The Golden Queen - Chapter 6
Dec. 9th, 2022 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatSo last time, Gallen, Orick and Maggie ended up taking an impromptu trip into a gate after all. Let's see where they end up!
So Maggie is our viewpoint character and we get to see the end of the last chapter from her point of view:
When Gallen and Orick took off down the hill toward the vanquishers, Maggie had felt a thrill of fear as she realized they planned to leave her. She buried her face in the dirt, trying to make herself as small as possible, then heard Gallen's shout.
Below her in the woods, she saw the green and blue lights of wights rushing uphill toward her, and she realized she was in the thick of it.
Her fear suddenly turned to anger. She got up, saw Gallen and Orick struggling to get the bag with the key from a vanquisher. She rushed down the hill, screaming, and bowled into Gallen and Orick, pushing them through the gate.
Okay, that seems reasonable enough.
This...doesn't?
Maggie fell back and hit the ground rolling, tumbling against Orick's warm fur. Gallen landed on top of her. She was furious, wanted to hit someone. Maggie shouted, "Gallen O'Day, you. . . ." Then she just sat and stared, her mouth open in wonder.
She knocks them all through the gate and wants to hit him for landing on top of her?
Look, Wolverton, I get that Maggie and Gallen are probably going to be the end game couple. Galen's infatuation with Everynne is based on her beauty, while he and Maggie have known each other for years. But I'm finding this dynamic a bit uncomfortable. Especially since we've already seen that bizarre kiss-then-slap-him incident when he had the nerve to be attracted to Everynne after turning Maggie down.
I feel like Wolverton is aiming for a "spirited heroine" type in contrast with the more restrained and passive Everynne, but there's a difference between being spirited and being violent for no real reason.
We get some description of their new location and more Gallen-blaming:
hey sat in a meadow surrounded by a lush forest, thick with undergrowth. It felt like summer. A warm evening breeze rushed across her back, ruffling her hair, and in the distance a tiny oblong lavender moon hung on the horizon behind a swirl of clouds.
There was no sign of a gate from this side. Maggie looked around, just to be sure. All around them, broad-leaved trees whispered and rippled in waves under the wind. Locusts sang in the darkness. Overhead was a sky filled with more stars than Maggie had ever imagined.
Gallen got up, folded his arms and stood staring. "What?" he asked, absently. Orick sniffed the air.
"Gallen, is your head filled with nothing but blubber?" Maggie shouted. "You've done it to us bad! I don't like the looks of this place."
Wolverton, you told us what happened last chapter. You told us again at the beginning of this chapter. Yes, Gallen wanted and fully intended to go after Veriasse and Everynne. But he had no intention of dragging Maggie or Orick with him. They're here because of MAGGIE.
It'd be one thing if I thought this was intentional. If I thought Maggie was supposed to be a character who dodges responsibility and blames the closest person at hand and that's going to be a point of growth for her. But I'm not getting that impression. Gallen doesn't bother to defend himself. Orick doesn't say anything or even look disapproving, and there's no indication from Maggie that she knows she's being unfair.
I'll give you an example of what I mean, from a terrible show. If you ever saw the episode of Arrow where we first meet Barry Allen...before the Flash spinoff, and before he got powers. Oliver immediately treats Barry with hostility and distrust and goes overboard in exposing Barry in a lie or maybe lie of omission. When it turns out that the secret Barry was keeping was about his own personal tragedy, you can see on Oliver's face the awareness that he'd gone too far and was being a total asshole. It doesn't fix Oliver's myriad of personal problems, but it's a good moment that makes it clear that yes, these issues are an intentional part of his character arc.
It wouldn't be that hard to give Maggie a moment like that. She doesn't have to say it outloud or apologize. It could be as simple as thinking "Gallen was easy to blame, because he was the one who was so obsessed with the visitors from the beginning."
The moment of awareness is important because it's the signal to me, as a reader, that the relationship that eventually develops between Gallen and Maggie probably won't have this kind of aggression/blame. Since we don't see that, at this point in time, I start to wonder if Wolverton doesn't see a problem with the way Maggie is behaving. And it makes me think that maybe this is just going to be how they interact from now on.
Honestly, right now, I can't blame Gallen for being infatuated with Everynne, if this is his alternative.
Anyway, Gallen remembers that the vanquisher called this place Fale. He calls out for Everynne and Veriasse, which strikes me as a dumb idea, since there are pursuers. But there's a bigger issue. Orick doesn't smell either of their friends. They haven't been here for a long time.
Gallen theorizes that maybe, rather than a "gate", it's more like a hallway, with branching paths. He remembers Everynne calling it "a maze of worlds." We also learn, by the way, that the place they're from is "Tihrglas." And Maggie thinks it smells strange.
Also, Maggie is still inclined to blame Gallen:
You mean we got off on the wrong world somehow?" she asked. "Gallen, you reeking bag of fish, I ought to knock you in the head! What did you have to do this for? What were you thinking, going after the key that way? You could have gotten us all killed! I know what you were after—that woman Everynne. You've been hot for her from the moment you first saw her. Why, if someone lopped off your head, it would be no loss. Your gonads would still do all the thinking!"
Gallen shrugged. "The vanquishers had another key. I had to warn Veriasse. Besides, I didn't ask either of you two to come along."
Maggie glared at him. "You left me! Both you and your dumb bear left me. As soon as those ogres began shouting, every wight in the country rushed up the hill toward us. I had to throw in with you! And if I hadn't come to your aid, we'd have all been killed! We could have all stayed home, hidden safe in the woods, but now . . . !"
Gallen said, "I'm sorry. I would never wish any harm on you. I'd never have dragged you into this."
