Song of Homana - Part Two - Chapter One
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i_read_whatSo last time, we reached the end of Part One. Carillon finally finished his sublimation of his homoerotic feelings for his best friend by marrying a clearly unwilling woman. Now, well, we'll be seeing the fallout of that decision.
So we rejoin a very impatient Carillon, who is staring at Finn in anguish, asking why "it" will not be born? Oh dear.
So Electra is pregnant, and the child is overdue. She's been in labor for two days and Carillon's afraid she's dying. Finn is a surprisingly sympathetic ear, given his dislike of Electra, and merely points out that children come at their own time and that Electra is a strong woman.
Carillon retorts that Alix had lost a child during the Ihlini attack on the Keep, and apparently Duncan thinks it's unlikely she'll have another child. Given that Duncan is a tool, I'm giving even odds of her being pregnant by the end of the book. Interestingly, we get the first acknowledgment that Carillon finally believes Electra's claim:
“She is—not as young as she appears. She could die of this.”
Finn shuts his mouth at this. Apparently, "like most", Finn forgot that Electra is twenty years older than she looks. How common is this knowledge? Though really, it should be pretty common. People tend to pay attention when royal children are born after all. So I shouldn't judge.
Carillon and Finn's dialogue continues and this is interesting:
I leaned against the door and let my head thump back upon the wood. “Gods—I would almost rather be in a war than live through this—”
Finn grimaced. “It is not the same at all—”
“You cannot say,” I accused. “I sired this child, not you. You cannot even lay claim to a bastard.”
“No,” he agreed, “I cannot.” For a moment he looked down at Storr sitting so quietly by his side. The wolf’s eyes were slitted and sleepy, as if bored by his surroundings. I wished I could be as calm.
Carillon is nervous and anxious, so I don't blame him for lashing out, but considering that Finn confessed that his greatest desire was a son...ouch.
Finn makes an offer: if Carillon wishes the child to be born so much, he can speak to Electra and use the "third gift" and TELL her to have the child. UM?
I stared at him. “You can do that?”
“It is no different from any other time I used it.” Finn shrugged. “Compulsion need not always be used for harm—it can exact an obedience that is not so harsh, such as urging a woman to give birth.” He smiled faintly. “I am no midwife, but I think it likely she is afraid. As you say, she is not so young as she looks—she may fear also she will not bear a son.”
I am both deeply disturbed and a little fascinated. The idea that mind control could be used for medicinal purposes, like as an anesthetic or something, is really interesting. I want to hear more about this.
Meanwhile, Carillon hopes for a son, but really just wants Electra to be safe. So he asks if Finn can do that.
Finn's explanation is kind of great:
“I can tell her to do whatever it is women do while giving birth,” he said, with excess gravity, “and I think it likely the child will be born.”
That's kind of amazing to me.
Carillon thinks it sounds barbaric, and Finn concedes that perhaps it is, but babies are born all the time, and women keep giving birth. He thinks it should be safe. Carillon tells him to come with him. Finn hesitates with a frown, and then follows.
So Carillon bursts into the room with Finn in tow, shocking all the women inside. We're told that Carillon's presence is bad enough, but Finn is a shapechanger, so they're both anathema. I think it might just be that you brought a strange, unrelated man into your wife's birthing chamber dude?
Also, Electra and Finn both dislike each other. Don't you think it would be better to ASK her first?
I thrust myself through them and knelt down beside her bed. Dark circles underlay her eyes and her hair was damp and tangled. Gone was the magnificent beauty I so admired, but in its place was an ever greater sort. The woman was bearing my child.
...ew.
Anyway, Electra is NOT on board with this plan. Unsurprisingly. And we're told that the women are closing ranks. They're all Solindish women, called in by Carillon because he knew that Electra had been lonely, "but now I wished they were gone."
Because your wife's feelings are less important than yours, dude?
I'd like to think any woman would close ranks here against a man trying to force his wife to do something that she didn't want to while in childbirth.
Carillon asks Finn if there's anything he can do, and he steps forward:
He came forward slowly, not noticing how the women pulled their skirts away from his passage. I saw hand gestures and muttered invocations; did they think him a demon? Aye, likely. And they Solindish, with their Ihlini sorcerers.
