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i_read_what2023-09-18 10:29 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2023-09-18 10:29 pm
Pride of Princes - Part Four, Chapter Five
So last time, arranged marriages make everyone miserable, and Corin has yet another reason to wish he were the oldest son.
That said, given where the other two's stories ended up. Who's to say he isn't the oldest son now?
But now, things move onward, and we get to see Atvia.
So, already, from the first paragraph, things are going great:
She was, he thought, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The power of her allure touched him as it touched all men, nearly engulfing his wits. But he knew better. He knew her: Lillith of the Ihlini, sister to Strahan himself.
Corin drew in a steadying breath as he dismounted in front of the palace steps. A boy took his horse. Alone, afoot, afraid, he faced the sorceress.
Seriously, why the fuck did you go to fucking ATVIA alone? Bronwyn was murdered here. Ian was enslaved here. Your fucking DAD was put under mind control here. I really really want to believe Niall is smart enough to send additional people - even a handful of Cheysuli might make a difference when there are fucking Ihlini using this place as a home base.
Anyway, Lillith greets Corin and hints at the current state of things:
She stood at the very top of the steps. She watched him. And she smiled. "You are well come to Rondule."
"Am I?" He made himself mount the first step.
"But of course. Are you not the Crown Prince of Atvia?"
A second step. "That is for Alaric to say."
"But of course." Still Lillith smiled. "If Alaric can."
Ominous. Corin thinks that's a strange thing to say. We get more Lillith description:
"Not when you have seen him." She wore blue, deep, rich blue, girdled with silver and pearls. Large, irregular pearls, some creamy, some gray, some black, with a tinge of silver-blue. More threaded the weave of her braid.
Closer, ever closer, until he could see the silver tips of her nails; the kohl-smudged lids. The eerie youthfumess of features and form.
This woman seduced my su'fali.
Raped, actually. The word is "raped". But Corin does think he understands how helpless Ian would have been without his lir. Lillith just smiles and says she sees that Corin brought his lir. Corin does NOT like the way she's looking at Kiri.
He muses about Lillith's youth. He thinks it's genuine, not "age masquerading as youth". She's as young-looking as Aileen. He notes "the Seker was an unstinting god".
The Ihlini are, to a man, pretty much grotesque rapists, but there is something to be said about the fact that there are a lot more tangible benefits to being on their side than being on the Cheysuli one. What do the Cheysuli gods really give to their followers when you think about it? Shapeshifting is pretty cool, but is it worth the bullshit the prophecy has put them through?
Corin thinks of Boyne's story: a sorcerer who became a god. He shivers.
Corin and Lilith exchange daddy issues:
Lillith smiled. Calmly she stood at the top of the steps, giving nothing away of her power, but showing it all the same. "There is no doubt who sired you."
He had heard it before. He and Keely had both inherited Niall's coloring—blue eyes, tawny hair, fair skin—and a resemblance in facial structure, but neither claimed his frame. Keely was tall for a woman, but nothing more; he himself was considered short for his Cheysuli heritage, being less than six feet. Brennan and Hart both topped him by a handspan.
"And no doubt who sired you."
Lillith laughed. "And did you know Tynstar well?"
"Only by reputation."
"With him, that is all that is needed."
Corin gets the sense that she's judging him and dislikes it. Dude, this is your uncle's rapist. Who the fuck cares what she thinks?
She urges him to come inside, he wants to refuse, but...
This was Atvia, not Homana. Lillith had been Alaric's light woman for a very long time, and was Ihlini to boot; her influence would be well established by now. Until he knew better how things stood, it was not his place to quibble.
At least until reason is plainly given. He followed Lillith in silence.
She raped and enslaved your uncle. She abused your mother and helped her bespell your father. How is this not reason? Why are you not here with an army??
She escorts him into a room, offers him a cup of wine. He refuses and she points out that she has no reason to stoop to poison. She has other ways to kill him, assuming she wanted to. She thinks he's more useful alive. She drinks her own wine, then tips his cup over, pouring it out. She tosses the cup to Corin and it turns into a silver cuff around his wrist:
"I will be very plain," Lillith said quietly. "If I wanted you, I would take you. There is nothing you could do."
His hand trembled, then spasmed. "Take it off—"
Lillith shook her head. "For now, I will leave it. It will be a reminder, so you do not forget who holds the power here.
Yeah, this is why someone needs to have brought a fucking army. These people aren't trustworthy.
So what IS Lillith's position:
Good." Lillith smiled. "I have no intention of robbing you of your birthright."
He frowned before he could hide it.
"No," she said, "why should I? You are Alaric's grandson, kin to Osric and Thorne and Keough, and all the lords before them. I would be a fool if I stripped Atvia of her rightful blood."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because it pleases me to be here." Lillith's tone was bland.
"As it pleased you to seduce a lirless Cheysuli?"
Black eyes glinted. "Does Ian dream of me?"
She is so fucking skeevy. And her daughter is extending it to another generation.