I guess I'm happy that Gallen sort of stands up for himself here? But it doesn't really last. And Maggie pushes the issue:
He had such an expression of grief on his face, and he spoke with such sincerity, that Maggie had a hard time staying angry. She pointed her finger at him and then shook her fist. "Just admit one thing. Just be honest about one thing: don't you dare tell me that you came here to talk to Veriasse. It was Everynne you were after. You've been giving her looks all day, and don't you dare deny it, Gallen O'Day, or I'll beat you with a stick."
Gallen shrugged. "I couldn't just let her get killed."
Maggie figured that was as much of a confession as she'd ever get from him.
Maybe it's my age, but I don't see what the problem is. I don't see what Gallen needs to "confess" at all. Let's say Maggie is absolutely right and Gallen's sole motivation here is his attraction to Everynne. So what?
It'd be one thing if Maggie's concern were for Everynne. She is in a desperate position after all and Gallen shouldn't be permitted to abuse that, even unintentionally. But it's not. Maggie is jealous.
And the thing is, it's perfectly natural and believable that a girl who had grown up with a crush on a guy would react with jealousy at the thought of him being attracted to someone else. I would be fine with that IF the book at any point acknowledged that this is not fair to Gallen.
Gallen and Maggie are not romantic partners at this time. She offered. He turned her down. And while his explanation had to do with her age, he doesn't owe her celibacy. He is not required to wait for her to grow up.
I'll be honest, I do not like this pairing. I think this behavior proves why Gallen was exactly right to turn her down for being too young. And I'm hoping that will turn out to be intentional on the part of Wolverton. We'll have to see.
Anyway, Orick distracts everyone by wondering where they could get some food. Orick is great. And...crap, I think Maggie's hit the "bitch eating crackers" note for me.
"If we head off on a straight path," Gallen said, "maybe we'll meet up with a river or a road."
Maggie looked toward the falling moon on the horizon. It seemed as good a direction as any to take, and if she left it to Gallen and Orick, they’d never make up their minds. She began hiking through the forest and the others were forced to follow.
He literally just made up his mind.
Ugh, I do not like disliking female characters. It reminds me of my own tendency toward internalized-misogyny as a teenager. I'm inclined to blame Wolverton for writing Maggie as a fucking cartoon.
It does not help that two paragraphs later, Maggie gets annoyed that Gallen keeps calling Everynne's name, and tells him to quit his bawling and to put a cork in it.
There is some beautiful description here, which I will not share because I've spent too much time excerpting relationship dynamics. But there's a moonlit sky, a pool that reflects night shadows and starlight. Orick finds some eggs that Maggie doesn't eat, because the first one she cracks open had a bird embryo in it. Fair enough, I'm squeamish too. Eventually Maggie finds a large white rock, one of many, with strange sculpted symbols. She realizes they're walking through a ruined city.
They make camp. Having a bear friend is wonderful when it comes to keeping warm. Gallen takes a moment to muse about Father Heany, and how he was such a clean man that a part of Gallen is shocked that he would "get involved" in such a small and nasty affair as death. It's a little weird, but does feel like the sort of strange, scattered thing that someone might think as they're processing the death of a friend. He sleeps.
Orick sings a bear lullaby to Maggie, which is awesome. He then licks her face and tells her that he's got plenty of winter fat stored, and the next time they find food, she should eat.
It's not mentioned if Gallen had eaten any of the eggs. I assume so, as he's not a squeamish sort.
She wakes up to Orick announcing that he's found food. She pokes Gallen awake, though he'd prefer to sleep longer. And hey, a moment of self awareness here:
"Up with you, you lout! You'll sleep better with some food in your tummy." Maggie realized belatedly that she sounded shrewish—like her own mother before she died. Back in Tihrglas, John Mahoney often warned her about her mouth: "Your mother grew so accustomed to nagging you kids, that she soon started bedeviling everyone in general. I'll tell you right now, Maggie: I'll not have you shrieking like a harpy at my customers, as your mother did!"
Maggie bit her lower lip, resolved to control her tongue.
Honey, you passed shrewish a WHILE ago. But I do appreciate the inclination to improve.
Anyway, Orick leads them to a valley, lush with trees.
It took Maggie several moments to realize what she saw: the river was enormous, and huge ships sailed down it, each bejeweled with hundreds of lights. On the far side of the river was what appeared to be a single building that extended low along the ground for dozens of miles. Fierce bluish lights shone from thousands of windows. In places the land was clear, leaving bits of open meadow and farm. In other places, the building spanned over the water like some colony of mold growing in a neglected mug of ale.
As she watched, bright globes dropped from the sky and fell toward the city, then settled upon rooftops. Perhaps a mile away, a woman in green robes climbed from a shining globe and walked through a door into that vast building.
Nice.
There's farmland and Orick can smell corn and pears. He and Gallen are inclined to go see if they can ask for some food. Maggie is more worried about what the people might do to them and if there are vanquishers around. Gallen pointed out that they saw a woman, who looked nice enough, and if there are vanquishers around they shouldn't know them.
Huh, a reasonable disagreement where I don't think either of them are being awful. Imagine that.
They do end up finding some strange fruit that Orick loves, and some corn, but their meal is interrupted by a giant spider. Gallen fights the spider, ripping off one of its legs and beating it with it like a club. And honestly, I'm kind of into it. Nice.
Orick also helps. Maggie doesn't really, but that's understandable. I don't mind when non-combatants are non-combatants. They decide to get the fuck out of there, as more spiders near.
This is cool though:
As Maggie climbed onto the highway, it seemed that magic struck. Suddenly, two brilliant lavender suns climbed above the distant mountains, casting a complex network of shadows over the city. As their light touched the highway, it glowed a deep red as if it were made of rubies. The trees at the roadside hissed in the breeze, their long fronds of leaves swaying. Maggie caught the sound of distant music blowing on the wind.
