Flight of the Raven - Part One, Chapter Six

[kalinara]

As mentioned in my last post, updates may be a bit more sporadic in the next few weeks. But hopefully it'll even out soon enough.

In the mean time!

Last time, Aidan met a shar tahl and got somewhat less than helpful advice. Alas.



So we start the chapter with Aidan riding into Mujhara, we're told that he'd spent three days at Clankeep but now he wants to "test his newfound 'knowledge' regarding links, Mujhars and himself."

Not entirely sure what that means, but I'm intrigued.

It's dark already and Aidan's too tired to do more than acknowledge salutes and greetings. I'm charmed by the fact that he's still so innately polite. I feel like that's Brennan's influence there. He's also studiously avoiding his family, because he knows they'll ask him things he doesn't want to answer. Fair enough.

So he heads to the Great Hall, stands before the Lion Throne and starts talking to it. There is a chain on the seat. And this time, when Aidan touches it, the chain remains whole.

Something is different.

I have to admit, this is a very surreal and dramatic scene and Roberson stretches out the suspense of picking up the chain very well. He does so, and a link breaks. Half of the chain falls.

Aidan is distraught. He hears footsteps and has a moment of humiliation at the thought of his father finding him like this, "or even the Mujhar". (And I feel like Brennan would be horrified at the thought of being a worse option than Niall here, though I completely get why he would be.)

But it's not Brennan or Niall. Or...not exactly.

Aidan set his teeth and turned, still kneeling, still clutching the remaining links against his bare chest. That much he had gotten, he had won… if he showed his father—if he displayed it to the Mujhar, or to anyone who asked—

Halfway breathed, breath stopped. The man was no one he knew.

And yet, somehow, he did. He knew that face; had seen that face. The same tawny hair, now silvered. The same blue eyes, but no patch; both eyes were whole. Even the same remarkable physical presence, though this man, Aidan thought, was a trifle taller than the Mujhar. The breadth of shoulder was startling; that, and his expression.

No, Aidan mouthed. And then, almost laughing: Aye. First Shaine, now—this. Now HIM—

This man's reaction to things is different than Shaine's. There's a bit of knowledge and awareness here. And as a kind of, almost, sad note, we're told that it's not an old face, not as old as the Mujhar's though the lines are similar.

Carillon, of course, died at forty. Due to Ihlini magic, he was physically more like sixty. Though, maybe it's a happy note instead. Niall's the first main character we've had who actually gets to live to be a senior citizen.

Because, of course, this is Carillon. It will take the book a little longer to acknowledge it: more dramatic observations that this man is wearing ringmail rather than velvet.

And this bit makes me laugh a bit: The length of the hall, he came. Then stopped before the dais, before the throne, before the prince still kneeling in rigid silence, pale Erinnish flesh stretched nearly to cracking over unmistakable Cheysuli bones.

I remember Carillon's many thoughts about Cheysuli bone structure. Hah.

Interestingly, Carillon seems more aware of the passage of time and generations than Shaine was. Or at least is more willing to acknowledge that to Aidan. He knows who Aidan is.

And this version of Carillon is Carillon at his best, I think. The man who ended the qu'mahlin and bantered with Finn.

Aidan did not move. "Carillon was Homanan. He knew nothing of Tahlmorras."

Tawny eyebrows rose. "Nothing? Nothing at all? When it was my doing that the Lion Throne of Homana was given back into Cheysuli hands?" Blue eyes were assessive. "Ah, Aidan, have they neglected your history? Or are you merely being perverse?"

"Homanans have no tahlmorras."

"Oh, I think they do. I think they simply lack the imagination to accept them." Carillon's voice was kind, pitched to a tone of quiet compassion. "It hurts to kneel on marble. If I were you, I would not."

I'm reminded suddenly of Rowan, whose early choices basically excommunicated him from his race and religion. And yet, he loyally served the main characters until his death, saving Carillon and Donal multiple times so that they could live the tahlmorra they had. I think that still counts.

