Golden Queen - Chapter 13
Feb. 12th, 2023 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Gallen and Everynne had a heart to heart that led to more, we learned more about how fucked up Everynne's backstory actually is, and Veriasse is actually a total fucking creep.
So we're starting this chapter with Maggie and Orick. They're talking to "Grandmother", whose significance in the plot I've already forgotten entirely. Oh no. I can absolutely predict what's coming and I know it's going to annoy me.
Maggie, it seems, has come to an epiphany:
Maggie told Grandmother of her work in the inn, how she cleaned and scrubbed and cooked all day. She told how her mother died of sickness after giving birth, and of her father and brothers, who had all drowned when their small fishing boat capsized. It seemed to Maggie that Tihrglas was a cold and bitter place, where she had felt cramped, forced into a corner, and as she talked, Maggie realized that she did not want to go back. To live here on Cyannesse, even to live on Fale as a free woman, would be better.
I mean, really? Two chapters ago, this girl was enslaved in a very sexualized way and tortured for a long ass time. All she's seen, so far, is the worst part of the galaxy. I'm glad she's finding some appeal to it, but do you think, MAYBE, we could have actually SEEN her have some positive experiences to warrant this?
Though when Grandmother responds by saying the simple life is best, Maggie does veer the other way:
The wind was blowing through the trees, and it sounded like the wind that blew through Tihrglas on a summer's night, warm and comforting with the taste of the sea in it. It was the same kind of wind that had lulled Maggie to sleep as a child, and she felt a pang of longing, not for that damned Tihrglas, but for her childhood, for the blissful ignorance she felt before she'd heard of the dronon, and Maggie realized that if she had never heard of the dronon, even if she'd never left home, she would probably have grown old and been content. "Yes," Maggie agreed at last, "a simple life is best."
I mean, fair. But also, what's consistency?
Anyway, Veriasse had gone to look for Gallen and Everynne and he's been gone a while, so Maggie decides to go look for Gallen herself. Oh brother.
And here we fucking go. Because Maggie finds a naked Everynne first:
Everynne crawled through the grass, picked up her underclothing and put it on, watched Maggie without saying anything. She began to put on her robe.
"You took him, just because you could!" Maggie said.
"On many worlds," Everynne said, "men and women sleep together whenever they want. It means nothing."
"Yeah," Maggie said. "Well, where I come from, it means something, and you knew that!"
"I didn't want to hurt you," Everynne said.
Hurt me? Maggie wondered. You've crushed me. Maggie found her heart pounding. She didn't know who to be maddest at, Gallen or Everynne, but she knew they were both to blame. "Maybe you didn't want to hurt me," Maggie said. "But you knew that this would hurt me, and you did it anyway. You bought your pleasure by giving me pain. Think about that when you're the Servant of All."
Maggie turned and stormed away.
Okay, sit the fuck down here. Everynne isn't Jolene! Gallen is not Maggie's man! Gallen has repeatedly and steadfastly turned Maggie down! He's got a perfectly valid reason to do so, but you know what? Even if Maggie were an adult, Gallen still has every right not to be attracted to her!
And honestly, as annoying as I find him in general, Gallen has every fucking right to be attracted to Everynne. Chronological age aside, Everynne is a fully mature personality in a young adult body. This isn't an MZB style metaphorical pedophilia situation either, there is nothing in Gallen's view of Everynne that is remotely childlike or immature.
And Everynne has every right to be attracted to Gallen! I find him tedious personally, but he's young, good-looking, mostly ignorant of the pressure and dread that she's feeling every day. He's an escape, and that's perfectly fine! He is also VERY SINGLE, as he has NEVER accepted any of Maggie's overtures.
The narrative pays some lip service to the idea that Maggie doesn't have a claim on him, but...
The longer Gallen and Everynne stayed away together, the more despair tugged at Maggie. She knew she had no claim on Gallen, they weren't promised to one another, yet she could not help but feel stricken to the core. Two years earlier, when Maggie's father and brothers had all drowned, a horrible sense of loss had overwhelmed her. But somehow it was less than what she suffered now. To watch family die caused more grief than Maggie had ever believed she would suffer again.
But when Gallen slept with Everynne, Maggie didn't just grieve from the loss but agonized with the numbing realization that no matter what she did, she could never match up to Everynne. Maggie could love Gallen, serve him, offer everything she was and ever hoped to become, but she wasn't good enough.
Part of her wanted to be angry at Everynne, to hate the woman for stealing Gallen. But the more she thought about it, the less Maggie found that possible. She had been jealous of Everynne from the first. Everynne was beautiful and kind, and in her own way she bore an air of profound loss and loneliness. It was hard for Maggie to resent someone who was in such pain.
A part of Maggie wanted to be angry with Gallen, but she kept reminding herself that he had never promised her anything. In the end, his loving Everynne seemed inevitable.
Maggie says she has no claim to Gallen, and that she doesn't have the right to be angry here. But the narrative doesn't agree. The narrative is pretty clearly pushing her as the heartbroken childhood friend who that cad, Gallen, doesn't appreciate. One day, he'll come to his senses and see who really loves him vs. who is just seeking solace for her pain.
