Homeland - Chapter Ten
Oct. 31st, 2021 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Drizzt got to witness the consequences of a failed drow raid first hand, and doesn't really manage to hide his dismay. And as rare as it is for me to say this, but I don't blame Drizzt for this blunder. Zaknafein had to know this was going to happen, and maybe should have at least tried to warn the kid first.
So we start the chapter with Malice, Briza and Maya. They're planning something that requires Zaknafein to be out of the house (he's been sent with Rizzen to deliver a message for Vierna). Context clues indicate it's some sort of test for Drizzt.
Maya's never heard of such a "deception", but according to Briza and Malice, it had been planned almost four hundred years ago as a test for Zaknafein himself. However, interestingly, Malice's mother, Matron Vartha, died around this time and disrupted the plan. This was also when Malice herself became the matron mother, even though she hadn't passed her first century of life (so less than 200 years old) and had been still in training.
Briza and Nalfein were alive at the time, from the sound of it, since Briza notes they became nobles of the house.
I'm wondering if Malice was the one to kill Vartha, possibly to save Zaknafein from this test. It seems a bit too sentimental for her, but I suppose there's a promotion in it for her too.
Anyway, the ladies muse about the necessity of this action. They'd seen Drizzt's face during the execution, specifically his horror and revulsion.
“Unfitting for a drow warrior,” said Malice, “and so this duty is upon us. Drizzt will leave for the Academy in a short time; we must stain his hands with drow blood and steal his innocence.”
Okay, that's fucking creepy.
Anyway, Briza asks why they don't just sacrifice him to Lolth, which is a fair question considering everything that's going to happen later. But Malice's motives are...complicated:
“I will bear no more children!” Malice growled in response. “Every member of this family is important if we are to gain prominence in the city!” Secretly Malice hoped for another gain in converting Drizzt to the evil ways of the drow. She hated Zaknafein as much as she desired him, and turning Drizzt into a drow warrior, a true heartless drow warrior, would distress the weapons master greatly.
Apparently one of the more recent books actually gets into Zaknafein's backstory and I'd be lying if I wasn't massively curious about the weird, skeevy, possibly sado-masochistic sexual relationship between him and Malice. But that said, I'm not sure this sort of thing is really Salvatore's wheelhouse, even granting the improvement in writing skill.
So here's the deception: Malice transforms a goblin into a drow soldier and tells it that he must only kill a single fighter to take his place as a "free commoner" of House Do'Urden. The goblin is totally onboard.
Meanwhile, Drizzt is polishing his scimitars in the practice room. Literally. Malice enters, and with a tone "more motherly than Drizzt had ever heard", tells him they have a test for him, necessary for his acceptance into the fighting branch of the Academy.
So the challenge is interesting:
Maya moved before her brother. “I am the youngest, beside yourself,” she declared. “Thus, I am granted the rights of challenge, which I now execute.”
Drizzt stood confused. He had never heard of such a thing. Maya called the chest to her side and reverently opened the cover.
“You have your weapons and your piwafwi,” she explained. “Now it is time for you to don the complete outfit of a noble of House Do’Urden.” From the chest she pulled out a pair of high black boots and handed them to Drizzt.
Drizzt eagerly slipped out of his normal boots and put on the new ones. They were incredibly soft, and they magically shifted and adjusted to a perfect fit on his feet. Drizzt knew the magic within them: they would allow him to move in absolute silence. Before he had even finished admiring them, though, Maya gave him the next gift, even more magnificent.
Drizzt dropped his piwafwi to the floor as he took a set of silvery chain mail. In all the Realms, there was no armor as supple and finely crafted as drow chain mail. It weighed no more than a heavy shirt and would bend as easily as silken cloth, yet could deflect the tip of a spear as surely as dwarven-crafted plate mail.
“You fight with two weapons,” Maya said, “and therefore need no shield. But put your scimitars in this; it is more fitting to a drow noble.” She handed Drizzt a black leather belt, its clasp a huge emerald and its two scabbards richly decorated in jewels and gemstones.
And folks say girls are obsessed with fashion.
Anyway, the goblin is told that he can have the items if he defeats Drizzt. Malice tells Drizzt he has to defeat "Byuchyuch" to earn his place in the family. Drizzt thinks it will be a simple sparring match.
