The Robin and the Kestrel - Chapter Three

[kalinara]

So our heroes are still stuck in the mud, but we met a new character! Things are looking up!



We start this chapter with the promised winch. It's got a hook on the end of a cable swinging out of the back of the guy's wagon. (Gwyna, sensibly, extinguishes the fire in their stove first. No need to catch the wagon on fire!)

It's not magic, just a well crafted tool. And I'm a little intrigued actually, because tools like winches aren't something we generally see in high fantasy. It occurs to me that I have no idea when winches were first invented even. Google tells me that the Ancient Greeks had them though, so they're not period-inappropriate, I suppose. At least not with the way the Delambriens (and hoo boy am I going to massacre that spelling) are presented.

The winch is effective and the wagon is free of the mud. Yay! And all without actually breaking the cracked axle!

So now they get to carpool - the little wagon is winched up, ass end first. The horses are hooked up to the front (now back), and they all get to hang out in the "driver's box" of Harperus's wagon. Kestrel's a bit disappointed not to be invited inside the wagon proper, since this shit is all very cool. But he does get to encounter one, mundane yet cool, marvel:

He pulled it out; it was a blanket, with no discernible weave, of a tan color nearly the same as all the mud. It seemed awfully light and thin to do any good, but it was better than nothing. Or so he thought, until he actually wrapped it around his shoulders and head.

Suddenly he was warmer; much warmer. And—was he getting drier, as well? It seemed so! He stared at Harperus in surprise; the Deliambren returned his look blandly.

A thermal blanket is definitely NOT period appropriate, Harperus. Just what are the Deliambrens up to?

There's even more to notice now:

They were under as much shelter as most porches on a house provided. The driver's seat was well-padded and quite soft, covered with something that looked superficially like leather, but didn't feel quite like leather. And now that they were moving, there was a gentle stream of warm air coming from underneath it, drying his feet.

The box itself was quite spacious, with a great deal of room behind the driver's bench, more than had been apparent from the ground. There was quite enough room for all three of them on the bench, side-by-side, and there was enough room for a second bench behind the first. Maybe Harperus intended to put one in some day, for passengers who would rather not ride inside the wagon . . . .

Then he noticed something else; now that they were on the move, the horses did not seem to be leaning into their harness at all. In fact, on a closer look, he would have said, if he were asked, that they were guiding the wagon rather than pulling it. They certainly weren't straining in the least.

It's starting to look like this isn't a horse drawn wagon at all. It's starting to sound like they're in a fucking RV. Though presumably without a steering wheel.

Just what ARE these Deliambren up to?

This is also Kestrel's first time with a Non-human up close. Aside from the Elves that one time. But Elves are passe. There had been a few non-humans in Rolend's court, but Kestrel hadn't really had the opportunity or courage to approach. (The concern wasn't the non-humans themselves, but rather Kestrel didn't want to give his uncle any ideas about his ambitions by chatting with Ambassadors.)

So now, Kestrel actually has an opportunity to talk to a Deliambren. Unfortunately, Lackey still phonetically writes out his stutter, but it's not quite as severe since he's trying to follow Harperus's advice.

I will say the one thing about the stutter is how it emphasizes how little dialogue Kestrel actually has. Which is something I don't notice UNTIL the poor kid starts talking again.

He asks about why Harperus is "out here" and gets an interesting answer:

"What is my reason for being on the road, do you mean?" Harperus replied, and chuckled, as Robin grimaced a little. "Collecting information. As your dear lady will tell you, we Deliambrens do an inordinate amount of that. This is a much more elaborate vehicle than I am wont to use, however, as I assume our [Roma] Robin has noted. I am also acting as an advance scout, of a kind, this time. My people will be embarking on a most ambitious project shortly, and I am establishing contacts for them, so that they will never lack for allies on the ground in the initial part of the journey."

What exactly that MEANS...

Robin's interested too. She asks if this project is something the Roma ought to know about.

Harperus reassures her. They're actually intending to map out all of "Alenda", with free maps to the folk, like the Roma, who choose to assist. They'll be all kinds of maps: road maps, terrain maps, population maps, resource maps. In fact, they're going to build something they call a "data base", to keep track of who has an abundance of what resource.

One of the resources he names, amidst copper, coal, or corn, is "pre-Cataclysm artifacts". And THAT might give us a bit of an idea of what's going on in this setting.

See, there's another angle for a Pern comparison that I didn't really discuss in the Lark and the Wren, because it hadn't come up there. But the winch question earlier was, perhaps, rather unneeded. This might not be a medieval setting after all.

