Pride of Princes - Part Four, Chapter Six

[kalinara]

So last time, Corin went from having the best time of any of the brothers, lounging about in Erinn with a hot girl, to...well, Atvia.

On the plus side, it was good to see Gisella again?



So last time, we met Gisella again, this time, we're meeting Alaric. Alaric has been a particularly formidable character throughout most of the books of the series: from being a too-serious child in Song of Homana, to his stint as slimy bridegroom in Legacy of the Sword, to dancing political rings around Donal in Track of the White Wolf.

Imagine having YOUR son-in-law kidnapped on YOUR watch, refusing to pay any kind of ransom or demand for him, and somehow turning this around so that the kid's father is the one at fault.

Alaric is evil and awesome. That's all I'm saying.

So what's he up to now...

The old man, the old king, was a pile of bones in an oversized chair. Rich cloth adorned the bones, but it did not hide the fragility of his flesh or the brittleness of his spirit. The loss of many teeth altered the line of mouth and jaw. The flesh over the nose had thinned so that it was little more than a blade-thin beak jutting out of a hollowed face. His brown eyes were rheumy, nearly swallowed by drooping lids, and he stank of insidious decay.

Oh. Oh dear.

I suppose Alaric never got Electra's blessing then, after all. Electra would have been sixty-four or so in Legacy of the Sword. Alaric, we're told, is a "few years more than sixty" - but he seems much older. Especially compared to Liam, who's only fourteen years younger.

That actually made me pause a little and go back to do some math. This book establishes Liam as fifty to Deirdre's thirty-nine, which works...I guess. There were some other sisters in between, I think. I'd always assumed that Liam was younger in Track of the White Wolf. But then, if Niall was nineteen, Deirdre eighteen, Liam might have been around thirty.

It's funny though, in my head, Liam's a contemporary to Niall, while Alaric's a contemporary to Donal. But that's not Roberson's fault...this time.

Anyway, Alaric's in bad shape physically. How about mentally?

"Tell me what you see!"

"An old man,” Corin cried. "The man who killed his cheysula ... the man who destroyed his daughter . . . the man who lay with an Ihlini witch in exchange for petty power!"

"What power?" Alaric demanded. "What power do I hold? Atvia? No. Sorcery? No. The control of my wits and body?—no! Lillith has stolen them all.”

Corin is taken aback by this, as am I a bit. I admit, I'd assumed Lilith and Alaric were rather like Morgause and Lot in Mists of Avalon: evil (allegedly in MoA's case, but the folks at das_sporking have tackled that far better than I could), but overall, quite compatible.

Instead, it seems as though Alaric was used and discarded. I wonder if that's an Ihlini thing in general. We never hear of Lilith's mother, and for all that Electra got the magic youth and some cool powers, Tynstar was busy kidnapping and raping Alix when she was sent to prison. I'm not sure I'd consider that a great sign of love.

Corin tells him that he reaps what he's sown. Alaric laughs, saying that the seed of his destruction was sown more than forty years ago, when Lillith first came to Atvia.

Interesting. That sounds like Lillith was a relatively new arrival when poor Bronwyn got there. So maybe, if Bronwyn had been sent with some fucking Cheysuli warriors, DONAL, they might have been able to dislodge her?

Alaric isn't really playing victim though:

"At the time, she served a purpose." Alaric's fallen mouth moved into a travesty of a smile. "I gave her freedom. I gave her power. I gave her everything she wanted, and willingly. There was no coercion. She used no sorcery on me. We worked toward similar goals." He bent forward, coughed; spittle flew out of his mouth. "I even gave her my daughter."

"And now she wants your throne." Corin tried to keep the distaste from his expression.

"Lillith has the throne in everything but name." The old man thrust himself more deeply into the huge chair, thin hands gripping armrests. "She is done ruling through me. Now she wants you."

Corin refuses, he's not like Alaric and he won't give in. Alaric's response adds another interesting note to all this eugenics crap:

"But I am in you." Alaric smiled again. "Will you tell me there is no ambition in .you? No desire for power? No need to rule other men?"

Now personally, I don't really think that kind of thing is genetic. But it does raise an interesting question about the Firstborn. The Cheysuli think breeding up a Firstborn is a good idea. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It's worth noting that, while the Firstborn will be Cheysuli, he'll also be Ihlini. (And mathematically, I suspect, quite a bit more Ihlini than Cheysuli. It's always struck me as rather odd how this series about a Cheysuli prophecy, and breeding up the Cheysuli ancestors, moves away from actually incorporating any fresh Cheysuli blood in the mix.

