Daughter of the Lion - Chapter Eight
Feb. 19th, 2025 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Keely attempted to take some proactive steps to get rid of her unwanted pregnancy, only to get told off by an asshole pro-life apothecary. She also had another moment with Sean.
So we start the chapter with an italicized dream: Keely, dreaming about the birth of "Strahan's get". Poor thing.
She wakes up to Corin, reassuring her that it's only a dream. Apparently, they've already left Hondarth, and Keely hasn't had a chance to find another apothecary to help her. She thinks about how she knows of women who purposely miscarried their unwanted children and nearly died because they'd waited too long. And while she wants the child gone, she doesn't want to risk her life for it. Fair enough.
She does have the thought that maybe the child might live, raised by Cheysuli, and turn its back on its heritage. And of course, what if it doesn't?
It's a fair question, one Alix probably asked a lot when it came to Bronwyn. But ultimately irrelevant to me. Keely doesn't want to give birth to her rapist's child period.
She thinks about a lot of "what ifs". What if she marries Sean? What if she refused because of her "dishonor"? What if Aidan died without heirs?
I mean, you have a LOT of siblings, Keely. It doesn't necessarily need to be YOUR child as an heir.
But of course, we have to pretend there's any substance to the lir leaving idea, because she thinks about how Strahan and Teirnan would win and the lir would stay.
Again, Roberson, at NO POINT have you established where this idea came from. You've not given us any semblance of a prophecy that could possibly be read this way. You have not shown us any shar tahl or religious figure that has floated this interpretation.
Keely is going off of Teirnan's nonsense and Teirnan is, as shown many times so far, a fucking idiot. It makes her look like an idiot too.
Anyway, Keely thinks about the men camping around the fire with them. They're very much like Rory's men. Which makes sense, since Rory's men were once Sean's. I like the subtle contrast (for Roberson) to the fake Erinnish men Keely had met when she was lured into Strahan's trap.
Anyway, we're told the men have gotten used to Keely, and have apparently decided she's not likely to shapeshift unless threatened. They know Corin well and they treat Keely with the "honor and impeccable manners" due to their lord's betrothed.
Keely notes that she's been pregnant now for three months. It's starting to be obvious, at least to her. She cries to herself and hears a deep warm voice singing in Erinnish - aw, it's Sean, singing her to sleep.
So they get to Homana-Mujhar and are greeted by guards who salute Corin, grinning, and welcome Keely more moderately but with relief, and honor Sean.
That's actually an interesting reaction. I wonder how well liked Keely is at the palace in general. I admit, I've found her pretty obnoxious at the beginning of the book. Is that a common thought?
Anyway, we're told that both Corin and Keely are dreading going inside: Corin because he'll see Aileen and Keely because she'll have to talk about her pregnancy.
Sean notes that the palace is grander than Kilore, which is more of a fortress. Keely just thinks it's home and she can't judge it by any other.
Which is pretty dumb when you think about it. Keely's been betrothed since birth with the intention that she go and be queen of Erinn one day and no one ever bothered to take her to visit her eventual kingdom???
Keely points out to a nervous Corin that Aileen might not be there, since Brennan took her to Joyenne. And I'm vaguely surprised this didn't come up at any point in their journey, but I suppose Keely's got more vital things in mind. Sean seems startled though, which is interesting.
Corin just dismisses it. It's been two years and there's a child now. He'd be a fool to expect her to feel the same. Keely points out that Corin does. Does he? Corin just says he's not married to someone else.
Sean offers to help Keely down, which offends her, but he just says he doesn't doubt she'd do well in leggings, but she's wearing skirts, which are cumbersome.
Deirdre appears now, and this is sweet:
She was laughing and crying and speaking unintelligible Erinnish mixed with Homanan as I mounted the steps, nearly tripping over my skirts, and then caught me in a hug that told me, with an eloquence unmatched by words, how very much she had missed me. How very much she cared.
I am not one for hugging women, or even men, preferring to keep deeper emotions private. But Deirdre was Deirdre, jehana in everything but name, and I loved her. More deeply than I had believed I could love anyone, save jehan and Corin.
