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i_read_what2019-11-17 05:47 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2019-11-17 05:47 pm
Shapechangers - Book Two - Chapter Three
Okay, so last time on Shapechangers, Alix got to dress pretty and shout down a genocidal king who somehow forgot he was genocidal long enough for her to get the last word. She then went off with her kidnapper to learn more about her mysterious powers.
So we start with Duncan taking her through "the shadows of tall buildings" to the horses. He pulls a dark hooded cloak from his saddlepack and drapes it around her, noting that she's wearing fine clothing and jewels, and thieves might "think it a simple matter to slay me and steal your wealth. or even you."
...Like Finn did?
Also, is it normal to have tall buildings just outside of the gates of a city? I feel like that would make for a fairly easy way to get past said gates, but I admittedly know very little about European architecture.
Also how did that cloak fit in his saddlepack? And how did he know to bring it? And where does he get the "large topaz brooch carved into a hawk shape and set in gold" that he uses to fasten it.
Where DO the Cheysuli get lir gold when they're on the run? Do they trade for it? Is Duncan wearing something that was stripped from the corpse of a fallen warrior? This sort of detail could really reinforce the horror of the qu'mahlin, while emphasizing how important these customs are to the Cheysuli, that they're willing to go so far to follow them. Maybe we'll find out.
So anyway, in contrast to the confidence she showed last chapter, Alix is now feeling very anxious about everything:
"Duncan," she said softly, trembling even at his lightest touch.
"Aye, small one?"
"What is this thing? What is this within me?" She swallowed and tried to hide the hesitation in her voice. "I have lost myself, somehow."
He smoothed back a strand of dark hair from her cheekbone, fingertips lingering. "You have lost nothing, save a measure of your innocence. In time, you will understand it all. It is not my place to tell you. You will know." He removed his hand.
1. Like F'nor and Brekke, it really grosses me out that he calls her "small one". An age difference isn't insurmountable, especially in fantasy. But I'd really prefer our thirty year old male lead stop drawing attention to the fact that he's the love interest of a seventeen year old girl.
2. Here's a point where my rational reaction and my emotional reaction are at war. Rationally I appreciate that even though Alix had expressed feeling powerful and wanting to understand that power last chapter, she still could still have doubts and be uncertain about everything. That's perfectly natural. But the emotional part of me is thinking about that whole: "I want to go to see Shaine"/"No that's a bad idea." -> "Wait, I don't want to see Shaine."/"Too bad, now I think you have to for undefined reasons" bullshit and fuck it, I'm not going to give Roberson any pass for inconsistency anymore.
3. I could like Duncan more if he wasn't such a patronizing dick.
So anyway, Duncan lifts her into the saddle, and mounts his own horse, and they ride away. It occurs to me to wonder how Alix knows how to ride in this clothing. Also, she's wearing a gown. Is it hiked up so she can ride astride? Did she cut into it? Is it a side saddle?
Why am I even thinking about this? I know I won't get a satisfactory answer.
We're told that Alix was "well aware of what she did, though days before she would never have admitted she could act so strangely. But something within her told her she would be safe with him and that it was the will of the gods she go with him."
I find this intriguing, because this implies that Alix did and could act strangely, just refused to admit it to herself. I wonder what she did. It's possible I'm grasping at any kind of straws that would allow Alix to be remotely interesting.
I also find it aggravating though because a) those sentences fit together about as well as Roberson's dialogue in this book and b) "will of the gods" is a convenient way to excuse/explain a complete character 180.
Alix asks about Duncan's line last chapter that I don't think made it into my review: namely that they'd lost two men to Carillon's rescue, one to death and one to "the soulless men". She wants to know what that means.
...we know what that means. We heard this explanation before, Alix. It means the dude lost his lir. Please keep up. The dude, named Borrs, is seeking the death ritual in the forests.
Alix is all "and you let him go?" which is, I suppose, a realistic reaction, since she might have understood the concept in theory, but now it's someone she'd met. Sort of. Not that there was any actual interaction between Alix and anyone who wasn't Finn or Duncan. It's honestly a missed opportunity. Let's say, rather than one of the fifteen repeated conversations, we had a scene where Borrs came and brought Alix and Carillon food. He could have been kind to a lost Cheysuli girl, or maybe he could have been resentful for the role Alix played (unintentionally) in the qu'mahlin. Either way, being able to put a voice to a Cheysuli man who doesn't have any designs on Alix (we'll later see that Borrs had a lady back at the Keep) would have done a lot to humanize the Cheysuli as a whole. It would have also really underscored the tragedy of lir loss, since whether he was friendly or hostile, he would have been a real person to Alix. It would have been much harder for her to comprehend the man suddenly deciding to take his life.
It makes me wonder what the other Cheysuli warriors think about this. Especially the dude who loses his lir because the clan chief's brother got horny. Is there any resentment? I'd be resentful. And what did they think of Alix's constant running away into the forest because no one bothered to guard her?
I'd like to think that most of the Cheysuli are actually not gross rapists, and think this is all the same amount of bullshit that I do.
So Alix asks where Duncan's taking her and what will happen. He's taking her to the keep, to meet the shar tahl and learn what it means to be Cheysuli. She asks if he's so certain his clan will accept her, and that's a fair question. And in a better book, it would actually matter that while Alix is Cheysuli, she's also Homanan, and while it's not HER fault, her birth did come as a result of the affair that started the qu'mahlin. That's not even getting into her close relationship with the Mujhar's heir, and how kidnapping her and releasing him led to a raid that killed two Cheysuli and arguably could have put the safety of the Keep at risk (if Carillon had caught up with them later.)