Drizzt has no problem defeating him, but that's when things get harrowing:
On cue, Briza cast a mind-numbing spell on the goblin, freezing it in its helpless position. Still aware of its predicament, Byuchyuch tried to dive away, but Briza’s spell held it still.
“Finish the strike,” Malice said to Drizzt. Drizzt looked at his scimitar, then to Malice, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Maya’s champion must be killed,” Briza snarled.
“I cannot—” Drizzt began.
“Kill!” Malice roared, and this time the word carried the weight of a magical command.
“Thrust!” Briza likewise commanded.
Drizzt felt their words compelling his hand to action. Thoroughly disgusted with the thought of murdering a helpless foe, he concentrated with all of his mental strength to resist. While he managed to deny the commands for a few seconds, Drizzt found that he could not pull the weapon away.
Oof. Drizzt does try to fight it, but his willpower breaks. He ends up stabbing the poor goblin in the heart.
And I like this a lot. It's awful to say that, of course, but it WORKS. It works that Drizzt isn't yet strong enough to hold onto his moral principles in the face of the people who control him. It makes sense that they'd force his hand like this, trying to strengthen him by their own standards. It's horrifically abusive of course, but it also makes complete and utter sense.
They're not done yet though. Maya challenges Drizzt directly. He tries to appeal to her reason, but nope. So they fight too. Drizzt is, of course, very impressive and actually manages to defeat the stronger Maya. But even as he's about to strike (non-lethally):
Malice’s spell caught the weapon in mid-thrust.
The bloodstained adamantine blade writhed to life and Drizzt found himself holding the tail of a serpent, a fanged viper that turned back against him!
The enchanted snake spat its venom in Drizzt’s eyes, blinding him, then he felt the pain of Briza’s whip. All six snake heads of the awful weapon bit into Drizzt’s back, tearing through his new armor and jolting him in excruciating pain. He crumbled down into a curled position, helpless as Briza snapped the whip in, again and again.
“Never strike at a drow female!” she screamed as she beat Drizzt into unconsciousness.
...this part makes far less sense, considering that Malice is earmarking Drizzt to possibly replace Zak, and Zak has fought women. But okay, fine. Anyway, Drizzt wakes up later in his bed. Malice is there and tells him he's earned his status as a drow warrior. Drizzt is left then to "his pain and his fallen innocence"
Aw.
-
We shift scenes then to Zaknafein. He's arguing "as emphatically as he dared" against sending Drizzt to the Academy. He claims they'll ruin him because Drizzt is already more skilled than half of them. He says with two more years, he can make Drizzt the finest swordsman in Menzoberranzan.
But Malice wants Drizzt to learn other lessons than just weaponskill. And Zak gets a bit stupid:
“Lessons of treachery?” Zak spat, too angry to care about the consequences. Drizzt had told him what Malice and her evil daughters had done that day, and Zak was wise enough to understand their actions. Their “lesson” had nearly broken the boy, and had, perhaps, forever stolen from Drizzt the ideals he held so dear. Drizzt would find his morals and principles harder to cling to now that the pedestal of purity had been knocked out from under him.
“Watch your tongue, Zaknafein,” Matron Malice warned.
“I fight with passion!” the weapons master snapped. “That is why I win. Your son, too, fights with passion—do not let the conforming ways of the Academy take that from him!”
Malice sends everyone else away and she and Zak share a...moment of sorts:
“Zaknafein,” Malice began, again coming forward in her chair. “I have tolerated your blasphemous beliefs through these many years because of your skill with weapons. You have taught my soldiers well, and your love of killing drow, particularly clerics of the Spider Queen, has aided the ascent of House Do’Urden. I am not, and have not been, ungrateful.
“But I warn you now, one final time, that Drizzt is my son, not his sire’s! He will go to the Academy and learn what he must to take his place as a prince of House Do’Urden. If you interfere with what must be, Zaknafein, I will no longer turn my eyes from your actions! Your heart will be given to Lolth.”
And I'll give Salvatore this, I actually believe that Malice IS grateful to Zaknafein, and that she's giving him this warning because of it. I also believe she'll happily sacrifice him if he forces her hand, of course. But Salvatore's done a pretty good job with giving us the sense that there IS something between these two.