Corin points out that she has to know he won't want her here. Lillith says that by the time Corin inherits the realm, there'll be no need for her to be here. And she actually sounds concerned about Atvia here:
"We must speak of the future, Corin," she said quietly, overriding him easily. "Alaric is an old man. His wits fail. Atvia suffers from the lack of a strong hand at the helm. If something is not done, Atvia will fall to those who wish to conquer her and take her for their own."
He frowned. "Who would benefit from conquering Atvia? The realm owes fealty to Homana."
"Liam would take the island in a moment if he knew of Alaric's weakness. It has nothing to do with Homana; Atvia and Erinn have battled for years."
I mean true, but is that really a bad thing? It's not like Atvia has much of anything to recommend her as a country, at least to the protagonists.
Lillith says that even if she can't convince him that Liam means Atvia harm (is it harm though? Erinnish people seem happy enough...), there are "other realms in the world besides those [they] know."
Corin is confused by this and mentally lists the realms he knows about, basically all the ones on the map: Homana, Solinde, Erinn, Atvia, Ellas, Falia, Caledon and the Steppes. There are no others.
I mean, it's a pretty small continent. I suppose there could be other places out there?
Anyway, Lillith is basically trying to Lady MacBeth Corin into taking kingship early. She wants him to take the throne, establish his claim and give the people no chance to be swayed by foreigners. Corin's still hung up on the idea that there ARE no foreigners. The world is made up of eight realms, four of which are part of the prophecy.
I wonder if there's a second prophecy out there? And how these foreign realms will see the return of the Firstborn if the Cheysuli succeed.
Corin rejects Lillith's plots, claiming Alaric is lord until the day he dies, and he'll be going home in seven months. (This gives us a time frame now. We're five months past his initial exile. Meaning that it's been almost four months since Brennan was taken, and two since Hart was. Eek!)
Lillith tells him that Alaric will be dead in seven weeks. Or seven days. Or seven hours. Depending on what Lillith prefers. This angers Corin who threatens to send her away now. Corin wants to know what she wants, even bringing up the idea that she might be trying to use reverse psychology on him.
This exchange here is a patented Roberson non-sequitur:
Lillith laughed. "Have I confused you, Corin? Do I show you the two-sided mirror?"
"You show me the perversity of your race," he retorted. "Do you think I will listen to you?"
"If I choose to speak, you will." Lillith gestured and the door flew open to slam against the wall. "Simple tricks," she told him derisively. "The old gods saw to it the Ihlini could not level most sorceries against their brother race, but some small powers remain."
"And Asar-Suti?" he asked. "Does he promise godhood in exchange for servitude?"
For a moment, a moment only, Lillith's color changed.
This would make sense if the Cheysuli had a reputation for mind-games. But they really don't. So where is the "mirror" here? That said, it gives Corin an actual victory against Lillith. So I'll allow it.
She leaves, saying a servant will show Corin to his chambers. Corin realizes that he's got nothing really that denotes his rank. He hadn't wanted a lot of baggage when he childishly fled in the night. Now he realizes that he'll be dependent on Alaric for extra clothing and he doesn't like it.
I mean...you were fine being dependent on Liam. Why didn't you bring some of those clothes? Unless you romanced Aileen wearing the same fucking outfit the whole time. In which case, I'm impressed by your game.
He goes to Kiri and immediately gathers her in his arms. They can't speak because of Lillith's presence. He feels incredibly alone. She tries to comfort him, but without the link, she seems more like a tame fox. It feels wrong.
Corin wonders if this is what it was like for his father all those years. And dude, you were sixteen when you got your lir. Niall was nineteen. He's had a lir now for more than half his life. It's fine.
He's also really really upset by the silver around his wrist. It's snug and seamless and he can't get it off. He's about to try something more drastic when he has a visitor.
Cheysuli was the first word that came to his mind. And then another: jehana.
Oh, now. This is interesting. And the one point where Niall really was a fucking idiot.
On the voyage from Hondarth he had, every night in his bunk, carefully considered what he would say and do when he saw Gisella. But now, seeing her, he could do nothing at all.
"Which one are you?" she asked. "Which son does he send?"
For a moment his tongue was locked in silence. Having heard of Gisella's madness from his father, his uncle and others, he had reconciled himself to incoherence, wandering wits, perhaps even tantrums. But not such clarity. Never such conciseness.
Corin thinks about all the marks on Niall's face - the disfigurement, the eye patch, the wear from worry. He looks for similar signs in Gisella:
At thirty-nine she did not share the same uncanny youthfulness as Lillith, but she was not what Corin expected. She was, plainly, Cheysuli; the Atvian was unseen. Black hair was pulled back from her face, displaying the widow's peak that lent her features an odd elegance.
There was no hint of silver, no trace of age in her coiled braids. Her flesh was taut and dark, untined except for a delicate tracery at the edges of yellow eyes. Most striking of all, having borne two sets of twins, she retained the slendemess inherent in Cheysuli women. And she certainly claimed the posture.
Corin and Keely were Niall; now he saw Brennan and Hart.
Suddenly I remember something that I noticed in Chapter Four but forgot to comment on.