There are a lot of reasons for Alix to doubt her reception, and Duncan's cryptic reassurance that they must accept her as he has little doubt of her place in the prophecy is not really comforting.
Alix reacts aghast, "Mine!"
...yes, Alix. Remember that Tahlmorra thing? This was talked about, obliquely, too. And again Duncan tells her the shar tahl will explain it. I'm starting to wonder if Alix doesn't have some kind of short term memory disorder, it might explain this bullshit repetition. At least the Shaine chapter wasn't repetitive.
Anyway, Alix, rather understandably loses it, and demands to know what's waiting for her. I respect that, but the next part is just...ugh:
He reined in his horse and allowed her to catch up. Faint Illumination showed his face clearly to her, limning rigid determination. His mouth was a taut line.
"Must you know all before its time?" he asked harshly. "Can you not wait?"
She glared at him. "No."
His eyes, beastial in the torchlight, narrowed into pale slits.
"Then I will speak plainly, so plainly even you may understand."
She nodded.
"What I have seen in my own tahlmorra is that the old gods intended you and I for one another. From us will come the next link in the prophecy of the Firstborn. You are Cheysuli. You have no choice."
He was a stranger suddenly. The gentleness he had used before fled beneath the hardness of his voice and words and Alix nearly quailed from it Then the full meaning and implications of what he bad said flared within her mind.
"You and I. . ."
"If you would feel your own tahlmorra, you would see it as clearly as I."
1. Pretty sure beastial is a misspelling. The word is "bestial", meaning having the quality of beasts. I don't blame Roberson for this one. Was her editor asleep?
2. God, I hate Duncan so much. "You are Cheysuli. You have no choice." Knee him in the fucking balls, Alix.
3. That said, didn't he pretty much say this earlier? Or at least imply it? There's nothing here Alix didn't already know. She and Duncan are supposed to bang. They even kissed last chapter. She really does have the memory of a goldfish.
Alix tries to assert herself here, saying that ten days ago, she was a valley girl tending animals, and now he's telling her that she must accept the will of this "crooked prophecy" and serve it. She refuses.
Duncan just tells her she cannot. And I really want her to knee him in the balls. But seriously, he gives no argument for why she should cooperate. He just says she can't refuse.
Alix rants that she's been cast from her grandsire's palace, threatened with imprisonment and death (...whose fault was that again?) and that even Torrin told her she has to follow this tahlmorra. To be fair, I'm not sure Torrin knew that meant setting her up to be possibly raped by a thirty year old and turned into a broodmare.
Duncan sighed. "Have you not yet learned all men are no more than empty vessels for the gods? Cheysula, do not rail so at your fate. It is not so bad."
Easy for you to say, Duncan. As far as you know, your fate involves being clan chief and having a beautiful young wife. HER fate involves banging her kidnapper and having a child. Neither of which she wants.
Alix demands to know what he called her. Duncan tells her that he has some honor. He'll accede to his tahlmorra and honor her rights as well as Homanan customs. He will renounce his vow of solitude and marry her.
Wow, What. A. Saint.
Alix balks, and declares that when she becomes a wife it will be when she wishes it, and it will be to a man she can "be at ease with". He scares her with his "shadowed soul and mutterings of prophecy" and she wants him to leave her alone.
Brava, Alix. I'm shocked to say this but #TeamAlix.
Duncan of course takes this maturely:
He pressed his horse closer and caught her arm. Alix struggled against him as he pulled her effortlessly out of her saddle and sat her upright against his chest. In one terrifying instant she saw the echo of his brother in him, and all of Finn's fierce determination.
"Duncan—no!"
"You have asked for it!" he snapped, settling her across his lap.
Cai, drifting down from me rooftops, circled over them. You should not. lir.
Alix, trapped within me hard circle of Duncan's arm and fearful of his intentions, saw the conflict in his face. His hand was on her jaw, imprisoning it, but he made no further move against her. She waited stiffly, not breathing; afraid even to move.
Abruptly he kneed his horse to hers again and deposited her roughly into her own saddle. Alix grabbed at the reins and pommel, fighting to stay upright. When she cast an anxious glance over her cloaked shoulder she saw him visibly constrain the force of his emotion. Then his face was a mask to her.
I. Hate. This. Book.
How exactly is Duncan better than Finn, again? Because near as I can see, he's just less honest about his intentions. He still intends to force himself on her, he's just going to "marry her" against her will first. He still reacts with violence when she says no. He literally pulled her off her horse! To do what?!
Also from a comprehension standpoint, how does that even work?! I can buy that he is strong enough and they were riding close enough together that he could lift a small woman into his arms. But how the fuck does he get her back onto her own horse?! Especially given that she's wearing both a heavy cloak and a gown?!
So Duncan "stiffly" accuses her of having the lir at her bidding, referencing Storr stopping Finn from raping her, and Cai stopping him now.
Duncan actually uses the phrase "forcing you" but just in case we thought he was under a delusion about his brother, we get confirmation that he knew damn well. God damnit. I wanted to like Duncan. When I found out Finn was far worse than the later books implied, I thought "well, at least Duncan's probably okay." And nope. I was wrong.
Then Duncan says this:
"Duncan's face twisted. "I think the gods laughed when they determined we should serve the prophecy together. It will be no simple task "
It will be rape, you fucking monster. When Alix says that it will be no task at all, he starts swearing in the Old Tongue, and his savagery scares Alix, and I've never missed Dragonflight so much in my whole damn life. Because at least that grotesque relationship had some level of mutual respect. This is bullshit.
Suddenly, Cai calls a warning: three men appear and drag him off his horse. Alix's anger disappears of course, "replaced by stark fear for his life." No, Alix. You're annoying, but you can do better.
