Castle of Deception - Chapter Two
Mar. 12th, 2026 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatWell, I didn't mean to take a week off, but things got a bit more hectic than I planned.
But now I'm back, for the hopefully redemptive collaboration of Sherman and Lackey in a book that, so far, has not actually annoyed me.
Kevin is kind of whiny and petulant, like Magpie, but so far he hasn't really been a dick to anyone, and also he's fifteen. So, at least for now, I'm willing to give him a shot.
So Kevin's off on his first taste of adventure, on a mule and accompanied by a minstrel troop. And it doesn't seem to be going well:
“Here, boy.” One of the musicians, a red-dad fiddler with instrument case strapped to his back like Kevin, handed the bardling a switch broken from a bush. “Wave this at him. He’ll keep moving.”
The fiddler’s eyes were kind enough, but it seemed to Kevin that his voice practically dripped with condescension. Thanks. I’ve never ridden before, Kevin thought, but he managed a tight smile and a “Thanks.” It didn’t help that the man was right; as long as the mule could see the switch out of the comer of an eye, it kept up a nice, brisk pace.
Aw, poor kid. I don't know if the fiddler is actually being a dick, or if this is just teenage projection, but I can understand the frustration, I suppose.
Things get a bit embarrassing when Kevin, frustrated by the mule's lagging, ends up whacking it on the rump, causing it to trot and overtake the caravan. The troop snickers at him.
Yeah, that kind of sucks dude. You think you're getting your first adventure and it's just an embarrassing mishap after another. I mean, I think traveling with this kid would be annoying as fuck, but I can sympathize.
He definitely feels pretty authentically teenaged here:
It wasn’t helping his increasingly sour mood that every time someone looked his way, he could practically hear that someone thinking. Poor little boy, out on his own!
“I’m not a baby!” he muttered under his breath.
“What’s that?” A plump, motherly woman, bright yellow robes making her look like a buttercup, brought her mare up next to his mule. “Is something wrong, child?”
“I am not a child.” Kevin said the words very carefully. “I am not a full Bard yet, I admit it, but I am the apprentice to ”
“Oh, well, bardling, then!” Her smile was so amused that Kevin wanted to shout at her. Leave me alone!
I remember finding Kevin really annoying when I was a kid. But as an adult, I feel a little affectionate toward him. It's hard to be a kid sometimes.
So he learns a bit more about their destination. It's about two days ride and the road heads straight there. And Kevin thinks about how the castle will be easy to find, even for someone who might be traveling alone. Oh dear.
They make camp, and Kevin feels isolated there too. The minstrel troop is noisy and happy and feels like one big happy family. Kevin decides to get a little snotty about it, reminding himself that they're "only minstrels" and their talent isn't good enough to be "Bards".
And, okay, I think I get why the minstrels are so happy to make fun of this kid. But really, it's a vicious cycle I think. The kid is a snot who deserves to get taken down a peg, but he's also a KID and being humiliated is only going to make him resent them more.
And then the log he sits on crumbles under him, sending him to the ground, while everyone happens to be looking his way just at that moment.
I suspect a lot of this is unreliable viewpoint from an over-sensitive teenager, really. But they laugh at him again. And I actually pity him here:
“Hey, bardling!” Berak called. “Where are you going?”
“To sleep,” Kevin said shortly.
“Out there in the dark? You’ll be warmer and safer here with us.”
Kevin pretended he hadn’t heard. Wrapping himself in his cloak, he settled down as best he could. The ground was harder and far colder than he’d expected. He really would have been more comfortable with the minstrels.
I mean, Kevin's being an idiot of course and suffering for his pride, but what do you expect, Berak? He's fifteen and you laughed at him. And yeah, he does kind of deserve it, but he's a KID.
Kevin wakes up, feeling stiff and sore. It's dark, and...oh, I see. He's actually decided to up and leave the minstrel troop. Dumbass.
He does have a moment of uncertainty, but then has the very teenaged thought that he doesn't want the count to think he's a baby who can't take care of himself. He rides his mule away, figuring that even if the minstrels realize he's gone, they'll be too encumbered with their wagons and children to be able to catch him.
Hm. I hope he has that paperwork he'll need to establish his credentials at the Castle.
We're told that by the next night, Kevin's not so sure he made the right decision. He's tired, sore and hungry. Being an idiot teenager, he hadn't taken any food with him, and he and the mule have been stuck grazing. (The mule eating grass and leaves, and Kevin eating berries.)