Harperus's next bit of dialogue confirms what we're dealing with. When Robin notes that the Deliambren will be selling the info.

"And, if he does not have the means to transport his product, or fears being cheated, we can act as broker," Harperus replied, just as blandly. "Why not? We also have an honorable intent, though you might not believe it, [Roma] Robin," he added. "We intend to see to it that those with superior forces do not take those resources that do not belong to them. I mean this," he finished, his voice suddenly without any hint of humor. "I am quite, quite serious about this. Before the Cataclysm, my people acted as a policing force among the stars. Presumably, the rest of them still do, somewhere. Now that we have stabilized our position and regained our mobility, our mission can be resumed, albeit on a smaller scale. It is, after all, in our interest to see that no culture is exploited. They are all potential customers, when all is said and done."

So...yeah. Definitely not a medieval setting. Instead, it SOUNDS like Alanda is similar to Pern or Athera in the Janny Wurts novels: a planetary settlement that's regressed back to a much early technological level. It's where the sci-fi blends with fantasy. And I realize that I read a LOT of books in these sort of settings as a kid.

I've reviewed a fair few on this blog even. (The Vlad Taltos series setting is also indicated to be one of these, though the settlement was possibly forcibly created by the Jenoine, in that one.)

It's also interesting that neither Robin nor Kestrel really react to these mentions of "the stars" or "the Cataclysm", which indicates that some of these facts are known by common people. Just perhaps not mentioned because it's not relevant to their day to day life.

That seems odd at first thought, but then I think about biblical events like the Great Flood or the Tower of Babel. Those are things that most Christians at least theoretically believe happened. (There are historical records of great floods in a number of societies, after all, though whether that's ONE great flood, or just the natural effect of being a civilization on a planet that's surface is 71% covered by water, who knows...) But it's not like those events make up part of our daily conversation.

So anyway, Harperus will likely be looking for more allies than just the Roma. Kestrel is intrigued by the fact that Harperus specifies "allies on the ground" and wonders if the Deliambren will be sending out some of those "air wagons" that Robin had described.

It's all very interesting, but if it becomes a major plot event in the series, that won't be until a later book. So Kestrel (not wanting to offend with more questions about that) shifts the topic to something more relevant: his wife.

This gets to a cute bit where Harperus starts detailing many childhood adventures of Gwyna in their city. It becomes pretty clear that, while Gwyna might not remember a lot of the specifics of having been a five year old visiting a magic city. Harperus remembers PLENTY. And so might a lot of other Deliambren.

These adventures include climbing very high into the upper reaches of a butterfly conservatory, and apparently deciding that a fountain needed fish and transporting some, in her bare hands, from a nearby Aquarium's view ponds. (He asks her how she did it, apparently she'd tickled them!)

It's pretty great. And Kestrel relaxes a little, realizing that if Robin had known the guy for THAT long, then he's probably okay.

They chat a bit more about Harperus's travels. At one point, he implies that the wagon can defend itself from visitors, which is...interesting. This is ALSO interesting:

"Have you made any good bargains lately?" Gwyna asked casually. Harperus brightened at that, and began rattling off a number of trades that he considered to be something of a coup. A "laser imaging system" ("still functional, if you can believe it!") for a small glass-smelting furnace; a "complete cache of memory crystals" for an equal number of precious stones. Or rather, Kestrel assumed they were precious; Harperus referred to them as "cultured" pearls, rubies, and sapphires. Kestrel was not certain just what "cultured" meant. Perhaps they were better educated than other gems. Something else Harperus said made him feel a little better.

"You know, value lies in rarity, really," the Deliambren told Gwyna, when she raised her eyebrow and asked who had gotten the real bargain. "They were using the memory crystals for jewelry, and valued them no more than quartz. We simply gave them something better suited to display—and tripled our library. To us, memory crystals are rare. To them, our cultured stones are. Everyone benefits, and no one feels cheated. That is the essence of a good bargain."

Definitely reinforcing the Alanda as a post-apocalyptic, originally high-tech society. And while I appreciate that Harperus likes a good bargain, I can't help but note that he doesn't seem to be quite so interested in a FAIR bargain. It doesn't sound like he bothered to explain to those people what memory crystals are, or what they actually could be used for.

I don't think I'm supposed to find the Deliambrens sinister here, but they definitely seem to find it advantageous to keep humans at a lower level of technological understanding. Maybe there's merit to that, but given the concerns Harperus will express later about the Church's influence and motives - maybe there's a bit of hoist by your own petard there too.