Ahead a shadowed archway led into the city. Several men and women milled about near the arch, seating themselves at tables. The scents of roasting meat and fresh breads wafted from the arch.
"That's an inn," Maggie said. "I know an inn when I see it."
But there are some new aspects too:
Maggie stood, not quite sure what she saw. Neither Gallen nor Orick dared move forward. Not all of the creatures stirring in that inn were human. A yellow man with enormous spindly limbs leaned his back against one wall near the entrance to the arch. He was bald and naked but for a burgundy loincloth. Maggie suspected that the man would stand over ten feet tall. Other things moving about in the shadowed inn looked like ivory-skinned children with enormous eyes and ears.
Yet there were plenty of normal people inside. Some wore robes in brilliant greens and blues and darkest black, others wore pants and vests of gold with silver headpieces. Yet others were dressed all in silver body armor.
Woo. ALIEN STUFF. AWESOME.
They're greeted by the yellow spidery man, who offers them some food. He is surprised when Gallen asks the price, noting that they must be far travelers. Apparently people eat for free on Fale. Nice!
Gallen asks for a very big meal: rolls, fried potatoes, sausage, fresh raspberries and milk. They get everything. Maggie sees six-armed men made of gold and porcelain cooking. She and Orick order food too. (Orick gets muffins heaped on eggs, sausages dangling over the tray, and everything smothered in honey.)
So they eat and stare and try not to call too much attention to themselves, but obviously people do notice them. Maggie feels overwhelmed by the marvels of the place and despite her "quick wit" (not the words I'd use), for the first time in her life, feels profoundly uneducated.
It does reinforce the idea that Wolverton sees Maggie as being spirited rather than bitchy Great.
Orick doesn't smell a bear. Or Everynne. And honestly, it kind of sounds like Orick is more into Everynne than even Gallen is:
"Believe me," Orick answered, "if I could catch the slightest trace of that dear creature's fragrance, I'd pounce on her like a hound on a hare. She's nowhere near."
They talk about what to do next. Should they find work or keep hunting for Everynne? Should they call attention to themselves? Maggie is concerned about vanquishers, but Orick notes that everyone must know they're outsiders anyway, but they've been hospitable so far. Gallen is inclined to go into the city and look for Everynne and Veriasse, but is interrupted by a new arrival: A man with a face like golden starlight, wearing the same outfit as the man who saved his life.
He decides to head out. Maggie decides to be a melodramatic teenager:
Maggie watched his back. Right, Gallen O'Day, go chase your mystery woman. I wish you both all the happiness.
It's more tolerable than the shrieking jealousy, but egads. Maybe I'm just too old and cranky to appreciate melodramatic teenagers.
About an hour later though, things get bad. Six dronon appear, wearing weird shoes that allow them to glide along the road. I like to imagine them wearing roller-blades. Do the kids still roller-blade?
This is bad:
It stopped beside Maggie and Orick, and a single long feeler twisted up from beside its mouth. The feeler wrapped around Maggie's wrist. She stood abruptly, wanting to run, but found she was trapped between two tables with her back against the wall.
The dronon's feeler held her like a thick cord, binding her in case she should try to flee. Beneath the creature's mouth was an organ that looked like dozens of small, blunt fingers poised above the stretched membrane of a drum. The fingers began rhythmically tapping, creating an odd thrumming noise not unlike the sound that some deep-voiced locust might make. Yet the thrumming varied greatly in intensity and pitch. Maggie could distinguish words in that music. The dronon was speaking to her.
"You are not from this world. Where are you from?" the dronon demanded.
So, okay, Maggie was right this time. But maybe Orick was too, because the golden faced man stands up and claims that Maggie is a "Silent One from Pellarius". He quickly spins a pretty horrific sounding backstory: basically the singers there removed her vocal cords and sterilized her because her voice lacked beauty, and this man says he bought her as a worker to "serve the greater glory of the dronon empire."
The dronon asks what Maggie's "function" is, and the man claims she's an "aberlain" who is "highly skilled in installing genetic upgrades in the unborn."
The dronon asks where her "Guide" is, and the stranger claims that she's just been promoted, and he's creating a guide for her. He provides a silver crown as a demonstration of her "old guide". The dronon accepts this explanation and leaves.
The man introduces himself, while warning Maggie that dronons have a weak acid, and she needs to wipe it off her skin before getting burned. He is Karthenor, "Lord of the Aberlains".
Karthenor is curious about Maggie and dismissive of Orick, which makes me dislike him immediately. Though he does mitigate that by being more respectful once Orick corrects him on his species. Karthenor realizes that Orick is a genetically enhanced black bear. Which is fascinating.
Maggie impulsively but understandably (he did save her, and she remembers Gallen's story of a similar man saving him) decides to tell him that they're from the World Gate. Karthenor asks, in a very neutral voice, where they're from. And this is interesting.
"Earth," Maggie answered.
The stranger seemed perplexed. He stared at Maggie and Orick with a bemused expression, rested his elbows on the table, and touched a gloved finger to his lips. "Which Earth are you referring to? You obviously speak English, so you've been genetically engineered to remember our language. Yet you speak it with an odd accent, one I've never heard."
"Earth," Maggie said. "Where I live."
The stranger turned his head to the side, thinking. "What continent are you from on this Earth of yours?"
"Tihrglas," Maggie said.
"Ah, that Earth!" The stranger smiled. He folded his hands, looked at Maggie and Orick appraisingly. "Surely you did not find a gate key just lying around on Tihrglas? How did you come by it?"
So we get a LOT of universe building here.
