Homeland - Chapter Nineteen

[kalinara]

We had lots of drow scheming last chapter. I like drow scheming, so I rather enjoyed it. Evil politics are fun sometimes.



So this chapter starts us back with Drizzt. He's walking besides Guenhwyvar. Apparently, for the past ten days, she's been assigned to share point position with Drizzt. Masoj is annoyed by this, because the cat is his. But per Dinin, who is patrol leader, MASOJ is HIS, and therefore, the cat goes where he says.

And Drizzt's single best romance in the whole damn series continues:

Drizzt knew from the unfamiliar heat patterns on the wall that they had gone the limit of their patrol route. He had purposely put a lot of ground, more than was advised, between himself and the rest of the patrol. Drizzt had confidence that he and Guenhwyvar could take care of themselves, and with the others far behind, he could relax and enjoy the wait. The minutes Drizzt spent in solitude gave him the time he needed in his endless effort to sort through his confused emotions. Guenhwyvar, seemingly non-judgmental and always approving, offered Drizzt a perfect audience for his audible contemplations.

Basically, Drizzt is doing a lot of soul searching. And honestly, my recurring bitching aside, this is really Drizzt as his best. As a racism allegory, Drizzt's situation falls flat. But the story of a young man indoctrinated into a horrible culture and realizing, on some level, that he doesn't fit, and that things are wrong...that's always a compelling story. And Salvatore does a decent job with it.

I love this dialogue between Drizzt, Guen, and an unexpected third party:

“I begin to wonder the worth of it all,” Drizzt whispered to the cat. “I do not doubt the value of these patrols—this tenday alone, we have defeated a dozen monsters that might have brought great harm to the city—but to what end?”

He looked deeply into the panther’s saucer eyes and found sympathy there, and Drizzt knew that Guenhwyvar somehow understood his dilemma.

“Perhaps I still do not know who I am,” Drizzt mused, “or who my people are. Every time I find a clue to the truth, it leads me down a path that I dare not continue upon, to conclusions I cannot accept.”

“You are drow,” came a reply behind them. Drizzt turned abruptly to see Dinin a few feet away, a look of grave concern on his face.

One part that doesn't really work very well for me though comes up here:

Ah, but our true enemies do not reside in the lightless caverns of our world,” said Dinin with a sly smile. “Theirs is a world strange and evil.” Drizzt knew who Dinin was referring to, but he suspected that his brother was hiding something.

“The faeries,” Drizzt whispered, and the word prompted a jumble of emotions within him. All of his life, he had been told of his evil cousins, of how they had forced the drow into the bowels of the world. Busily engaged in the duties of his everyday life, Drizzt did not think of them often, but whenever they came to mind, he used their name as a litany against everything he hated in his life. If Drizzt could somehow blame the surface elves—as every other drow seemed to blame them—for the injustices of drow society, he could find hope for the future of his people. Rationally, Drizzt had to dismiss the stirring legends of the elven war as another of the endless stream of lies, but in his heart and hopes, Drizzt clung desperately to those words.

Every so often, the narrative pays lip service to the idea that Drizzt is brainwashed to hate surface elves. But I don't really think it works. I mean, I absolutely buy that the drow hate surface elves, but I think it'd fit better if the party line were about the surface elves being weak, pitiful and insulting to Lolth and to their brethren than "evil".

But like here's the party line:

He looked back to Dinin. “The faeries,” he said again, “whatever they may be.”

Dinin chuckled at his brother’s relentless sarcasm; it had become so commonplace. “They are as you have learned,” he assured Drizzt. “Without worth and vile beyond your imagination, the tormentors of our people, who banished us in eons past; who forced—”

“I know the tales,” Drizzt interrupted, alarmed at the increasing volume of his excited brother’s voice. Drizzt glanced over his shoulder. “If the patrol is ended, let us meet the others closer to the city. This place is too dangerous for such discussions.” He rose to his feet and started back, Guenhwyvar at his side.

And I mean, okay, propaganda is propaganda, but given how much Lolth approves of treachery, strength and torment, it always reads a little funny to see them complain about the surface elves like that.