Cai falls out of the sky, while Alix starts losing control of her horse. We get a rare moment of realism, where the narrative notes that Alix has little knowledge of horses and has only ever ridden with other people. The horse bolts before she can be sure that Duncan's safe.
She manages to stay on the horse for some time, though she loses some of the strands of garnets and pearls in her hair. I'm not exactly sure HOW she loses them, except that she's now supposed to look artfully disheveled with her loosened braids over her shoulders. Eventually she tumbles off.
Weirdly, we're told again that the jewels in her hair broke, even though that was just told to us two paragraphs ago. (Seriously, Ms. Roberson should fire her editor.) Her girdle is also gone, and her skirts are torn and stained. She pulls herself up and returns to the place where they were attacked. Duncan's missing, as is one of the men. Of the two others, one is severely wounded and the other is dead.
A nearby door opens, and the old man within accuses her instantly of being a Shapechanger Witch. And I'm pretty fucking confused about that. At that moment, she's not with Duncan or anyone else. She's dressed in ruined Homanan finery. She's apparently Homanan-looking enough to live seventeen years with Torrin and have no one suspect. But all of a sudden people can ID her race on sight? Unless this guy just thinks that any woman with messy hair is a Cheysuli. Alix flees before the man can sic his dog on her.
She makes it to a stone well at the intersection of some streets. She manages to get a drink (which "stained the velvet of her fine garments", as though they aren't destroyed already), and a quiet voice interrupts her.
She saw a dark cloak felling to his booted feet. An oddly twisted silver brooch pinned it to his left shoulder, but he had pulled the folds back from a silver sword hilt at his hips. Somehow, though he moved in darkness, he brought the light with him.
His face was smooth, serene. Strength of a sort she had never seen shone from the fine features, and his smile was gently beguiling. His hair and beard were inky dark, carefully trimmed, and flecked with silver. His eyes, black as the horse who followed him, were soothing and sweet.
Enter Tynstar, the villain of the piece. Coincidentally here in this very town. He of the nonsensical name.
He reassures her that he's seeking water for his horse, "not some light woman for the evening". Which is somehow a really creepy reassurance. Credit where it's due, this guy oozes sleaze. Alix "feels the insult keenly", hey fuck you, Alix. He didn't say you were a sex worker (which shouldn't be an insult anyway, but it's realistic she'd see it as one), he just said he wasn't interested in one.
She attempts to be defiant, but somehow when their eyes meet, it melts away, and she gestures weakly at the well.
We're told he "watched her in a manner almost paternal" Ew. Anyway, he asks her if she's hurt, and she says she's well enough. When he presses, she says they were set upon by thieves. He notes the "we" and she clarifies that the man she rode with stayed to fight. She doesn't know if he's alive.
And we get more creepiness when he says "gently", "With such words you place yourself in my hands." So gross. Alix thinks so too, but she's mostly too tired and hurt to care. She asks what he'll do with her, and he says he'll give her aid. he tells her to come into the light and look upon him.
So. Creepy. Honestly, well done. Roberson's talent for atmosphere really shines here. There's nothing specifically wrong with how the guy looks or even what he says. But it's very offputting, and that's coming across. And we can tell that Alix kinda-sorta senses it on some level, though she's not processing it fully yet.
It's a frustratingly good scene actually, why can't it all be this good? (Don't worry, it'll go bad soon enough.)
He invites her with him, and she asks if he serves the Mujhar. He tells her he serves the gods, which reassures her but probably shouldn't, given that Duncan believed something similar. She offers him her earrings as payment.
He gracefully declines. When he asks where she wants to go, she says the croft.
I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that the first person to actually ask Alix anything about what she wants is evil.
There's a bit more discussion about whether or not she's truly a croft girl, and then things get a little bit stupid:
Her hand gripped the garnet earring?. "Do you seek to humble me, my lord? There is no need. I know my place."
He moved closer. The light seemed to follow him. His eyes were soft. sweet, like his voice, and deep as the well from which they drank.
"Do you?" he asked softly. "Do you truly know your place?"
Alix frowned at him, baffled by his manner, and lost herself in the dominance of his black eyes.
He lifted his right hand. For a moment she thought he would make the Cheysuli gesture of tahlmorra, but he did not. Instead a hissing line of purple light streaked out of the darkness and pooled in his hand, throwing a violet glare over her face and his.
"So you have learned your legacy," he said quietly. "After all this time. I had thought Lindir's child lost, and of no more account."
Why the fuck is Tynstar showing his hand like this? It would have been really fucking easy to keep quiet and take Alix somewhere farther away before dealing with her. She was too tired to trust her own instincts. Instead, he just gives away the game right here in the open!
Why is everyone in this book a flipping moron?! Why?!
Tynstar tells her that she has more of the prophecy in her than anyone he's ever seen. What? How does that work? It's a fucking prophecy. Does he mean magic power, because, as we know later, he's right about that. Is it just that she has a big role IN the prophecy? I'm not sure that she does, really. I mean, spoiler, she'll get to save a few people in this book, which is nice. But for the most part, her role is similar to that of Duncan: being the parents of Donal.
CARILLON has a bigger role in the prophecy, really. Given that he gets to become king and end the qu'mahlin. (He also gets a longer, better book for his own story than this one.)
She asks what he means, and we get yet another description about his domineering eyes. Literally: "Black eyes narrowed and held dominion over her." This is like the fourth time that's been mentioned. Does Roberson have a kink?
WHERE is her editor?!