In Brennan and Hart's respective fourth chapter, we got a revelation that put a new context on their respective issues. That's where we learn about Brennan's phobia, and the anxiety that this makes him unworthy of his rank - feeding into his overcompensation. It's where we get to see how Hart's need to justify his own compulsion feeds into his addiction, driving him to try to prove that he can fix things with the same addiction that's destroying his life.
We didn't get that for Corin. There was some heart to heart with Aileen, where she suggested that his desire for Homana was more about wanting what his brother had, but that wasn't really a new idea per se. That was something pretty obvious from day one.
It's not that Corin doesn't have his own mental health issues, but he's very open about them. He's been honest about them from day one: to his brothers, to his father, to his sister. He doesn't try to overcompensate or justify his issues.
And it occurs to me that we've seen a bit about how being Niall's image in miniature has affected Corin. Just as we know how Niall's own resemblance to Carillon affected him. I even wondered if some of Niall's favortism toward Brennan was because he looked Cheysuli.
But Brennan and Hart don't just look Cheysuli. They look like their mother. The one who, as far as they know, was completely insane and tried to sacrifice them as infants. They may know the mitigating circumstances, but it's hard to appreciate them when you're the one that nearly got given to Strahan. To the boys (and Keely), they're the children of "Mad Gisella".
Corin can be free and open about his issues, because he looks like Niall. But Brennan and Hart look like "Mad Gisella". So when issues like phobias and addictions start rearing their ugly heads - might they wonder if the resemblance goes deeper?
So we get overcompensation and justification. Denial and weakness. Maybe if they had been open with their issues, they could have addressed them. We don't really know what kind of mental health treatment options the Cheysuli have, to be fair, but maybe there could have been something. (I think commenter Multi_Facets was the one who brought up the idea of using compulsion to help Hart fight his addictive impulses! An interesting thought!) At the very least, they might not have been left alone with their issues. Instead, one brother's phobia becomes a means to torture him, while the other brother's addiction destroys his life.
But anyway, back to Gisella. Who has announced that she's ordered the packing to begin.
Corin is bemused by this, but Gisella has her own ideas in mind:
Gisella smiled. "It is time I was a wife to my husband again."
"Wife—" He stopped himself, drew in a deep breath, tried to keep his tone uninflected. "There is no place for you in Homana."
Gisella says she'll make one. She challenges Corin. She knows he was told she's mad, does he think so? He hedges, pointing out that she gave them to Strahan. Gisella defends herself:
"Is that proof of madness?" Gisella asked. "It was not what Niall wanted, nor any of the Cheysuli, but it hardly makes me mad. It makes me an enemy."
But she's not an enemy to Corin now, she says. She wouldn't give him to Strahan. She'd rather keep him.
Gisella moved into the room almost idly, playing with the girdle that clasped slender hips and spilled down the front of her skirts. She wore red, deep, rich red, and rubies set in silver. “That time is passed," she repeated. "The time now is for me to stand at Niall's side ... to share my husband's bed." She turned abruptly, catching him off-guard. "To send that whore from my place."
Anger rose instantly. "Deirdre is my jehana. You will not call her a whore."
He had never, to anyone, claimed Deirdre was his mother. From childhood it had been made plain that Deirdre was mother in blood only to Maeve; that she was not cheysula, but meijha, not queen, but beloved of the Mujhar. The lines of descent were too important for dissembling or convenience, even among the Cheysuli; all of Niall’s children knew Gisella was their mother. But he would not claim her now.
This is something I wish got touched upon more. Because Deirdre really is, for all intents and purposes, the mother of all five children. Brennan and Hart might have been old enough to remember their biological mother (which may feed into the aforementioned issues), but Corin and Keely were less than a year old when she was sent away.
But the nature of royalty: legitimacy vs. illegitimacy means there's always going to be a divide. It's most significant for Keely, since it's the heart of her issues with/resentment toward Maeve. But the divide is there for the others too. Brennan is the only one of the legitimate children who seems to treat Maeve with any sort of respect or camaraderie. And while they're respectful of Deirdre, none of them actually address her as mother.
It would have been interesting to see the characters as young children. As adults and princes/princesses, Niall is the more prominent parent. He's the king after all. But when they were younger, it's likely that Deirdre would have been more directly involved with their rearing. (Corin does speak Erinnish after all, presumably the others do too?)
It also gets into the idea that maybe Cheysuli WOMEN aren't as okay with the whole meijha thing as the men would prefer to believe. Then again, Gisella was raised Atvian.
Gisella just sweetly says, whore or meijha, it changes nothing. She intends to assume her place as Queen of Homana. And...this might be interesting:
"Homanan law will make him." Gisella's eyes were on Kiri, "I will go before the Homanan Council and I will plead my case." Her voice was quiet and even. "I am the forgotten wife, the forgotten Queen, conveniently pushed aside in the name of Niall's lust. I bore him four healthy children—three of which are sons—and I have borne exile meekly, with no thought to disagree." Her eyes were eerily feral. "But now I weary of such treatment. I desire better. I desire the place to which I am entitled, the privileges of my rank, the respect and honor of my husband." Her lids half-shuttered her eyes, but he saw the yellow glint. "I desire to know the love of all my children."