There's a lot of emphasis on Maggie not having a claim on Gallen, and Gallen not promising her anything, but that still carries an undertone of there being something there for Gallen to make a promise about. When the fact of the matter is, thus far, Gallen has indicated NO attraction to Maggie. He's never once given any sign of reciprocation of her feelings.
And maybe it's the bitter asexual in me, but I am on his fucking side here. No one owes anyone else attraction.
I admit, I both love and hate Orick's response here:
"That's a shame." Orick turned away. "Gallen will be hurt that you didn't say good-bye."
"He doesn't know what it means to hurt," Maggie said.
"Hmmm . . . " Orick grumbled. "I suppose you're referring to what happened last night? There's a lot of folks out there giving guilty looks and shuffling their feet. Even a bear can figure out what's going on." Maggie didn't answer. "Och, what are you thinking, girl? Gallen loves you! How can you believe otherwise?"
"He loves Everynne," Maggie said.
"You humans are so narrow!" Orick replied. "He loves you both. Now, if you were a bear, you wouldn't get so all bound up in trivial affairs. You would come into heat, go find some handsome young man if one was available—or an ugly old geezer if nothing better could be had—and you would invite him to perform his favorite duty in life. Then you would be done with it. None of this moaning and moping and wondering if someone loves you."
"And what if someone else wanted your lover?" Maggie asked.
"Why, that's easy!" Orick said. "You wait until he's done, then invite him over. Just because a bear is interested in one female today, doesn't mean he won't want another tomorrow."
(Context: Everynne and Veriasse are intending to leave. Gallen is going with them. Maggie doesn't want to go and say goodbye because she's sulking and heartbroken.)
I love the practicality in Orick's response. And heck, I'm pro-polyamory in general, but to beat a dead horse...
The whole "Gallen loves you" thing still bothers me. Because while I do think he loves Maggie platonically, at this time, there's no indication of romantic or sexual feelings. And that should be okay!
"Of course," Orick offered, "if you're in a hurry to get a lover, you could just go bite the competition on the ass, chase her away."
"I can't do that, either. They're leaving together. Besides, it's not that easy with people."
"Sure it is," Orick said. "If you love Gallen, you'll fight for what you want. Get mad! Oh, hell, what am I talking to you for? Don't you realize that Gallen made his choice long ago when he rescued you from Lord Karthenor?"
I really dislike the implication here that Maggie has any right to "chase Everynne away". I also dislike the implication that rescuing Maggie from Karthenor is the equivalent of romantically choosing her. Gallen made his CHOICE when she propositioned him afterward and he turned her down!
I suppose this gets into another pet peeve of mine. It's part of why I ended up being so opposed to pairings like Stucky and Sheith, despite being a slasher at heart. I really dislike the argument, usually fannish but we see it here too, that the ONLY reason someone would be so devoted to saving someone else, would love someone as much as Steve and Keith love Bucky or Shiro, is because they're romantically or sexually attracted to them.
Again, I'm ace, and I deeply resent folks who link heroism and love exclusively to sex and desire. There are people in my life that I would go so far for, thank you very much. I'm primarily motivated by spite above anything else, so even though I do understand and even appreciate the basis of the ships in question, I'm going to stick with a platonic, fraternal read on general fucking principle. (I'll ship Steve with Sam, and Shiro with his hot nameless groom instead.)
Anyway, Maggie does decide to pull her head out of her ass and go say goodbye to the others. Meanwhile, Grandmother has gifts for the new travelers. Like before, the gift appears to be new outfits!
Grandmother looked through her packages. "First," she said softly, "I have a gift for Lady Everynne, who is already rich beyond anything I can offer. Still, I was thinking last night that you will be going to fight the dronon, who esteem their Golden Queen higher than any other." Maggie looked at the old woman in surprise. She had forgotten that, as a Tharrin, Grandmother had been apprised of Semarritte's plans. "Since you will be our Golden Queen, you must look the part. I have for you some golden clothes and a mantle of gold." She brought out two packages. Everynne unwrapped them.
The outfit included long gloves and boots, stockings and a tunic, all in brilliant gold. The small mantle was made of golden ringlets and fit over her hair. "Youwill find that the gloves and clothing are very tough," the old woman said. "Almost as tough as symbiotic armor. Often, a dronon queen will defend herself if a Lord Escort chooses to do more than mar her. If you are forced to defend yourself, these clothes will help protect you. In addition, we have bonded a selenium matrix into the fists of the gloves and toes of the boots. A solid blow to a dronon body will let you crack its exoskeleton.
Swanky.
For his part, Veriasse has weapons beyond whatever the old lady could give him, so she gives him "a special hope" - a stoppered vial that he opens:
Immediately a heavenly scent wafted through the air of the open courtyard, and Maggie was filled with such enthusiasm and a boundless sense of strength that she wanted to leap from her seat with a battle cry. Veriasse suddenly seemed to become a younger man—all the cares and worries that so creased his brow melted away.He threw back his head and laughed deep and easy. In that moment, Maggie had no doubt that Veriasse would slay the Lords of the Swarm. He was a powerful man; he could not fail.