Anyway, he wonders if the Cheysuli haven't yet "bound" her to their tahlmorra. She asks his name, and he melodramatically doesn't answer. She asks what manner of man he is, he says again that he serves the gods. When she asks what he wants from her, he says nothing, as long as she remains "unknowing". It's only if she "recognize[s] the tahlmorra within [her]" that he'll be forced to "gainsay" her.
She notes that he isn't Cheysuli, but he speaks of tahlmorra and prophecy and asks what it is to him. He notes that it's his bane. It's the end of him, if the prophecy is fulfilled, and the Cheysuli know it.
Somehow this makes Alix able to identify him as the Ihlini, Tynstar. She asks what he's doing here, and he tells her that's for him to know, but warns her that Bellam is already breaking Shaine's borders and invading, and Homana will fall soon.
He notes also that Shaine was a fool for sentencing the Cheysuli to death, because without them, he can't win. And then the prophecy will fail and he'll be the lord of the land.
Alix cries that it'll be by his unnatural arts, but honestly, we haven't really seen any sign of those arts yet. Just the purple light and his weirdly domineering eyes, which could just mean he's the protagonist of a really bad BDSM erotica.
For some reason Tynstar decides to tell Alix that she has her own unnatural arts, she has only to learn them, but until she does, she's insignificant to him and he'll let her live.
WHAT?! WHY?!
Dude, you said yourself that she has the biggest concentration of prophecy, whatever that bullshit means, that you've ever seen. You know that the Cheysuli intend to teach her about things, but they haven't yet. You TOLD her that she has powers to unlock, implicitly beyond just talking to lir. WHY NOT JUST KILL HER?
Look, I'm not the sort of fan who wants the villain to win. But I don't understand how Alix keeps getting into these situations where a villain really should kill her, but inexplicably does not. It's really fucking annoying.
And kind of stupid, given that Cai flies overhead right at that moment. Given that we've been told how Ihlini powers are cancelled out by the presence of Cheysuli, and vice versa, this would have been a perfect opportunity for Tynstar to try to kill Alix, only to be interrupted by Cai and Duncan.
Tynstar notes that she summoned the lir, though she didn't know it. He draws a rune in the air, which turns into a column of cold fire. When it disappears, he's gone. Damn, Ihlini have much better powers. I want a teleporty rune. And as we'll see in later books, the power isn't gender locked like the Cheysuli are (with Alix as an exception).
Duncan appears, with his horse. He's scraped up but not seriously. Unfortunately, this leads to nonsense:
Alix looked at him. The defiance she had struck him with earlier had faded. Her words then, angry and frightened, had no more meaning. Something whispered in her soul, tapping at her mind, and she began to understand it.
"The horse ran away," she said unsteadily.
His eyes were fixed on her. "I found him. He is lamed, but will recover."
"I am glad he was not badly hurt." She knew the words they said held no meaning. Their communication lay on another level.
Ugh, Alix. Just because you got freaked out by Tynstar, and you're glad Duncan is alive doesn't mean you suddenly have to be okay with this bullshit. He asks her to ride with him, and she agrees. She says that she didn't mean to hurt him.
Oh for fuck's sake. He basically told you he would rape you via marriage and you're worried about hurting him?!
She tells him to hold her so she knows she's real, and he does. She melts against his back, and notes that "the strange weakness was new to her, but she welcomed it"
Just in case, this was too romantic to me, we get this as a closer:
Duncan sank a hand deep in her hair and jerked her head back.
"Do you deny it? Do you deny the tahlmorra in our blood?"
She did not answer. She caught her hands in the thick hair curling at his neck and dragged his mouth down on hers.
I. Hate. This. Book.
So yeah. Now we've met the villain, and I commend Ms. Roberson for her mastery of tone, because it's very obvious that Tynstar is awful, even without him doing anything yet.
That said, there's an interesting question about whether or not he's really the worst in the book so far. I mean, sure, he's helping Bellam invade, but do we know that Bellam is any worse than the guy who ordered the genocidal massacre of an entire race? Even if we read into the aura of sleaze that Roberson's given Tynstar, is he really any worse than the Cheysuli we've met so far?
The answer will be yes to both, eventually, (Ms. Roberson is not a subtle writer) but we haven't gotten there yet.
But there are some interesting questions with regard to the prophecy and its role in this series, even in the better books. As I recall, there's nothing that guarantees that the fulfillment of the prophecy will actually make things better for anyone. A lot of the characters who serve the prophecy are doomed to unhappy lives and worse ends. Tynstar genuinely believes that this will be the destruction of him and his race. Can we really say he's evil?
Well, we can, actually. Because these stories aren't really great about nuance. There's no real risk that we'll sympathize with the Ihlini who are, almost to a man, grotesque rapists and abusers. (For their part, the Cheysuli are only really portrayed as rape-inclined in this book. There may be individual incidents, but rape is definitely not implied or stated to be a cultural thing in later books.) I think that if we encountered enough DECENT characters who dislike the prophecy, we'd start to wonder if maybe we shouldn't be cheering for the "good guys" to win here. But that's a rant for another day.
So we start with Duncan taking her through "the shadows of tall buildings" to the horses. He pulls a dark hooded cloak from his saddlepack and drapes it around her, noting that she's wearing fine clothing and jewels, and thieves might "think it a simple matter to slay me and steal your wealth. or even you."
...Like Finn did?
Also, is it normal to have tall buildings just outside of the gates of a city? I feel like that would make for a fairly easy way to get past said gates, but I admittedly know very little about European architecture.
Also how did that cloak fit in his saddlepack? And how did he know to bring it? And where does he get the "large topaz brooch carved into a hawk shape and set in gold" that he uses to fasten it.