This is something I wish the books had touched on a little more. Because Deirdre isn't their birth mother, sure, but she was there since Corin and Keely were babies, Brennan and Hart were toddlers. She's been their mother for their entire lives basically. I'm glad to see that acknowledged now.
Deirdre's crying happily. They'd figured out it was a trap when none of the lir could find her. They searched north instead of south, which makes some sense since the boys had been captured in Valgaard. Niall and "the others" are still searching.
Deirdre then notices Corin and Sean, who she mistakes a moment for Liam. It's fair to note that Deirdre had last seen Sean at four years old. He's maybe twenty-six now. And, per Deirdre, looks a LOT like his father.
Keely makes a swift exit to go to her chambers, changing into Cheysuli leathers. Her belt is too small. We're told that, of course, Keely is long waisted and narrow-hipped, and carries no excess flesh, so the pregnancy is more obvious.
It's irrational to be annoyed, but I feel like the story would have worked as well if Keely had been a bigger woman, inheriting her father's size.
Anyway, there's someone at the door: Maeve. Please, Keely, don't be mean to your sister. Maybe you could even realize that you and she kind of have a lot in common at this point?
Maeve chides her for seeing to her clothes before greeting Ilsa and Maeve when they're so worried about her.
Sighing, I glanced up to tell Maeve I had not even thought she might be present—she had been gone when I left—but I stopped in midsentence. Stopped dead, open-mouthed, and stared.
Gods. I had forgotten. Forgotten her child entirely, in the knowledge of my own.
She smoothed a hand across her belly, so much larger than my own. "Two months left," she answered, seeing the question in my eyes.
That would have been a bitchy thing to say, Keely. She's your sister. Where would she even be?
But this is interesting.
So Maeve decided to keep her child:
Aye. Teirnan knows nothing of it; the child shall be mine, not his." She smiled. "I will make certain it is a loyal, steadfast Cheysuli, untouched by its father's folly."
I felt so odd, so distant. "You said once that the seed was sown, but the harvest not begun . .. and asked if you should make the child proxy for Teirnan's sins."
Keely, Maeve's choices aren't about you. Just like Aileen's aren't.
But this is an interesting exchange. Keely resents the note of reprimand in Maeve's voice, since Maeve often played the wiser older sister apparently. (It might have been nice to see THAT element of their relationship before.) And then we get this:
I stared at the belt. "I had to cut a new hole."
Maeve laughed once, in disbelief. "Keely, are you mad? Do you think the fit of your clothing—" And she cut it off. Instantly. The silence was absolute.
I set down the belt, the knife, and placed my hands over my belly. When I looked up at her I saw comprehension in her eyes, and, oddly, tears. "I have less courage than you," I told her. "I cannot bear this child."
Maeve swallowed heavily. After a moment she came to the bed and sat down next to me very close, but making no effort to touch me, to soothe me, to offer meaningless comfort. I knew better than to expect it; she knew better than to try.
Poor Maeve's never gotten a point of view chapter in any of these books. The most we have been able to glean from her personality was in Brennan's initial chapters and the beginning of this book. Brennan likes her. Keely doesn't.
She asks how long has Keely known. Keely admits, four months. Maeve protests Keely's decision, but to her credit, it's not about choice or the child. She just thinks it's too late: there's too much risk attached.
Of course, this leads to an argument. And I appreciate that while I think Maeve is in the wrong here, she's speaking out of concern for Keely's well-being. She insists that a child of Keely's could never be like Strahan. And that Keely's death would bring them down as much as bearing any child of Strahan would.
Ugh, prophecy and dynasty concerns follow. I appreciate that the characters care about this, even if I don't. Maeve points out that Aidan's still unhealthy (but still alive and with Aileen in Joyenne), and that if he dies, and Keely dies, they're all lost.
Keely asserts that they don't know if Sean would have her. I mean, we've met Sean, Keely. He basically spent the last two chapters saying outright that he still wants to marry you. But this is an emotional time.
I actually really like this exchange. Keely's earned the right to be selfish here. It's her body and her trauma. But Maeve isn't that asshole apothecary. She's not being judgmental. She just doesn't want her sister to die.
And well, they do have history.
