A Cast of Corbies - Chapter Three

[kalinara]

So last time, we had a pretty interesting set up, a dilemma that doesn't completely make sense but is at least challenging, and a female lead who is both racist and bizarrely possessive over a man she's just met.

And look, I always take my recollection of female characters with a grain of salt. As a teenager, I was, sadly, one of those girls (or girl-adjacent folk) who tended to not care for female characters for really stupid, internally misogynistic reasons. And if there's one thing this blog has helped me do is appreciate many of those female characters that I didn't care for back then.

I'm HOPING that'll be the case with Magpie, because the more I read, the more I'm starting to remember really disliking her. She's definitely not had a good start though.



So one notable thing I hadn't mentioned is that each chapter has a bird related title. This one is "hunting." I'm assuming that's more of a Sherman quirk than a Lackey quirk, but I don't really remember.

What is notable is that our viewpoint character this time is Jaysen. Apparently, he has a plan to help everyone deal with the whole problem of the royal edicts. He's got some bardic anxiety thoguh:

What if they laugh at me? Or just refuse to listen to anything I say? Nonsense. They’d listen. If only he had the nerve to be honest. But at first, looking around at all the others gathered beside the great tent that they all used as a place to sleep and leave their belongings, Jaysen couldn’t find a single thing to say.

Don’t be an idiot, he told himself sharply. Pretend-it’s just another role; you can play it.

So it's another meeting. Apparently, Raven's been asking for suggestions for some time and no one has an answer. None of them have any idea what they're going to do or how they'll make a living. No one floats the idea of going to Birnam, which seems odd. There aren't THAT many bards here after all. And there are other kingdoms beside. But to be fair, people need money and supplies to move so I guess it's not a practical solution.

Jaysen finally speaks up and...hold on...

“I’m not a Free Bard. Not officially.”

To Jaysen s utter confusion, Raven broke into laughter. “We knew that, boy,” he said, not unkindly, his one good eye twinkling a little.

Jaysen gaped at him. “How… ?”

Raven shook his head, chidingly. “Tour name, Jaysen! Did you really think all of us had been born with the names of birds? Did you think it all one big coincidence?”

For some reason, this whole "officially" a Free Bard thing gives me pause. Talaysen had basically presented the group as kind of a loose collection of musicians who are basically in as long as they perform to a sufficent level and want to be.

The bird name thing is primarily a Roma thing that the Free Bards adopted for convenience, but plenty of the Free Bards stick to using their birthnames too. Talaysen and Rune barely ever used Wren and Lark. Gwyna went about half and half with hers. Kestrel (as evidenced by me calling him Kestrel here) DID primarily use his bird name, but part of that is because Jonny was an alias and Sional wasn't a name he initially knew about or wanted to use publically.

We also saw how both Rune and Kestrel got their names and it was a very informal process. So the fact that Jaysen doesn't have a bird name doesn't seem to mean much. Though I do kind of like Jaysen's backstory being "a dude who just kept showing up until he was in."

We do get an explanation which is much the same as what I've said:

Raven’s smile showed Jaysen that the Bard was not in the least deceived. “It’s simple enough,” he said, with just a hint of condescension. “We [Roma] don’t particularly like folks playing high and wild with our true names, so we take public-use ones instead.”

“And the Free Bards have picked up the custom as well,” Heron added. “Bird names fit musicians nicely, don’t they?” He gave a sudden sly grin. “Besides, bird names make it harder for the Guild-and the Church-to keep track of all of us and who we really are!”

Raven does reassure the kid that they're not making fun and that with his talent, he's got every right to be there. Jaysen is reassured. He also has a backstory and proposal.

He's a Kingsford native, who now hasn't been able to perform since the law against street-busking. NOW he's been performing with Duke Arden's troupe of players.

So now I'm really wondering exactly how many Free Bards there are. Because if their number is small enough to become ONE group of players, then why the hell CAN'T they go to Birnam and be a group of entertainers there?

Anyway, he's asked about money. They can't put out hats, and the salary isn't as high as they might get in a good year of busking, but it's steady and comfortable.

Raven, rather understandably, isn't really on board with the idea of turning into a "nice, tame, settled player". This stings Jaysen. But it's worth noting that Raven is ROMA. And a) the Roma culture we've seen in this series is nomadic in general. And b) Roma tend to be subjected to a lot of racism when they do stay in one place.

That doesn't mean that it's not a good solution for some of the others, mind. But reading this scene, I feel like I'm supposed to see Raven as being irrational here.