So Niall really did fuck up here. I'd said before, the more humane thing would have been to send Gisella to an estate somewhere in Homana rather than to the people who abused her. But instead, he just shipped her back and shacked up with his mistress. The optics aren't great.
This is the society that expected Carillon to stay married to an attempted regicide after all.
That said, though. I wonder if Gisella would be successful. Niall has ruled, peacefully, for more than twenty years. The people love him and they're used to Deirdre's presence. For many of them, she probably is queen, as far as they care. Carillon was also beloved, of course, but he was obsessed with Electra. He wanted to own her. He probably never even tried to divorce her. But Niall doesn't have that same motivation.
Gisella's power lies in her ability to bear children (and it's a fascinating contrast to a later generation, where a prince is apparently being pushed to put his wife aside after she only manages to bear one sickly child. I'll give Roberson credit: I think the hypocrisy is intentional. This is a sexist society and the Queen's value is in her fertility.) But that would have been a much stronger argument when Gisella was exiled. Now, at thirty-nine, she is likely still fertile, but only for so much longer. (And aren't there greater risks for an older mother? I'm honestly not very knowledgeable about the subject, so feel free to correct me.)
Niall's got three healthy sons, so there isn't really a high priority to get any more.
...well. He DID have three healthy sons. Now he has one left. Maybe Gisella's onto something.
Corin says he wants nothing to do with Gisella. Gisella has a response to that too:
"But you do." Gisella stood before him. "You do, Corin. You want to love me. You want to have me love you in return. You want a mother, a jehana. You want a cheysula for your jehan. You want things to be right in your world, so you can feel good again. You want to know that all those years were not wasted; that indeed, your mother loves you. And would have loved you better, had your father allowed it. Had he not sent me away for the sake of an Erinnish princess."
"You would have given me to Strahan—"
"What other choice did I have?" Her shout stopped him cold. "What choice, Corin? Lillith raised me. Lillith shaped me. Lillith told me to."
"Lillith is Ihlini," he said tightly. "What did you expect?"
"I expected—and received—love," Gisella told him. "It was what she gave me. It was what my father gave me. In the name of that love, I did what I was told."
"To Strahan—"
Gisella looked away. "I was confused," she said softly. "Confused, afraid—so afraid." She crumpled the silver girdle so that the links bit into her flesh. "I did what I was told."
I'm pretty skeptical about the first part. Maybe if Corin were a little older, or we saw some unhappiness with Deirdre as step-mother, or ANY kind of wistfulness toward Gisella at all. But we haven't. That said...she has a point about the second. Corin's only meeting this new Gisella: an articulate woman, able to reason and defend herself. It's easy to forget how lost, confused and childlike she was in Track of the White Wolf. That poor little girl, forced to murder her pets so she can be desensitized to sacrificing her children... She hadn't had a prayer.
Corin backs away, confused, upset, and "perhaps equally afraid". He tells her to leave. And the chapter ends with him alone and wondering.
So Atvia's a fun place, yeah! We'll see how much worse it can get next time.
That said, given where the other two's stories ended up. Who's to say he isn't the oldest son now?
But now, things move onward, and we get to see Atvia.
So, already, from the first paragraph, things are going great:
She was, he thought, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The power of her allure touched him as it touched all men, nearly engulfing his wits. But he knew better. He knew her: Lillith of the Ihlini, sister to Strahan himself.
Corin drew in a steadying breath as he dismounted in front of the palace steps. A boy took his horse. Alone, afoot, afraid, he faced the sorceress.
Seriously, why the fuck did you go to fucking ATVIA alone? Bronwyn was murdered here. Ian was enslaved here. Your fucking DAD was put under mind control here. I really really want to believe Niall is smart enough to send additional people - even a handful of Cheysuli might make a difference when there are fucking Ihlini using this place as a home base.
Anyway, Lillith greets Corin and hints at the current state of things:
She stood at the very top of the steps. She watched him. And she smiled. "You are well come to Rondule."
"Am I?" He made himself mount the first step.
"But of course. Are you not the Crown Prince of Atvia?"
A second step. "That is for Alaric to say."
"But of course." Still Lillith smiled. "If Alaric can."
Ominous. Corin thinks that's a strange thing to say. We get more Lillith description:
"Not when you have seen him." She wore blue, deep, rich blue, girdled with silver and pearls. Large, irregular pearls, some creamy, some gray, some black, with a tinge of silver-blue. More threaded the weave of her braid.
Closer, ever closer, until he could see the silver tips of her nails; the kohl-smudged lids. The eerie youthfumess of features and form.
This woman seduced my su'fali.
Raped, actually. The word is "raped". But Corin does think he understands how helpless Ian would have been without his lir. Lillith just smiles and says she sees that Corin brought his lir. Corin does NOT like the way she's looking at Kiri.
He muses about Lillith's youth. He thinks it's genuine, not "age masquerading as youth". She's as young-looking as Aileen. He notes "the Seker was an unstinting god".
The Ihlini are, to a man, pretty much grotesque rapists, but there is something to be said about the fact that there are a lot more tangible benefits to being on their side than being on the Cheysuli one. What do the Cheysuli gods really give to their followers when you think about it? Shapeshifting is pretty cool, but is it worth the bullshit the prophecy has put them through?