I like this part:
Maeve, I have to—"
"No," she said bitterly. "No. You will do it because you want to; 'tis how you live, Keely. 'Tis how you have always lived, so certain of your path." She drew in an unsteady breath. "I have hated you, and loved you . . . with neither winning the throw. But always, always I have envied you: your freedom, your strength, your courage." Her green eyes were bright with tears of anger. "But now, seeing this, knowing what you will do, all I feel is pity. Later, perhaps, I will grieve, when we put you in the ground."
It occurs to me that this book probably would have been much stronger to me if it were about BOTH sisters. If nothing else, we could probably have avoided the weird repetitiveness in the first part if some of that page time had been devoted to Maeve instead. We've seen how much Keely envies Maeve, and this is the first time we've really got to see Maeve express her side.
Keely decides to be honest about her fears and I kind of wish Roberson didn't have her do this because as usual, it makes no sense.
"She is mad," I said flatly. "She has been mad since her birth, they tell us, even jehan, who wed her. Mad Gisella, they call her, speaking in whispers of her behavior, of the bizarre things she has said. Of the treachery she has done." I drew in a painful breath, trying to keep my tone uninflected. "She meant to give her children—her sons—to Strahan. To serve Asar-Suti. There is no sanity in her . . . should I risk a mad child as well?"
She's worried about the blood of a madwoman mixed with the blood of Strahan. Except that Gisella's condition is a result of physical injury and manipulation and abuse from birth. There are FOUR children of Gisella, NONE of whom have any sign of mental impairment.
And we've never seen this fear from Keely before, so this really does feel like an asspull. Which is bizarre because Keely's position was perfectly understandable without this.
But this turns into some kind of motive dissection, and now I'm a bit offended:
"Oh, gods," she said softly, " 'tis this, isn't it? The reason you've never wanted a child . . . the answer to all the questions . . ." She pressed hands against her cheeks. "All these years, Keely . . . this? This? This is why!"
"She is mad," I said again.
"Keely—"
"How can you know?" I asked. "How can you even suggest you understand? Your mother is sane. There is nothing for you to fear." I could not stop the shaking. "You know what madness means to the Cheysuli ... to a lirless warrior ... he must leave, Maeve! He sacrifices clan, kin, life ... do you think I could live with that? Knowing that my child, in addition to being an Ihlini halfling, might also be mad—" I closed my mouth with both hands, then spoke through them. "Madness is anathema to anyone of the clans. You know that. You know that—"
So Keely isn't averse to children because she just doesn't want them. She's not afraid of marriage or childbirth because she doesn't want to lose her freedom or be forced into a loveless relationship and treated like a walking womb.
Nope, it's all because she has mommy issues.
What the fuck, Roberson??
I might not have LIKED Keely, mostly because I think she's awful to her sister and brother, but I've never had any trouble understanding her issues here. You didn't need to provide this half-assed eleventh hour "explanation" attributing her desire to be childfree and not forced into marriage to ableism and a rejection of her mom.
Maeve is frustrated, saying she should go to Deirdre (and it's interesting that, like the others, she doesn't call Deirdre mother), but Keely orders her to tell her nothing.
Maeve admits that when she came back from Clankeep, she'd expected Niall to know about her own child. But Keely hadn't told, leaving it to Maeve to decide:
Impatiently she scrubbed tears away. "And for that, I give you my silence, much as I hate myself for it. But it is the last debt I will owe you*; we are quit of anything else, regardless of our blood."
...this makes me wish I read the book of these sisters that Roberson thinks she's writing, because this is a weighty statement and we've seen nothing in their interaction that really seems to warrant this. We've never had any talk of debt before either.
If anything, the most substantial sibling relationship has been Keely and Brennan. Maeve just shows up to get shit on and insulted and leave again.
When Maeve leaves, Keely picks up her knife, meaning to finish cutting a new hole in her belt. But then decides not to, since once the child is gone, the belt will fit again.
The chapter ends here.
So we start the chapter with an italicized dream: Keely, dreaming about the birth of "Strahan's get". Poor thing.