He decides to make camp and seems to do well enough with making a fire, and distracts himself from his hunger by practicing his scales. Then he starts playing what should be a bouncy song, but just seems lonely. Aw. He misses the inn a bit, before scolding himself:
Oh, nonsense! What sort of hero are you, afraid of a little loneliness?
But it's the first time he's really been alone in his life. He banks the fire and miserably goes to sleep.
And then wakes up to scornful laughter and what he thinks are demons, but actually:
No, no, whatever these beings were, they weren’t demonic. After that first terrified moment, he could make out the faces that belonged with those eyes, and gasped in wonder. The folk surrounding him were tall and graceful, a touch too graceful, too slender, to be human. Pale golden hair framed fair, fine-boned, coldly beautiful faces set with those glowing, slanted eyes, and Kevin whispered in wonder:
“Elves…”
We're told that Kevin had heard of elves, and they supposedly share some of King Amber's lands with humans, but there are some bitter feelings. Kevin's never met either "white or dark" elves and had never imagined it.
Immediately the elves start mocking him.
“Why, how clever the child is!” The elvish voice was dear as crystal, cold with mockery.
“Clever in one way, at least!” said another.
“So stupid in all other ways!” a third mocked. “Look at the way he sleeps on the ground, like a poor little animal.”
“Look at the trail he left, so that anyone, anything could track him.”
“Look at the way he sleeps like a babe, without a care in the world.”
“A human child.”
“A careless child!”
The elf man who’d first spoken laughed softy. “A foolish child that anyone can trick!”
Ugh. I mean, look, Kevin's a fucking idiot. But it's not like he's not already suffering for being a fucking idiot. This is just kicking a kid when he's down.
To his credit, Kevin actually tries the diplomatic approach:
So alien a light glinted in the slanted eyes that Kevin’s breath caught in his throat. Everyone knew elvish whims were unpredictable; it was one of the reasons there could never be total ease between elf and human. If these folk decided to loose their magic on him, he wouldn’t have a chance of defending himself. “My lords,” he began, very, very carefully, “if I have somehow offended you, pray forgive me.”
“Offended!” the elf echoed coldly. “As if anything a child such as you could do would be strong enough to offend us!”
...why are you even doing this, dude. He's a kid. Don't you have better things to do then torment a kid?
But actually, after a bit more taunting (mostly about how he's sleeping on the ground, rather than using pine boughs to make a bed and aching with hunger when the forest has more than enough food, and so on), they actually drop a sack of food at his feet.
The lead elf says that he hopes Kevin is just naive rather than stupid, because while either flaw can get him killed, the first can be corrected. So maybe these guys aren't so bad.
It's basically just flat wafers, but eating one actually does calm his stomach and he can sleep. In the morning, he has another, and gives one to the mule, who likes it too.
Kevin tries to figure out the purpose of the meeting and ends up deciding it was just another "nasty elvish idea of a joke". Which yeah, but it actually does seem like they were looking out for him too.
So Kevin finally does make it to the castle. We get a description:
The castle hadn’t been built for beauty. Heavy and squat, it seemed to crouch possessively on its crag like some ancient grey beast of war staring down at the count’s lands. But Kevin didn’t care. It was the first castle he had ever seen, and he thought it was wonderful, a true war castle dating from the days when heroes held back the forces of Darkness. Bright banners flew from the many towers, softening some of the harshness, and the bardling could see from here that the castle’s gates were open. By squinting he could make out the devices on those banners: the count’s black boar on an azure field.
The chapter ends with Kevin thinking that his adventure is FINALLY going to begin.
So yeah, so far, I'm not disliking this. Kevin's an annoying protagonist: whiny, self-important, arrogant and clueless. But he's annoying in a way that fits his primary character description: he's fifteen, sheltered and a little spoiled.
And he suffers enough of a humiliation conga line that it's clear we're not supposed to be agreeing with this kid. If anything, I think it might be a little overboard. He's an idiot kid, but he's not malicious. And I'm pretty sure he'll get an even bigger dent to his pride once they reach the castle.
As I mentioned, I remember being a kid and finding Kevin pretty unbearable (though I liked a lot of the other characters). I suppose at 43, I'm old enough to feel a little maternal toward the little fuckhead. He's got a lot of room to grow into a person.
And to give the book credit, between the instant karma for bad decisions, and the line from the elf-dude about naivety being correctable, I think the intent is for us to see Kevin grow over the course of the story. We'll see how it goes, but I'm willing to give him a shot.
