but is the evidence so overwhelming that "the ruling council" will be forced to act? (I do enjoy that dynamic: it's not about what you did, but what can be proven. And they can approve as long as you didn't OFFICIALLY get caught.)
Anyway, Malice does intend to answer the summons, reasoning that Matron Baenre would not call openly on her if she meant harm. Rizzen is particularly concerned with Malice's safety, because if she dies, Briza will be in charge. Briza's not apt to want a male patron at all, and Rizzen is actually younger than she is, so he doesn't even have the dubious reassurance of being her father.
There's a funny beat where she says that his concern touches her as she knows exactly what he's afraid of.
Zaknafein asks if she wants an escort, but Malice believes that if one was wanted, there'd be two summoning disks. She gets annoyed by the fussing. There's also an interesting bit where, as the disk greets her, Malice signs a snide retort to Zaknafein. It definitely seems like there's still some kind of understanding between these two, despite the fact that Rizzen is her official consort.
(I also find this interesting in light of the height thing I mentioned in a previous chapter. It would have been easy enough, and made as much sense, to have Zaknafein as official patron/consort. But that's a weaker subordinate role. As weaponsmaster, Zaknafein is still subordinate to Malice, but it's more professional than personally weak.
Salvatore seems to want to set up this thing where Zaknafein defies a lot of aspects of this matriarchal society. Which is fine, I suppose, but I'm a little annoyed that Zak has to be a "special case" to do this. Taller, stronger, less submissive.
Well, okay, fine. Whatever you want. I'm still going to assume Malice pegs.)
So anyway, we follow Matron Malice on her trip to see Matron Baenre. Matron Baenre has provided an escort: twenty female soldiers of the house led by Baenre's own daughters. In a nice little callback to Dinin's section in chapter one, we're told that the slaves and commoners trip over themselves to get out of the way. This House is a big fucking deal. (Malice, like her son, as a moment when she hopes she'll know such power before she dies.)
We get a nice description of House Baenre:
She rolled her eyes again a few minutes later, when the group approached the ruling house. House Baenre encompassed twenty tall and majestic stalagmites, all interconnected with gracefully sweeping and arching bridges and parapets. Magic and faerie fire glowed from a thousand separate sculptures and a hundred regally adorned guardsmen paced about in perfect formations.
Even more striking were the inverse structures, the thirty smaller stalactites of House Baenre. They hung down from the ceiling of the cavern, their roots lost in the high darkness. Some of them connected tip-to-tip with the stalagmite mounds, while others hung freely like poised spears. Ringing balconies, curving up like the edging of a screw, had been built along the length of all of these, glowing with an overabundance of magic and highlighted design.
Magic, too, was the fence that connected the bases of the outer stalagmites, encircling the whole of the compound. It was a giant web, silver against the general blue of the rest of the outer compound. Some said it had been a gift from Lolth herself, with iron-strong strands as thick as a drow elf’s arm. Anything touching Baenre’s fence, even the sharpest of drow weapons, would simply stick fast until the matron mother willed the fence to let it free.
Very cool.
Anyway, Malice is brought to the chapel, and an altar beneath a giant glowing image that slowly shifts between a spider and a beautiful drow woman. Matron Baenre credits it to her son, Gromph, who is the Archmage of Menzoberranzan. (Her daughter, Triel, is the Matron Mistress of the Academy.)
There's an illithid, or mind flayer, present too. He's Methil, a friend of Matron Baenre. There's an interesting exchange:
“You read my thought,” Malice protested. Few could insinuate themselves through the mental barriers of a high priestess well enough to read her thoughts, and the practice was a crime of the highest order in drow society.
“No!” Matron Baenre explained, immediately on the defensive.
“Your pardon, Matron Malice. Methil reads thoughts, even the thoughts of a high priestess, as easily as you or I hear words. He communicates telepathically. On my word, I did not even realize that you had not yet spoken your thoughts.”
Of course that's bullshit, but I enjoy the polite fiction of drow interaction.
Anyway, Baenre asks how Do'Urden is, and we get Malice's view of her counterpart:
Malice had all that she could handle in hiding her contempt for Matron Baenre. Malice was old, nearly five hundred, but Matron Baenre was ancient. Her eyes had seen the rise and fall of a millennium, by some accounts, though drow rarely lived past their seventh—and certainly not their eighth—century. While drow normally did not show their age—Malice was as beautiful and vibrant now as she had been on her one-hundredth birthday—Matron Baenre was withered and worn. The wrinkles surrounding her mouth resembled a spider’s web, and she could hardly keep the heavy lids of her eyes from dropping altogether. Matron Baenre should be dead, Malice noted, but still she lives.
Matron Baenre, seeming so beyond her time of life, was pregnant, and due in only a few tendays.
Baenre, we're told, has given birth twenty times. Fifteen of her children are female, ALL are high priestess, and ten of her children are older than Malice.
Baenre asks about the number of soldiers, making it clear, indirectly that she knows about the raid. Malice sticks to her story though, without wavering.