She wakes up to Corin, reassuring her that it's only a dream. Apparently, they've already left Hondarth, and Keely hasn't had a chance to find another apothecary to help her. She thinks about how she knows of women who purposely miscarried their unwanted children and nearly died because they'd waited too long. And while she wants the child gone, she doesn't want to risk her life for it. Fair enough.
She does have the thought that maybe the child might live, raised by Cheysuli, and turn its back on its heritage. And of course, what if it doesn't?
It's a fair question, one Alix probably asked a lot when it came to Bronwyn. But ultimately irrelevant to me. Keely doesn't want to give birth to her rapist's child period.
She thinks about a lot of "what ifs". What if she marries Sean? What if she refused because of her "dishonor"? What if Aidan died without heirs?
I mean, you have a LOT of siblings, Keely. It doesn't necessarily need to be YOUR child as an heir.
But of course, we have to pretend there's any substance to the lir leaving idea, because she thinks about how Strahan and Teirnan would win and the lir would stay.
Again, Roberson, at NO POINT have you established where this idea came from. You've not given us any semblance of a prophecy that could possibly be read this way. You have not shown us any shar tahl or religious figure that has floated this interpretation.
Keely is going off of Teirnan's nonsense and Teirnan is, as shown many times so far, a fucking idiot. It makes her look like an idiot too.
Anyway, Keely thinks about the men camping around the fire with them. They're very much like Rory's men. Which makes sense, since Rory's men were once Sean's. I like the subtle contrast (for Roberson) to the fake Erinnish men Keely had met when she was lured into Strahan's trap.
Anyway, we're told the men have gotten used to Keely, and have apparently decided she's not likely to shapeshift unless threatened. They know Corin well and they treat Keely with the "honor and impeccable manners" due to their lord's betrothed.
Keely notes that she's been pregnant now for three months. It's starting to be obvious, at least to her. She cries to herself and hears a deep warm voice singing in Erinnish - aw, it's Sean, singing her to sleep.
So they get to Homana-Mujhar and are greeted by guards who salute Corin, grinning, and welcome Keely more moderately but with relief, and honor Sean.
That's actually an interesting reaction. I wonder how well liked Keely is at the palace in general. I admit, I've found her pretty obnoxious at the beginning of the book. Is that a common thought?
Anyway, we're told that both Corin and Keely are dreading going inside: Corin because he'll see Aileen and Keely because she'll have to talk about her pregnancy.
Sean notes that the palace is grander than Kilore, which is more of a fortress. Keely just thinks it's home and she can't judge it by any other.
Which is pretty dumb when you think about it. Keely's been betrothed since birth with the intention that she go and be queen of Erinn one day and no one ever bothered to take her to visit her eventual kingdom???
Keely points out to a nervous Corin that Aileen might not be there, since Brennan took her to Joyenne. And I'm vaguely surprised this didn't come up at any point in their journey, but I suppose Keely's got more vital things in mind. Sean seems startled though, which is interesting.
Corin just dismisses it. It's been two years and there's a child now. He'd be a fool to expect her to feel the same. Keely points out that Corin does. Does he? Corin just says he's not married to someone else.
Sean offers to help Keely down, which offends her, but he just says he doesn't doubt she'd do well in leggings, but she's wearing skirts, which are cumbersome.
Deirdre appears now, and this is sweet:
She was laughing and crying and speaking unintelligible Erinnish mixed with Homanan as I mounted the steps, nearly tripping over my skirts, and then caught me in a hug that told me, with an eloquence unmatched by words, how very much she had missed me. How very much she cared.
I am not one for hugging women, or even men, preferring to keep deeper emotions private. But Deirdre was Deirdre, jehana in everything but name, and I loved her. More deeply than I had believed I could love anyone, save jehan and Corin.
This is something I wish the books had touched on a little more. Because Deirdre isn't their birth mother, sure, but she was there since Corin and Keely were babies, Brennan and Hart were toddlers. She's been their mother for their entire lives basically. I'm glad to see that acknowledged now.
Deirdre's crying happily. They'd figured out it was a trap when none of the lir could find her. They searched north instead of south, which makes some sense since the boys had been captured in Valgaard. Niall and "the others" are still searching.
