In Sylvan Shadows - Chapter Twenty-Three

[kalinara]

So last time, Cadderly joined Elbereth in some manly homoerotic back-to-back fighting. Sort of.

I mean, Cadderly could do better, but it's still fun.



So this chapter takes us back to the dwarves and Danica. They're fighting. Danica alternates between resting and fighting, and we get a slightly contradictory paragraph about how Cadderly is dominating her thoughts but she has no time to consider where he might be and if he's alive.

She's focusing on her duty though and realizes that she has to trust him to take care of himself. Fair enough. But her heart still longs to find him. Also fair enough. I really wish this book hadn't killed most of my enthusiasm for this couple.

There's a cute bit where Ivan notices her sadness and promises to save her a few enemies in the next fight. But he realizes pretty quickly that she's genuinely upset about her missing boyfriend. She admits that she left him behind.

They get interrupted by a giant's boulder. Shayleigh, who is still hidden, says she's shot it three times but it's still coming. Danica stops Ivan and Pikel from running into the fight, pointing out that the giants probably have a "host of escorts" and the dwarves are too valuable to be so foolish.

Shayleigh suggests they leave quickly. Danica wants to stay and search for Cadderly, but Shayleigh tells her that he's with Tintagel, who'll keep him safe. This is reassuring. And to be fair, from what we know, Tintagel didn't do a bad job even if he himself is kind of in bad shape at the moment.

-

We switch scenes to Elbereth fighting Ragnor. Ragnor's decided to stop playing defense and is now out to end the fight quickly and move on to more fun fights. We get some back and forth as Elbereth dodges and blocks blows.

Cadderly is down but not out. He gets up, feels liquid on his neck - it's not blood though, it's the Oil of Impact that he uses to make his exploding bolts. The vial has cracked. Thankfully it hadn't burst entirely, or Cadderly might not be in one piece right now. But it does give him an idea. He shoves his spindle disks inside the cracked (but not empty) container.

Elbereth keeps fighting but is eventually cornered. That's when Cadderly comes in. Ragnor sees him, but assumes that, like before, Cadderly and his weapon will be pretty much useless. Cadderly throws the spindle disks at him and...

For a moment, Cadderly thought that Ragnor was running backward, away from him, but then the young scholar realized that Ragnor’s feet, pumping helplessly, were several inches off the ground.

Ragnor’s arms and legs continued to flail wildly as the ogrillon tried to slow his flight. A branch bent then cracked behind him, and he came to a sudden stop, impaled through the backbone against the tree. Ragnor hung there, a foot from the ground, a scorched hole in one side of his furry leather tunic (and in the skin underneath), and his legs lifeless below him. He felt no pain in those lower limbs, felt nothing at all. He tried to plant his feet against the tree, that he might push himself free, but alas, his legs would not heed his call.

Kaboom indeed.

Elbereth is pretty amazed, but he's not going to waste an opportunity. Ragnor still has some fight left, and the narrative calls him a "stubborn creature", which seems very rude. He's clearly as aware and intelligent as the humans. (Which I suppose is always an issue in D&D type settings. What makes a "monster" when they can communicate just like you can?)

But Ragnor really can't do much. Elbereth initially slashes him across the eyes, blinding him, while Ragnor slashes at the air. That seems a bit unnecessary, but maybe the slash to the face was easier than just killing the guy?

Eventually Ragnor tires, and Elbereth cuts his throat. Okay, fair enough.

--

Back to the dwarves and ladies. This feels kind of anti-climactic at this point. It's a fun fight scene, but what few emotional stakes we had were kind of in the other battle. Still, they end up flanking the group that had been chasing them, and they fight.

There's a cute girl power moment where Shayleigh takes out a goblin from above, before Danica goes charging at one of the giants. It'd be nice to see them interact more, I think. Salvatore tends to a "one girl per group" structure, from what I've seen, and that's a bit of a shame. (I will say, as annoyed as I have been with Danica as a character, she's definitely a different sort than Catti-brie. I particularly like that she gets to be the most competent fighter in the group as opposed to the newbie still learning.)

More fighting. Lots of details. Fun to read but not particularly interesting to recap. You get the gist: the dwarves are awesome, Shayleigh is awesome, Danica is awesome and they have good teamwork.

Eventually, Ivan goes down, the monsters scatter, Shayleigh can't shoot them all. But then a host of elves come in as back up and finish the job.