Veriasse stoppered the vial, yet Maggie's sense of boundless fervor was slow to diminish. From Maggie's work with the aberlains, she knew that the vial must contain an extract of simple proteins-the chemical components of enthusiasm to act upon the hypothalamus, along with some type of airborne delivery system so that "hope" could be absorbed through the sinus membranes as a person breathed.
Sweet! Drugs!
And...whoa:
Grandmother looked over the little group. "For Gallen, the Lady Everynne has asked a special thing. He once asked for eternal life in return for his service. And even though he rescinded his request, he has more than earned his reward. She would like to begin payment." She lifted a small packet from theground, handed it to Gallen. "Inside, you will find six tablets containing a full set of nanodoctors. They will help heal your wounds, slow your aging, cure all ills. You have only to swallow the tablets. You will not be immortal, of course. You can be killed. But before you leave here today, we will take a template of your intellect and gather gene specimens. Then, if you should die, we can build you again."
Maggie knew something of how valuable a gift this would be. Even in Everynne's world, such things were reserved only for the most deserving. Yet Gallen took the small package, hefted it, then glanced into Maggie's eyes. He tossed the package to her. "I want you to have this. I wanted it for you all along."
Maggie sat with the package in her lap, too surprised to reply.
And here I heave a sigh, because first of all, when Gallen asked before, we saw no indication that Maggie crossed his mind at all. I think we'll be going with the unreliable viewpoint character thing, where we end up learning that the character has been surpressing/burying his long time emotions all along.
This is something that often works very well for me (It's a thread I really appreciated, for example, in the Rivers of London series, when Peter Grant's narrative rarely explicitly addressed the stress and trauma that he's gone through over the course of the books, except on very rare occasions when it is allowed to come through.) But here, it just irks me.
And, just in case the narrative wasn't clear:
"Ah, a gift of true love," Grandmother said, and Maggie realized that she was right. Gallen would only give such a treasure to someone he cherished. "I don't know what to say," she offered. "Thank you."
Ugh.
Anyway, Grandmother has a gift for Maggie that won't be ready until the next day, and a gift for Orick: which is to ask what he'd wish for. Actually Orick wants to continue traveling with Everynne. She tries to demur, noting that despite her calm face, the next part of their journey is likely to be really bad.
Orick watched her with longing in his brown eyes, turned away. "All right, then," he said. "If you don't want me. I'd probably just get in the way." He turned and began loping back toward Maggie's room.
"Wait!" Everynne said, and she rushed to him. She got down on her knees and scratched the thick fur under Orick's ears, then looked into his eyes and said lustily, "If you were a human, or I were a bear, wouldn't we have a fine time?"
She kissed him on the snout, and Orick's red tongue flicked out, licked her forehead. Orick gave a sharp little roar of grief and lunged away to Maggie's room.
Everynne stood watching after him a moment.
...um.
Not sure what to make of this.
But Veriasse says that young bears are used to being sent away by females. While Grandmother tries to reassure Everynne that Orick will treasure the gift of her love. She does ask Grandmother to make him a locket with her image so he can remember her.
So they go off. There's a potentially interesting bit where Maggie sees Veriasse teach Gallen how to use an airbike. She already knows, moreover, she can tell that the turbine isn't lubricated. She realizes her mantle has been teaching her in her sleep. Then, she goes and swipes Gallen's old defective key from his pack.
"You want to go with Everynne, and I want to go with Gallen. All we need to follow them is a key."
"Do you know where they are going?"
"Veriasse was looking over his travel plans last night at the campfire. I watched over his shoulder. My mantle has stored the coordinates of all the gates but the last. We should be able to find them easily."
"But Veriasse said that using a defective key is risky," Orick warned, shaking his head.
"Everything we've done has been risky," Maggie shot back. "I'm not going to let that stop me now."
I do like Maggie's forthright, go-get-it-ness. I just wish the romance didn't annoy me so much. But also, this does seem a bit ridiculous considering the others haven't left yet, and indeed:
Maggie stood by the foot of the bed, waited for Gallen to come in. She found her heart pounding, tried to compose something to say, but nothing came to mind. All too soon, he stood in the doorway, a circle of morning light silhouetting him. In his black robes, weapons at hand, the mantle of a Lord Protector on his head, he looked somehow different, strange. No one on Tihrglas had ever worn such clothing, and Gallen seemed to stand taller in his costume, walk in more of a rolling gait. This trip was changing him, leaving an indelible mark, just as it was changing her.
"I'm surprised that you, too, didn't ask to come with us," Gallen said after a long moment.
"You wouldn't have let me," Maggie said.
"How do you know?"
"You protect people for a living. You're always watching out for others. You must know that the best way to protect me is to leave me out of harm's way."
Gallen smiled weakly. "I'm glad you understand." He walked over to her, took her by the shoulders and kissed her firmly, passionately. "Everynne told me that you know what happened last night. Can you ever forgive me?"
...really?
Fucking Wolverton. Fine. But you know, even IF Gallen suddenly loves Maggie, he still doesn't owe her an apology for sleeping with someone when they're not in a relationship!