Deirdre then notices Corin and Sean, who she mistakes a moment for Liam. It's fair to note that Deirdre had last seen Sean at four years old. He's maybe twenty-six now. And, per Deirdre, looks a LOT like his father.
Keely makes a swift exit to go to her chambers, changing into Cheysuli leathers. Her belt is too small. We're told that, of course, Keely is long waisted and narrow-hipped, and carries no excess flesh, so the pregnancy is more obvious.
It's irrational to be annoyed, but I feel like the story would have worked as well if Keely had been a bigger woman, inheriting her father's size.
Anyway, there's someone at the door: Maeve. Please, Keely, don't be mean to your sister. Maybe you could even realize that you and she kind of have a lot in common at this point?
Maeve chides her for seeing to her clothes before greeting Ilsa and Maeve when they're so worried about her.
Sighing, I glanced up to tell Maeve I had not even thought she might be present—she had been gone when I left—but I stopped in midsentence. Stopped dead, open-mouthed, and stared.
Gods. I had forgotten. Forgotten her child entirely, in the knowledge of my own.
She smoothed a hand across her belly, so much larger than my own. "Two months left," she answered, seeing the question in my eyes.
That would have been a bitchy thing to say, Keely. She's your sister. Where would she even be?
But this is interesting.
So Maeve decided to keep her child:
Aye. Teirnan knows nothing of it; the child shall be mine, not his." She smiled. "I will make certain it is a loyal, steadfast Cheysuli, untouched by its father's folly."
I felt so odd, so distant. "You said once that the seed was sown, but the harvest not begun . .. and asked if you should make the child proxy for Teirnan's sins."
Keely, Maeve's choices aren't about you. Just like Aileen's aren't.
But this is an interesting exchange. Keely resents the note of reprimand in Maeve's voice, since Maeve often played the wiser older sister apparently. (It might have been nice to see THAT element of their relationship before.) And then we get this:
I stared at the belt. "I had to cut a new hole."
Maeve laughed once, in disbelief. "Keely, are you mad? Do you think the fit of your clothing—" And she cut it off. Instantly. The silence was absolute.
I set down the belt, the knife, and placed my hands over my belly. When I looked up at her I saw comprehension in her eyes, and, oddly, tears. "I have less courage than you," I told her. "I cannot bear this child."
Maeve swallowed heavily. After a moment she came to the bed and sat down next to me very close, but making no effort to touch me, to soothe me, to offer meaningless comfort. I knew better than to expect it; she knew better than to try.
Poor Maeve's never gotten a point of view chapter in any of these books. The most we have been able to glean from her personality was in Brennan's initial chapters and the beginning of this book. Brennan likes her. Keely doesn't.
She asks how long has Keely known. Keely admits, four months. Maeve protests Keely's decision, but to her credit, it's not about choice or the child. She just thinks it's too late: there's too much risk attached.
Of course, this leads to an argument. And I appreciate that while I think Maeve is in the wrong here, she's speaking out of concern for Keely's well-being. She insists that a child of Keely's could never be like Strahan. And that Keely's death would bring them down as much as bearing any child of Strahan would.
Ugh, prophecy and dynasty concerns follow. I appreciate that the characters care about this, even if I don't. Maeve points out that Aidan's still unhealthy (but still alive and with Aileen in Joyenne), and that if he dies, and Keely dies, they're all lost.
Keely asserts that they don't know if Sean would have her. I mean, we've met Sean, Keely. He basically spent the last two chapters saying outright that he still wants to marry you. But this is an emotional time.
I actually really like this exchange. Keely's earned the right to be selfish here. It's her body and her trauma. But Maeve isn't that asshole apothecary. She's not being judgmental. She just doesn't want her sister to die.
And well, they do have history.
I like this part:
Maeve, I have to—"
"No," she said bitterly. "No. You will do it because you want to; 'tis how you live, Keely. 'Tis how you have always lived, so certain of your path." She drew in an unsteady breath. "I have hated you, and loved you . . . with neither winning the throw. But always, always I have envied you: your freedom, your strength, your courage." Her green eyes were bright with tears of anger. "But now, seeing this, knowing what you will do, all I feel is pity. Later, perhaps, I will grieve, when we put you in the ground."