Jaysen does have some good general arguments though: as members of a noble household, they'll be subject to the liege lord only. Even if they were caught stealing something, they couldn't be arrested, they'd just get taken to the Duke.

Magpie actually does answer a complaint of mine here though, pointing out that the Duke can't afford to hire every non-Guild musician in the land. So okay, we're not dealing with EVERY Free Bard here, which would make their numbers ridiculously low. Owl thinks though that they might be able to lean on country gentry for help.

Though...

“Maybe they can’t afford supporting whole companies-but they can afford to lend their names and-and the protection of their rank to anyone, Free Bards, maybe, or all non-Guild musicians, who want to form their own small theater companies.”

...I'm not sure how well this fits with the crisis established in this book. The whole thing with Free Bards vs. Guild is that the Free Bards would do the common music while the Guild Bards had patronage. If the Guild suddenly has enough musicians to do these dance halls in every town, why aren't they already in country manors and the like?

But the idea of banding together rather than subsisting as solo performers is probably a good one. And Raven's on board too, pointing out that those who don't want to be tethered to one place won't have to. The little troupes could travel with faires or perform in cities with deals with innkeepers.

...I'm still not sure this actually makes sense as a solution. Because that's what the Bards were doing anyway, individually. But there might be strength in numbers. And I'm being repetitive.

I don't mind if a plot is a bit nonsensical if I like the characters and I like most of these characters. They've got a rough game plan, and they're going to hold a bigger meeting, not just for Free Bards at the Faire, but every non-Guild musician at the Faire.

And there does seem to be a lot of them:

By the next night more Free Bards, minstrels, street magicians, and other entertainers than Jaysen had ever seen together were crowded into the dancing area behind the Faire. And of course, each and every one of those independent creative (or not-so-creative) souls had his or her own opinion, and was determined to express it. At last Jaysen saw Raven leap up onto the makeshift stage, arms upraised dramatically.

Raven acknowledges that not everyone is happy with the solution Jaysen proposed, but they don't have any others. He has Jaysen explain one more time. There's a lot of speculation on why the King has ruled against the performers - they believe the Guild bought him. But that's tangential.

Once the meeting is over, Jaysen calls to Raven, Magpie and Crow with a further proposal. Apparently the Duke's Company is looking for musicians. He'd like them to audition.

Raven is reluctant. Magpie is focused in a way I'd probably approve of if I wasn't predisposed to dislike her:

“A job!” Jay said, surprised that she should even ask. But Magpie shook her head firmly. “Not enough. Will we be provided living quarters?”

Living quarters? Why should they - Oh, of course. Whenever they played at inns, it was always part of the deal to get meals and a place to sleep. “Uh, no. The usual thing is—”

Magpie interrupted him, her frown deepening. “What about food? Will we be expected to find our own, or is the Company going to take care of that?”

These are fair questions, but why don't you ask the guy in charge? Jaysen just brought up that there are some positions open that he'd see go to friends.

Raven is bemused and wondering, noting that Magpie's clearly had to do some organizing for players before. And Magpie nods curtly, saying she was born in a theater troupe and basically ran it from the age of ten.

...Really Sherman and Lackey? I do get what you're trying to do with her backstory. She's had it rough with no parental support and that's the excuse for her abrasiveness. But ten is a little much. Where would she have learned the skills? And who deals with a ten year old outright?

(It'd make more sense to have a business minded mentor having been in charge and have Magpie work with them at ten, and then they died leaving it up to her. You'd still get the gist, but it'd be a bit less cartoonish. But I digress.)

We do get the gist of how Magpie's backstory will be treated:

That couldn’t have been an easy life for anyone, let alone for a woman who’s both pretty and competent. A bit more sympathetic, he waited for her next storm of questions.

I don't mind this really, but I think it's interesting that, so far, we've had no comparable empathy for the male lead or any speculation on how growing up non-white in this pseudo-medieval society would be difficult. I hate to compare it to Robin and the Kestrel, but there, I think Lackey was pretty good at illustrating that both characters had their issues.

I'm probably jumping the gun a bit because we're only in Chapter Three, and Magpie's personality probably does need some context for us to tolerate it. But given Magpie's pretty awful racism last chapter, I feel a little hypersensitive toward the issue.

Magpie has a pretty good question here:

‘What about other matters?” Magpie cut in, and Jaysen saw the faintest flicker of alarm in the keen brown eyes. “Will we have ….other duties to the Duke? Besides the musical ones, I mean?”

What on earth could she mean? Surely she didn’t think they’d be working as servants?