But now I'm back, for the hopefully redemptive collaboration of Sherman and Lackey in a book that, so far, has not actually annoyed me.
Kevin is kind of whiny and petulant, like Magpie, but so far he hasn't really been a dick to anyone, and also he's fifteen. So, at least for now, I'm willing to give him a shot.
So Kevin's off on his first taste of adventure, on a mule and accompanied by a minstrel troop. And it doesn't seem to be going well:
“Here, boy.” One of the musicians, a red-dad fiddler with instrument case strapped to his back like Kevin, handed the bardling a switch broken from a bush. “Wave this at him. He’ll keep moving.”
The fiddler’s eyes were kind enough, but it seemed to Kevin that his voice practically dripped with condescension. Thanks. I’ve never ridden before, Kevin thought, but he managed a tight smile and a “Thanks.” It didn’t help that the man was right; as long as the mule could see the switch out of the comer of an eye, it kept up a nice, brisk pace.
Aw, poor kid. I don't know if the fiddler is actually being a dick, or if this is just teenage projection, but I can understand the frustration, I suppose.
Things get a bit embarrassing when Kevin, frustrated by the mule's lagging, ends up whacking it on the rump, causing it to trot and overtake the caravan. The troop snickers at him.
Yeah, that kind of sucks dude. You think you're getting your first adventure and it's just an embarrassing mishap after another. I mean, I think traveling with this kid would be annoying as fuck, but I can sympathize.
He definitely feels pretty authentically teenaged here:
It wasn’t helping his increasingly sour mood that every time someone looked his way, he could practically hear that someone thinking. Poor little boy, out on his own!
“I’m not a baby!” he muttered under his breath.
“What’s that?” A plump, motherly woman, bright yellow robes making her look like a buttercup, brought her mare up next to his mule. “Is something wrong, child?”
“I am not a child.” Kevin said the words very carefully. “I am not a full Bard yet, I admit it, but I am the apprentice to ”
“Oh, well, bardling, then!” Her smile was so amused that Kevin wanted to shout at her. Leave me alone!
I remember finding Kevin really annoying when I was a kid. But as an adult, I feel a little affectionate toward him. It's hard to be a kid sometimes.
So he learns a bit more about their destination. It's about two days ride and the road heads straight there. And Kevin thinks about how the castle will be easy to find, even for someone who might be traveling alone. Oh dear.
They make camp, and Kevin feels isolated there too. The minstrel troop is noisy and happy and feels like one big happy family. Kevin decides to get a little snotty about it, reminding himself that they're "only minstrels" and their talent isn't good enough to be "Bards".
And, okay, I think I get why the minstrels are so happy to make fun of this kid. But really, it's a vicious cycle I think. The kid is a snot who deserves to get taken down a peg, but he's also a KID and being humiliated is only going to make him resent them more.
And then the log he sits on crumbles under him, sending him to the ground, while everyone happens to be looking his way just at that moment.
I suspect a lot of this is unreliable viewpoint from an over-sensitive teenager, really. But they laugh at him again. And I actually pity him here:
“Hey, bardling!” Berak called. “Where are you going?”
“To sleep,” Kevin said shortly.
“Out there in the dark? You’ll be warmer and safer here with us.”
Kevin pretended he hadn’t heard. Wrapping himself in his cloak, he settled down as best he could. The ground was harder and far colder than he’d expected. He really would have been more comfortable with the minstrels.
I mean, Kevin's being an idiot of course and suffering for his pride, but what do you expect, Berak? He's fifteen and you laughed at him. And yeah, he does kind of deserve it, but he's a KID.
Kevin wakes up, feeling stiff and sore. It's dark, and...oh, I see. He's actually decided to up and leave the minstrel troop. Dumbass.
He does have a moment of uncertainty, but then has the very teenaged thought that he doesn't want the count to think he's a baby who can't take care of himself. He rides his mule away, figuring that even if the minstrels realize he's gone, they'll be too encumbered with their wagons and children to be able to catch him.
Hm. I hope he has that paperwork he'll need to establish his credentials at the Castle.
We're told that by the next night, Kevin's not so sure he made the right decision. He's tired, sore and hungry. Being an idiot teenager, he hadn't taken any food with him, and he and the mule have been stuck grazing. (The mule eating grass and leaves, and Kevin eating berries.)