MAYBE the Church would have gained less traction if humans better understood their origin and capabilities.

Of course, there's always the possibility that these humans intentionally rejected technology after the Cataclysm. But maybe their kids should have the same choice?

It's also interesting that the Roma were presumably also a space faring society. Like the Travelers in Dragonsdawn. I'm very interested in science fiction that portrays folk keeping their individual cultures while expanding out to space. Star Trek is fun, but it's a bit sad that so much of human society seems very mono-cultured there.

Gwyna decides to take a nap, while Kestrel and Harperus continue to chat. Eventually Harperus turns the conversation around on Kestrel and gets his own story out of him. He's particularly interested in Rune and Talaysen's intervention (of course, but admittedly, that's the main event that changed everything) and the revelation of Bardic Magic.

He isn't surprised per se, having suspected something like that existed "among you humans", particularly in light of what he's seen Roma crowds do.

Oh, it occurs to me that Harperus's scenes here also reinforce the idea that the Free Bards, as an entity, is a fairly recent phenomenon. His recollections all deal with Roma, and Roma Bards. Not Talaysen's organization.

This gets into a little bit of conversation about ethics. Kestrel isn't sure he wants to use Bardic Magic the way the others do. He worries it can cause as much trouble as it solves.

Harperus has a different take on it:

Harperus nodded, his face very still and sober. "I can understand that—but you may be forced to. You should at least master this power before it masters you. Not learning to use it could be more hazardous than mastering it."

Jonny shook his head.

"If you do not learn how to control this 'magic,' it may act without your knowledge or control," Harperus amended. "Let me give you an example. Some peoples we have encountered have the power to read the thoughts of others—and if they do not learn how to do this at their will, it happens without control, and they can be overwhelmed by intruding thoughts so that they do not know who, where, or even what they are. Do you understand now?"

I really do think the switch between Gwyna/Jonny and Robin/Kestrel at times is interesting and worth some analysis that I don't plan to do for this review.

Anyway, Kestrel admits he's right. If he doesn't know how to use it, or to tell when he's using it, then he could use it by accident. Which could be a problem if someone can TELL it's being used and will resent it.

It's a good thought, one that we haven't seen from the others. But probably makes sense from someone who's been trying for years to hide and not make waves.

Harperus then, very diplomatically, brings up the stutter. Kestrel is embarrassed but answers, explaining that "Wren" thinks it's because of the fever he'd gotten when he escaped Birnam.

(It's also interesting that Rune and Talaysen have never used their Free Bard name in their own narrative. It's ONLY used by others. It makes some sense though. Rune is very new as a Bard and Talaysen is, itself, a new alias. )

Harperus thinks it's less an issue of brain damage from the fever, and more of a trauma response to the fear and stress. Apparently the Deliambren have some knowledge about how to treat trauma, so he offers advice that Jonny's eager to take. (He notes that while Robin doesn't seem to care about his stutter, he'd love to be able to tell her "all the things she deserved to hear without falling all over the words". Aw.)

So we get some speech therapy here:

"As I said, this is sometimes the case of your mind running ahead of your words. First, you must learn to relax, and think about the words, not about what your listener is going to think when he hears you." Harperus smiled as he saw Jonny's eyes widen with surprise. "You see, some of this is also from tension. You wish to make a good impression, so you tense up. Your mind runs on ahead, and ceases to control your speech, so the tension makes you stammer. You stutter—you fear you are making a bad impression—you grow tenser—and you stutter more. You try to speak faster, to get your words out through the stuttering, and this makes you more tense, which makes it worse yet. If you relax, and take things at their own, slow pace, you will find your problem easing. Think of each word as a note in a melody, and pronounce it with the care you have in singing, and do not think about your listener. When you sing, what are you thinking of? The audience, or the song?"

I don't know anything about stutters or if this is on point or not. But Kestrel seems to respond to it. He realizes that he doesn't stutter when singing.

Anyway, this isn't a quick fix, of course. Harperus says that he'll improve as he goes, little by little. It took ten years to establish this pattern, and it's going to take a long time to correct it. But it will help.

I'm not sure if we see either character in any of the later books, but it would be interesting to keep an eye out.

Poor Kestrel's both grateful and a little crushed.. He was hoping for some kind of magic cure here. But he admits that something that could magically take it away might not keep it away. Whereas by understanding it, he can deal with it better.