And indeed, their new dynamic seems incredibly healthy:
Maggie was confused, unsure how to answer. She thought—or at least she wanted to believe—that he really did love her. Some things pointed to it—his protectiveness, his tenderness to her now. Yet she couldn't accept that he would sleep with Everynne one night, then come to her in the morning and try to pretend that nothing had changed. She slapped his face, hard, and it barely moved him, so she punched him in the stomach. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" she hissed. "Do you understand me? Don't you ever put me in second place again!"
Gallen nodded, the lines of his face set in hard angles. She couldn't read what he was thinking. "I know that an explanation will just sound like an excuse, but in all likelihood, by tomorrow night Everynne will either be dead or else so . . . changed that she will be at least as good as dead to me. She wanted something last night that only I could give. I cannot be sorry for what we did though it pains me terribly to know how it must hurt you. What Everynne and I did last night-that was just saying good-bye." He considered for a moment, then said, "I will never put you in second place again."
I also think I might enjoy Maggie and Gallen better as a pairing if she didn't hit him all the fucking time!
And again, Gallen DOES NOT OWE HER AN EXPLANATION FOR SLEEPING WITH SOMEONE HE FOUND ATTRACTIVE.
Honestly, I'd rather be reading the Courtship of Princess Leia. At least there, we got some reasonably entertaining Luke-Isolder dynamic, and Han and Leia, while badly executed, survive to get written by better authors later.
These characters, on the other hand, are fucking doomed.
Anyway Maggie considers how Gallen always keeps his oath. She tells him to promise to come back to her while collapsing weeping on his chest. While, you know, planning to sneak away and follow because this is nonsensical.
They end up watching a play, then Maggie decides to pack up the life-sustaining nanodocs. She thinks Gallen might need them. Orick asks, if Gallen dies, would Maggie take them. She doesn't think so.
They say goodbye to Grandmother, and oh...this is actually pretty funny/poignant:
Grandmother smiled, her face wrinkling in the dim light. "I was once young and deeply in love," she said. "And I could never have left the man under these circumstances. Gallen gave me this before he departed." She handed Maggie the black coin purse. "He said there was a gate key in it, so that you could go home, but I found only a rock. It was not hard to guess who had taken the real key."
Swiping the key was useless because he left them the key to go home. I'm not sure what I think about that. It does seem weird that I'm apparently supposed to agree with Maggie about Gallen putting her second, but be fine with her lying to his face while pretending to be okay with staying behind...
It just feels weird. Oh well.
Anyway, Grandmother gives Maggie a gun, an airbike and some meals. Orick gets the locket. They drive off. They're heading to the planet Bregnel, but they end up encountering a bit of a hazard:
The airbike skated into profound darkness, into a world where the very air burned Orick's lungs, then lay in them like a clot. The ground was thick with ash, and dead trees raised tortured black branches to claw the sky. Buildings towered above them on every side, like squatting giants, and the buildings too were blackened over every wall.
Maggie coughed, hit the throttle, and the airbike whipped through the night, raising a cloud of ashes as it roared down the empty streets. Here and there on the ground, Orick could see blackened skeletons of small gnome-like humans among the ash, many still wearing their mantles, some holding weapons. It looked as if they had been caught and burned in the midst of a battle. There was no clothing left on the skeletons, no flesh on the ebony bones.
This is all quite traumatic and horrifying. Basically, someone had let loose a Terror on the world. The people here had been fighting the dronon. Orick wonders if the dronon killed them, but Maggie is interestingly noncommittal. It seems like the only folk we saw with Terrors were the tharrin. Which is worth thinking about.
The dronon are clearly horrible and harmful to humanity, don't get me wrong. But the Tharrin seem to have their own dark side.
Then they run across a dronon walking fortress:
Instead they came upon a vast machine, a walking crablike city with eight legs and hundreds of gun emplacements sprouting from its back and head. In one lonely turret on the head, a red light gleamed like a malevolent eye. The machine reminded Orick of some giant tick, bristling with strange devices, and Orick knew instinctively that the dronon had created the thing—for no human would have built such a monstrosity.
"What is that?" Orick shouted to be heard above the roar of the airbike, hoping that Maggie's mantle would give them some clue.
"A dronon walking fortress. They built them on their home world to carry their young during their migrations.”
So they keep moving. It's very unpleasant. They get to a new gate and a new planet. Wechaus. Maggie hadn't asked Veriasse about it, but it's on the list, and the gate to Dronon is on it.
They decide to look for a town. Maggie thinks they'll probably be four or five days ahead of Gallen and the others. Orick gets contemplative, remembering as a cub, how he'd asked if he'd ever get to see the other side of all the mountains:
"How come?" Orick asked, thinking that perhaps this would be his life's work, to travel far roads and learn about the world.
"Because God won't allow it. No matter how many mountains you cross, he has always made more."
"How come?"
His mother rolled her eyes at him and sighed. "Because that is how he stays God. He knows what is on the other side of every mountain, but he doesn't tell all of his secrets to others."
"How come?" Orick asked.
"Because if everyone knew the answers, everyone would be gods, even people who are evil. So in order to keep evil people from gaining his power, he hides the answers to the most important questions."
Orick had gazed out over the purpled hills and felt a rushing sensation of awe and thankfulness. God had willed him to be ignorant, and for that Orick felt profoundly grateful
They keep traveling and the chapter ends with them coming upon a village in a valley, and not far away, there are people swimming alongside dozens of bears!