So Carillon's here to talk. Aidan is a bit bristly about the whole thing as you might expect from a man visited by ghosts. Carillon has an interesting perspective on Shaine here:

Now Carillon smiled. "I did not come: I was brought. By you, whether or not you know it. There is a certain need…" But he did not finish. "As for Shaine, he often mouthed nonsense. My uncle—my su'fali, as you might say—was a hard man to know, and a harder man to like. Respect, honor, even admire, aye—"

"Admire!" Aidan's astonishment echoed. "The ku'reshtin began the qu'mahlin! He nearly extinguished my race!"

Some of the fire dimmed in old/ageless blue eyes. "Aye, he did that. But I was speaking of the man before the madness. The man who was Mujhar, was Homana, before the fool who began a purge." Carillon sighed. Wan light glinted on ringmail. "He was a man of great loves and stronger hatreds. I will excuse him for neither; I did not understand him, save to serve him as an heir. And, as you know, even that was never intended; I was not raised to be Mujhar."

The differing perspectives of Shaine are probably useful for a man who would be king.

Carillon and/or Roberson is doing some weird massaging of the timeline here. Because while it is true that Carillon was not originally intended to be Mujhar, this doesn't exactly work:

"I was raised to be a soldier, and to inherit my father's title. Never my uncle's—that only became my place when Lindir ran away with Hale, and Shaine got no other heirs." Carillon glanced down at a lifted hand: blood-red ruby glowed. "So, I was made heir to Homana… and heir to travesty—" Abruptly he broke it off, smiling ruefully. "But you know all of this… I will bore you with old stories." Now the smile was twisted. "Finn would say it is my habit, to prate about history."

Lindir ran off with Hale seven years before Alix was born. Carillon is a year older than Alix. That said, we do know Shaine married a second time, so it might have taken another decade or two for Shaine to realize that he wasn't going to get another heir. Still, it's kind of clumsily worded.

Also the old shipper in me is amused by the reference to Finn.

Aidan's intrigued by the reference to Finn actually and wonders if he could summon him here too. I like that thought. If we take Shapechangers off the table, Finn was my favorite in the earlier books. Aidan's also intrigued by the thought of summoning Hale, which...yeah, that would be a really interesting conversation.

Sadly, Carillon says no. They weren't Mujhars, so there won't be any nifty visitation. Aidan starts to put things together. Each link in the chain is a man. A Mujhar. He counts: Carillon, Donall, Niall, and one for Brennan. And then...the chain ends abruptly.

Interesting. It'd be easy enough to explain it as this is Aidan's present day and the future is unwritten, BUT Brennan hasn't inherited yet. It is, I think, implied somewhere that he does a lot of day-to-day work for Niall as the latter ages, but he's still only Crown Prince.

So what does it mean?

Now Carillon's eyes were bleak. "We have each of us, in your birthline, done things we did not desire. Become what we did not want. We each of us chose our road, always cognizant of the choice… but none of it was easy. The gods gave us free will. Regardless of tutoring, refusal is always an alternative. The gods do not strike us dead, unless our time is done."

The prophecy is a harsh mistress. Each of our main characters has suffered a LOT during the course of their books, and where some characters kind of deserved it (Carillon, Donal), others really didn't (Alix, Niall, Bronwyn, Ian, anyone in Brennan's generation). Aidan already knows about the trauma his more immediate relatives suffered.

Aidan remarks that if they say no, the afterworld is denied to them. Carillon notes that it's still a choice, one that Teirnan made. Will Aidan?

Aidan met the eyes of a dead Mujhar, only dimly surprised he could. Such miracles, now, were expected; they had, each of them, beaten belief into him. "I have to be what I am."

Slowly, Carillon smiled. "Then the gods will be satisfied."

The chain disappears, as does Carillon and the chapter ends with Aidan alone.