Homeland - Chapter Seventeen

[kalinara]

So last time, I made fun of Drizzt for writing a love poem to his cat. This is hypocritical of me because it's actually the most endearing thing he's ever done. Date your cat, Drizzt.



We rejoin Drizzt after his graduation. We're told that he graduates, formally, and right on schedule. He has the highest honors in his class. Even he thinks that it might have been more a matter of Matron Malice whispering in the right ears and smoothing over his indiscretions. Though Drizzt suspects it's really more that everyone at the ceremony was too high to remember what he did.

Fair enough.

Drizzt is returning home to House Do'Urden, with some trepidation. Rather understandably, the confrontation with his mom in the drider lair has left him feeling like this isn't much of a home. And he doesn't dare arrive late. Wise.

Briza and Maya greet him. And Maya's words indicate that she has some idea of what happened in the lair:

Maya joined them in the great corridor leading to the chapel anteroom. “Greetings, Prince Drizzt,” she said, and Drizzt couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. “We have heard of the honors you achieved at Melee-Magthere. Your skill did House Do’Urden proud.” In spite of her words, Maya could not hide a derisive chuckle as she finished the thought. “Glad, I am, that you did not become drider food.”

Drizzt’s glare stole the smile from her face.

Maya and Briza exchanged concerned glances. They knew of the punishment Vierna had put upon their younger brother, and of the vicious scolding he had received at the hands of Matron Malice. They each cautiously rested a hand on their snake whips, not knowing how foolish their dangerous young brother might have become.

I know Drizzt is fairly irrepressible, but maybe he should seem at least a little outwardly cowed here?

But it does get into why Drizzt can't follow in Zaknafein's footsteps. In the end, he's unwilling to compromise and he's unwilling to play along. It might be stupidity or just an incredibly forthright nature. Either way.

That said, I'm a little surprised that his sisters are "concerned" rather than "enraged". Especially Briza, the open misandrist.

Drizzt has different concerns though:

It was not Matron Malice or Drizzt’s sisters that now had Drizzt measuring every step before he took it. He knew where he stood with his mother and knew what he had to do to keep her appeased. There was another member of the family, though, that evoked both confusion and anger in Drizzt. Of all his kin, only Zaknafein pretended to be what he was not. As Drizzt made his way to the chapel, he glanced anxiously down every side passage, wondering when Zak would make his appearance.

That's fair. WE know what Zak is thinking and how he feels about Drizzt, but he's always been very careful not to display that openly to Drizzt. Zak has been as good a mentor/father as he can be in this society, but as I said before, that only means that his raising of Drizzt is LESS abusive than it could have been. It's still pretty fucking rough. Zak has a role to play, and even leaving that aside, he's a product of his society. It's not likely that he has any idea what it really means to raise a child in a safe and healthy environment.

The women scold Drizzt for his inability to enjoy the pleasures of the ceremony. Briza points out that he might have placed their mother in Lolth's disfavor which causes Drizzt to think quickly that it's the best thing he could do for her.

Um. Dude. It really isn't. Lolth is a fucking goddess, and your mom is her worshipper. If Lolth is displeased, your mom dies, and her soul goes to Lolth for eternal torment.

But Drizzt has learned some discretion:

“I have learned my place,” Drizzt assured them. He bowed low. “Forgive me, my sisters, and know that the truth of the drow world is fast opening before my young eyes. Never will I disappoint House Do’Urden in such a way again.”

Drizzt continues to look for Zak and is relieved that he's not in attendance.

--

Though we're told that Zak is basically being a creepy stalker. He observes the changes in Drizzt:

Gone now was the customary smile that lit Drizzt’s face. Gone, too, Zak supposed, was the innocence that had kept this one apart from the rest of Menzoberranzan.

Zak leaned back heavily against the wall in a side passage. He had caught only portions of the conversation at the anteroom door. Most clearly he had heard Drizzt’s heartfelt accord with Briza’s honoring of Lolth.

“What have I done?” the weapons master asked himself. He looked back around the bend in the main corridor, but the door to the anteroom had already closed.

“Truly, when I look upon the drow—the drow warrior!—that was my most treasured, I shame for my cowardice,” Zak lamented. “What has Drizzt lost that I might have saved?”