The moment ends however, when the door to the wagon slides open to admit another passenger. An even more interesting one!!!

"Harperus," said a deep, resonant voice from the darkness beyond the open door, "I wonder if I might join you and your guests?" The opening was shrouded in shadow, and all Jonny saw was a vague, hump-backed shape in the darkness. But the voice sent a thrill of pleasure down his spine. It was a pure delight simply to hear it; a deep bass rich with controlled vibrato.

So who is this guy?

"I am pleased to hear it," the voice replied, and the shapeless figure, who was shrouded in fabric, or an all-enveloping cloak, ducked its head and came out into the light.

It was not wearing a cloak.

As it carefully closed the door at the rear of the box behind it with one taloned hand, and folded down a hitherto-invisible seat from the side of the box, the "shrouding cloak" proved to be a set of wings, and the hood, head-feathers. Gwyna woke from her half sleep to glance at, and then stare at, Harperus' road companion; T'fyrr was nothing more or less than a true nonhuman, an enormous bird-man.

A future titular character perhaps??

So introductions are made. This guy is T'Fyrr. He's a member of the Haspur, who don't travel much or get many visitors. (They live in a very mountainous land. And since they fly, there isn't much need of roads or bridges.)

He's got a beak, but a really interestingly mobile tongue that lets him speak in human language without any problems. He's also something like a Free Bard of his own people - as he's a singer of songs, and thanks to his tongue, he can sing songs of other peoples as well. (Of course, he doesn't approve of Guild Bards, thinking that it sounds like they seek to cage music.)

T'Fyrr and Gwyna start talking about a deep discussion of freedom, thought, politics and philosophy. Harperus seems amused. Jonny is content too, since it gives him the chance to study T'fyrr. While it might be nice to hear the discussion, it's also pretty cool to get a closer look at T'fyrr. And Jonny obliges us for paragraphs.

The only thing at all human about the bird-man was his voice and his stance; upright on two legs. He had just told them that the wings he bore on his back were entirely functional, and Jonny would have given a great deal to see him in flight. As large as he was, his wingspan must be very impressive.

He was as completely feathered as any bird Jonny had ever seen, from the top of his head to his "knees." His "hands" were modifications of his "feet"; both had sharp talons on fingers and toes, and scaled skin stretched over bone, with prominent thin, strong muscles beneath the skin. Those feet and hands were formidable weapons, Kestrel was quite certain—and he was just as certain that, in a pinch, T'fyrr would not hesitate to use his strong, sharp beak as a weapon as well.

T'fyrr's chest was very deep, much deeper than the chest of a human, and probably accounted for the resonance of his voice. In color he was a gray-brown, with touches of scarlet on the very edges of his wings and tail.

He wore "clothing" of a sort; a close-tailored wrapping that covered his torso without impeding the movement of any limbs or his wings and tail. It did not look very warm, and Jonny did not blame T'fyrr for staying in the shelter of the wagon until now. An odd, spicy scent came from his feathers—or perhaps, from his clothing—when he moved, very pleasant and aromatic.

But it was his voice that interested Jonny—as a musician. There were over-and under-tones to his speaking voice that made Jonny sure his singing voice would be incredibly rich. It would surely sound as if it were three people singing in close harmony rather than one.

Bird people are cool.

Anyway, T'fyrr is a folklorist who likes collecting songs, particularly from the "outreach era", when they first ventured out from their borders after the Cataclysm.

It occurs to me that the setting hasn't detailed WHICH races come from space and which are native. Deliambrens obviously are off-worlders. I've assumed humans as well. (That could be incorrect, but they still have enough to remind us of Earth humans that I'm pretty comfortable with that conjecture.) The Mintak might or might not be.

It seems like the Elves and Haspur COULD be indigenous. It sounds like the Haspurs environment is exquisitely suited to their physiology, while the Elves have that Underhill/dimension thing, which I SUPPOSE could work on alternate worlds. Maybe. Maybe not?

So anyway, T'fyrr is helping Harperus as a scout and Harperus is helping him with his quest for knowledge. And this is interesting too:

"He and his people have a way of capturing music and sound and holding it. We had this ability before the Cataclysm, but we have lost the skill of making the devices, as well as the tooling," T'fyrr said, before Harperus could finish his sentence. "So there you have it. We aid each other, and we each have skills the other does not. I had been learning the songs I did not know from Harperus' collection; at about the time I had learned all that he had, he decided to go out on this collecting venture and asked if I would pay my debt by accompanying him. When I learned he would be visiting some of the lands where my songs originated, I agreed, of course."