But it's relevant here, because Dinin has news: they've been doing so well as a patrol, that they've been selected to take part in a surface raid!

Drizzt's reaction is interesting:

Drizzt was not as openly excited as his brother, unsure of the implications of such a mission. At last he would get to view the surface elves and face the truth of his heart and hopes. Something more real to Drizzt, the disappointment he had known for so many years, tempered his elation, reminded him that while the truth of the elves might bring an excuse to the dark world of his kin, it might instead take away something more important. He was unsure how to feel.

But also highlights the weakness in this approach. Salvatore has done a great job in showing us the dark sides of drow society, and Drizzt's slow, subconscious awareness of them growing. And because of that, the sudden focus on discovering the "truth" about the surface elves seems a little silly.

Menzoberranzan is a shit place full of horrible people regardless of whether the elves above are good or evil. The surface elves aren't a vast conspiracy used by the drow leadership to keep everyone in line. They'd be in control regardless of that kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong, I DO think the surface elf trip is an important part of the story, and I'm looking forward to what I remember of it. I just don't think the "our great enemy" idea really plays out. "Let's kill them because they're weak and have things we want" seem like a perfectly adequate motive based on what we've seen of drow society.

-

The scene shifts to Alton and Masoj. Alton is intrigued. Apparently his sister had been on the surface once, during a raid, and had found it a marvelous experience. And it's a big deal because Menzoberranzan hasn't done a surface raid in decades. It'll probably be another twenty years before the next one.

...why?

I mean, I'm on board with the raids being sparse, but why so long between them? Is it a resource thing?

Masoj doesn't get to go though, apparently the masters of Sorcere have determined that wizards don't get to go to the surface, because their magic sometimes works differently in the open sky. There was an incident in the last raid where a fireball expanded beyond its normal dimensions and killed several drow. (Though Masoj and Alton both suspect that this was a staged accident, meant to take out some of the wizard's enemies.)

But he's still thinking about how Drizzt will die once SiNaFay gives the order. It'll be by cat, of course. Ah, tragic love.

--

So this is interesting. There's apparently a lot of preparation involved in the raid. The patrol is sequestered. No patrol for a tenday. They make plans, and listen to Loremaster Hatch'net talk about the vile elves.

Drizzt listened intently to the stories, allowing himself, forcing himself, to fall within Hatch’net’s hypnotic web. The tales had to be true; Drizzt did not know what he would hold onto to preserve his principles if they were not.

This is the kind of thing I mean. I don't really see why this is relevant to Drizzt's morality. But I do like that Drizzt is conflicted and perceives a wrongness here.

Drizzt asks after Masoj, and we get a repeat explanation, but his real interest is Guen. Unfortunately, Dinin rules out Drizzt asking Masoj to borrow Guen, as their tactics on the surface will be different.

--

We close out the chapter with Drizzt, excited in his cot:

Drizzt lay back in his cot the night before the raiding party’s departure and brought his scimitars through some slow-motion maneuvers above him.

“This time,” he whispered aloud to the blades while marveling at their intricate dance even at such a slow speed. “This time your ring will sound out in the song of justice!”

He placed the scimitars down at the side of his cot and rolled over to find some needed sleep. “This time,” he said again, teeth clenched and eyes shining with determination.

Were his proclamations his belief or his hope? Drizzt had dismissed the disturbing question the very first time it had entered his thoughts, having no more room for doubts than he had for brooding. He no longer considered the possibility of disappointment; it had no place in the heart of a drow warrior.

To Dinin, though, studying Drizzt curiously from the shadows of the doorway, it sounded as if his younger brother was trying to convince himself of the truth of his own words.

I'm not sure how big scimitars actually are, but waving them about while laying in bed seems...unlikely? But that said, I do like this nice little ominous ending.

Dinin's a more interesting character than I remember. Vierna's already figured out Drizzt's issues. Dinin seems aware of some of them too, or at least he seems to suspect. And I don't remember this part of the book very well, so I'm curious to see what he'll do about it.