Streams of Silver - Chapter Twenty

[kalinara]

So last time, Artemis Entreri and Drizzt Do'Urden finally crossed swords, only to be crushed by a stonework trap. The end. We'll never see either character again. Whew.

What? You don't believe me? I can't imagine why.



So we rejoin the characters who didn't get crushed by falling rocks. They go to investigate. There's no blood or "any other sign" of the "two master swordsmen". I briefly tangent to imagine what another sign might be. Ew. I also snicker at the way Salvatore can't not heap effusive praise on both men.

Bruenor eventually finds Drizzt's scimitar and is caught up in grief and guilt. He remembers how he tricked Drizzt into joining the quest, and now he thinks its his fault.

So this leads into a ridiculous bit of self indulgence as Mr. Salvatore spends paragraphs detailing each character's feelings of tremendous grief for his star character. Wulfgar, for example, lost "the warrior who had transformed him from a savage, brutish warrior to a calculating and cunning fighter".

It doesn't stop there of course, and we learn that Wulfgar often envisions "his own death beside the drow, a glorious finish that the bards would write and sing about long after the enemies who had slain the two friends had turned to dust in unmarked graves"

Catti-brie's...well, let me show you this one:

"Ye've found yer peace now, me friend," Catti-brie said softly, understanding the drow's tormented existence better than anyone. Catti-brie's perceptions of the world were more attuned to Drizzt's sensitive side, the private aspect of his character that his other friends could not see beneath his stoic features. It was the part of Drizzt Do'Urden that had demanded he leave Menzoberranzan and his evil race, and had forced him into a role as an outcast. Catti-brie knew the joy of the drow's spirit, and the unavoidable pain he had suffered at the snubbings of those who could not see that spirit for the color of his skin.

Do you realize that not once in the series so far has Catti-brie and Drizzt exchanged a word to each other?

Obviously they will. Future novels will give us a lot by way of the two characters' dynamic. Eventually, they'll even become romantic. (Something that, to be honest, squicked me out even as a teenager.) But right now, this is ridiculous.

We have seen NOTHING of this supposed connection between Catti-brie and Drizzt. We've seen no indication of this supposed understanding that Catti-brie has of Drizzt. Hell, she's barely thought of him except once, to be amused at Wulfgar's bravado about his unseen teacher, and then in this book, to compare his fighting technique to Artemis Entreri.

So no. You don't get to do this, Salvatore. Not without showing the work beforehand. This is cheap and meaningless and gives us no insight into any of these characters. It's a vicarious ego trip.

Regis is of course devastated. He can't even feel relief that Entreri is dead, even though this means that his old boss, Pasha Pook, won't pursue him anymore. Instead, he feels like a part of himself died in his alcove. Then we get a bit of characterization that fits nothing of what we've seen before:

Ever the confident gambler, the thought of losing this challenge had never entered his head. Life was a game that he played hard and to the edge, and never before had he been expected to pay for his risks. If anything in the world could temper the halfling's obsession with chance, it was this, the loss of one of his few true friends because of a risk he had chosen to take.

What is THIS bullshit?

Regis is a THIEF, not a gambler. If anything, he has been constantly and consistently shown as being risk-averse! You keep telling us he's a coward! Over and over again. How does this remotely fit with "playing hard and to the edge?!". WHAT obsession with chance???

Regis is obsessed with food and creature comforts. Not CHANCE. We have never seen him play a game. We haven't seen him THINK about playing a game.

The only bit in this entire spiel that rings true is the idea that Regis would be too devastated at Drizzt's death to feel relief. The rest of this is utter bullshit.

Things get heated when Regis asks what they'll do next, and Bruenor, already guilty, takes it as an accusation. He starts shouting at him and almost attacks, until Wulfgar steps in between. Because Wulfgar is the best part of these books so far. Bruenor calms down, embarrassed, and tells them that they'll be "putting this foul place far behind us".

Catti-brie and Wulfgar aren't completely on board with leaving without supplies, but when they don't find anything to salvage, they come to the same conclusion. Wulfgar in particular is concerned by Bruenor's vehemence, and asks if he intends to return with the rest of his people. Bruenor says no. But Wulfgar tells him that Drizzt will have died in vain.

Annoyingly, Catti-brie, who is Bruenor's DAUGHTER, says nothing for most of this conversation. Eventually she speaks up to answer Wulfgar's bravado (Bruenor says Drizzt's death is a warning, Wulfgar says he won't head warnings, and Catti-brie says then he's sure to be a dead warrior), but we get no indication of her actual feelings or perception. I might start to miss when she was a damsel in distress.

Anyway, Wulfgar intends to take back Mithril Hall. Bruenor disagrees: he came to find his home, but this isn't it, and he feels like he's lost his claim on it.

After they leave, Sydney and Bok return. Sydney finds herself feeling deep sorrow for Entreri, which seems a bit out of character, but at the same time, I have to acknowledge that so far there's been far more to Entreri and Sydney's relationship than there was between Catti-brie and Drizzt. Her thoughts clarify that while she didn't trust him at all, she had come to respect him and appreciate him as an ally when fighting started. Fair enough.

Sydney's also worried about herself. She was sent on a mission, and with Drizzt buried under rubble, she can't complete it. (She couldn't anyway, since the shard is buried under an avalanche in the Icewind Dales, but she doesn't know that.) Sydney decides that maybe capturing the others will help mitigate Dendybar's wrath.

Bok meanwhile starts trying to remove the rubble, until Sydney calls him away. She resents that Bok wasn't the one smashed because Entreri could have at least offered suggestions. Bok follows her orders.

Now we're back to the companions as they make their way through what Bruenor recognizes as the Halls of Gathering, when the entire clan would come together to hear the King, or meet with visitors. Even the youngest dwarves were present, and Bruenor remembers sitting beside his father, while his father explained what his grandfather was doing as king. He's melancholy, and Catti-brie and Wulfgar are concerned.

There's also another issue: if there are invaders below, they would have been alerted by the stone trap. And sure enough, Regis alerts the group, they hide in a recess and wait as a very large group of gray dwarves march past. They start to leave, but Bruenor suddenly catches sight of the Hall of Dumathoin: "the heritage of Clan Battlehammer."

The others think it must be pillaged, but Bruenor isn't sure, since the door is magicked and there are many many traps inside. He warns Regis away from stealing anything. And indeed, when they go in, they see a pile of bones.

But then, they see that the treasure hall is absolutely destroyed. Pedastals broken apart and trampled. There's a huge hole in the wall. Catti-brie is the one who finds the real answer though, when she finds a giant black scale almost the size of a man. Wulfgar identifies it as a dragon scale. OH! The Goth My Little Pony dragon! I completely forgot about him!

Bruenor finally remembers that it's the dragon, not the gray dwarves that drove his people from the halls. They intend to leave, but Regis finds something interesting in the rubble: it's a wooden long bow. "Taulmaril the Hartseeker, gift of Anariel, Sister of Faerun."

I thought Faerun was the continent? And the wiki does not enlighten me. Hm. Okay. I suppose there are girls named "America" and "Asia", so maybe that's what happened. They also find a quiver full of silver arrows. Catti-brie tests it out, and they discover when looking back that the quiver has replenished itself. Nice. Regis wonders what else they might find, but Bruenor steers them away.

But anyway, I'm glad to see that Catti-brie gets a neat toy this time. Wulfgar has his hammer. Drizzt has...had...a dragon's scimitar and a magic cat, Regis has his attempted rape ruby. Catti-brie gets a nifty bow. Seems fair to me. And the chapter ends with Sydney watching them and saying "Not yet". Of course.