So we're starting this chapter with Maggie and Orick. They're talking to "Grandmother", whose significance in the plot I've already forgotten entirely. Oh no. I can absolutely predict what's coming and I know it's going to annoy me.
Maggie, it seems, has come to an epiphany:
Maggie told Grandmother of her work in the inn, how she cleaned and scrubbed and cooked all day. She told how her mother died of sickness after giving birth, and of her father and brothers, who had all drowned when their small fishing boat capsized. It seemed to Maggie that Tihrglas was a cold and bitter place, where she had felt cramped, forced into a corner, and as she talked, Maggie realized that she did not want to go back. To live here on Cyannesse, even to live on Fale as a free woman, would be better.
I mean, really? Two chapters ago, this girl was enslaved in a very sexualized way and tortured for a long ass time. All she's seen, so far, is the worst part of the galaxy. I'm glad she's finding some appeal to it, but do you think, MAYBE, we could have actually SEEN her have some positive experiences to warrant this?
Though when Grandmother responds by saying the simple life is best, Maggie does veer the other way:
The wind was blowing through the trees, and it sounded like the wind that blew through Tihrglas on a summer's night, warm and comforting with the taste of the sea in it. It was the same kind of wind that had lulled Maggie to sleep as a child, and she felt a pang of longing, not for that damned Tihrglas, but for her childhood, for the blissful ignorance she felt before she'd heard of the dronon, and Maggie realized that if she had never heard of the dronon, even if she'd never left home, she would probably have grown old and been content. "Yes," Maggie agreed at last, "a simple life is best."
I mean, fair. But also, what's consistency?
Anyway, Veriasse had gone to look for Gallen and Everynne and he's been gone a while, so Maggie decides to go look for Gallen herself. Oh brother.
And here we fucking go. Because Maggie finds a naked Everynne first:
Everynne crawled through the grass, picked up her underclothing and put it on, watched Maggie without saying anything. She began to put on her robe.
"You took him, just because you could!" Maggie said.
"On many worlds," Everynne said, "men and women sleep together whenever they want. It means nothing."
"Yeah," Maggie said. "Well, where I come from, it means something, and you knew that!"
"I didn't want to hurt you," Everynne said.
Hurt me? Maggie wondered. You've crushed me. Maggie found her heart pounding. She didn't know who to be maddest at, Gallen or Everynne, but she knew they were both to blame. "Maybe you didn't want to hurt me," Maggie said. "But you knew that this would hurt me, and you did it anyway. You bought your pleasure by giving me pain. Think about that when you're the Servant of All."
Maggie turned and stormed away.
Okay, sit the fuck down here. Everynne isn't Jolene! Gallen is not Maggie's man! Gallen has repeatedly and steadfastly turned Maggie down! He's got a perfectly valid reason to do so, but you know what? Even if Maggie were an adult, Gallen still has every right not to be attracted to her!
And honestly, as annoying as I find him in general, Gallen has every fucking right to be attracted to Everynne. Chronological age aside, Everynne is a fully mature personality in a young adult body. This isn't an MZB style metaphorical pedophilia situation either, there is nothing in Gallen's view of Everynne that is remotely childlike or immature.
And Everynne has every right to be attracted to Gallen! I find him tedious personally, but he's young, good-looking, mostly ignorant of the pressure and dread that she's feeling every day. He's an escape, and that's perfectly fine! He is also VERY SINGLE, as he has NEVER accepted any of Maggie's overtures.
The narrative pays some lip service to the idea that Maggie doesn't have a claim on him, but...
The longer Gallen and Everynne stayed away together, the more despair tugged at Maggie. She knew she had no claim on Gallen, they weren't promised to one another, yet she could not help but feel stricken to the core. Two years earlier, when Maggie's father and brothers had all drowned, a horrible sense of loss had overwhelmed her. But somehow it was less than what she suffered now. To watch family die caused more grief than Maggie had ever believed she would suffer again.
But when Gallen slept with Everynne, Maggie didn't just grieve from the loss but agonized with the numbing realization that no matter what she did, she could never match up to Everynne. Maggie could love Gallen, serve him, offer everything she was and ever hoped to become, but she wasn't good enough.
Part of her wanted to be angry at Everynne, to hate the woman for stealing Gallen. But the more she thought about it, the less Maggie found that possible. She had been jealous of Everynne from the first. Everynne was beautiful and kind, and in her own way she bore an air of profound loss and loneliness. It was hard for Maggie to resent someone who was in such pain.
A part of Maggie wanted to be angry with Gallen, but she kept reminding herself that he had never promised her anything. In the end, his loving Everynne seemed inevitable.
Maggie says she has no claim to Gallen, and that she doesn't have the right to be angry here. But the narrative doesn't agree. The narrative is pretty clearly pushing her as the heartbroken childhood friend who that cad, Gallen, doesn't appreciate. One day, he'll come to his senses and see who really loves him vs. who is just seeking solace for her pain.