Where DO the Cheysuli get lir gold when they're on the run? Do they trade for it? Is Duncan wearing something that was stripped from the corpse of a fallen warrior? This sort of detail could really reinforce the horror of the qu'mahlin, while emphasizing how important these customs are to the Cheysuli, that they're willing to go so far to follow them. Maybe we'll find out.
So anyway, in contrast to the confidence she showed last chapter, Alix is now feeling very anxious about everything:
"Duncan," she said softly, trembling even at his lightest touch.
"Aye, small one?"
"What is this thing? What is this within me?" She swallowed and tried to hide the hesitation in her voice. "I have lost myself, somehow."
He smoothed back a strand of dark hair from her cheekbone, fingertips lingering. "You have lost nothing, save a measure of your innocence. In time, you will understand it all. It is not my place to tell you. You will know." He removed his hand.
1. Like F'nor and Brekke, it really grosses me out that he calls her "small one". An age difference isn't insurmountable, especially in fantasy. But I'd really prefer our thirty year old male lead stop drawing attention to the fact that he's the love interest of a seventeen year old girl.
2. Here's a point where my rational reaction and my emotional reaction are at war. Rationally I appreciate that even though Alix had expressed feeling powerful and wanting to understand that power last chapter, she still could still have doubts and be uncertain about everything. That's perfectly natural. But the emotional part of me is thinking about that whole: "I want to go to see Shaine"/"No that's a bad idea." -> "Wait, I don't want to see Shaine."/"Too bad, now I think you have to for undefined reasons" bullshit and fuck it, I'm not going to give Roberson any pass for inconsistency anymore.
3. I could like Duncan more if he wasn't such a patronizing dick.
So anyway, Duncan lifts her into the saddle, and mounts his own horse, and they ride away. It occurs to me to wonder how Alix knows how to ride in this clothing. Also, she's wearing a gown. Is it hiked up so she can ride astride? Did she cut into it? Is it a side saddle?
Why am I even thinking about this? I know I won't get a satisfactory answer.
We're told that Alix was "well aware of what she did, though days before she would never have admitted she could act so strangely. But something within her told her she would be safe with him and that it was the will of the gods she go with him."
I find this intriguing, because this implies that Alix did and could act strangely, just refused to admit it to herself. I wonder what she did. It's possible I'm grasping at any kind of straws that would allow Alix to be remotely interesting.
I also find it aggravating though because a) those sentences fit together about as well as Roberson's dialogue in this book and b) "will of the gods" is a convenient way to excuse/explain a complete character 180.
Alix asks about Duncan's line last chapter that I don't think made it into my review: namely that they'd lost two men to Carillon's rescue, one to death and one to "the soulless men". She wants to know what that means.
...we know what that means. We heard this explanation before, Alix. It means the dude lost his lir. Please keep up. The dude, named Borrs, is seeking the death ritual in the forests.
Alix is all "and you let him go?" which is, I suppose, a realistic reaction, since she might have understood the concept in theory, but now it's someone she'd met. Sort of. Not that there was any actual interaction between Alix and anyone who wasn't Finn or Duncan. It's honestly a missed opportunity. Let's say, rather than one of the fifteen repeated conversations, we had a scene where Borrs came and brought Alix and Carillon food. He could have been kind to a lost Cheysuli girl, or maybe he could have been resentful for the role Alix played (unintentionally) in the qu'mahlin. Either way, being able to put a voice to a Cheysuli man who doesn't have any designs on Alix (we'll later see that Borrs had a lady back at the Keep) would have done a lot to humanize the Cheysuli as a whole. It would have also really underscored the tragedy of lir loss, since whether he was friendly or hostile, he would have been a real person to Alix. It would have been much harder for her to comprehend the man suddenly deciding to take his life.
It makes me wonder what the other Cheysuli warriors think about this. Especially the dude who loses his lir because the clan chief's brother got horny. Is there any resentment? I'd be resentful. And what did they think of Alix's constant running away into the forest because no one bothered to guard her?
I'd like to think that most of the Cheysuli are actually not gross rapists, and think this is all the same amount of bullshit that I do.
So Alix asks where Duncan's taking her and what will happen. He's taking her to the keep, to meet the shar tahl and learn what it means to be Cheysuli. She asks if he's so certain his clan will accept her, and that's a fair question. And in a better book, it would actually matter that while Alix is Cheysuli, she's also Homanan, and while it's not HER fault, her birth did come as a result of the affair that started the qu'mahlin. That's not even getting into her close relationship with the Mujhar's heir, and how kidnapping her and releasing him led to a raid that killed two Cheysuli and arguably could have put the safety of the Keep at risk (if Carillon had caught up with them later.)
There are a lot of reasons for Alix to doubt her reception, and Duncan's cryptic reassurance that they must accept her as he has little doubt of her place in the prophecy is not really comforting.
Alix reacts aghast, "Mine!"
...yes, Alix. Remember that Tahlmorra thing? This was talked about, obliquely, too. And again Duncan tells her the shar tahl will explain it. I'm starting to wonder if Alix doesn't have some kind of short term memory disorder, it might explain this bullshit repetition. At least the Shaine chapter wasn't repetitive.
Anyway, Alix, rather understandably loses it, and demands to know what's waiting for her. I respect that, but the next part is just...ugh:
He reined in his horse and allowed her to catch up. Faint Illumination showed his face clearly to her, limning rigid determination. His mouth was a taut line.
"Must you know all before its time?" he asked harshly. "Can you not wait?"
She glared at him. "No."
His eyes, beastial in the torchlight, narrowed into pale slits.
"Then I will speak plainly, so plainly even you may understand."
She nodded.
"What I have seen in my own tahlmorra is that the old gods intended you and I for one another. From us will come the next link in the prophecy of the Firstborn. You are Cheysuli. You have no choice."