Oh brother.

a) like father like son

b) But also, while I like Zak more than Drizzt, I also think he's being a fucking idiot here. Zak has lived his entire life pretending to be a monster. Does he think that Drizzt would survive if he didn't at least PRETEND to pay lip service to Lolth?

I suppose, to be fair, Zak's spent three hundred years in this dreadful society and that would likely make anyone paranoid and quick to assume the worst. But he's also Drizzt's dad, so he has to angst dramatically.

“But I am a coward,” he said. “I have failed in the one act that could have brought meaning to my pitiful existence. The secondboy of House Do’Urden lives, it would appear, but Drizzt Do’Urden, my Two-hands, is long dead.” Zak looked back to the emptiness where Drizzt had been standing, the weapons master’s expression suddenly a grimace. “Yet this pretender lives.

“A drow warrior.”

Zak’s weapon clanged to the stone floor and his head slumped down to be caught by the embrace of his open palms, the only shield Zaknafein Do’Urden had ever found.

Yep.

Anyway, Drizzt spends the next day resting, trying to avoid his whole family. Especially Zaknafein: "the mentor he had once thought of as his salvation against the realities around him, the one glowing light in the darkness that was Menzoberranzan.

That, too, Drizzt believed, had been only a lie."

Aw. You're both idiots. That's probably hereditary too.

Eventually, Drizzt is called to an audience with Malice. He wonders if his true feelings about Lolth were overheard, and he expects punishment. His uneasiness is obvious to Briza, who scolds him and tells him that he should be more familiar and at ease in this place.

So Drizzt goes in to the chapel to find something very formal taking place:

His confusion doubled when they entered the chapel, for Rizzen, Maya, and Zaknafein stood before the matron mother, as expected. Beside them, though, stood Dinin and Vierna.

“We are all present,” Briza said, taking her place at her mother’s side.

“Kneel,” Malice commanded, and the whole family fell to its knees. The matron mother paced slowly around them all, each pointedly dropping his or her eyes in reverence, or just in common sense, as the great lady walked by.

Malice notes his confusion about Dinin and Vierna's presence and actually lets Drizzt ask questions. And to his credit, Drizzt asks fairly cautious, intelligent questions. He'd thought Dinin and Vierna would stay at the Academy, as it brings the house strength.

Malice acknowledges that it does, but they're about to be at war. There've been stirrings and hintings, even Drizzt heard them. Malice confirms them.

Dinin has an interesting perspective here:

“Who?” asked Briza. “What house conspires against House Do’Urden?”

“None behind us in rank,” Dinin replied, though the question had not been asked to him and it was not his place to speak unbidden.

“How do you know this?” Malice asked, letting the oversight pass. Malice understood Dinin’s value and knew that his contributions to this discussion would be important.

“We are the ninth house of the city,” Dinin reasoned, “but among our ranks we claim four high priestesses, two of them former mistresses of Arach-Tinilith.” He looked at Zak. “We have, as well, two former masters of Melee-Magthere, and Drizzt was awarded the highest laurels from the school of fighters. Our soldiers number nearly four hundred, all skilled and battle-tested. Only a few houses claim more.”

Basically, Dinin's point is that there are very few houses above them who could challenge them, and none below. So it's one of the great houses that fears their growing power. Malice concurs, noting that it's an uncommon practice for a more powerful house to initiate war against a lower ranking one. (Usually it's the low ranking house who wants a promotion.)

Drizzt listened carefully to their words, trying to make sense of it all. His eyes never left Zaknafein, though, who knelt impassively at the side. What did the callous weapons master think of all this? Drizzt wondered. Did the thought of such a war thrill him, that he might be able to kill more dark elves?

Whatever his feelings, Zak gave no outward clue. He sat quietly and by all appearances was not even listening to the conversation.

Sigh. You are both so stupid. Why on earth do you think the other person would dare give themselves away in this crowd?

Anyway, they rule out Baenre, because there's no way that they could be considered a threat to the top House. (Malice hopes that's correct. Baenre is powerful enough to wipe the floor with them.)

Then Drizzt speaks up and...oh dear...