Corin thinks of Boyne's story: a sorcerer who became a god. He shivers.
Corin and Lilith exchange daddy issues:
Lillith smiled. Calmly she stood at the top of the steps, giving nothing away of her power, but showing it all the same. "There is no doubt who sired you."
He had heard it before. He and Keely had both inherited Niall's coloring—blue eyes, tawny hair, fair skin—and a resemblance in facial structure, but neither claimed his frame. Keely was tall for a woman, but nothing more; he himself was considered short for his Cheysuli heritage, being less than six feet. Brennan and Hart both topped him by a handspan.
"And no doubt who sired you."
Lillith laughed. "And did you know Tynstar well?"
"Only by reputation."
"With him, that is all that is needed."
Corin gets the sense that she's judging him and dislikes it. Dude, this is your uncle's rapist. Who the fuck cares what she thinks?
She urges him to come inside, he wants to refuse, but...
This was Atvia, not Homana. Lillith had been Alaric's light woman for a very long time, and was Ihlini to boot; her influence would be well established by now. Until he knew better how things stood, it was not his place to quibble.
At least until reason is plainly given. He followed Lillith in silence.
She raped and enslaved your uncle. She abused your mother and helped her bespell your father. How is this not reason? Why are you not here with an army??
She escorts him into a room, offers him a cup of wine. He refuses and she points out that she has no reason to stoop to poison. She has other ways to kill him, assuming she wanted to. She thinks he's more useful alive. She drinks her own wine, then tips his cup over, pouring it out. She tosses the cup to Corin and it turns into a silver cuff around his wrist:
"I will be very plain," Lillith said quietly. "If I wanted you, I would take you. There is nothing you could do."
His hand trembled, then spasmed. "Take it off—"
Lillith shook her head. "For now, I will leave it. It will be a reminder, so you do not forget who holds the power here.
Yeah, this is why someone needs to have brought a fucking army. These people aren't trustworthy.
So what IS Lillith's position:
Good." Lillith smiled. "I have no intention of robbing you of your birthright."
He frowned before he could hide it.
"No," she said, "why should I? You are Alaric's grandson, kin to Osric and Thorne and Keough, and all the lords before them. I would be a fool if I stripped Atvia of her rightful blood."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because it pleases me to be here." Lillith's tone was bland.
"As it pleased you to seduce a lirless Cheysuli?"
Black eyes glinted. "Does Ian dream of me?"
She is so fucking skeevy. And her daughter is extending it to another generation.
Corin points out that she has to know he won't want her here. Lillith says that by the time Corin inherits the realm, there'll be no need for her to be here. And she actually sounds concerned about Atvia here:
"We must speak of the future, Corin," she said quietly, overriding him easily. "Alaric is an old man. His wits fail. Atvia suffers from the lack of a strong hand at the helm. If something is not done, Atvia will fall to those who wish to conquer her and take her for their own."
He frowned. "Who would benefit from conquering Atvia? The realm owes fealty to Homana."
"Liam would take the island in a moment if he knew of Alaric's weakness. It has nothing to do with Homana; Atvia and Erinn have battled for years."
I mean true, but is that really a bad thing? It's not like Atvia has much of anything to recommend her as a country, at least to the protagonists.
Lillith says that even if she can't convince him that Liam means Atvia harm (is it harm though? Erinnish people seem happy enough...), there are "other realms in the world besides those [they] know."
Corin is confused by this and mentally lists the realms he knows about, basically all the ones on the map: Homana, Solinde, Erinn, Atvia, Ellas, Falia, Caledon and the Steppes. There are no others.
I mean, it's a pretty small continent. I suppose there could be other places out there?
Anyway, Lillith is basically trying to Lady MacBeth Corin into taking kingship early. She wants him to take the throne, establish his claim and give the people no chance to be swayed by foreigners. Corin's still hung up on the idea that there ARE no foreigners. The world is made up of eight realms, four of which are part of the prophecy.
I wonder if there's a second prophecy out there? And how these foreign realms will see the return of the Firstborn if the Cheysuli succeed.
Corin rejects Lillith's plots, claiming Alaric is lord until the day he dies, and he'll be going home in seven months. (This gives us a time frame now. We're five months past his initial exile. Meaning that it's been almost four months since Brennan was taken, and two since Hart was. Eek!)
Lillith tells him that Alaric will be dead in seven weeks. Or seven days. Or seven hours. Depending on what Lillith prefers. This angers Corin who threatens to send her away now. Corin wants to know what she wants, even bringing up the idea that she might be trying to use reverse psychology on him.
This exchange here is a patented Roberson non-sequitur:
Lillith laughed. "Have I confused you, Corin? Do I show you the two-sided mirror?"
"You show me the perversity of your race," he retorted. "Do you think I will listen to you?"
"If I choose to speak, you will." Lillith gestured and the door flew open to slam against the wall. "Simple tricks," she told him derisively. "The old gods saw to it the Ihlini could not level most sorceries against their brother race, but some small powers remain."