The next generation will be half Erinnish (well, maybe with a bit of Atvian thrown in...). The generation after that involves the marriage of a double-set of cousins (both sets of parents being siblings). Then there's the infamous Lion lying down with the Witch...who, while she has Cheysuli blood herself, basically gets it from the same fucking family.

Hm. Actually, maybe there is ONE fresh strand, from Sorcha in there. But it's still kind of bizarre. Why aren't the Cheysuli more of a presence in this Cheysuli story?

Also, if you actually care to parse through this, you can probably figure out the spoiler pairings coming up. But then, Pride of Princes included a family tree that does the same damn thing, so fuck it. If you don't want to know, don't do the math. :-D

Anyway, I've tangented from my tangent to point out that in a series obsessed with ancestry and bloodlines, their demi-god children will have a) Ihlini ancestors too, and also be descended from Electra, Alaric and Shaine.

Maybe Alaric hasn't lost all his impact yet though:

"Will you tell me you do not want it?" Alaric's add tone, though diluted by age, retained enough of its arrogance and spite to stop Corin's protest dead. "Will you stand there, blood of my blood, and tell me you do not dream of holding the Lion Throne?

So that hits. Because of course Corin wants that throne. Even more now. Even MORE now. First there was the throne itself, and the status of "most important". Then it was Aileen - promised to the eventual Mujhar of Homana. Now, well, Corin's seen how bad Atvia is. Why wouldn't he want Homana even more?

Corin calls Alaric disgusting and asserts that Atvia will be his on Alaric's death. That's an interesting contrast to Hart, who seemed to believe he wouldn't be officially leader until Niall dies. But that may just be their contrast in personalities. Corin, for all his flaws, isn't actually one to take the easier path.

We learn why Gisella is so coherent now:

With great effort Alaric grasped the armrests and pulled himself out of the chair. He was stooped, twisted, wracked. But the flame of his hatred blazed. "She drains me ... drains me to feed Gisella ... to replace her addled wits. Once it is done, I am dead. And then she will turn to you."

"Grandsire—"

"She means to send Gisella to Homana," Alaric said steadily, "where they will see that she is not mad, not mad at all, merely the victim of Niall's lust for Deirdre of Erinn. And because there are Homanan laws governing the rights of husbands and wives, the lives of kings and queens, they will make him take her back . . . they will make her Queen again, not knowing what she is." Tears ran down his face. "My beautiful, addled daughter. . . ."

I'm still not sure this will actually work. I mean, Gisella was wronged. And Niall fucked up sending her back here. But again, twenty happy years under Niall's rule, where folks are used to Deirdre, even if they say insulting things about her? I think Niall might be able to put up more of a fight.

I suppose it doesn't matter though, because this is what Alaric believes.

So this is why Gisella is sane: Lillith is using Alaric to accomplish it.

Lillith interrupts them to gloat, and things get disturbing:

"Old man," she said, "are you unhappy with your lot?"

Alaric mumbled something.

"Old man," she said, "you knew it would come to this."

The old man stirred uneasily in his chair. Between them the tension was palpable; Corin wanted to back away, to leave the hall entirely, wanting no part of this.

Is this karma, for poor Bronwyn? Maybe, but it's uncomfortable to watch an old man being abused, even if he's horrible. And maybe we see Alaric's one saving grace here:

"Old man," she said, "it was what you wanted. To see your daughter made whole."

"Gisella," Alaric whispered, and the tears ran down his face.

Lillith looked at Corin. "He asked it," she said. "He begged it of me: to make his daughter whole. To restore her wits so he could see the woman she might have been, had he not destroyed her mother."

Alaric's failed Gisella in so many ways. Not in the least by allowing the Ihlini to brainwash and abuse her. But in his flawed, evil way, he does love her. Enough to sacrifice his own formidable intellect and sanity for her.

Corin and Lillith discuss Bronwyn's fate. Interestingly, Lillith also says it was an accident. I'd assumed Alaric was lying, but Lillith doesn't really have a reason to lie here. She could easily just gloat about Donal/Niall/Corin's powerlessness to get justice for Bronwyn. That said, Alaric still forced her into marriage, raped her, and made her miserable enough to try to escape to begin with.

Lillith also repeats that Alaric had begged her to make Gisella whole.

Corin asks how long it will last. And it seems that Lillith's plans are different from Alaric's.

Lillith shrugged. "Once Alaric dies, the wits die. The power is not unlimited. Gisella will become what she has been from the moment of her birth."