Malice also spares a moment to wonder why none of Baenre's daughters have tried to finish her off, or split off to form their own house. Especially since, as long as they lived under Baenre, they're considered commoners.
That doesn't seem to track with how Briza and company are treated in House Do'Urden, but I suppose there's a difference between official and unofficial status.
So anyway, Baenre comes to the point:
“You have heard of the fate of House DeVir?” Matron Baenre asked directly, growing as tired of the hesitant small talk as her counterpart.
“Of what house?” Malice asked pointedly. At this time, there was no such thing as House DeVir in Menzoberranzan. To drow reckoning, the house no longer existed; the house never existed.
Matron Baenre cackled. “Of course,” she replied. “You are matron mother of the ninth house now. That is quite an honor.” Malice nodded. “But not as great an honor as matron mother of the eighth house.”
“Yes,” agreed Baenre, “but ninth is only one position away from a seat on the ruling council.”
Matron Malice reads the subtext here: Baenre is congratulating her and is pleased. We get some info on the ruling council: they rule the city, but only according to Lolth's constraints. Drow Business is better left to matron mothers of individual houses. And Lolth, of course, is pleased that they all balance each other, ready to fight for common need, or pounce on any that fall out of their favor. It is mentioned that if Lolth HAD wanted one to truly rule the others, House Baenre would have taken over the whole city a long time ago.
The chapter ends with Malice considering how the meeting was clearly both a congratulations and a warning.
I really do enjoy the drow politics stuff. And I say that as someone who still dislikes the concept of the drow on general principle. Salvatore has done a really good job in developing a societal structure that seems like it could actually survive for a while. It's a little precarious, but it's clear that that's a feature not a bug, and their deity would prefer it no other way.
And to be honest, Salvatore is actually far better at writing morally ambiguous or evil characters than he is paragons of virtue. (This is also very obvious when we get to the Servant of the Shard/Artemis Entreri side stories.) He has a very good grasp of giving us recognizable traits to humanize them a little: like Malice's dry understanding of Rizzen's true sentiment. The Do'Urdens are enough of an underdog family that I'm interested in seeing them rise, even with the understanding that they're likely to be villains in later books. Or even this book when we get far enough.
And we get all of it without Drizzt's pompous navel gazing. So win/win.
And also, Drizzt is annoyingly special even as a baby. I'm sure that surprises no one though.
So we're four "cycles of Narbondel" (or days) later. House Do'Urden find themselves summoned by House Baenre, who are apparently the bigwigs of the city.
They're all nervous, as they realize by the timing that it has to be about their overthrow of House DeVir. They're all speaking in "silent code", and I wonder how that works. Salvatore's done a good job so far in remembering that normal sight is not very useful in Menzoberranzan. And while infravision is useful in a lot of ways, I don't remember infravision goggles being great with small details like finger movements.
Anyway, Malice, endearingly is just like "fuck it" and speaks aloud. Every house knows they overthrew DeVir, but is the evidence so overwhelming that "the ruling council" will be forced to act? (I do enjoy that dynamic: it's not about what you did, but what can be proven. And they can approve as long as you didn't OFFICIALLY get caught.)
Anyway, Malice does intend to answer the summons, reasoning that Matron Baenre would not call openly on her if she meant harm. Rizzen is particularly concerned with Malice's safety, because if she dies, Briza will be in charge. Briza's not apt to want a male patron at all, and Rizzen is actually younger than she is, so he doesn't even have the dubious reassurance of being her father.
There's a funny beat where she says that his concern touches her as she knows exactly what he's afraid of.
Zaknafein asks if she wants an escort, but Malice believes that if one was wanted, there'd be two summoning disks. She gets annoyed by the fussing. There's also an interesting bit where, as the disk greets her, Malice signs a snide retort to Zaknafein. It definitely seems like there's still some kind of understanding between these two, despite the fact that Rizzen is her official consort.
(I also find this interesting in light of the height thing I mentioned in a previous chapter. It would have been easy enough, and made as much sense, to have Zaknafein as official patron/consort. But that's a weaker subordinate role. As weaponsmaster, Zaknafein is still subordinate to Malice, but it's more professional than personally weak.
Salvatore seems to want to set up this thing where Zaknafein defies a lot of aspects of this matriarchal society. Which is fine, I suppose, but I'm a little annoyed that Zak has to be a "special case" to do this. Taller, stronger, less submissive.
Well, okay, fine. Whatever you want. I'm still going to assume Malice pegs.)
So anyway, we follow Matron Malice on her trip to see Matron Baenre. Matron Baenre has provided an escort: twenty female soldiers of the house led by Baenre's own daughters. In a nice little callback to Dinin's section in chapter one, we're told that the slaves and commoners trip over themselves to get out of the way. This House is a big fucking deal. (Malice, like her son, as a moment when she hopes she'll know such power before she dies.)
We get a nice description of House Baenre:
She rolled her eyes again a few minutes later, when the group approached the ruling house. House Baenre encompassed twenty tall and majestic stalagmites, all interconnected with gracefully sweeping and arching bridges and parapets. Magic and faerie fire glowed from a thousand separate sculptures and a hundred regally adorned guardsmen paced about in perfect formations.