There's a lot of emphasis on Maggie not having a claim on Gallen, and Gallen not promising her anything, but that still carries an undertone of there being something there for Gallen to make a promise about. When the fact of the matter is, thus far, Gallen has indicated NO attraction to Maggie. He's never once given any sign of reciprocation of her feelings.
And maybe it's the bitter asexual in me, but I am on his fucking side here. No one owes anyone else attraction.
I admit, I both love and hate Orick's response here:
"That's a shame." Orick turned away. "Gallen will be hurt that you didn't say good-bye."
"He doesn't know what it means to hurt," Maggie said.
"Hmmm . . . " Orick grumbled. "I suppose you're referring to what happened last night? There's a lot of folks out there giving guilty looks and shuffling their feet. Even a bear can figure out what's going on." Maggie didn't answer. "Och, what are you thinking, girl? Gallen loves you! How can you believe otherwise?"
"He loves Everynne," Maggie said.
"You humans are so narrow!" Orick replied. "He loves you both. Now, if you were a bear, you wouldn't get so all bound up in trivial affairs. You would come into heat, go find some handsome young man if one was available—or an ugly old geezer if nothing better could be had—and you would invite him to perform his favorite duty in life. Then you would be done with it. None of this moaning and moping and wondering if someone loves you."
"And what if someone else wanted your lover?" Maggie asked.
"Why, that's easy!" Orick said. "You wait until he's done, then invite him over. Just because a bear is interested in one female today, doesn't mean he won't want another tomorrow."
(Context: Everynne and Veriasse are intending to leave. Gallen is going with them. Maggie doesn't want to go and say goodbye because she's sulking and heartbroken.)
I love the practicality in Orick's response. And heck, I'm pro-polyamory in general, but to beat a dead horse...
The whole "Gallen loves you" thing still bothers me. Because while I do think he loves Maggie platonically, at this time, there's no indication of romantic or sexual feelings. And that should be okay!
"Of course," Orick offered, "if you're in a hurry to get a lover, you could just go bite the competition on the ass, chase her away."
"I can't do that, either. They're leaving together. Besides, it's not that easy with people."
"Sure it is," Orick said. "If you love Gallen, you'll fight for what you want. Get mad! Oh, hell, what am I talking to you for? Don't you realize that Gallen made his choice long ago when he rescued you from Lord Karthenor?"
I really dislike the implication here that Maggie has any right to "chase Everynne away". I also dislike the implication that rescuing Maggie from Karthenor is the equivalent of romantically choosing her. Gallen made his CHOICE when she propositioned him afterward and he turned her down!
I suppose this gets into another pet peeve of mine. It's part of why I ended up being so opposed to pairings like Stucky and Sheith, despite being a slasher at heart. I really dislike the argument, usually fannish but we see it here too, that the ONLY reason someone would be so devoted to saving someone else, would love someone as much as Steve and Keith love Bucky or Shiro, is because they're romantically or sexually attracted to them.
Again, I'm ace, and I deeply resent folks who link heroism and love exclusively to sex and desire. There are people in my life that I would go so far for, thank you very much. I'm primarily motivated by spite above anything else, so even though I do understand and even appreciate the basis of the ships in question, I'm going to stick with a platonic, fraternal read on general fucking principle. (I'll ship Steve with Sam, and Shiro with his hot nameless groom instead.)
Anyway, Maggie does decide to pull her head out of her ass and go say goodbye to the others. Meanwhile, Grandmother has gifts for the new travelers. Like before, the gift appears to be new outfits!
Grandmother looked through her packages. "First," she said softly, "I have a gift for Lady Everynne, who is already rich beyond anything I can offer. Still, I was thinking last night that you will be going to fight the dronon, who esteem their Golden Queen higher than any other." Maggie looked at the old woman in surprise. She had forgotten that, as a Tharrin, Grandmother had been apprised of Semarritte's plans. "Since you will be our Golden Queen, you must look the part. I have for you some golden clothes and a mantle of gold." She brought out two packages. Everynne unwrapped them.
The outfit included long gloves and boots, stockings and a tunic, all in brilliant gold. The small mantle was made of golden ringlets and fit over her hair. "Youwill find that the gloves and clothing are very tough," the old woman said. "Almost as tough as symbiotic armor. Often, a dronon queen will defend herself if a Lord Escort chooses to do more than mar her. If you are forced to defend yourself, these clothes will help protect you. In addition, we have bonded a selenium matrix into the fists of the gloves and toes of the boots. A solid blow to a dronon body will let you crack its exoskeleton.
Swanky.
For his part, Veriasse has weapons beyond whatever the old lady could give him, so she gives him "a special hope" - a stoppered vial that he opens:
Immediately a heavenly scent wafted through the air of the open courtyard, and Maggie was filled with such enthusiasm and a boundless sense of strength that she wanted to leap from her seat with a battle cry. Veriasse suddenly seemed to become a younger man—all the cares and worries that so creased his brow melted away.He threw back his head and laughed deep and easy. In that moment, Maggie had no doubt that Veriasse would slay the Lords of the Swarm. He was a powerful man; he could not fail.
Veriasse stoppered the vial, yet Maggie's sense of boundless fervor was slow to diminish. From Maggie's work with the aberlains, she knew that the vial must contain an extract of simple proteins-the chemical components of enthusiasm to act upon the hypothalamus, along with some type of airborne delivery system so that "hope" could be absorbed through the sinus membranes as a person breathed.