He decides to make camp and seems to do well enough with making a fire, and distracts himself from his hunger by practicing his scales. Then he starts playing what should be a bouncy song, but just seems lonely. Aw. He misses the inn a bit, before scolding himself:
Oh, nonsense! What sort of hero are you, afraid of a little loneliness?
But it's the first time he's really been alone in his life. He banks the fire and miserably goes to sleep.
And then wakes up to scornful laughter and what he thinks are demons, but actually:
No, no, whatever these beings were, they weren’t demonic. After that first terrified moment, he could make out the faces that belonged with those eyes, and gasped in wonder. The folk surrounding him were tall and graceful, a touch too graceful, too slender, to be human. Pale golden hair framed fair, fine-boned, coldly beautiful faces set with those glowing, slanted eyes, and Kevin whispered in wonder:
“Elves…”
We're told that Kevin had heard of elves, and they supposedly share some of King Amber's lands with humans, but there are some bitter feelings. Kevin's never met either "white or dark" elves and had never imagined it.
Immediately the elves start mocking him.
“Why, how clever the child is!” The elvish voice was dear as crystal, cold with mockery.
“Clever in one way, at least!” said another.
“So stupid in all other ways!” a third mocked. “Look at the way he sleeps on the ground, like a poor little animal.”
“Look at the trail he left, so that anyone, anything could track him.”
“Look at the way he sleeps like a babe, without a care in the world.”
“A human child.”
“A careless child!”
The elf man who’d first spoken laughed softy. “A foolish child that anyone can trick!”
Ugh. I mean, look, Kevin's a fucking idiot. But it's not like he's not already suffering for being a fucking idiot. This is just kicking a kid when he's down.
To his credit, Kevin actually tries the diplomatic approach:
So alien a light glinted in the slanted eyes that Kevin’s breath caught in his throat. Everyone knew elvish whims were unpredictable; it was one of the reasons there could never be total ease between elf and human. If these folk decided to loose their magic on him, he wouldn’t have a chance of defending himself. “My lords,” he began, very, very carefully, “if I have somehow offended you, pray forgive me.”
“Offended!” the elf echoed coldly. “As if anything a child such as you could do would be strong enough to offend us!”
...why are you even doing this, dude. He's a kid. Don't you have better things to do then torment a kid?
But actually, after a bit more taunting (mostly about how he's sleeping on the ground, rather than using pine boughs to make a bed and aching with hunger when the forest has more than enough food, and so on), they actually drop a sack of food at his feet.
The lead elf says that he hopes Kevin is just naive rather than stupid, because while either flaw can get him killed, the first can be corrected. So maybe these guys aren't so bad.
It's basically just flat wafers, but eating one actually does calm his stomach and he can sleep. In the morning, he has another, and gives one to the mule, who likes it too.
Kevin tries to figure out the purpose of the meeting and ends up deciding it was just another "nasty elvish idea of a joke". Which yeah, but it actually does seem like they were looking out for him too.
So Kevin finally does make it to the castle. We get a description:
The castle hadn’t been built for beauty. Heavy and squat, it seemed to crouch possessively on its crag like some ancient grey beast of war staring down at the count’s lands. But Kevin didn’t care. It was the first castle he had ever seen, and he thought it was wonderful, a true war castle dating from the days when heroes held back the forces of Darkness. Bright banners flew from the many towers, softening some of the harshness, and the bardling could see from here that the castle’s gates were open. By squinting he could make out the devices on those banners: the count’s black boar on an azure field.
The chapter ends with Kevin thinking that his adventure is FINALLY going to begin.
So yeah, so far, I'm not disliking this. Kevin's an annoying protagonist: whiny, self-important, arrogant and clueless. But he's annoying in a way that fits his primary character description: he's fifteen, sheltered and a little spoiled.
And he suffers enough of a humiliation conga line that it's clear we're not supposed to be agreeing with this kid. If anything, I think it might be a little overboard. He's an idiot kid, but he's not malicious. And I'm pretty sure he'll get an even bigger dent to his pride once they reach the castle.
As I mentioned, I remember being a kid and finding Kevin pretty unbearable (though I liked a lot of the other characters). I suppose at 43, I'm old enough to feel a little maternal toward the little fuckhead. He's got a lot of room to grow into a person.
And to give the book credit, between the instant karma for bad decisions, and the line from the elf-dude about naivety being correctable, I think the intent is for us to see Kevin grow over the course of the story. We'll see how it goes, but I'm willing to give him a shot.