Even more striking were the inverse structures, the thirty smaller stalactites of House Baenre. They hung down from the ceiling of the cavern, their roots lost in the high darkness. Some of them connected tip-to-tip with the stalagmite mounds, while others hung freely like poised spears. Ringing balconies, curving up like the edging of a screw, had been built along the length of all of these, glowing with an overabundance of magic and highlighted design.
Magic, too, was the fence that connected the bases of the outer stalagmites, encircling the whole of the compound. It was a giant web, silver against the general blue of the rest of the outer compound. Some said it had been a gift from Lolth herself, with iron-strong strands as thick as a drow elf’s arm. Anything touching Baenre’s fence, even the sharpest of drow weapons, would simply stick fast until the matron mother willed the fence to let it free.
Very cool.
Anyway, Malice is brought to the chapel, and an altar beneath a giant glowing image that slowly shifts between a spider and a beautiful drow woman. Matron Baenre credits it to her son, Gromph, who is the Archmage of Menzoberranzan. (Her daughter, Triel, is the Matron Mistress of the Academy.)
There's an illithid, or mind flayer, present too. He's Methil, a friend of Matron Baenre. There's an interesting exchange:
“You read my thought,” Malice protested. Few could insinuate themselves through the mental barriers of a high priestess well enough to read her thoughts, and the practice was a crime of the highest order in drow society.
“No!” Matron Baenre explained, immediately on the defensive.
“Your pardon, Matron Malice. Methil reads thoughts, even the thoughts of a high priestess, as easily as you or I hear words. He communicates telepathically. On my word, I did not even realize that you had not yet spoken your thoughts.”
Of course that's bullshit, but I enjoy the polite fiction of drow interaction.
Anyway, Baenre asks how Do'Urden is, and we get Malice's view of her counterpart:
Malice had all that she could handle in hiding her contempt for Matron Baenre. Malice was old, nearly five hundred, but Matron Baenre was ancient. Her eyes had seen the rise and fall of a millennium, by some accounts, though drow rarely lived past their seventh—and certainly not their eighth—century. While drow normally did not show their age—Malice was as beautiful and vibrant now as she had been on her one-hundredth birthday—Matron Baenre was withered and worn. The wrinkles surrounding her mouth resembled a spider’s web, and she could hardly keep the heavy lids of her eyes from dropping altogether. Matron Baenre should be dead, Malice noted, but still she lives.
Matron Baenre, seeming so beyond her time of life, was pregnant, and due in only a few tendays.
Baenre, we're told, has given birth twenty times. Fifteen of her children are female, ALL are high priestess, and ten of her children are older than Malice.
Baenre asks about the number of soldiers, making it clear, indirectly that she knows about the raid. Malice sticks to her story though, without wavering.
Malice also spares a moment to wonder why none of Baenre's daughters have tried to finish her off, or split off to form their own house. Especially since, as long as they lived under Baenre, they're considered commoners.
That doesn't seem to track with how Briza and company are treated in House Do'Urden, but I suppose there's a difference between official and unofficial status.
So anyway, Baenre comes to the point:
“You have heard of the fate of House DeVir?” Matron Baenre asked directly, growing as tired of the hesitant small talk as her counterpart.
“Of what house?” Malice asked pointedly. At this time, there was no such thing as House DeVir in Menzoberranzan. To drow reckoning, the house no longer existed; the house never existed.
Matron Baenre cackled. “Of course,” she replied. “You are matron mother of the ninth house now. That is quite an honor.” Malice nodded. “But not as great an honor as matron mother of the eighth house.”
“Yes,” agreed Baenre, “but ninth is only one position away from a seat on the ruling council.”
Matron Malice reads the subtext here: Baenre is congratulating her and is pleased. We get some info on the ruling council: they rule the city, but only according to Lolth's constraints. Drow Business is better left to matron mothers of individual houses. And Lolth, of course, is pleased that they all balance each other, ready to fight for common need, or pounce on any that fall out of their favor. It is mentioned that if Lolth HAD wanted one to truly rule the others, House Baenre would have taken over the whole city a long time ago.
The chapter ends with Malice considering how the meeting was clearly both a congratulations and a warning.
I really do enjoy the drow politics stuff. And I say that as someone who still dislikes the concept of the drow on general principle. Salvatore has done a really good job in developing a societal structure that seems like it could actually survive for a while. It's a little precarious, but it's clear that that's a feature not a bug, and their deity would prefer it no other way.
And to be honest, Salvatore is actually far better at writing morally ambiguous or evil characters than he is paragons of virtue. (This is also very obvious when we get to the Servant of the Shard/Artemis Entreri side stories.) He has a very good grasp of giving us recognizable traits to humanize them a little: like Malice's dry understanding of Rizzen's true sentiment. The Do'Urdens are enough of an underdog family that I'm interested in seeing them rise, even with the understanding that they're likely to be villains in later books. Or even this book when we get far enough.
And we get all of it without Drizzt's pompous navel gazing. So win/win.