Sweet! Drugs!
And...whoa:
Grandmother looked over the little group. "For Gallen, the Lady Everynne has asked a special thing. He once asked for eternal life in return for his service. And even though he rescinded his request, he has more than earned his reward. She would like to begin payment." She lifted a small packet from theground, handed it to Gallen. "Inside, you will find six tablets containing a full set of nanodoctors. They will help heal your wounds, slow your aging, cure all ills. You have only to swallow the tablets. You will not be immortal, of course. You can be killed. But before you leave here today, we will take a template of your intellect and gather gene specimens. Then, if you should die, we can build you again."
Maggie knew something of how valuable a gift this would be. Even in Everynne's world, such things were reserved only for the most deserving. Yet Gallen took the small package, hefted it, then glanced into Maggie's eyes. He tossed the package to her. "I want you to have this. I wanted it for you all along."
Maggie sat with the package in her lap, too surprised to reply.
And here I heave a sigh, because first of all, when Gallen asked before, we saw no indication that Maggie crossed his mind at all. I think we'll be going with the unreliable viewpoint character thing, where we end up learning that the character has been surpressing/burying his long time emotions all along.
This is something that often works very well for me (It's a thread I really appreciated, for example, in the Rivers of London series, when Peter Grant's narrative rarely explicitly addressed the stress and trauma that he's gone through over the course of the books, except on very rare occasions when it is allowed to come through.) But here, it just irks me.
And, just in case the narrative wasn't clear:
"Ah, a gift of true love," Grandmother said, and Maggie realized that she was right. Gallen would only give such a treasure to someone he cherished. "I don't know what to say," she offered. "Thank you."
Ugh.
Anyway, Grandmother has a gift for Maggie that won't be ready until the next day, and a gift for Orick: which is to ask what he'd wish for. Actually Orick wants to continue traveling with Everynne. She tries to demur, noting that despite her calm face, the next part of their journey is likely to be really bad.
Orick watched her with longing in his brown eyes, turned away. "All right, then," he said. "If you don't want me. I'd probably just get in the way." He turned and began loping back toward Maggie's room.
"Wait!" Everynne said, and she rushed to him. She got down on her knees and scratched the thick fur under Orick's ears, then looked into his eyes and said lustily, "If you were a human, or I were a bear, wouldn't we have a fine time?"
She kissed him on the snout, and Orick's red tongue flicked out, licked her forehead. Orick gave a sharp little roar of grief and lunged away to Maggie's room.
Everynne stood watching after him a moment.
...um.
Not sure what to make of this.
But Veriasse says that young bears are used to being sent away by females. While Grandmother tries to reassure Everynne that Orick will treasure the gift of her love. She does ask Grandmother to make him a locket with her image so he can remember her.
So they go off. There's a potentially interesting bit where Maggie sees Veriasse teach Gallen how to use an airbike. She already knows, moreover, she can tell that the turbine isn't lubricated. She realizes her mantle has been teaching her in her sleep. Then, she goes and swipes Gallen's old defective key from his pack.
"You want to go with Everynne, and I want to go with Gallen. All we need to follow them is a key."
"Do you know where they are going?"
"Veriasse was looking over his travel plans last night at the campfire. I watched over his shoulder. My mantle has stored the coordinates of all the gates but the last. We should be able to find them easily."
"But Veriasse said that using a defective key is risky," Orick warned, shaking his head.
"Everything we've done has been risky," Maggie shot back. "I'm not going to let that stop me now."
I do like Maggie's forthright, go-get-it-ness. I just wish the romance didn't annoy me so much. But also, this does seem a bit ridiculous considering the others haven't left yet, and indeed:
Maggie stood by the foot of the bed, waited for Gallen to come in. She found her heart pounding, tried to compose something to say, but nothing came to mind. All too soon, he stood in the doorway, a circle of morning light silhouetting him. In his black robes, weapons at hand, the mantle of a Lord Protector on his head, he looked somehow different, strange. No one on Tihrglas had ever worn such clothing, and Gallen seemed to stand taller in his costume, walk in more of a rolling gait. This trip was changing him, leaving an indelible mark, just as it was changing her.
"I'm surprised that you, too, didn't ask to come with us," Gallen said after a long moment.
"You wouldn't have let me," Maggie said.
"How do you know?"
"You protect people for a living. You're always watching out for others. You must know that the best way to protect me is to leave me out of harm's way."
Gallen smiled weakly. "I'm glad you understand." He walked over to her, took her by the shoulders and kissed her firmly, passionately. "Everynne told me that you know what happened last night. Can you ever forgive me?"
...really?
Fucking Wolverton. Fine. But you know, even IF Gallen suddenly loves Maggie, he still doesn't owe her an apology for sleeping with someone when they're not in a relationship!
And indeed, their new dynamic seems incredibly healthy:
Maggie was confused, unsure how to answer. She thought—or at least she wanted to believe—that he really did love her. Some things pointed to it—his protectiveness, his tenderness to her now. Yet she couldn't accept that he would sleep with Everynne one night, then come to her in the morning and try to pretend that nothing had changed. She slapped his face, hard, and it barely moved him, so she punched him in the stomach. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" she hissed. "Do you understand me? Don't you ever put me in second place again!"