1) Bears normally do not speak. Orick is genetically enhanced somehow. Presumably all bears on Tihrglas's Earth are the same.
2) There are many Earths. Maggie's is one. And she (and Gallen) may have been genetically engineered to remember English. Which is referred to AS English. It doesn't really make sense to me, but it's an interesting attempt at explaining a lack of linguistic drift.
3) Tihrglas is a unique enough name to be recognizable.
Karthenor seems to realize his questions are making Maggie anxious, so he gives them a chance to ask questions. (Fale society is apparently very open.)
We learn that he is human. The golden face is a mask. It's a Fale style, where the mask somehow reveals their innermost selves. They apparently cannot lie and must reveal their true emotions, and they're known to be trustworthy.
He offers them a tour and explains that their ancestors once lived together on one world, called Earth, but not the same as Maggie's Earth.
And oo, backstory:
Maggie looked at Karthenor suspiciously but said nothing as he continued. "On that planet, our ancestors had descended from animals, and there they acted the part—always warring, seeking wealth.
"Eventually, they developed space flight and journeyed to distant stars. There was an explosion of knowledge and technology unlike anything ever before. Machines learned to think. Men learned to hold death at bay and extend their lives for millennia. We met new races, new allies who also traversed among the stars.
"Still there were wars, still there was poverty and sadness. So some of our ancestors rejected technology, decided to live on backward planets in rustic settings. They came to be known as Backwards, and eighteen thousand years ago, some of them settled on your world. They took only the most basic tools—a few genetic upgrades that would let them remain relatively healthy and transmit an inborn memory of English. They took seeds for house-trees and plants.
"That is where our ancestors split: my ancestors were Forwards. They embraced technology and traveled to the stars." Karthenor waved his hand in a gesture that encompassed the sky.
So, all the oddities of Maggie's world are explained. It's a decent explanation. They're space Amish (Irish-flavored).
Maggie asks how he knows this. The silver headdress he wears, which Everynne had too, is called a mantle. It is a teaching machine. He offers one to Maggie:
His golden face was strangely intense. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the silver crown and gave it to Maggie. She held it, turned it over. The outside of the band showed only a single opening, a small window. But inside were colored lights. Two tiny prongs protruded so that they would push gently into the back of the wearer's neck.
"This is a Guide," Karthenor said. "Here in Fale, it is considered to be a thing of great worth. I want to give it to you, as a gift. You are a beautiful young woman. You will need it if you are to make a living here."
Maggie asked, "What does it do?"
"It is a teaching device, to make you wise," Karthenor said. "It is not only beautiful when worn in your hair, but very valuable. If you wear it, you will learn all of the secrets of how to become an aberlain. You will learn how to create life, shape the human genome into new complexities so that future generations will be wiser, stronger, and better servants of society than they are now. If you choose to wear such a Guide, you would become rich beyond imagination, and in time your wealth and power will rival that of the Lords. Here, let me show you how to put it on."
Maggie wonders about it. It's obviously valuable. Many others were wearing a similar one. She wonders why he'd give it to her, and how long he'd let her wear it. And just as it touches her, she realizes another question: if the mask prevents lying, how did he lie to the dronon?
Karthenor's got a malicious grin now. Maggie tries to tear the thing off, and it causes a raging fire to sweep through her head. He shoots a web at Orick, gluing him to the wall. He then demands answers from Maggie.
Maggie however is suddenly getting a HUGE influx of knowledge. She now understands the work of an aberlain. And this is kind of interesting:
In one marvelous moment, Maggie understood the work of an aberlain. With the Guide tohelp her, she would spend the rest of her life altering the genetic makeup of the unborn children, making them into better servants for the dronon empire. In return, each child and their offspring in perpetuity would become indebted to Maggie and her Lord Karthenor. Though they sweated for a thousand generations, a portion of all their earnings would be deducted for payment. The work of aberlains had been illegal until six years ago, had been considered immoral.
But now the dronon ruled, and in the dronon society, each creature was born into a caste he could never escape. Images flashed before Maggie’s eyes of her dronon leaders: the Golden Queen, Tlitkani, who had so recently seized control of six thousand worlds; the black Lord Vanquishers, her soldiers; the small, sand-colored artisans of dronon society; and the vast oceans of white-skinned workers. Each was born to its place, and the dronons now sought to remake mankind in their own image.
So, the dronon empire is apparently pretty new. Which might explain a lot.
Also, Karthenor is apparently intending to use genetic manipulation to engineer a slave race. He's not a good guy. And his "guide" is trying to take Maggie over entirely: creating artificial neurons to thread through her cerebrum and brainstem. She has hours at most before they'll be inseparable.
New info dump, when Karthenor mentions that she's, in her small way, becoming like the "gods".
When Karthenor said the word "gods," the world went gray as information flooded her senses. Just as Maggie had this small Guide enmeshed in her brain, others across the galaxy were joined to larger intelligences. Karthenor's silver mantle stored far more information than Maggie's Guide, yet some immortals were connected to intelligences the size of an entire planet. They were gods.
In her mind's eye, Maggie saw Semarritte, the great judge who had ruled this sector of the galaxy for ten thousand years. She was a woman of proud bearing and dark hair, very much like Everynne, but older. Semarritte had built the gates at the beginning of her reign as a means of traveling between worlds quickly. Yet to protect herself, she had kept the method for constructing the gate keys a secret.
In one bitter moment, Maggie understood that Everynne was the daughter of Semarritte, and that Everynne had stolen the gate key in a desperate bid to win back her mother's worlds.
...On one hand, I like the sci-fi aspect of this a lot. On another, I kind of wish we got to learn this all a bit more organically than just via massive infodump.