He was a stranger suddenly. The gentleness he had used before fled beneath the hardness of his voice and words and Alix nearly quailed from it Then the full meaning and implications of what he bad said flared within her mind.
"You and I. . ."
"If you would feel your own tahlmorra, you would see it as clearly as I."
1. Pretty sure beastial is a misspelling. The word is "bestial", meaning having the quality of beasts. I don't blame Roberson for this one. Was her editor asleep?
2. God, I hate Duncan so much. "You are Cheysuli. You have no choice." Knee him in the fucking balls, Alix.
3. That said, didn't he pretty much say this earlier? Or at least imply it? There's nothing here Alix didn't already know. She and Duncan are supposed to bang. They even kissed last chapter. She really does have the memory of a goldfish.
Alix tries to assert herself here, saying that ten days ago, she was a valley girl tending animals, and now he's telling her that she must accept the will of this "crooked prophecy" and serve it. She refuses.
Duncan just tells her she cannot. And I really want her to knee him in the balls. But seriously, he gives no argument for why she should cooperate. He just says she can't refuse.
Alix rants that she's been cast from her grandsire's palace, threatened with imprisonment and death (...whose fault was that again?) and that even Torrin told her she has to follow this tahlmorra. To be fair, I'm not sure Torrin knew that meant setting her up to be possibly raped by a thirty year old and turned into a broodmare.
Duncan sighed. "Have you not yet learned all men are no more than empty vessels for the gods? Cheysula, do not rail so at your fate. It is not so bad."
Easy for you to say, Duncan. As far as you know, your fate involves being clan chief and having a beautiful young wife. HER fate involves banging her kidnapper and having a child. Neither of which she wants.
Alix demands to know what he called her. Duncan tells her that he has some honor. He'll accede to his tahlmorra and honor her rights as well as Homanan customs. He will renounce his vow of solitude and marry her.
Wow, What. A. Saint.
Alix balks, and declares that when she becomes a wife it will be when she wishes it, and it will be to a man she can "be at ease with". He scares her with his "shadowed soul and mutterings of prophecy" and she wants him to leave her alone.
Brava, Alix. I'm shocked to say this but #TeamAlix.
Duncan of course takes this maturely:
He pressed his horse closer and caught her arm. Alix struggled against him as he pulled her effortlessly out of her saddle and sat her upright against his chest. In one terrifying instant she saw the echo of his brother in him, and all of Finn's fierce determination.
"Duncan—no!"
"You have asked for it!" he snapped, settling her across his lap.
Cai, drifting down from me rooftops, circled over them. You should not. lir.
Alix, trapped within me hard circle of Duncan's arm and fearful of his intentions, saw the conflict in his face. His hand was on her jaw, imprisoning it, but he made no further move against her. She waited stiffly, not breathing; afraid even to move.
Abruptly he kneed his horse to hers again and deposited her roughly into her own saddle. Alix grabbed at the reins and pommel, fighting to stay upright. When she cast an anxious glance over her cloaked shoulder she saw him visibly constrain the force of his emotion. Then his face was a mask to her.
I. Hate. This. Book.
How exactly is Duncan better than Finn, again? Because near as I can see, he's just less honest about his intentions. He still intends to force himself on her, he's just going to "marry her" against her will first. He still reacts with violence when she says no. He literally pulled her off her horse! To do what?!
Also from a comprehension standpoint, how does that even work?! I can buy that he is strong enough and they were riding close enough together that he could lift a small woman into his arms. But how the fuck does he get her back onto her own horse?! Especially given that she's wearing both a heavy cloak and a gown?!
So Duncan "stiffly" accuses her of having the lir at her bidding, referencing Storr stopping Finn from raping her, and Cai stopping him now.
Duncan actually uses the phrase "forcing you" but just in case we thought he was under a delusion about his brother, we get confirmation that he knew damn well. God damnit. I wanted to like Duncan. When I found out Finn was far worse than the later books implied, I thought "well, at least Duncan's probably okay." And nope. I was wrong.
Then Duncan says this:
"Duncan's face twisted. "I think the gods laughed when they determined we should serve the prophecy together. It will be no simple task "
It will be rape, you fucking monster. When Alix says that it will be no task at all, he starts swearing in the Old Tongue, and his savagery scares Alix, and I've never missed Dragonflight so much in my whole damn life. Because at least that grotesque relationship had some level of mutual respect. This is bullshit.
Suddenly, Cai calls a warning: three men appear and drag him off his horse. Alix's anger disappears of course, "replaced by stark fear for his life." No, Alix. You're annoying, but you can do better.
Cai falls out of the sky, while Alix starts losing control of her horse. We get a rare moment of realism, where the narrative notes that Alix has little knowledge of horses and has only ever ridden with other people. The horse bolts before she can be sure that Duncan's safe.
She manages to stay on the horse for some time, though she loses some of the strands of garnets and pearls in her hair. I'm not exactly sure HOW she loses them, except that she's now supposed to look artfully disheveled with her loosened braids over her shoulders. Eventually she tumbles off.
Weirdly, we're told again that the jewels in her hair broke, even though that was just told to us two paragraphs ago. (Seriously, Ms. Roberson should fire her editor.) Her girdle is also gone, and her skirts are torn and stained. She pulls herself up and returns to the place where they were attacked. Duncan's missing, as is one of the men. Of the two others, one is severely wounded and the other is dead.
A nearby door opens, and the old man within accuses her instantly of being a Shapechanger Witch. And I'm pretty fucking confused about that. At that moment, she's not with Duncan or anyone else. She's dressed in ruined Homanan finery. She's apparently Homanan-looking enough to live seventeen years with Torrin and have no one suspect. But all of a sudden people can ID her race on sight? Unless this guy just thinks that any woman with messy hair is a Cheysuli. Alix flees before the man can sic his dog on her.