"And Asar-Suti?" he asked. "Does he promise godhood in exchange for servitude?"
For a moment, a moment only, Lillith's color changed.
This would make sense if the Cheysuli had a reputation for mind-games. But they really don't. So where is the "mirror" here? That said, it gives Corin an actual victory against Lillith. So I'll allow it.
She leaves, saying a servant will show Corin to his chambers. Corin realizes that he's got nothing really that denotes his rank. He hadn't wanted a lot of baggage when he childishly fled in the night. Now he realizes that he'll be dependent on Alaric for extra clothing and he doesn't like it.
I mean...you were fine being dependent on Liam. Why didn't you bring some of those clothes? Unless you romanced Aileen wearing the same fucking outfit the whole time. In which case, I'm impressed by your game.
He goes to Kiri and immediately gathers her in his arms. They can't speak because of Lillith's presence. He feels incredibly alone. She tries to comfort him, but without the link, she seems more like a tame fox. It feels wrong.
Corin wonders if this is what it was like for his father all those years. And dude, you were sixteen when you got your lir. Niall was nineteen. He's had a lir now for more than half his life. It's fine.
He's also really really upset by the silver around his wrist. It's snug and seamless and he can't get it off. He's about to try something more drastic when he has a visitor.
Cheysuli was the first word that came to his mind. And then another: jehana.
Oh, now. This is interesting. And the one point where Niall really was a fucking idiot.
On the voyage from Hondarth he had, every night in his bunk, carefully considered what he would say and do when he saw Gisella. But now, seeing her, he could do nothing at all.
"Which one are you?" she asked. "Which son does he send?"
For a moment his tongue was locked in silence. Having heard of Gisella's madness from his father, his uncle and others, he had reconciled himself to incoherence, wandering wits, perhaps even tantrums. But not such clarity. Never such conciseness.
Corin thinks about all the marks on Niall's face - the disfigurement, the eye patch, the wear from worry. He looks for similar signs in Gisella:
At thirty-nine she did not share the same uncanny youthfulness as Lillith, but she was not what Corin expected. She was, plainly, Cheysuli; the Atvian was unseen. Black hair was pulled back from her face, displaying the widow's peak that lent her features an odd elegance.
There was no hint of silver, no trace of age in her coiled braids. Her flesh was taut and dark, untined except for a delicate tracery at the edges of yellow eyes. Most striking of all, having borne two sets of twins, she retained the slendemess inherent in Cheysuli women. And she certainly claimed the posture.
Corin and Keely were Niall; now he saw Brennan and Hart.
Suddenly I remember something that I noticed in Chapter Four but forgot to comment on.
In Brennan and Hart's respective fourth chapter, we got a revelation that put a new context on their respective issues. That's where we learn about Brennan's phobia, and the anxiety that this makes him unworthy of his rank - feeding into his overcompensation. It's where we get to see how Hart's need to justify his own compulsion feeds into his addiction, driving him to try to prove that he can fix things with the same addiction that's destroying his life.
We didn't get that for Corin. There was some heart to heart with Aileen, where she suggested that his desire for Homana was more about wanting what his brother had, but that wasn't really a new idea per se. That was something pretty obvious from day one.
It's not that Corin doesn't have his own mental health issues, but he's very open about them. He's been honest about them from day one: to his brothers, to his father, to his sister. He doesn't try to overcompensate or justify his issues.
And it occurs to me that we've seen a bit about how being Niall's image in miniature has affected Corin. Just as we know how Niall's own resemblance to Carillon affected him. I even wondered if some of Niall's favortism toward Brennan was because he looked Cheysuli.
But Brennan and Hart don't just look Cheysuli. They look like their mother. The one who, as far as they know, was completely insane and tried to sacrifice them as infants. They may know the mitigating circumstances, but it's hard to appreciate them when you're the one that nearly got given to Strahan. To the boys (and Keely), they're the children of "Mad Gisella".
Corin can be free and open about his issues, because he looks like Niall. But Brennan and Hart look like "Mad Gisella". So when issues like phobias and addictions start rearing their ugly heads - might they wonder if the resemblance goes deeper?
So we get overcompensation and justification. Denial and weakness. Maybe if they had been open with their issues, they could have addressed them. We don't really know what kind of mental health treatment options the Cheysuli have, to be fair, but maybe there could have been something. (I think commenter Multi_Facets was the one who brought up the idea of using compulsion to help Hart fight his addictive impulses! An interesting thought!) At the very least, they might not have been left alone with their issues. Instead, one brother's phobia becomes a means to torture him, while the other brother's addiction destroys his life.
But anyway, back to Gisella. Who has announced that she's ordered the packing to begin.
Corin is bemused by this, but Gisella has her own ideas in mind:
Gisella smiled. "It is time I was a wife to my husband again."
"Wife—" He stopped himself, drew in a deep breath, tried to keep his tone uninflected. "There is no place for you in Homana."
Gisella says she'll make one. She challenges Corin. She knows he was told she's mad, does he think so? He hedges, pointing out that she gave them to Strahan. Gisella defends herself:
"Is that proof of madness?" Gisella asked. "It was not what Niall wanted, nor any of the Cheysuli, but it hardly makes me mad. It makes me an enemy."