Anyway, Maggie does end up telling him everything. She can't help it. The chapter ends with her thinking of her one hope: Gallen O'Day.
So Maggie is our viewpoint character and we get to see the end of the last chapter from her point of view:
When Gallen and Orick took off down the hill toward the vanquishers, Maggie had felt a thrill of fear as she realized they planned to leave her. She buried her face in the dirt, trying to make herself as small as possible, then heard Gallen's shout.
Below her in the woods, she saw the green and blue lights of wights rushing uphill toward her, and she realized she was in the thick of it.
Her fear suddenly turned to anger. She got up, saw Gallen and Orick struggling to get the bag with the key from a vanquisher. She rushed down the hill, screaming, and bowled into Gallen and Orick, pushing them through the gate.
Okay, that seems reasonable enough.
This...doesn't?
Maggie fell back and hit the ground rolling, tumbling against Orick's warm fur. Gallen landed on top of her. She was furious, wanted to hit someone. Maggie shouted, "Gallen O'Day, you. . . ." Then she just sat and stared, her mouth open in wonder.
She knocks them all through the gate and wants to hit him for landing on top of her?
Look, Wolverton, I get that Maggie and Gallen are probably going to be the end game couple. Galen's infatuation with Everynne is based on her beauty, while he and Maggie have known each other for years. But I'm finding this dynamic a bit uncomfortable. Especially since we've already seen that bizarre kiss-then-slap-him incident when he had the nerve to be attracted to Everynne after turning Maggie down.
I feel like Wolverton is aiming for a "spirited heroine" type in contrast with the more restrained and passive Everynne, but there's a difference between being spirited and being violent for no real reason.
We get some description of their new location and more Gallen-blaming:
hey sat in a meadow surrounded by a lush forest, thick with undergrowth. It felt like summer. A warm evening breeze rushed across her back, ruffling her hair, and in the distance a tiny oblong lavender moon hung on the horizon behind a swirl of clouds.
There was no sign of a gate from this side. Maggie looked around, just to be sure. All around them, broad-leaved trees whispered and rippled in waves under the wind. Locusts sang in the darkness. Overhead was a sky filled with more stars than Maggie had ever imagined.
Gallen got up, folded his arms and stood staring. "What?" he asked, absently. Orick sniffed the air.
"Gallen, is your head filled with nothing but blubber?" Maggie shouted. "You've done it to us bad! I don't like the looks of this place."
Wolverton, you told us what happened last chapter. You told us again at the beginning of this chapter. Yes, Gallen wanted and fully intended to go after Veriasse and Everynne. But he had no intention of dragging Maggie or Orick with him. They're here because of MAGGIE.
It'd be one thing if I thought this was intentional. If I thought Maggie was supposed to be a character who dodges responsibility and blames the closest person at hand and that's going to be a point of growth for her. But I'm not getting that impression. Gallen doesn't bother to defend himself. Orick doesn't say anything or even look disapproving, and there's no indication from Maggie that she knows she's being unfair.
I'll give you an example of what I mean, from a terrible show. If you ever saw the episode of Arrow where we first meet Barry Allen...before the Flash spinoff, and before he got powers. Oliver immediately treats Barry with hostility and distrust and goes overboard in exposing Barry in a lie or maybe lie of omission. When it turns out that the secret Barry was keeping was about his own personal tragedy, you can see on Oliver's face the awareness that he'd gone too far and was being a total asshole. It doesn't fix Oliver's myriad of personal problems, but it's a good moment that makes it clear that yes, these issues are an intentional part of his character arc.
It wouldn't be that hard to give Maggie a moment like that. She doesn't have to say it outloud or apologize. It could be as simple as thinking "Gallen was easy to blame, because he was the one who was so obsessed with the visitors from the beginning."
The moment of awareness is important because it's the signal to me, as a reader, that the relationship that eventually develops between Gallen and Maggie probably won't have this kind of aggression/blame. Since we don't see that, at this point in time, I start to wonder if Wolverton doesn't see a problem with the way Maggie is behaving. And it makes me think that maybe this is just going to be how they interact from now on.
Honestly, right now, I can't blame Gallen for being infatuated with Everynne, if this is his alternative.
Anyway, Gallen remembers that the vanquisher called this place Fale. He calls out for Everynne and Veriasse, which strikes me as a dumb idea, since there are pursuers. But there's a bigger issue. Orick doesn't smell either of their friends. They haven't been here for a long time.
Gallen theorizes that maybe, rather than a "gate", it's more like a hallway, with branching paths. He remembers Everynne calling it "a maze of worlds." We also learn, by the way, that the place they're from is "Tihrglas." And Maggie thinks it smells strange.
Also, Maggie is still inclined to blame Gallen:
You mean we got off on the wrong world somehow?" she asked. "Gallen, you reeking bag of fish, I ought to knock you in the head! What did you have to do this for? What were you thinking, going after the key that way? You could have gotten us all killed! I know what you were after—that woman Everynne. You've been hot for her from the moment you first saw her. Why, if someone lopped off your head, it would be no loss. Your gonads would still do all the thinking!"
Gallen shrugged. "The vanquishers had another key. I had to warn Veriasse. Besides, I didn't ask either of you two to come along."
Maggie glared at him. "You left me! Both you and your dumb bear left me. As soon as those ogres began shouting, every wight in the country rushed up the hill toward us. I had to throw in with you! And if I hadn't come to your aid, we'd have all been killed! We could have all stayed home, hidden safe in the woods, but now . . . !"
Gallen said, "I'm sorry. I would never wish any harm on you. I'd never have dragged you into this."