Zak, proving he is his son's father, storms off in angst:
As he made his way through the main corridor, he again heard in his mind the screams of the dying children of House DeVir, children who never got the chance to witness the evils of the drow Academy. Perhaps they were better off dead.
The chapter ends here.
So we start the chapter with Malice, Briza and Maya. They're planning something that requires Zaknafein to be out of the house (he's been sent with Rizzen to deliver a message for Vierna). Context clues indicate it's some sort of test for Drizzt.
Maya's never heard of such a "deception", but according to Briza and Malice, it had been planned almost four hundred years ago as a test for Zaknafein himself. However, interestingly, Malice's mother, Matron Vartha, died around this time and disrupted the plan. This was also when Malice herself became the matron mother, even though she hadn't passed her first century of life (so less than 200 years old) and had been still in training.
Briza and Nalfein were alive at the time, from the sound of it, since Briza notes they became nobles of the house.
I'm wondering if Malice was the one to kill Vartha, possibly to save Zaknafein from this test. It seems a bit too sentimental for her, but I suppose there's a promotion in it for her too.
Anyway, the ladies muse about the necessity of this action. They'd seen Drizzt's face during the execution, specifically his horror and revulsion.
“Unfitting for a drow warrior,” said Malice, “and so this duty is upon us. Drizzt will leave for the Academy in a short time; we must stain his hands with drow blood and steal his innocence.”
Okay, that's fucking creepy.
Anyway, Briza asks why they don't just sacrifice him to Lolth, which is a fair question considering everything that's going to happen later. But Malice's motives are...complicated:
“I will bear no more children!” Malice growled in response. “Every member of this family is important if we are to gain prominence in the city!” Secretly Malice hoped for another gain in converting Drizzt to the evil ways of the drow. She hated Zaknafein as much as she desired him, and turning Drizzt into a drow warrior, a true heartless drow warrior, would distress the weapons master greatly.
Apparently one of the more recent books actually gets into Zaknafein's backstory and I'd be lying if I wasn't massively curious about the weird, skeevy, possibly sado-masochistic sexual relationship between him and Malice. But that said, I'm not sure this sort of thing is really Salvatore's wheelhouse, even granting the improvement in writing skill.
So here's the deception: Malice transforms a goblin into a drow soldier and tells it that he must only kill a single fighter to take his place as a "free commoner" of House Do'Urden. The goblin is totally onboard.
Meanwhile, Drizzt is polishing his scimitars in the practice room. Literally. Malice enters, and with a tone "more motherly than Drizzt had ever heard", tells him they have a test for him, necessary for his acceptance into the fighting branch of the Academy.
So the challenge is interesting:
Maya moved before her brother. “I am the youngest, beside yourself,” she declared. “Thus, I am granted the rights of challenge, which I now execute.”
Drizzt stood confused. He had never heard of such a thing. Maya called the chest to her side and reverently opened the cover.
“You have your weapons and your piwafwi,” she explained. “Now it is time for you to don the complete outfit of a noble of House Do’Urden.” From the chest she pulled out a pair of high black boots and handed them to Drizzt.
Drizzt eagerly slipped out of his normal boots and put on the new ones. They were incredibly soft, and they magically shifted and adjusted to a perfect fit on his feet. Drizzt knew the magic within them: they would allow him to move in absolute silence. Before he had even finished admiring them, though, Maya gave him the next gift, even more magnificent.
Drizzt dropped his piwafwi to the floor as he took a set of silvery chain mail. In all the Realms, there was no armor as supple and finely crafted as drow chain mail. It weighed no more than a heavy shirt and would bend as easily as silken cloth, yet could deflect the tip of a spear as surely as dwarven-crafted plate mail.
“You fight with two weapons,” Maya said, “and therefore need no shield. But put your scimitars in this; it is more fitting to a drow noble.” She handed Drizzt a black leather belt, its clasp a huge emerald and its two scabbards richly decorated in jewels and gemstones.
And folks say girls are obsessed with fashion.
Anyway, the goblin is told that he can have the items if he defeats Drizzt. Malice tells Drizzt he has to defeat "Byuchyuch" to earn his place in the family. Drizzt thinks it will be a simple sparring match.
Drizzt has no problem defeating him, but that's when things get harrowing:
On cue, Briza cast a mind-numbing spell on the goblin, freezing it in its helpless position. Still aware of its predicament, Byuchyuch tried to dive away, but Briza’s spell held it still.