But she's not an enemy to Corin now, she says. She wouldn't give him to Strahan. She'd rather keep him.
Gisella moved into the room almost idly, playing with the girdle that clasped slender hips and spilled down the front of her skirts. She wore red, deep, rich red, and rubies set in silver. “That time is passed," she repeated. "The time now is for me to stand at Niall's side ... to share my husband's bed." She turned abruptly, catching him off-guard. "To send that whore from my place."
Anger rose instantly. "Deirdre is my jehana. You will not call her a whore."
He had never, to anyone, claimed Deirdre was his mother. From childhood it had been made plain that Deirdre was mother in blood only to Maeve; that she was not cheysula, but meijha, not queen, but beloved of the Mujhar. The lines of descent were too important for dissembling or convenience, even among the Cheysuli; all of Niall’s children knew Gisella was their mother. But he would not claim her now.
This is something I wish got touched upon more. Because Deirdre really is, for all intents and purposes, the mother of all five children. Brennan and Hart might have been old enough to remember their biological mother (which may feed into the aforementioned issues), but Corin and Keely were less than a year old when she was sent away.
But the nature of royalty: legitimacy vs. illegitimacy means there's always going to be a divide. It's most significant for Keely, since it's the heart of her issues with/resentment toward Maeve. But the divide is there for the others too. Brennan is the only one of the legitimate children who seems to treat Maeve with any sort of respect or camaraderie. And while they're respectful of Deirdre, none of them actually address her as mother.
It would have been interesting to see the characters as young children. As adults and princes/princesses, Niall is the more prominent parent. He's the king after all. But when they were younger, it's likely that Deirdre would have been more directly involved with their rearing. (Corin does speak Erinnish after all, presumably the others do too?)
It also gets into the idea that maybe Cheysuli WOMEN aren't as okay with the whole meijha thing as the men would prefer to believe. Then again, Gisella was raised Atvian.
Gisella just sweetly says, whore or meijha, it changes nothing. She intends to assume her place as Queen of Homana. And...this might be interesting:
"Homanan law will make him." Gisella's eyes were on Kiri, "I will go before the Homanan Council and I will plead my case." Her voice was quiet and even. "I am the forgotten wife, the forgotten Queen, conveniently pushed aside in the name of Niall's lust. I bore him four healthy children—three of which are sons—and I have borne exile meekly, with no thought to disagree." Her eyes were eerily feral. "But now I weary of such treatment. I desire better. I desire the place to which I am entitled, the privileges of my rank, the respect and honor of my husband." Her lids half-shuttered her eyes, but he saw the yellow glint. "I desire to know the love of all my children."
So Niall really did fuck up here. I'd said before, the more humane thing would have been to send Gisella to an estate somewhere in Homana rather than to the people who abused her. But instead, he just shipped her back and shacked up with his mistress. The optics aren't great.
This is the society that expected Carillon to stay married to an attempted regicide after all.
That said, though. I wonder if Gisella would be successful. Niall has ruled, peacefully, for more than twenty years. The people love him and they're used to Deirdre's presence. For many of them, she probably is queen, as far as they care. Carillon was also beloved, of course, but he was obsessed with Electra. He wanted to own her. He probably never even tried to divorce her. But Niall doesn't have that same motivation.
Gisella's power lies in her ability to bear children (and it's a fascinating contrast to a later generation, where a prince is apparently being pushed to put his wife aside after she only manages to bear one sickly child. I'll give Roberson credit: I think the hypocrisy is intentional. This is a sexist society and the Queen's value is in her fertility.) But that would have been a much stronger argument when Gisella was exiled. Now, at thirty-nine, she is likely still fertile, but only for so much longer. (And aren't there greater risks for an older mother? I'm honestly not very knowledgeable about the subject, so feel free to correct me.)
Niall's got three healthy sons, so there isn't really a high priority to get any more.
...well. He DID have three healthy sons. Now he has one left. Maybe Gisella's onto something.
Corin says he wants nothing to do with Gisella. Gisella has a response to that too:
"But you do." Gisella stood before him. "You do, Corin. You want to love me. You want to have me love you in return. You want a mother, a jehana. You want a cheysula for your jehan. You want things to be right in your world, so you can feel good again. You want to know that all those years were not wasted; that indeed, your mother loves you. And would have loved you better, had your father allowed it. Had he not sent me away for the sake of an Erinnish princess."
"You would have given me to Strahan—"
"What other choice did I have?" Her shout stopped him cold. "What choice, Corin? Lillith raised me. Lillith shaped me. Lillith told me to."
"Lillith is Ihlini," he said tightly. "What did you expect?"
"I expected—and received—love," Gisella told him. "It was what she gave me. It was what my father gave me. In the name of that love, I did what I was told."
"To Strahan—"
Gisella looked away. "I was confused," she said softly. "Confused, afraid—so afraid." She crumpled the silver girdle so that the links bit into her flesh. "I did what I was told."