I guess I'm happy that Gallen sort of stands up for himself here? But it doesn't really last. And Maggie pushes the issue:
He had such an expression of grief on his face, and he spoke with such sincerity, that Maggie had a hard time staying angry. She pointed her finger at him and then shook her fist. "Just admit one thing. Just be honest about one thing: don't you dare tell me that you came here to talk to Veriasse. It was Everynne you were after. You've been giving her looks all day, and don't you dare deny it, Gallen O'Day, or I'll beat you with a stick."
Gallen shrugged. "I couldn't just let her get killed."
Maggie figured that was as much of a confession as she'd ever get from him.
Maybe it's my age, but I don't see what the problem is. I don't see what Gallen needs to "confess" at all. Let's say Maggie is absolutely right and Gallen's sole motivation here is his attraction to Everynne. So what?
It'd be one thing if Maggie's concern were for Everynne. She is in a desperate position after all and Gallen shouldn't be permitted to abuse that, even unintentionally. But it's not. Maggie is jealous.
And the thing is, it's perfectly natural and believable that a girl who had grown up with a crush on a guy would react with jealousy at the thought of him being attracted to someone else. I would be fine with that IF the book at any point acknowledged that this is not fair to Gallen.
Gallen and Maggie are not romantic partners at this time. She offered. He turned her down. And while his explanation had to do with her age, he doesn't owe her celibacy. He is not required to wait for her to grow up.
I'll be honest, I do not like this pairing. I think this behavior proves why Gallen was exactly right to turn her down for being too young. And I'm hoping that will turn out to be intentional on the part of Wolverton. We'll have to see.
Anyway, Orick distracts everyone by wondering where they could get some food. Orick is great. And...crap, I think Maggie's hit the "bitch eating crackers" note for me.
"If we head off on a straight path," Gallen said, "maybe we'll meet up with a river or a road."
Maggie looked toward the falling moon on the horizon. It seemed as good a direction as any to take, and if she left it to Gallen and Orick, they’d never make up their minds. She began hiking through the forest and the others were forced to follow.
He literally just made up his mind.
Ugh, I do not like disliking female characters. It reminds me of my own tendency toward internalized-misogyny as a teenager. I'm inclined to blame Wolverton for writing Maggie as a fucking cartoon.
It does not help that two paragraphs later, Maggie gets annoyed that Gallen keeps calling Everynne's name, and tells him to quit his bawling and to put a cork in it.
There is some beautiful description here, which I will not share because I've spent too much time excerpting relationship dynamics. But there's a moonlit sky, a pool that reflects night shadows and starlight. Orick finds some eggs that Maggie doesn't eat, because the first one she cracks open had a bird embryo in it. Fair enough, I'm squeamish too. Eventually Maggie finds a large white rock, one of many, with strange sculpted symbols. She realizes they're walking through a ruined city.
They make camp. Having a bear friend is wonderful when it comes to keeping warm. Gallen takes a moment to muse about Father Heany, and how he was such a clean man that a part of Gallen is shocked that he would "get involved" in such a small and nasty affair as death. It's a little weird, but does feel like the sort of strange, scattered thing that someone might think as they're processing the death of a friend. He sleeps.
Orick sings a bear lullaby to Maggie, which is awesome. He then licks her face and tells her that he's got plenty of winter fat stored, and the next time they find food, she should eat.
It's not mentioned if Gallen had eaten any of the eggs. I assume so, as he's not a squeamish sort.
She wakes up to Orick announcing that he's found food. She pokes Gallen awake, though he'd prefer to sleep longer. And hey, a moment of self awareness here:
"Up with you, you lout! You'll sleep better with some food in your tummy." Maggie realized belatedly that she sounded shrewish—like her own mother before she died. Back in Tihrglas, John Mahoney often warned her about her mouth: "Your mother grew so accustomed to nagging you kids, that she soon started bedeviling everyone in general. I'll tell you right now, Maggie: I'll not have you shrieking like a harpy at my customers, as your mother did!"
Maggie bit her lower lip, resolved to control her tongue.
Honey, you passed shrewish a WHILE ago. But I do appreciate the inclination to improve.
Anyway, Orick leads them to a valley, lush with trees.
It took Maggie several moments to realize what she saw: the river was enormous, and huge ships sailed down it, each bejeweled with hundreds of lights. On the far side of the river was what appeared to be a single building that extended low along the ground for dozens of miles. Fierce bluish lights shone from thousands of windows. In places the land was clear, leaving bits of open meadow and farm. In other places, the building spanned over the water like some colony of mold growing in a neglected mug of ale.
As she watched, bright globes dropped from the sky and fell toward the city, then settled upon rooftops. Perhaps a mile away, a woman in green robes climbed from a shining globe and walked through a door into that vast building.
Nice.
There's farmland and Orick can smell corn and pears. He and Gallen are inclined to go see if they can ask for some food. Maggie is more worried about what the people might do to them and if there are vanquishers around. Gallen pointed out that they saw a woman, who looked nice enough, and if there are vanquishers around they shouldn't know them.
Huh, a reasonable disagreement where I don't think either of them are being awful. Imagine that.
They do end up finding some strange fruit that Orick loves, and some corn, but their meal is interrupted by a giant spider. Gallen fights the spider, ripping off one of its legs and beating it with it like a club. And honestly, I'm kind of into it. Nice.
Orick also helps. Maggie doesn't really, but that's understandable. I don't mind when non-combatants are non-combatants. They decide to get the fuck out of there, as more spiders near.
This is cool though:
As Maggie climbed onto the highway, it seemed that magic struck. Suddenly, two brilliant lavender suns climbed above the distant mountains, casting a complex network of shadows over the city. As their light touched the highway, it glowed a deep red as if it were made of rubies. The trees at the roadside hissed in the breeze, their long fronds of leaves swaying. Maggie caught the sound of distant music blowing on the wind.