"Mad," Corin said.

"We are all a little mad." Lillith approached the throne.

She put her hands on Alaric's head. "Oh, my lord, I promise the pain will end. In a day, two, three, you will not know its name anymore. You will only know senselessness."

"Knowing she will go mad, you send her to Homana."

Lillith barely glanced at Corin. "It will be sweet to trouble Niall."

So it doesn't seem like Corin will be drained after all. Instead, poor Gisella becomes a spectacle in her illness. How tragic. But then, maybe Lillith doesn't need her anymore - she's got her own daughter after all.

(That's an interesting question: how do Rhiannon and Gisella get along, I wonder.)

Corin leaves, in disgust and horror, as Lillith, laughing, welcomes him to Rondule.

Corin leaves the castle, ignoring servants and soldiers. He heads to the top of the dragon's skull. He tries to summon the earth magic.

  It hurt. It hurt. Perhaps it was Lillith’s proximity that twisted the power, perhaps it was something else. But the shapechange was slow and sluggish, wracking his bones with pain.

He gasped. He fell, kneeling on the turf, and tried to thwart the pain. But it came at him in waves, as if intending to keep the earth magic from reaching him.

Kiri—Kiri—Kiri—

He gagged, then retched, as his belly twisted. He felt the shapechange start, then stop, then waver, then withdraw, only to try again. What he was he could not say, knowing only that if it continued he would no longer be Corin at all, but someone else. Something else; beast instead of man. Or something even worse.

Yeah, so that's fun. Eventually though, Kiri is able to bring him out of it. She's able to tell him that she's here. Corin opens his eyes to see a woman.

Girl, more like. She sat not so very far away, clad in gray wool skirt and blouse, leather tabard, boots. And she bared a knife in her hand.

She watches him warily. He asks if he's a man. She confirms, with some bemusement. She asks what else he might be. Fox, he says.

Her eyes narrowed. She was brown-haired, brown-eyed. Not pretty, not plain, though her features had a familiar cast as well as an uncanny, arresting power.

Oddly, she reminded him of Aileen. "Are you Cheysuli, then?"

There's a hint here. Remember who Aileen's grandmother was?

Anyway, the girl had heard Corin scream, so she came to investigate. He assures her that he means her no harm. She recognizes "the witch's" handiwork. Apparently this girl, and we'll find out soon that her name is Sidra, so we'll use it, does not like Lillith.

She takes Corin back to her home: an old watch tower. Corin muses that from here, he can see Erinn. He thinks about Aileen.

The tower seems nice:

  The interior was clean, washed white with lime. The tower was round, supporting only a second story. A wooden stair was tucked behind the studded door, winding to the upper floor and beyond, up to the watchtower roof. There was a table, benches, chests, and baskets of wildflowers. Also the dome of a tiny fireplace where she undoubtedly cooked her food. It was a cozy, airy home unlike any he had ever known.

She served him bread, cheese, ale. Her name was Sidra, she told him; she owned a goat, some chickens, grew vegetables, made cloth out of wool on her loom. In town she traded for the other things she might need.


I like this glimpse of a different class, a different life. We saw some class politics in Brennan's section, but they never really came up in Hart's.

He asks if she lives alone. She does:

"Why? Have you no husband "

"No husband."

"And no man to protect you?"

"I protect myself."

Hey...more Keely shilling.

"With what, that knife?"

"I have also a sword," she said clearly, looking toward one of the trunks.

Corin thought of Keely, so proud of her weapons-skill; of her independence. But Keely, he thought, had sound reason for both. She was skilled with sword and bow and knife, because her brothers and uncle had taught her. As well as her father's arms-master before Niall had stopped it.

I suppose the comparison is fair here. I was just enjoying the absence. She's got her own book, Roberson. I promise, I will read it.

He asks what she's not telling him. The chapter ends with her answer.

She sighed, staring down at the table as she turned her cup in restless circles. "No man will harm me," she said quietly. "No man who knows who I am, and my father takes care to make it known."

"Why?"

She lifted her head to look at him. "I am Alaric's bastard daughter."

So THAT is why she reminded him of Aileen. Remember, Liam and Deirdre's mother had been Alaric's sister. Presumably Osric's as well, I realize. They're cousins, once removed.

Well, this is an interesting development, though we'll have to wait for next time to see what it means.

Comments

[pan2000]

Alaric was a dangerous slimeball. But I like how, after so many books, he got his comeuppance by realizing evil is not a toy... too late.

[kalinara]

I'd like to think Bronwyn is feeling some satisfaction right now.