It occurs to me that this book probably would have been much stronger to me if it were about BOTH sisters. If nothing else, we could probably have avoided the weird repetitiveness in the first part if some of that page time had been devoted to Maeve instead. We've seen how much Keely envies Maeve, and this is the first time we've really got to see Maeve express her side.
Keely decides to be honest about her fears and I kind of wish Roberson didn't have her do this because as usual, it makes no sense.
"She is mad," I said flatly. "She has been mad since her birth, they tell us, even jehan, who wed her. Mad Gisella, they call her, speaking in whispers of her behavior, of the bizarre things she has said. Of the treachery she has done." I drew in a painful breath, trying to keep my tone uninflected. "She meant to give her children—her sons—to Strahan. To serve Asar-Suti. There is no sanity in her . . . should I risk a mad child as well?"
She's worried about the blood of a madwoman mixed with the blood of Strahan. Except that Gisella's condition is a result of physical injury and manipulation and abuse from birth. There are FOUR children of Gisella, NONE of whom have any sign of mental impairment.
And we've never seen this fear from Keely before, so this really does feel like an asspull. Which is bizarre because Keely's position was perfectly understandable without this.
But this turns into some kind of motive dissection, and now I'm a bit offended:
"Oh, gods," she said softly, " 'tis this, isn't it? The reason you've never wanted a child . . . the answer to all the questions . . ." She pressed hands against her cheeks. "All these years, Keely . . . this? This? This is why!"
"She is mad," I said again.
"Keely—"
"How can you know?" I asked. "How can you even suggest you understand? Your mother is sane. There is nothing for you to fear." I could not stop the shaking. "You know what madness means to the Cheysuli ... to a lirless warrior ... he must leave, Maeve! He sacrifices clan, kin, life ... do you think I could live with that? Knowing that my child, in addition to being an Ihlini halfling, might also be mad—" I closed my mouth with both hands, then spoke through them. "Madness is anathema to anyone of the clans. You know that. You know that—"
So Keely isn't averse to children because she just doesn't want them. She's not afraid of marriage or childbirth because she doesn't want to lose her freedom or be forced into a loveless relationship and treated like a walking womb.
Nope, it's all because she has mommy issues.
What the fuck, Roberson??
I might not have LIKED Keely, mostly because I think she's awful to her sister and brother, but I've never had any trouble understanding her issues here. You didn't need to provide this half-assed eleventh hour "explanation" attributing her desire to be childfree and not forced into marriage to ableism and a rejection of her mom.
Maeve is frustrated, saying she should go to Deirdre (and it's interesting that, like the others, she doesn't call Deirdre mother), but Keely orders her to tell her nothing.
Maeve admits that when she came back from Clankeep, she'd expected Niall to know about her own child. But Keely hadn't told, leaving it to Maeve to decide:
Impatiently she scrubbed tears away. "And for that, I give you my silence, much as I hate myself for it. But it is the last debt I will owe you*; we are quit of anything else, regardless of our blood."
...this makes me wish I read the book of these sisters that Roberson thinks she's writing, because this is a weighty statement and we've seen nothing in their interaction that really seems to warrant this. We've never had any talk of debt before either.
If anything, the most substantial sibling relationship has been Keely and Brennan. Maeve just shows up to get shit on and insulted and leave again.
When Maeve leaves, Keely picks up her knife, meaning to finish cutting a new hole in her belt. But then decides not to, since once the child is gone, the belt will fit again.
The chapter ends here.
....
Date: 2025-02-21 06:50 pm (UTC)If it's just Keely thinking this in a society that has no idea about genetics, then woeful ignorance is one thing, and I do understand why that would scare the daylights outta her. If it's Roberson, though, she needs a few Gibbs Slaps. This is why research is important even if you can't use it in your work, folks.
= Multi-Facets.
Re: ....
Date: 2025-02-21 06:55 pm (UTC)I think there's also a trace of hereditary fear in Pride of Princes, as well, particularly in Brennan's reaction to his own claustrophobia. But it's subtler there than here.
Mostly I'm annoyed that this is being offered as an eleventh hour explanation for Keely's already perfectly understandable fear.