Ahead a shadowed archway led into the city. Several men and women milled about near the arch, seating themselves at tables. The scents of roasting meat and fresh breads wafted from the arch.
"That's an inn," Maggie said. "I know an inn when I see it."
But there are some new aspects too:
Maggie stood, not quite sure what she saw. Neither Gallen nor Orick dared move forward. Not all of the creatures stirring in that inn were human. A yellow man with enormous spindly limbs leaned his back against one wall near the entrance to the arch. He was bald and naked but for a burgundy loincloth. Maggie suspected that the man would stand over ten feet tall. Other things moving about in the shadowed inn looked like ivory-skinned children with enormous eyes and ears.
Yet there were plenty of normal people inside. Some wore robes in brilliant greens and blues and darkest black, others wore pants and vests of gold with silver headpieces. Yet others were dressed all in silver body armor.
Woo. ALIEN STUFF. AWESOME.
They're greeted by the yellow spidery man, who offers them some food. He is surprised when Gallen asks the price, noting that they must be far travelers. Apparently people eat for free on Fale. Nice!
Gallen asks for a very big meal: rolls, fried potatoes, sausage, fresh raspberries and milk. They get everything. Maggie sees six-armed men made of gold and porcelain cooking. She and Orick order food too. (Orick gets muffins heaped on eggs, sausages dangling over the tray, and everything smothered in honey.)
So they eat and stare and try not to call too much attention to themselves, but obviously people do notice them. Maggie feels overwhelmed by the marvels of the place and despite her "quick wit" (not the words I'd use), for the first time in her life, feels profoundly uneducated.
It does reinforce the idea that Wolverton sees Maggie as being spirited rather than bitchy Great.
Orick doesn't smell a bear. Or Everynne. And honestly, it kind of sounds like Orick is more into Everynne than even Gallen is:
"Believe me," Orick answered, "if I could catch the slightest trace of that dear creature's fragrance, I'd pounce on her like a hound on a hare. She's nowhere near."
They talk about what to do next. Should they find work or keep hunting for Everynne? Should they call attention to themselves? Maggie is concerned about vanquishers, but Orick notes that everyone must know they're outsiders anyway, but they've been hospitable so far. Gallen is inclined to go into the city and look for Everynne and Veriasse, but is interrupted by a new arrival: A man with a face like golden starlight, wearing the same outfit as the man who saved his life.
He decides to head out. Maggie decides to be a melodramatic teenager:
Maggie watched his back. Right, Gallen O'Day, go chase your mystery woman. I wish you both all the happiness.
It's more tolerable than the shrieking jealousy, but egads. Maybe I'm just too old and cranky to appreciate melodramatic teenagers.
About an hour later though, things get bad. Six dronon appear, wearing weird shoes that allow them to glide along the road. I like to imagine them wearing roller-blades. Do the kids still roller-blade?
This is bad:
It stopped beside Maggie and Orick, and a single long feeler twisted up from beside its mouth. The feeler wrapped around Maggie's wrist. She stood abruptly, wanting to run, but found she was trapped between two tables with her back against the wall.
The dronon's feeler held her like a thick cord, binding her in case she should try to flee. Beneath the creature's mouth was an organ that looked like dozens of small, blunt fingers poised above the stretched membrane of a drum. The fingers began rhythmically tapping, creating an odd thrumming noise not unlike the sound that some deep-voiced locust might make. Yet the thrumming varied greatly in intensity and pitch. Maggie could distinguish words in that music. The dronon was speaking to her.
"You are not from this world. Where are you from?" the dronon demanded.
So, okay, Maggie was right this time. But maybe Orick was too, because the golden faced man stands up and claims that Maggie is a "Silent One from Pellarius". He quickly spins a pretty horrific sounding backstory: basically the singers there removed her vocal cords and sterilized her because her voice lacked beauty, and this man says he bought her as a worker to "serve the greater glory of the dronon empire."
The dronon asks what Maggie's "function" is, and the man claims she's an "aberlain" who is "highly skilled in installing genetic upgrades in the unborn."
The dronon asks where her "Guide" is, and the stranger claims that she's just been promoted, and he's creating a guide for her. He provides a silver crown as a demonstration of her "old guide". The dronon accepts this explanation and leaves.
The man introduces himself, while warning Maggie that dronons have a weak acid, and she needs to wipe it off her skin before getting burned. He is Karthenor, "Lord of the Aberlains".
Karthenor is curious about Maggie and dismissive of Orick, which makes me dislike him immediately. Though he does mitigate that by being more respectful once Orick corrects him on his species. Karthenor realizes that Orick is a genetically enhanced black bear. Which is fascinating.
Maggie impulsively but understandably (he did save her, and she remembers Gallen's story of a similar man saving him) decides to tell him that they're from the World Gate. Karthenor asks, in a very neutral voice, where they're from. And this is interesting.
"Earth," Maggie answered.
The stranger seemed perplexed. He stared at Maggie and Orick with a bemused expression, rested his elbows on the table, and touched a gloved finger to his lips. "Which Earth are you referring to? You obviously speak English, so you've been genetically engineered to remember our language. Yet you speak it with an odd accent, one I've never heard."
"Earth," Maggie said. "Where I live."
The stranger turned his head to the side, thinking. "What continent are you from on this Earth of yours?"
"Tihrglas," Maggie said.
"Ah, that Earth!" The stranger smiled. He folded his hands, looked at Maggie and Orick appraisingly. "Surely you did not find a gate key just lying around on Tihrglas? How did you come by it?"
So we get a LOT of universe building here.
1) Bears normally do not speak. Orick is genetically enhanced somehow. Presumably all bears on Tihrglas's Earth are the same.