She makes it to a stone well at the intersection of some streets. She manages to get a drink (which "stained the velvet of her fine garments", as though they aren't destroyed already), and a quiet voice interrupts her.
She saw a dark cloak felling to his booted feet. An oddly twisted silver brooch pinned it to his left shoulder, but he had pulled the folds back from a silver sword hilt at his hips. Somehow, though he moved in darkness, he brought the light with him.
His face was smooth, serene. Strength of a sort she had never seen shone from the fine features, and his smile was gently beguiling. His hair and beard were inky dark, carefully trimmed, and flecked with silver. His eyes, black as the horse who followed him, were soothing and sweet.
Enter Tynstar, the villain of the piece. Coincidentally here in this very town. He of the nonsensical name.
He reassures her that he's seeking water for his horse, "not some light woman for the evening". Which is somehow a really creepy reassurance. Credit where it's due, this guy oozes sleaze. Alix "feels the insult keenly", hey fuck you, Alix. He didn't say you were a sex worker (which shouldn't be an insult anyway, but it's realistic she'd see it as one), he just said he wasn't interested in one.
She attempts to be defiant, but somehow when their eyes meet, it melts away, and she gestures weakly at the well.
We're told he "watched her in a manner almost paternal" Ew. Anyway, he asks her if she's hurt, and she says she's well enough. When he presses, she says they were set upon by thieves. He notes the "we" and she clarifies that the man she rode with stayed to fight. She doesn't know if he's alive.
And we get more creepiness when he says "gently", "With such words you place yourself in my hands." So gross. Alix thinks so too, but she's mostly too tired and hurt to care. She asks what he'll do with her, and he says he'll give her aid. he tells her to come into the light and look upon him.
So. Creepy. Honestly, well done. Roberson's talent for atmosphere really shines here. There's nothing specifically wrong with how the guy looks or even what he says. But it's very offputting, and that's coming across. And we can tell that Alix kinda-sorta senses it on some level, though she's not processing it fully yet.
It's a frustratingly good scene actually, why can't it all be this good? (Don't worry, it'll go bad soon enough.)
He invites her with him, and she asks if he serves the Mujhar. He tells her he serves the gods, which reassures her but probably shouldn't, given that Duncan believed something similar. She offers him her earrings as payment.
He gracefully declines. When he asks where she wants to go, she says the croft.
I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that the first person to actually ask Alix anything about what she wants is evil.
There's a bit more discussion about whether or not she's truly a croft girl, and then things get a little bit stupid:
Her hand gripped the garnet earring?. "Do you seek to humble me, my lord? There is no need. I know my place."
He moved closer. The light seemed to follow him. His eyes were soft. sweet, like his voice, and deep as the well from which they drank.
"Do you?" he asked softly. "Do you truly know your place?"
Alix frowned at him, baffled by his manner, and lost herself in the dominance of his black eyes.
He lifted his right hand. For a moment she thought he would make the Cheysuli gesture of tahlmorra, but he did not. Instead a hissing line of purple light streaked out of the darkness and pooled in his hand, throwing a violet glare over her face and his.
"So you have learned your legacy," he said quietly. "After all this time. I had thought Lindir's child lost, and of no more account."
Why the fuck is Tynstar showing his hand like this? It would have been really fucking easy to keep quiet and take Alix somewhere farther away before dealing with her. She was too tired to trust her own instincts. Instead, he just gives away the game right here in the open!
Why is everyone in this book a flipping moron?! Why?!
Tynstar tells her that she has more of the prophecy in her than anyone he's ever seen. What? How does that work? It's a fucking prophecy. Does he mean magic power, because, as we know later, he's right about that. Is it just that she has a big role IN the prophecy? I'm not sure that she does, really. I mean, spoiler, she'll get to save a few people in this book, which is nice. But for the most part, her role is similar to that of Duncan: being the parents of Donal.
CARILLON has a bigger role in the prophecy, really. Given that he gets to become king and end the qu'mahlin. (He also gets a longer, better book for his own story than this one.)
She asks what he means, and we get yet another description about his domineering eyes. Literally: "Black eyes narrowed and held dominion over her." This is like the fourth time that's been mentioned. Does Roberson have a kink?
WHERE is her editor?!
Anyway, he wonders if the Cheysuli haven't yet "bound" her to their tahlmorra. She asks his name, and he melodramatically doesn't answer. She asks what manner of man he is, he says again that he serves the gods. When she asks what he wants from her, he says nothing, as long as she remains "unknowing". It's only if she "recognize[s] the tahlmorra within [her]" that he'll be forced to "gainsay" her.
She notes that he isn't Cheysuli, but he speaks of tahlmorra and prophecy and asks what it is to him. He notes that it's his bane. It's the end of him, if the prophecy is fulfilled, and the Cheysuli know it.
Somehow this makes Alix able to identify him as the Ihlini, Tynstar. She asks what he's doing here, and he tells her that's for him to know, but warns her that Bellam is already breaking Shaine's borders and invading, and Homana will fall soon.
He notes also that Shaine was a fool for sentencing the Cheysuli to death, because without them, he can't win. And then the prophecy will fail and he'll be the lord of the land.
Alix cries that it'll be by his unnatural arts, but honestly, we haven't really seen any sign of those arts yet. Just the purple light and his weirdly domineering eyes, which could just mean he's the protagonist of a really bad BDSM erotica.
For some reason Tynstar decides to tell Alix that she has her own unnatural arts, she has only to learn them, but until she does, she's insignificant to him and he'll let her live.
