Luck in the Shadows - Chapters Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four

[kalinara]

So last time, Alec got dropped off for his sword-lessons and we met Micum's adorable family (and tried not to notice which character is obviously going to be playing a prominent role in the series to come, versus the others.)



So we rejoin the boys at Micum's place. It's before dawn, and Seregil is waking up early to go off and do shit. Because Seregil has the emotional awareness of a goldfish, we also take a moment to note that Alec is sleeping, curled up in "his usual tight ball", and that Seregil resists a wayward impulse to touch his hair.

...we're going to see this kind of thing a lot.

Anyway, Seregil heads off to go talk to Nysander. They compare notes: no new developments on Nysander's part, while Seregil is pretty sure the forged seals are the work of Ghemella, who was mentioned last chapter.

Thero is present too, and he asks if there's any way that the seals could have been created with the original imprint. (Especially as Seregil himself has broken into noble houses to steal impressions), but Seregil "curtly" notes that he doesn't let his seal out of his possession.

By the way, Seregil's seal is a griffin in profile, wings extended and one forepaw upraised to support a crescent.

Nysander asks that Seregil leave the letter with him as he goes to investigate, something that surprises him, but likely will have a point later.

--

Interestingly, we shift scenes and viewpoints now to Ghemella herself. It's after hours, and she's doing something with melted gold that shouldn't be disturbed. Unfortunately, though, there's someone at the door.

To my slight irritation, we're told how she's "heaving her great bulk up from the stool." Of course the only fat character that we've encountered in the book so far is a minor adversary.

Anyway, though, her guest is a man named Dakus and his description is interesting:

A hunched old man shuffled into the slice of light from the window, leaning heavily on a stout stick. His crippled back kept him from raising his face to the light, but Ghemella recognized the gnarled hand clamped over the head of the stick. Like most craftsmen, she always noticed hands. A wave of revulsion rippled over her slack flesh as she unbarred the door and stepped back to admit the dry little grasshopper of a man.

Against the rich backdrop of the shop he was more hideous than she recalled. Pointed spurs of bone sprouted from his knuckles, wrists, and the prominent bones of his ravaged face, looking as if they would burst through the taut yellow skin at a touch.

Hobbling toward the warmth of the forge, he settled himself on the stool and turned his one good eye to her. It had always offended her sensibilities, the way that bright, clear eye glittered in such a face, like a precious Borian sapphire glittering up from a clod of dung.

Hm. I don't remember this bit at all. But I'm guessing from the level of detail of this description that Dakus will either be Seregil in disguise or working for Mardus.

Dakus and Ghemella seem to have a business relationship, and she asks what he has to sell. Information mostly: one Baron murdered his lover with poison (gender of lover not mentioned), a particular lady is with child by her groom. But then he gives her the good shit: documents!

Ghemella gives him five gold sesters, which, if I recall from Alec's adventurings before is a pretty decent amount of money. Ghemella's other trade must be fairly profitable.

We follow the beggar out, and yep, Seregil. His physical ailments are the result of a magical clay amulet. The transformation itself seems pretty painful, or at least Seregil's own issues with magic make him retch.

Anyway, the documents that Seregil had offered Ghemella were personal correspondence, illicit love letters, all things he'd picked up from exploration, but he also included three half-finished letters from "Lord Seregil". Ghemella had taken all three.

...really dude? Really?

They already tried to set you up and you just handed her the means to do so?

This couldn't possibly backfire...

----

So due to the length, I decided to include the next chapter as well. It's another short one.

Where last chapter was about Seregil, this one is about Alec, and his sword lessons with Micum's family.

And credit where it's due, Seregil was right. Now that he's training with Micum, and Beka, he's learning very quickly. And we get yet another indication that Beka will be an important character, with some additional description:

Her face was flushed under its freckles and her eyes sparkled with the same gleam Alec had seen in Micum’s and Seregil’s during mock battles. She looked older with her hair braided back, and the close-fitting jerkin showed the gentle swell of her breasts more than the shapeless tunics she usually wore.

As she raised her sword again, he found himself so distracted by the deadly grace with which she moved that her sudden overhand swing took him completely off guard and cost him a new bruise on his shoulder.

Oops. In a different book, Beka and Alec could possibly be a cute couple. But this series is going in a different direction.

Anyway, Micum advises him to concentrate, watch his opponent and "see everything". Also avoid tensing up as it makes him slow.

The next round ends with Beka tripping and pinning him, but Alec crying mercy, pulling her down by the ankle, and getting his dagger against her throat. It's cheating, but it works. Seregil will be pleased.

Later, Kari and Micum discuss the possibility of a romance between Beka and Alec. Micum thinks no. She's got a commission to the Queen's Horse in her pocket, and is too hardheaded for romance. Kari seems a bit disappointed by this, and Micum teases her that while Alec is too wild for Elsbet's taste, little Illia would have him in a minute.