Gallen nodded, the lines of his face set in hard angles. She couldn't read what he was thinking. "I know that an explanation will just sound like an excuse, but in all likelihood, by tomorrow night Everynne will either be dead or else so . . . changed that she will be at least as good as dead to me. She wanted something last night that only I could give. I cannot be sorry for what we did though it pains me terribly to know how it must hurt you. What Everynne and I did last night-that was just saying good-bye." He considered for a moment, then said, "I will never put you in second place again."
I also think I might enjoy Maggie and Gallen better as a pairing if she didn't hit him all the fucking time!
And again, Gallen DOES NOT OWE HER AN EXPLANATION FOR SLEEPING WITH SOMEONE HE FOUND ATTRACTIVE.
Honestly, I'd rather be reading the Courtship of Princess Leia. At least there, we got some reasonably entertaining Luke-Isolder dynamic, and Han and Leia, while badly executed, survive to get written by better authors later.
These characters, on the other hand, are fucking doomed.
Anyway Maggie considers how Gallen always keeps his oath. She tells him to promise to come back to her while collapsing weeping on his chest. While, you know, planning to sneak away and follow because this is nonsensical.
They end up watching a play, then Maggie decides to pack up the life-sustaining nanodocs. She thinks Gallen might need them. Orick asks, if Gallen dies, would Maggie take them. She doesn't think so.
They say goodbye to Grandmother, and oh...this is actually pretty funny/poignant:
Grandmother smiled, her face wrinkling in the dim light. "I was once young and deeply in love," she said. "And I could never have left the man under these circumstances. Gallen gave me this before he departed." She handed Maggie the black coin purse. "He said there was a gate key in it, so that you could go home, but I found only a rock. It was not hard to guess who had taken the real key."
Swiping the key was useless because he left them the key to go home. I'm not sure what I think about that. It does seem weird that I'm apparently supposed to agree with Maggie about Gallen putting her second, but be fine with her lying to his face while pretending to be okay with staying behind...
It just feels weird. Oh well.
Anyway, Grandmother gives Maggie a gun, an airbike and some meals. Orick gets the locket. They drive off. They're heading to the planet Bregnel, but they end up encountering a bit of a hazard:
The airbike skated into profound darkness, into a world where the very air burned Orick's lungs, then lay in them like a clot. The ground was thick with ash, and dead trees raised tortured black branches to claw the sky. Buildings towered above them on every side, like squatting giants, and the buildings too were blackened over every wall.
Maggie coughed, hit the throttle, and the airbike whipped through the night, raising a cloud of ashes as it roared down the empty streets. Here and there on the ground, Orick could see blackened skeletons of small gnome-like humans among the ash, many still wearing their mantles, some holding weapons. It looked as if they had been caught and burned in the midst of a battle. There was no clothing left on the skeletons, no flesh on the ebony bones.
This is all quite traumatic and horrifying. Basically, someone had let loose a Terror on the world. The people here had been fighting the dronon. Orick wonders if the dronon killed them, but Maggie is interestingly noncommittal. It seems like the only folk we saw with Terrors were the tharrin. Which is worth thinking about.
The dronon are clearly horrible and harmful to humanity, don't get me wrong. But the Tharrin seem to have their own dark side.
Then they run across a dronon walking fortress:
Instead they came upon a vast machine, a walking crablike city with eight legs and hundreds of gun emplacements sprouting from its back and head. In one lonely turret on the head, a red light gleamed like a malevolent eye. The machine reminded Orick of some giant tick, bristling with strange devices, and Orick knew instinctively that the dronon had created the thing—for no human would have built such a monstrosity.
"What is that?" Orick shouted to be heard above the roar of the airbike, hoping that Maggie's mantle would give them some clue.
"A dronon walking fortress. They built them on their home world to carry their young during their migrations.”
So they keep moving. It's very unpleasant. They get to a new gate and a new planet. Wechaus. Maggie hadn't asked Veriasse about it, but it's on the list, and the gate to Dronon is on it.
They decide to look for a town. Maggie thinks they'll probably be four or five days ahead of Gallen and the others. Orick gets contemplative, remembering as a cub, how he'd asked if he'd ever get to see the other side of all the mountains:
"How come?" Orick asked, thinking that perhaps this would be his life's work, to travel far roads and learn about the world.
"Because God won't allow it. No matter how many mountains you cross, he has always made more."
"How come?"
His mother rolled her eyes at him and sighed. "Because that is how he stays God. He knows what is on the other side of every mountain, but he doesn't tell all of his secrets to others."
"How come?" Orick asked.
"Because if everyone knew the answers, everyone would be gods, even people who are evil. So in order to keep evil people from gaining his power, he hides the answers to the most important questions."
Orick had gazed out over the purpled hills and felt a rushing sensation of awe and thankfulness. God had willed him to be ignorant, and for that Orick felt profoundly grateful
They keep traveling and the chapter ends with them coming upon a village in a valley, and not far away, there are people swimming alongside dozens of bears!