I'm pretty skeptical about the first part. Maybe if Corin were a little older, or we saw some unhappiness with Deirdre as step-mother, or ANY kind of wistfulness toward Gisella at all. But we haven't. That said...she has a point about the second. Corin's only meeting this new Gisella: an articulate woman, able to reason and defend herself. It's easy to forget how lost, confused and childlike she was in Track of the White Wolf. That poor little girl, forced to murder her pets so she can be desensitized to sacrificing her children... She hadn't had a prayer.
Corin backs away, confused, upset, and "perhaps equally afraid". He tells her to leave. And the chapter ends with him alone and wondering.
So Atvia's a fun place, yeah! We'll see how much worse it can get next time.
Uh oh, she is back.
Alix: He is not here by choice, he wanted a glimpse of the future with his last breaths.
She was, he thought, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The power of her allure touched him as it touched all men, nearly engulfing his wits. But he knew better. He knew her: Lillith of the Ihlini, sister to Strahan himself.
Corin drew in a steadying breath as he dismounted in front of the palace steps. A boy took his horse. Alone, afoot, afraid, he faced the sorceress.
Tynstar: I hope he pays for his foolishness. We Ihlini are too powerful for a normal human.
Pan: I don't think the name is a coincidence, she sounds like a succubus.
"Not when you have seen him." She wore blue, deep, rich blue, girdled with silver and pearls. Large, irregular pearls, some creamy, some gray, some black, with a tinge of silver-blue. More threaded the weave of her braid.
Closer, ever closer, until he could see the silver tips of her nails; the kohl-smudged lids. The eerie youthfumess of features and form.
This woman seduced my su'fali.
Raped, actually. The word is "raped". But Corin does think he understands how helpless Ian would have been without his lir. Lillith just smiles and says she sees that Corin brought his lir. Corin does NOT like the way she's looking at Kiri.
Pan: Of course, what else screams evil, if not sexy through too many jewels and makeup?
Alix: At least now the story realizes that women can be rapists and heroes can't. Progress.
She stood at the very top of the steps. She watched him. And she smiled. "You are well come to Rondule."
Pan: Is the typo really in the book?
"And no doubt who sired you."
Lillith laughed. "And did you know Tynstar well?"
"Only by reputation."
"With him, that is all that is needed."
Tynstar: Nice of the series to remember me after so long. And nice to see people will dread me even after death.
Alix: He might know you as the guy who could have killed Carillon after Shaine kicked it, and didn't.
It also gets into the idea that maybe Cheysuli WOMEN aren't as okay with the whole meijha thing as the men would prefer to believe. Then again, Gisella was raised Atvian.
Alix: Fucking finally.
"But you do." Gisella stood before him. "You do, Corin. You want to love me. You want to have me love you in return. You want a mother, a jehana. You want a cheysula for your jehan. You want things to be right in your world, so you can feel good again. You want to know that all those years were not wasted; that indeed, your mother loves you. And would have loved you better, had your father allowed it. Had he not sent me away for the sake of an Erinnish princess."
"You would have given me to Strahan—"
"What other choice did I have?" Her shout stopped him cold. "What choice, Corin? Lillith raised me. Lillith shaped me. Lillith told me to."
"Lillith is Ihlini," he said tightly. "What did you expect?"
"I expected—and received—love," Gisella told him. "It was what she gave me. It was what my father gave me. In the name of that love, I did what I was told."
Alix: That's not love, that's brainwashing.
Tynstar: Sometimes, both we and Cheysuli don't see any difference between abuse and love.
Re: Uh oh, she is back.
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your Alix make Tynstar suffer. :-)
And I shall deliver!
Dunno if I misinterpret how Ihlini runes and Cheysuli transformations work, but I added a caveat that since they are both masters, they cancel each out regardless.
Re: And I shall deliver!
Re: And I shall deliver!
P.S. I was indeed talking about "well come".
Re: And I shall deliver!
[waves]
(Anonymous) 2023-10-15 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)Now, I'm all for people who say "I'm ready to admit I have an addiction that's ruining my life, and it has to stop now," and then get help. For real, congrats on doing something scary and difficult as hell to make things better. That takes an uphill fight, and they should be proud of every moment of sobriety. But it does have to be their choice. Hart wouldn't've chosen it, so would it have been a good thing? Worse, would he feel the need to fill the gap left with another addiction?
I feel for Gisella here too. She's cognizant enough at the moment to argue her case, but she still doesn't realize how badly she's been abused, and why being told to murder her children was wrong. If she really wants them to love her, it may well be too late, and Lillith and her cohorts are to blame.
= Multi-Facets.
Re: [waves]
That's a good point. It does seem like there's an undercurrent in this book specifically about the psychological issues of all three protagonists and how they do and don't deal with it. An outside solution like compulsion might keep Hart from betting his kingdom away, but might not fix his underlying issues.
The Gisella plot here is actually something of a missed opportunity, IMO. But well, you'll see.
She is such a tragic figure though. And it's really a shame that Corin's the only one of her children that really gets any kind of meaningful interaction with her. None of the children really get the opportunity for any kind of closure or understanding.
It is possibly the first time though that this series actually made me consider trying to write a fanfic in a "let's explore this" way rather than a "FIX IT NOW" way.