The monsters broke ranks and scattered.

Pikel remained defensively over his brother while Danica took up the pursuit, tackling an orog and rolling over it in the grass. Shayleigh fired off several shots, but realized to her dismay that she could not down all of the monsters before they found the safety of the trees.

The monsters’ hoots of relief as they made the tree line were short-lived indeed, though, for out of those same shadows came a host of elves. In a few seconds, not a goblin or orog remained alive on that blood-soaked field.

It's funny, I think, to compare this to Warhost of Vastmark. Because there, finishing an invading force down to a man was basically Arithon crossing the moral horizon. I've said there that I didn't entirely agree with that presentation: these men were not innocent combatants, but people who very much intentionally invaded an innocent land, with the intent of killing not just Arithon himself, but the largely innocent shepherds and villagers around him.

Here, it's a casual triumph. And while I basically have the same take here: these people are invaders and if they were left to flee and regroup, they'd likely kill even more people. I understand why the elves do what they do. I just find the contrast in approach interesting. These are two very different stories.

It does make me think a bit of "what makes a monster" though. Which is maybe a good thing to ponder. In the same way that Catti-brie felt nothing when she mowed down a shit ton of gully dwarves but felt horrible at the thought of killing a human woman who'd captured and hurt her - or seeing paragons of virtue, Drizzt and Wulfgar, terrorize and rob a banshee of her treasure without even bothering to ask first...

If this were a human invading force, would the narrative be so blase about the elves finishing them down to a man?

This is not intended to be a criticism of Salvatore, by the way. It just makes me think.

--

So back to Cadderly and Elbereth. Cadderly's a bit in shock at the moment, thinking about how a few weeks ago, he'd known nothing but peace and security and had never even seen a "living monster" and now he's sort of playing the role of a hero and monsters are very real.

It's kind of the same thing as Barjin I think, but I appreciate it because of that. Barjin was human. Ragnor was not. In both cases, Cadderly acted in defense of self and others. And I appreciate that Cadderly is having a similar reaction to both.

He's also pretty shocked that he basically won where Elbereth couldn't. And as much as I dislike Elbereth in general, I appreciate the reference to Elbereth congratulating Cadderly for saving them. (We don't hear it, which on one hand I regret, because I like seeing Elbereth eat crow. But on the other, I think it adds to the implication that Cadderly's in shock right now.)

Unfortunately, Ragnor's elite guards are still alive and about to attack. So even though they've won against Ragnor, Elbereth is still pretty sure they're about to die. But...

A blast of lightning abruptly ended the threat. Four of the bugbears died on the spot; the other two rolled about in the dirt, scorched and crippled.

Cadderly looked to the side, to Tintagel, bravely propped against a tree, wearing a smile only occasionally diminished by throbs of pain. Cadderly and Elbereth ran to their friend. Elbereth started to tend the wound, but Cadderly shoved the elf aside.

Hey, Tintagel! Welcome back to the party!

And credit where it's due, I've never really gotten the sense that Salvatore really cared much for magic user characters. He seems willing to make them into formidable enemies (Sydney, Dorigen), but the few friendly ones we've seen in the Drizzt novels seem to exist just to be annoying.

Tintagel hasn't had a huge role in the book, mostly he's "that other guy" when paired with Shayleigh, but he's been steadily competent and capable when he has had his moments to shine.

That said, he's also pretty much dying. And Cadderly, as we know, hasn't had much luck with the whole Cleric magic end of things...

“Hold him steady!” Cadderly cried, and Elbereth, a helpless observer in the spectacle, did as he was told.

Cadderly futilely slapped at the pouring blood, actually held in Tintagel’s spilling guts.

“Deneir!” the young priest cried, more in rage than reverence. “Deneir!”

Then something marvelous happened.

Cadderly felt the power surge through him, though he did not understand it and hardly expected it. It came on the notes of a distant, melodious song. Too surprised to react, the young priest simply hung on desperately.

He watched in amazement as Tintagel’s wound began to mend. The blood flow lessened, then stopped altogether; Cadderly’s hands were forced aside by the magically binding skin.

Nice! Looks like maybe Cadderly's leveled out of his NPC class and into proper Cleric levels. (Wrong edition, but whatever.)

The chapter ends with Tintagel back on his feet and ready to go, Elbereth hugging him, and Cadderly falling to the ground to process how the world's gone crazy. Poor kid.