The Duke’s servants trained for years for their positions, and all but the lowest were fiercely contended over. “I don’t understand—”

“I do,” Raven said quietly. “Jaysen, I’m sure your Duke is a man of honor, as you’ve said. But some of these ventures are often little more than a way for a noble to maintain a kind of private bordello. I don’t sell anything more than my music, thank you, and I’m sure Magpie and Crow feel the same way.”

So this is a point worth noting. We've seen it brought up in Rune's book: sex workers and the like acting as musicians to avoid fees is a particular Alanda issue. But it's also fair to note that in many real world cultures, traveling performers had at least a stereotype of being sex workers too.

Anyway, Jaysen defends the Duke as a man of honor. They seem on board, but bizarrely, Magpie gets offended by the idea that they must audition. They're Free Bards, not amateurs. Um, lady, the Duke and company don't KNOW you. She backs down when he points that out, admittedly.

But oh, hey, lovely.

Raven and Crow both dislike the idea of settling down and living behind walls. And we get this:

[Roma], Jaysen thought with just a little touch of disgust. I offer them a position on a platter, and all they’re worried about is that they won’t he slogging their way across country in autumn downpours and winter blizzards.

WOW.

Okay, I've got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it's probably realistic that our viewpoint white characters slip into anti-Roma racism sometimes. We all have a lot of ingrained cultural racism that we have to unlearn. But I feel like it's a lot more overt in this book. Maybe it's because when Rune had her moments of racism (I'm thinking specifically about her leeriness of raising children in a Roma caravan), Talaysen was right there to explain how the stereotype was false.

Here, twice in a row, we have what are supposed to be likable characters just spout off something ignorant and it goes unchallenged.

You think you're sparing Raven and Crow from slogging their way through the country??? They're a nomadic culture! They know how to deal with these things! They have waypoints and caravans and other resources. Heck, you could make the argument that they don't NEED to deal with the problems of the Free Bards. They can just go home and be musicians among their own people.

Jaysen's got a good approach...kinda...

“You’re missing the point. It isn’t as though you’d be prisoners. You’d be free to come and go as you want. Besides,” he added in a sudden flash of inspiration, “if you join the Duke’s Company, you might be able to help all the Free Bards.”

Raven tensed. “Hows that?”

Oh, heavens, he’d better make this sound good! Raven was taking his responsibility as the Free Bard “leader” a lot more seriously than he let on.

“Well, uh, the Company is in and out of the Ducal Palace a lot. If you join, we might, the four of us, be able to find out just what’s going on in royal circles, about the King’s edict against busking, I mean. Once we know the truth, there might be some way for us to get the edict reversed.”

I'd like it better if Jaysen wasn't pulling it out of his ass. Also why does he care that much if Raven and Crow stay?


Raven points out that there's a lot of "mights" but Magpie wants him to give Jaysen a chance. So Raven ends up reluctantly agreeing.

We shift the scene to Raven, who is brooding about how the responsibility of the Free Bards is weighing on him. He thinks about how, if he'd been on his own, he'd just leave the kingdom of Rayden and go to more appreciative places. But he's not on his own, and the Free Bards can't all up and leave.

The whole plan for noble patronage seems to be going well. The nobles love the idea of giving their names to new companies, seeing it as a way to get their names in front of people without boasting.

Actually, to be fair, it isn't JUST vanity. Some of the country nobles seem to be genuinely enjoying the thought of getting around the new royal edicts. Raven speculates that there may have been too many laws passed in one time, and ones that affected nobility as well as commonfolk.

I don't think this really gets addressed here, but likely it's the thread that will come back in Eagle and the Nightingales or Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I haven't read either though, so I'm just guessing.

The chapter ends with this moment...

Raven shrugged. “Jaysen was right, and so was Owl. It looks as if it’s all going to work out.”

Jaysen and Magpie exchanged an amused glance, and he suppressed the urge to growl at them.

“Why are we all standing about?” he asked instead, loudly. “We have some performing to do before the Faire comes to an end. And after that, why, we have an audition to perform.”

“Quite,” Magpie drawled, with undisguised mockery. And all he could do was give her a glare he hoped she’d never forget, and turn on his heel, to lead the way back to their dancing ground.

Glad she couldn’t see his flush from behind.

Yeah, I love the way no one attempts to consider why the Roma members of the group might not be comfortable with this set up. And I definitely enjoy the "undisguised mockery" and embarrassment between these two characters. I'm totally digging them as a potential pairing indeed. (Spoiler: I do not dig them at all!)