2) There are many Earths. Maggie's is one. And she (and Gallen) may have been genetically engineered to remember English. Which is referred to AS English. It doesn't really make sense to me, but it's an interesting attempt at explaining a lack of linguistic drift.
3) Tihrglas is a unique enough name to be recognizable.
Karthenor seems to realize his questions are making Maggie anxious, so he gives them a chance to ask questions. (Fale society is apparently very open.)
We learn that he is human. The golden face is a mask. It's a Fale style, where the mask somehow reveals their innermost selves. They apparently cannot lie and must reveal their true emotions, and they're known to be trustworthy.
He offers them a tour and explains that their ancestors once lived together on one world, called Earth, but not the same as Maggie's Earth.
And oo, backstory:
Maggie looked at Karthenor suspiciously but said nothing as he continued. "On that planet, our ancestors had descended from animals, and there they acted the part—always warring, seeking wealth.
"Eventually, they developed space flight and journeyed to distant stars. There was an explosion of knowledge and technology unlike anything ever before. Machines learned to think. Men learned to hold death at bay and extend their lives for millennia. We met new races, new allies who also traversed among the stars.
"Still there were wars, still there was poverty and sadness. So some of our ancestors rejected technology, decided to live on backward planets in rustic settings. They came to be known as Backwards, and eighteen thousand years ago, some of them settled on your world. They took only the most basic tools—a few genetic upgrades that would let them remain relatively healthy and transmit an inborn memory of English. They took seeds for house-trees and plants.
"That is where our ancestors split: my ancestors were Forwards. They embraced technology and traveled to the stars." Karthenor waved his hand in a gesture that encompassed the sky.
So, all the oddities of Maggie's world are explained. It's a decent explanation. They're space Amish (Irish-flavored).
Maggie asks how he knows this. The silver headdress he wears, which Everynne had too, is called a mantle. It is a teaching machine. He offers one to Maggie:
His golden face was strangely intense. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the silver crown and gave it to Maggie. She held it, turned it over. The outside of the band showed only a single opening, a small window. But inside were colored lights. Two tiny prongs protruded so that they would push gently into the back of the wearer's neck.
"This is a Guide," Karthenor said. "Here in Fale, it is considered to be a thing of great worth. I want to give it to you, as a gift. You are a beautiful young woman. You will need it if you are to make a living here."
Maggie asked, "What does it do?"
"It is a teaching device, to make you wise," Karthenor said. "It is not only beautiful when worn in your hair, but very valuable. If you wear it, you will learn all of the secrets of how to become an aberlain. You will learn how to create life, shape the human genome into new complexities so that future generations will be wiser, stronger, and better servants of society than they are now. If you choose to wear such a Guide, you would become rich beyond imagination, and in time your wealth and power will rival that of the Lords. Here, let me show you how to put it on."
Maggie wonders about it. It's obviously valuable. Many others were wearing a similar one. She wonders why he'd give it to her, and how long he'd let her wear it. And just as it touches her, she realizes another question: if the mask prevents lying, how did he lie to the dronon?
Karthenor's got a malicious grin now. Maggie tries to tear the thing off, and it causes a raging fire to sweep through her head. He shoots a web at Orick, gluing him to the wall. He then demands answers from Maggie.
Maggie however is suddenly getting a HUGE influx of knowledge. She now understands the work of an aberlain. And this is kind of interesting:
In one marvelous moment, Maggie understood the work of an aberlain. With the Guide tohelp her, she would spend the rest of her life altering the genetic makeup of the unborn children, making them into better servants for the dronon empire. In return, each child and their offspring in perpetuity would become indebted to Maggie and her Lord Karthenor. Though they sweated for a thousand generations, a portion of all their earnings would be deducted for payment. The work of aberlains had been illegal until six years ago, had been considered immoral.
But now the dronon ruled, and in the dronon society, each creature was born into a caste he could never escape. Images flashed before Maggie’s eyes of her dronon leaders: the Golden Queen, Tlitkani, who had so recently seized control of six thousand worlds; the black Lord Vanquishers, her soldiers; the small, sand-colored artisans of dronon society; and the vast oceans of white-skinned workers. Each was born to its place, and the dronons now sought to remake mankind in their own image.
So, the dronon empire is apparently pretty new. Which might explain a lot.
Also, Karthenor is apparently intending to use genetic manipulation to engineer a slave race. He's not a good guy. And his "guide" is trying to take Maggie over entirely: creating artificial neurons to thread through her cerebrum and brainstem. She has hours at most before they'll be inseparable.
New info dump, when Karthenor mentions that she's, in her small way, becoming like the "gods".
When Karthenor said the word "gods," the world went gray as information flooded her senses. Just as Maggie had this small Guide enmeshed in her brain, others across the galaxy were joined to larger intelligences. Karthenor's silver mantle stored far more information than Maggie's Guide, yet some immortals were connected to intelligences the size of an entire planet. They were gods.
In her mind's eye, Maggie saw Semarritte, the great judge who had ruled this sector of the galaxy for ten thousand years. She was a woman of proud bearing and dark hair, very much like Everynne, but older. Semarritte had built the gates at the beginning of her reign as a means of traveling between worlds quickly. Yet to protect herself, she had kept the method for constructing the gate keys a secret.
In one bitter moment, Maggie understood that Everynne was the daughter of Semarritte, and that Everynne had stolen the gate key in a desperate bid to win back her mother's worlds.
...On one hand, I like the sci-fi aspect of this a lot. On another, I kind of wish we got to learn this all a bit more organically than just via massive infodump.
Anyway, Maggie does end up telling him everything. She can't help it. The chapter ends with her thinking of her one hope: Gallen O'Day.