“If we learn of our enemies….” Drizzt began impulsively. All eyes snapped upon him. It was bad enough for the elderboy to speak without being addressed, but for the secondboy, just graduated from the Academy, the act could be considered blasphemous.

Wanting all perspectives, Matron Malice again let the oversight pass. “Continue,” she prompted.

“If we discover which house plots against us,” Drizzt said quietly, “could we not expose it?”

“To what end?” Briza snarled at him. “Conspiracy without action is no crime.”

“Then might we use reason?” Drizzt pressed, continuing against the barrage of incredulous glares that came at him from every face in the room—except from Zak’s. “If we are the stronger, then let them submit without battle. Rank House Do’Urden as it should be and let the assumed threat to the weaker house be ended.”

...yeah. That's a suggestion that will go over well. Seriously dude, you weren't raised in total seclusion!

It is an interesting characterization note that Malice is willing to entertain suggestions from her low-ranking sons. And as we've seen, she IS aware at least of some of Zak's leanings and is still willing to make use of him.

There's an adaptability there. And I wonder if it's maybe that trait, a gift from his mother, that allowed Drizzt to do what Zak never could: leave and thrive outside of Menzoberranzan.

Though of course, he didn't get his temperament from her:

Malice grabbed Drizzt by the front of his cloak and heaved him to his feet. “I forgive your foolish thoughts,” she growled, “this time!” She dropped him back to the floor, and the silent reprimands of his siblings descended upon him.

Again, though, Zak’s expression did not match the others in the room. Indeed, Zak put a hand up over his mouth to hide his amusement. Perhaps there remained a bit of the Drizzt Do’Urden he had known, he dared to hope. Perhaps the Academy had not fully tainted the young fighter’s spirit.

Anyway, Malice gives them a pep talk. They're the ninth house now, but soon they'll be eighth.

Interestingly, Briza expresses something that's almost concern:

“What of the patrol?” Briza cut in. “Are we to allow the second-boy to go off alone, exposed?”

Short answer, yes. Drizzt's patrol will have members of at least four of the higher houses, and Dinin is leading the patrol, so any would be assassins would have to deal with two.

I really do find Dinin and Malice's relationship a little fascinating:

The elderboy’s eyes lit up at the news. “Then Drizzt and I might become the assassins in this conflict,” he purred.

The smile disappeared from the matron mother’s face. “You will not strike without my consent,” she warned in a tone so cold that Dinin fully understood the consequences of disobedience, “as you have done in the past.”

Drizzt did not miss the reference to Nalfein, his murdered brother. His mother knew! Malice had done nothing to punish her murderous son. Now Drizzt’s hand went up to his face, to hide an expression of horror that only could have brought him trouble in this setting.

“You are there to learn,” Matron Malice said to Dinin, “to protect your brother, as Drizzt is there to protect you. Do not destroy our advantage for the gain of a single kill.” An evil smile found its way back onto her bone-hued face. “But, if you learn of our enemy, …” she said.

“If the proper opportunity presents itself, …” Briza finished, guessing her mother’s wicked thoughts and throwing an equally vile smile the matron’s way.

Malice looked upon her eldest daughter with approval. Briza would prove a fine successor for the house!

Dinin’s smile became wide and lascivious. Nothing pleased the elderboy of House Do’Urden more than the opportunity for an assassination.

There's been a fairly subtle thread for this book, involving Dinin and Malice. Dinin carrying out special instructions, for example, while taking a lot of liberties that the other men wouldn't get away with. Or that Dinin wouldn't have gotten away with if it were Briza in command.

She tolerates his interjections and his machinations. And even the loss of Nalfein.

I also like her aside about Briza. I don't think Malice LOVES her children, per se, but there does seem to be a bond there.

Speaking of bonds:

Zak was the first out of the chapel, as always, this time with an added spring in his step. It wasn’t the prospect of fighting another war that guided his moves, though the thought of killing more clerics of the Spider Queen certainly pleased him. Rather, Drizzt’s display of naiveté, his continued misconceptions of the common weal of drow existence, brought Zak hope.

Drizzt watched him go, thinking Zak’s strides reflected his desire to kill. Drizzt didn’t know whether to follow and confront the weapons master here and now or to let it pass, to shrug it away as readily as he had dismissed most of the cruel world around him.