Kari and Micum have a cute relationship. We get more familial cuteness as Micum plans to head over to some Lord's home. Kari , Illia and Elsbet are happy to go. Beka would rather not (apparently there's a young man interested in her, that's far more to Elsbet's taste). Instead, she and Alec plan to go hunting.

And they do!

Alec and Beka chat a bit about the Horse Guard: Alec sharing the maneuvers that he'd witnessed while Beka shares her excitement. Their discussion about fantasy is interesting:

“Won’t you miss your family?” ventured Alec. His short stay at Watermead had shown him a life he’d never known. It was a noisy, bustling household with servants, dogs, and Illia underfoot much of the day but, like the Cockerel, there was an air of warmth and security about it that he liked.

Beka looked away over the hills, watching the last of the ragged clouds scudding across the sky.

“Of course,” she said, heading her mare toward the river. “But I can’t stay here forever, can I? I’m not cut out to be like Mother, raising a family and waiting around for a man who goes off for months at a time. I want to be the one who’s gone. I should think you’d understand that.”

Alec does understand that, having grown up wandering with his father, and then Seregil. They discuss Nysander, who Beka has met. In fact, it was apparently Nysander's idea that Beka join the guards, though he told her not to tell her mother that it was him. Alec sees immediately that Nysander wants to recruit Beka as a Watcher.

Meanwhile, Beka is showing Alec a surprise: a half-frozen pool where otters are playing.

The otters remind Alec of Seregil, and they chat about Nysander's intrinsic nature spell and what Beka might be. Alec guesses a hawk or a wolf, some kind of hunter. She'd like that.

Beka also asks an interesting question:

“Well, come on, we’d better get back,” Beka whispered at last. As they headed back to the horses, she turned to him and asked, “You’re fond of him, aren’t you?”

“Who? Seregil?”

“Of course.”

“He’s been a good friend,” he replied, puzzled by the question. “Why wouldn’t I be fond of him?”

“Oh.” Beka nodded as if she’d expected a different answer, then, “I thought maybe you were lovers.”

“What?” Alec stopped dead, staring at her. “What put that in your head?”

“I don’t know,” Beka bristled. “Sakor’s Flames, Alec, why not? He was in love with Father once, you know.”

Alec is flabbergasted. He asks how Beka knows: her mother told her. It was always pretty one-sided. Micum had already been in love with Kari when he'd met Seregil, but Seregil "didn't give up for a while". Hence the rivalry. Beka remembers hearing her father beg her mother not to "make him choose", so there's clearly something still between him and Seregil, even though they were never lovers.

Beka's all very matter of fact about this, but Rhiminee is a far more worldly place than where Alec grew up, and he doesn't seem to quite know how to process this.

As we get toward the end of the week, we get some introspection between Micum and Kari. Alec's settled in quite nicely, and is picking up swordplay very quickly now, and Micum realizes that he's going to miss him. Kari has a moment where she tells Micum that she wished she'd given him "such a son". Aw.

Micum just chuckles and tells her not to let Beka hear her say that. Aw.

The day before Alec goes home, he gets an opportunity to talk one-on-one with Kari. She tells him that she likes having him there, and hopes he'll visit often and that he'll influence Seregil to come out more often as well.

This gives Alec a chance to ask about Seregil, and how he's changed since they met. I like this bit a lot:

Kari smiled, thinking back. “It was before we’d married that I first met Seregil. Micum came and went as he pleased, just like now, but always alone. Then one fine spring morning he showed up at my father’s door with Seregil in tow. I remember seeing him that first time, standing there in the kitchen door, and thinking to myself, ‘That’s one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen, and he doesn’t like the looks of me one bit!’ ”

Kari took up a new piece of mending. “We got off to a rather rough start, Seregil and I.”

“Beka told me.”

“I thought she might have. How mature he seemed to me then. I was only fifteen. And now look at me.” She smoothed a hand over her hair, where scattered strands of silver were mingled with the dark. “A matron and mother of three girls, and Beka older than I was then. Now he looks so young to me, still the handsome boy. In the reckoning of his own people he is young and will be long after I’ve been tilled into these fields.”

The perspective of humans and elves, I suppose. Kari thinks it must trouble Seregil to know that he'll lose Micum eventually. He'll lose all of them, except maybe Nysander.

Kari does think that Seregil's changed over the years though. Not in appearance, but in matter. He's less bitter now, and while still a little wild, he has always brought Micum safely back home. The chapter ends with a melancholy note for Kari, thinking about how Micum, Seregil, and now Beka and Alec all have the same wandering nature, and how she must love them and hope for the best.

So now we're entering into the slow burn romance part of the book. Probably starting with that "father, brother, friend and lover" bit a few chapters ago. It's going to take a while, probably rightly so. Alec is still very young and inexperienced, and not yet able to assert himself properly. And to his credit, I think Seregil wants a partner rather than a boytoy. But we're going to get a lot of moments of the characters not QUITE realizing what it is they're feeling.

Brace yourself, this is probably going to get silly.