WHAT?! WHY?!
Dude, you said yourself that she has the biggest concentration of prophecy, whatever that bullshit means, that you've ever seen. You know that the Cheysuli intend to teach her about things, but they haven't yet. You TOLD her that she has powers to unlock, implicitly beyond just talking to lir. WHY NOT JUST KILL HER?
Look, I'm not the sort of fan who wants the villain to win. But I don't understand how Alix keeps getting into these situations where a villain really should kill her, but inexplicably does not. It's really fucking annoying.
And kind of stupid, given that Cai flies overhead right at that moment. Given that we've been told how Ihlini powers are cancelled out by the presence of Cheysuli, and vice versa, this would have been a perfect opportunity for Tynstar to try to kill Alix, only to be interrupted by Cai and Duncan.
Tynstar notes that she summoned the lir, though she didn't know it. He draws a rune in the air, which turns into a column of cold fire. When it disappears, he's gone. Damn, Ihlini have much better powers. I want a teleporty rune. And as we'll see in later books, the power isn't gender locked like the Cheysuli are (with Alix as an exception).
Duncan appears, with his horse. He's scraped up but not seriously. Unfortunately, this leads to nonsense:
Alix looked at him. The defiance she had struck him with earlier had faded. Her words then, angry and frightened, had no more meaning. Something whispered in her soul, tapping at her mind, and she began to understand it.
"The horse ran away," she said unsteadily.
His eyes were fixed on her. "I found him. He is lamed, but will recover."
"I am glad he was not badly hurt." She knew the words they said held no meaning. Their communication lay on another level.
Ugh, Alix. Just because you got freaked out by Tynstar, and you're glad Duncan is alive doesn't mean you suddenly have to be okay with this bullshit. He asks her to ride with him, and she agrees. She says that she didn't mean to hurt him.
Oh for fuck's sake. He basically told you he would rape you via marriage and you're worried about hurting him?!
She tells him to hold her so she knows she's real, and he does. She melts against his back, and notes that "the strange weakness was new to her, but she welcomed it"
Just in case, this was too romantic to me, we get this as a closer:
Duncan sank a hand deep in her hair and jerked her head back.
"Do you deny it? Do you deny the tahlmorra in our blood?"
She did not answer. She caught her hands in the thick hair curling at his neck and dragged his mouth down on hers.
I. Hate. This. Book.
So yeah. Now we've met the villain, and I commend Ms. Roberson for her mastery of tone, because it's very obvious that Tynstar is awful, even without him doing anything yet.
That said, there's an interesting question about whether or not he's really the worst in the book so far. I mean, sure, he's helping Bellam invade, but do we know that Bellam is any worse than the guy who ordered the genocidal massacre of an entire race? Even if we read into the aura of sleaze that Roberson's given Tynstar, is he really any worse than the Cheysuli we've met so far?
The answer will be yes to both, eventually, (Ms. Roberson is not a subtle writer) but we haven't gotten there yet.
But there are some interesting questions with regard to the prophecy and its role in this series, even in the better books. As I recall, there's nothing that guarantees that the fulfillment of the prophecy will actually make things better for anyone. A lot of the characters who serve the prophecy are doomed to unhappy lives and worse ends. Tynstar genuinely believes that this will be the destruction of him and his race. Can we really say he's evil?
Well, we can, actually. Because these stories aren't really great about nuance. There's no real risk that we'll sympathize with the Ihlini who are, almost to a man, grotesque rapists and abusers. (For their part, the Cheysuli are only really portrayed as rape-inclined in this book. There may be individual incidents, but rape is definitely not implied or stated to be a cultural thing in later books.) I think that if we encountered enough DECENT characters who dislike the prophecy, we'd start to wonder if maybe we shouldn't be cheering for the "good guys" to win here. But that's a rant for another day.
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FOUR STARS
ARGH
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Also, is it normal to have tall buildings just outside of the gates of a city? I feel like that would make for a fairly easy way to get past said gates, but I admittedly know very little about European architecture.
I don't know that much more about it, but I think, since these are the palace gates, that there would be a large open space before it, not a whole block of buildings.
Well, then Alix goes back once again.
Yeah, meeting Borrs might have been nice, if only because then we'd get more Cheysuli than just Finn and Duncan!
1. Pretty sure beastial is a misspelling. The word is "bestial", meaning having the quality of beasts. I don't blame Roberson for this one. Was her editor asleep?
Yep, it's a misspelling (though a quite understandable one, at that).
For myself, I especially hate the "so plainly even you may understand". Yes, Alis is quite bad at understanding things, but that's not supposed to be the case!
You still choose to force her into this, Duncan!
Yep, there Duncan loses any bit of my goodwill.
So Duncan "stiffly" accuses her of having the lir at her bidding, referencing Storr stopping Finn from raping her, and Cai stopping him now.
He's just so convinced he's right that he thinks it likelier that Alix has enchanted Cai than that he'd do so of his own volition. What to even say?
When Alix says that it will be no task at all, he starts swearing in the Old Tongue, and his savagery scares Alix
ARRRRGGHH
Oh, that came out of nowhere. And they're still in the city? I'd thought they were out of it by now.
And now we have Tynstar? I guess it's a decent time to introduce him, though the buildup could have been less messy.
WHERE is her editor?!
Off on vacation because of how bad this book is?
And as we'll see in later books, the power isn't gender locked like the Cheysuli are (with Alix as an exception).
They really got a better deal!
I truly don't get how that's supposed to be "romantic".
but do we know that Bellam is any worse than the guy who ordered the genocidal massacre of an entire race?
For all we know, Bellam might even stop the qu'mahlin!