“Finish the strike,” Malice said to Drizzt. Drizzt looked at his scimitar, then to Malice, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Maya’s champion must be killed,” Briza snarled.
“I cannot—” Drizzt began.
“Kill!” Malice roared, and this time the word carried the weight of a magical command.
“Thrust!” Briza likewise commanded.
Drizzt felt their words compelling his hand to action. Thoroughly disgusted with the thought of murdering a helpless foe, he concentrated with all of his mental strength to resist. While he managed to deny the commands for a few seconds, Drizzt found that he could not pull the weapon away.
Oof. Drizzt does try to fight it, but his willpower breaks. He ends up stabbing the poor goblin in the heart.
And I like this a lot. It's awful to say that, of course, but it WORKS. It works that Drizzt isn't yet strong enough to hold onto his moral principles in the face of the people who control him. It makes sense that they'd force his hand like this, trying to strengthen him by their own standards. It's horrifically abusive of course, but it also makes complete and utter sense.
They're not done yet though. Maya challenges Drizzt directly. He tries to appeal to her reason, but nope. So they fight too. Drizzt is, of course, very impressive and actually manages to defeat the stronger Maya. But even as he's about to strike (non-lethally):
Malice’s spell caught the weapon in mid-thrust.
The bloodstained adamantine blade writhed to life and Drizzt found himself holding the tail of a serpent, a fanged viper that turned back against him!
The enchanted snake spat its venom in Drizzt’s eyes, blinding him, then he felt the pain of Briza’s whip. All six snake heads of the awful weapon bit into Drizzt’s back, tearing through his new armor and jolting him in excruciating pain. He crumbled down into a curled position, helpless as Briza snapped the whip in, again and again.
“Never strike at a drow female!” she screamed as she beat Drizzt into unconsciousness.
...this part makes far less sense, considering that Malice is earmarking Drizzt to possibly replace Zak, and Zak has fought women. But okay, fine. Anyway, Drizzt wakes up later in his bed. Malice is there and tells him he's earned his status as a drow warrior. Drizzt is left then to "his pain and his fallen innocence"
Aw.
-
We shift scenes then to Zaknafein. He's arguing "as emphatically as he dared" against sending Drizzt to the Academy. He claims they'll ruin him because Drizzt is already more skilled than half of them. He says with two more years, he can make Drizzt the finest swordsman in Menzoberranzan.
But Malice wants Drizzt to learn other lessons than just weaponskill. And Zak gets a bit stupid:
“Lessons of treachery?” Zak spat, too angry to care about the consequences. Drizzt had told him what Malice and her evil daughters had done that day, and Zak was wise enough to understand their actions. Their “lesson” had nearly broken the boy, and had, perhaps, forever stolen from Drizzt the ideals he held so dear. Drizzt would find his morals and principles harder to cling to now that the pedestal of purity had been knocked out from under him.
“Watch your tongue, Zaknafein,” Matron Malice warned.
“I fight with passion!” the weapons master snapped. “That is why I win. Your son, too, fights with passion—do not let the conforming ways of the Academy take that from him!”
Malice sends everyone else away and she and Zak share a...moment of sorts:
“Zaknafein,” Malice began, again coming forward in her chair. “I have tolerated your blasphemous beliefs through these many years because of your skill with weapons. You have taught my soldiers well, and your love of killing drow, particularly clerics of the Spider Queen, has aided the ascent of House Do’Urden. I am not, and have not been, ungrateful.
“But I warn you now, one final time, that Drizzt is my son, not his sire’s! He will go to the Academy and learn what he must to take his place as a prince of House Do’Urden. If you interfere with what must be, Zaknafein, I will no longer turn my eyes from your actions! Your heart will be given to Lolth.”
And I'll give Salvatore this, I actually believe that Malice IS grateful to Zaknafein, and that she's giving him this warning because of it. I also believe she'll happily sacrifice him if he forces her hand, of course. But Salvatore's done a pretty good job with giving us the sense that there IS something between these two.
Zak, proving he is his son's father, storms off in angst:
As he made his way through the main corridor, he again heard in his mind the screams of the dying children of House DeVir, children who never got the chance to witness the evils of the drow Academy. Perhaps they were better off dead.
The chapter ends here.