Malice interrupts and warns Drizzt that she doesn't tolerate failure and that he needs to protect his brother or drider life for him.

--

So we shift ahead to a patrol. Drizzt has a monster cornered. And of course, there is shilling:

Normally, a single drow faced off evenly against a water troll would not have the advantage, but as the others of his patrol group had come to see in the past few tendays, Drizzt was no ordinary young drow.

We know, we know.

But actually he's not working alone. Guenhwyvar, on Drizzt's signal, attacks as well, and together they bring down the troll. Masoj, who is also there, wielding lightning bolts isn't happy about this. Apparently, Guen goes off to join Drizzt a little too often. And while Guen is a better compliment to a fighter, Masoj wants protection while he casts.

Masoj dismisses Guen and considers Drizzt:

In the distance, Drizzt had engaged another scrag and made short work of it as well. Masoj shook his head as he watched the display of swordsmanship. Every day, Drizzt grew stronger.

“Give the order to kill him soon, Matron SiNafay,” Masoj whispered. The young wizard did not know how much longer he would be able to carry out the task. Masoj wondered whether he could win the fight even now.

Masoj is probably right.

--

Also Drizzt is a little bit of a dick here.

The other battles had died away as well, Drizzt noted, and he saw the flames of torches springing up all across the bank of the lake. He wondered if all of his twelve drow companions had survived, though he also wondered if he truly cared. Others were more than ready to take their places.

Drizzt knew that the only companion who really mattered— Guenhwyvar—was safely back in its home on the Astral Plane.

Wow dude. You know, you don't have to like these people to value their lives. Aren't you the good one?

But Drizzt is going through things.

He liked the excitement of patrolling, the thrill of the edge of danger, and the knowledge that he was now putting his weapons to use against vile monsters.

Even here, though, Drizzt could not escape the lethargy that had come to pervade his life, the general resignation that marked his every step. For, though his battles these days were fought against the horrors of the Underdark, monsters killed of necessity, Drizzt had not forgotten the meeting in the chapel of House Do’Urden.

He knew that his scimitars soon would be put to use against the flesh of drow elves.

--

We end the chapter with a glimpse at Zak. Zak apparently likes to stare broodingly out over Menzoberranzan when Drizzt is on patrol. He half wants to sneak out and help him, and he half hopes for news that Drizzt is dead.

And we get some more insight into his relationship with Malice and the question of Vierna:

Would Zak ever find the answer to the dilemma of the youngest Do’Urden? he wondered. Zak knew that he could not leave the house; Matron Malice was keeping a very close eye on him. She sensed his anguish over Drizzt, Zak knew, and she most definitely did not approve. Zak was often her lover, but they shared little other than that.

Zak thought back to the battles he and Malice had fought over Vierna, another child of common concern, centuries before. Vierna was a female, her fate sealed from the moment of her birth, and Zak could do nothing to halt the assault of the Spider Queen’s overwhelming religion.

I feel like we've got a lot of contradicting or confusing information on the timeline of the kids' birth and everyone's ages. I'd really like to see a timeline. My THOUGHT is that the family birth order/age order goes something like:

Malice (now age 400-ish) had Briza and Nalfein at a relatively early age, to an unknown father (or two). Zaknafein (age 300-ish) was probably born around the same time as the original two children.

At some point Malice gets with Zaknafein, whose unconventional leanings lead to him facing a test like Drizzt, and Malice overthrowing her own mother with Briza and Nalfein's help. Zak fathers Vierna (who is probably age 200-ish?). He fights for her, fruitlessly.

Then Zak's set aside, and at some point Malice gets with Rizzen, who is probably around Vierna's age, given his lack of influence or power. And he fathers Maya and Dinin in some order. And eventually, Malice dallies with Zak again for their last kid, Drizzt. Between the fact that Drizzt is male, and Malice is preoccupied with the rise of their House, Malice allows Zak a lot more influence and there we go.

That's my rough timeline guess. I suppose eventually I'll get to Zak's backstory book and learn for sure.

The one thing we can assume is that Zak is probably amazing in bed. Because I can't imagine why else she'd put up with him.