So the Cataclysm appears to have affected the entire planet. And ALL of the races involved. But, based on what Harperus said about other Deliambrens in space...maybe not off planet. Interesting!

We eventually switch view points to Gwyna, who finds her husband's open fascination with Lord Harperus and T'fyrr very charming. Gwyna, of course, has been around nonhumans all her life, and the relationship to Harperus isn't new for her Clan.

It's interesting that Gwyna thinks of Harperus as "Lord Harperus" while Jonny doesn't.

She's never seen a birdman like T'fyrr, but that's more of a novel experience for her, and novelty wears off. She's more interested in the observation of both non-humans. And the philosophies of the Haspur (and honestly, Haspur and Harperus are so similar words as to be confusing!), which are very complimentary to Roma life.

She's also REALLY interested in the wagon.

For one thing, it was quite obvious to anyone who knew horses that this thing was propelling itself. The horses were only there for guidance. And she had not missed the fact that Harperus had disconnected some esoteric device before he had asked for their help in winding up the winch. If she and Kestrel had not been present, he probably would not have used that capstan at all. Doors appeared in walls that seemed solid, seats could be folded down out of nowhere. The wagon itself had glass windows, with metal sides that obviously required neither painting nor maintenance. What a time-saver that would be! There was none of the jouncing around associated with their vehicle, and she rather doubted that Harperus would ever suffer the inconvenience of a broken wheel or a cracked axle. The heated air coming up beneath their seat must be coming from somewhere, and only gave a hint of how comfortable the interior of this vehicle must be. She already knew about the Deliambrens' "magical" heating and lighting, and she could not imagine Harperus doing without either.

And Harperus' little dropped comment about how the wagon could "defend itself—

There must be wonder upon wonder inside this vehicle, and she wanted to see the inside, badly.

Last chapter, Gwyna was a little smug about how the Roma were invited to the Deliambren city because they aren't really interested in Deliambren toys. And it seems like maybe that's not entirely true. They weren't interested in the CITY.

But a WAGON?

Gwyna is self-aware enough to realize that if she got a good look, she'd start trying to figure out how to afford it, and whether or not it might require selling herself, her husband and any future children into slavery. (She doesn't seriously mean that of course, but fantasizes a bit about saving Harperus's life).

She distracts herself by focusing on the politics of the situation.

It doesn't sound good.

From Gwyna: The Bardic Guild continues to try to amass power, and Talaysen thinks they're trying to get as much power as the Dukes. The High King isn't doing anything.

From Harperus: There's a lot of unrest among the "Twenty Kings" and the nobles beneath them. Lots of feuding, which the High King should have stopped. There's something wrong in the High King's court.

The Guild and Church are working together to basically try to cause problems for anyone who isn't on board with their rules.

T'fyrr thinks Harperus may be too focused on humans. The Twenty Human Kingdoms are a small part of Alanda after all. But they're strategically placed, per Harperus, and a war between them could cut the Deliambren off from what they need. (Also, per Gwyna, Harperus has pointed out that humans breed like rabbits.)

The chapter ends with the characters thinking about the Waymeet, and getting more information.

Comments

[pangolin20]

I think this should be chapter three.

[kalinara]

Good catch!

[(Anonymous)]

It's true that people with speech impediments have much less or no trouble with 'em once they sing. I think it's something about the rhythm that helps.

= Multi-Facets.

[kalinara]

I think airflow might be a factor too. If the notes aren't staccato, there's a connection and you don't start-stop the way regular speech does. But that's just a guess on my part.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I forgot to mention that Kestrel's concerns about accidentally mind-controlling people with music is actually a nice call-back to an incident he wasn't around for, when a stranger gave Rune and Talaysen horses named Tam and Socks. Talaysen was very concerned and asking himself "Are we POSITIVE we didn't charm someone without meaning to with how badly we needed horses?" before conceding that they'd done nothing wrong, and it really was a good turn coming back to Rune. When I read it, it was good to see the author hadn't forgotten those kinds of moral implications.

= Multi-Facets.

[kalinara]

I remember that. It wasn't a stranger though, it was Rune's old friend, Jib. She'd felt guilty for leaving him behind to be bullied and sent some money to him before she headed off to the fair. He'd apparently made good on it.

Talaysen angsted, of course, but the situation passed the smell test.

[(Anonymous)]

Jib did send the horses, but the stranger gave them over.

= Multi-Facets.

[kalinara]

Jib's new father in law technically! But you're right. :-D