In Sylvan Shadows - Chapter Twenty-Two

[kalinara]

So last time, my least favorite character got a promotion while Cadderly had an...interesting solution to a moral dilemma.



Yeah, I'm more than a week later (oops), and I still am not sure how I feel about Cadderly's way of dealing with Dorigen. On one hand, I do appreciate that Cadderly had a difficult dilemma: he didn't want to kill a helpless adversary but he also, probably correctly, believed she'd come after him when she recovered.

And admittedly, as a mage, she's one class that actually could theoretically do a fair bit of damage naked and unarmed. I'm not fond of the mutilation element, but I do at least get the logic behind breaking her fingers.

I might have liked a bit more hesitation though? Or if I thought for a moment that Danica's reaction to her boyfriend leaving a woman half-naked in the middle of an army would be "why the fuck would you do that to a person?" instead of "why didn't you kill her?"

So we start the chapter with Elbereth's horse. And Elbereth, I suppose. His horse ends up taking a blow from a poisoned trident. Now Elbereth gets a rematch with Ragnor. Woo.

--

We switch to Cadderly. The description here is very eloquent:

By the time Cadderly got in sight of any of those doing battle, he had passed the scarred remains of the earlier fights. Blasted trees and bodies lay all about him. The cries of the dying seemed a macabre game of ventriloquism—with too many bodies about for the young man to discern the source of any single cry.

I rather like "macabre game of ventriloquism".

We get some of the books off-kilter morality here though:

One goblin grabbed his ankle as he passed. Instinct told him to fire his crossbow at the monster, but he realized that the goblin, blinded from a sword slash and near death, had grabbed him out of fear, with no thoughts of attacking. Cadderly pulled his leg free and stumbled away, having neither the courage to finish the creature, nor the time to tend its mortal wounds.

"Courage" is not the right word here. It doesn't take "courage" to murder a helpless enemy. It might be MERCY, if the goblin were going to die anyway. But not courage.

That said, Cadderly is pretty lost in all this turmoil. He doesn't really know what to run or do, and we're told that "[f]or the young scholar, who had lived his whole life in the sheltered and secure library, this was his vision of Hell.

I mean, fair enough. I feel like some of the undead fights in Canticle were probably worse than this, in terms of trauma, but that might not be a fair comparison. Besides, it's a nice contrast to Drizzt's "seen it all" attitude.

Cadderly keeps going though and eventually comes across his first giant - twice the height of an ogre and ten times the weight! BIG!

We're told that "Cadderly would have been wise to walk past, but his reactions came from his terror" and he shoots a dart into the giant's backside. Kaboom.

Cadderly runs for it, but manages to shoot again. This time in the chest. Still doesn't take the giant down though. Cadderly starts sprinting for the trees, where Ivan and Pikel are waiting. They take it out, musing that Cadderly makes good bait. Hah.

--

Cadderly runs past, making it to Tintagel, who apparently has blue eyes. Good to know. Tintagel is pretty friendly, which is nice. He doesn't have a lot of characterization in this book, but I appreciate how he manages not to be a dick like Elbereth. He asks if Cadderly's seen Elbereth.

Nope, but Cadderly has some presents! He reports that Dorigen is down and starts unpacking the gear he took from her. Tintagel saves Cadderly from an ill-timed spear, which is nice.

Hammadeen the dryad is there, crying, and looking to flee. Cadderly decides to take after his more dickish friends:

“Coward!” Cadderly growled at her. “You claim to be a friend of the trees, but you will do nothing in their time of need!” he closed his eyes, then, concentrating on the tree hiding the dryad. Strange and marvelous emotions came over him as he attuned his senses to that tree, and he recognized the paths the tree had privately opened for Hammadeen’s escape.

“No!” Cadderly growled, reaching for the tree with his thoughts.

To Cadderly’s amazement, the dryad suddenly reappeared, looking back at the tree as though it had somehow betrayed her.

What the fuck do you think one dryad is going to do, dude?

Well, to be fair, she has information. She reports that Elbereth and company are fighting in a beech grove to the south and west. Okay, fair enough, I suppose.

Tintagel opens a dimension door, but ends up with a spear in his side. Cadderly grabs him though and dives through the door. Aw, I hope Tintagel lives, he annoys me least of the elves.

--

We switch to Pikel and Ivan. The giant's still alive, but gets smacked unconscious when it groans. The dwarves are basically fighting on its body. They're having fun.

Danica comes running, chased by orcs, goblins and bugbears. No one laughs at her for being bait, though basically this is the same situation as Cadderly. Shayleigh's also in the trees somewhere, helping out.

Danica reports: the trees are indeed awesome, but there aren't a lot of them, and some have been brought down. It's definitely still a dangerous fight. Ivan, Pikel and Danica head toward the woods.

--

Back to Cadderly, who has one last exploding dart. He lays Tintagel down, and spots Ragnor and Elbereth "in the throes of a titanic struggle". Galladel is dead at their feet.

Cadderly tells himself that "he would feel no remorse for blowing a large hole in Ragnor's ugly face." I mean, fair. Unfortunately, a bugbear attacks and Cadderly is stuck using his dart on it instead.

Cadderly wishes he could help Tintagel, who's in bad shape, but knows Elbereth can't hold out long. They have a moment:

“I vowed that I would die beside you,” the young scholar whispered. He thought for a moment of searching his pack, of getting out the flask of Oil of Impact and trying to load another dart, but realized that he had no time. Reluctantly, Cadderly dropped his useless crossbow and took up his walking stick and spindle-disks, thinking them ridiculous against a foe as obviously powerful as Ragnor. He reiterated his vow to Elbereth one last time and charged in beside the elf prince.

“Why are you here?” Elbereth demanded breathlessly when Cadderly rushed up. The elf ducked a quick cut of Ragnor’s heavy sword, one of the few offensive strikes the ogrillon had taken.

Cadderly understood immediately the course this fight had taken. Elbereth was plainly tired, couldn’t even seem to catch his breath, and Ragnor showed a dozen nicks and scratches, none of them deep or serious.

“I said I would fight beside you,” Cadderly replied. He stepped ahead, motioned with his walking stick, then threw out his spindle-disks. Ragnor blocked the attack with his forearm, curiously eyeing the strange but hardly effective weapon.

That's pretty gay, boys. That said, if Cadderly wants to switch teams like that, he could do better.

Ragnor is amused, and Cadderly uses his spindle disks and then his walking stick essentially to distract him while Elbereth keeps fighting outright. He's not able to do too much damage though.

Ragnor's pretty much occupied with Elbereth, which gives Cadderly some time to act and he does this:

Cadderly knew he had to act then or watch the elf prince be cut apart. He dropped his walking stick to the ground and yelled wildly, taking two steps toward Ragnor and leaping onto the ogrillon’s arm. The young scholar caught hold stubbornly, his arms about the ogrillon’s neck and both of his legs locked tightly around one of Ragnor’s.

Okay then. Still doesn't hurt the guy, but it's a good distraction. But Ragnor is strong and we get a cliffhanger of Cadderly flying through the air.

The chapter ends!