I saw a strangeness in Finn’s face as he looked on Electra. It was a stricken expression, as if he had suddenly realized the import of the child, or of the woman who bore it, and what it was to sire a child. There was a sudden crackling awareness in him, an awareness of Electra as he had never seen her. I could feel it in him. In nine months I had seen him watching her as she watched him, both with grave, explicit wariness and all defenses raised. But now, as he squatted down beside the bed, I saw an awakening of wonder in his eyes.
Electra’s pride was gone. He saw the woman instead; not the Ihlini’s meijha, not the haughty Solindish princess, not the Queen of Homana who had wed his liege lord. And I knew, looking at him, I had made a deadly mistake.
Dude. Really?!
You're trying to force your wife to take part in a pseudo-medical procedure she doesn't want, and it's a mistake because your best friend might be attracted to her. WHAT??
I thought of sending him away. But he had taken her hand into both of his even as she sought to withdraw, and it was too late to speak a word.
He was endlessly patient with her, and so gentle I hardly knew him. The Finn of old was gone. And yet, as he looked at her, I had the feeling it was not Electra he saw. Someone else, I thought; the change had been too abrupt.
“Ja’hai,” he said clearly, and then—as if knowing she could not understand the Old Tongue—he translated each word he spoke. “Ja’hai—accept. Cheysuli i’halla shansu.” He paused. “Shansu, meijhana—peace. May there be Cheysuli peace upon you—”
Electra tells him that she spits on his peace, and Finn uses the earth magic. As Carillon watches, he starts thinking about the oubliette again. He thinks about how "[f]or all the Cheysuli claimed themselves human, I knew now they were not. More; so much, much more."
But then something happens:
Finn twitched. His eyes shut, then opened. I saw his head dip forward as if he slept, then he jerked awake. The blankness deepened in his eyes, and then suddenly I knew something had gone wrong. He was—different. His flesh turned hard as stone and the scar stood up from his flesh. All the color ran out of his face.
...this kind of serves you right, guys.
Anyway, Storr leaps into the room, while Finn seems to have some kind of seizure and the power dynamic of the scene shifts:
Finn was white as death with an ashen tinge to his mouth. I put a hand on his arm and felt the rigid, upstanding muscles. He twitched again and began to tremble as if with a seizure; his mouth was slack and open. His tongue was turning dark as it curled back into his throat.
And then I saw it was Electra who held his hand and that he could not break free of her grasp.
I caught their wrists and jerked, trying to wrench their hands apart. At first the grip held; Electra’s nails bit into his skin and drew blood, but it welled dark and thick. Then I broke the grip and Finn was freed, but he was hardly the Finn I knew. He fell back, still shaking, his yellow eyes turned up to show the whites. One shoulder scraped against the wall. I thought he was senseless, but he was awake. Too awake, I found.
At this point, Finn is animalistic, growling like an animal, and lunges for Electra.
I caught his shoulders as he thrust himself up and slammed him against the wall. There was no doubt of his prey. One of his arms was outstretched in her direction and the fingers were flexing like claws.
“Finn—”
All the muscles stood up from his flesh and I felt the tremendous power, but it was nothing compared to my fear. Somehow I held him, pressing him into the wall. I knew, if I let him go, he would slay her where she lay.
Eventually Finn's homicidal fit/seizure subsides. He collapses, and is disoriented. He tells Carillon that Tynstar is HERE. Carillon FINALLY gets Finn the fuck out of there.
Finn keeps lurching around, "lacking grace" and not like himself at all. He keeps babbling that Tynstar is here.
Carillon shouts him down, saying that he tried to kill Electra.
He put a hand to his face and I saw how the fingers trembled. He pushed them through his hair, stripping it from his eyes, and the scar stood out like a brand against cheek and jaw. “He—was—here—” Each word was distinct. He spoke with the precise clarity of the drunken man, or the very shaken. A ragged and angry tone, laced with a fear I had never heard. “Tynstar set a trap—”
“Enough of Tynstar!” I shouted, and then I fell silent. From inside the room came the imperative cry of a newborn soul, and the murmur of the women. Suddenly it was there I wanted to be, not here, and yet I knew he needed me. This once, he needed me. “Rest,” I said shortly. “Take some food—drink something! Will you go? Go…before I have to carry you from this place.”
Okay:
1) Carillon, this is YOUR fault. Finn may have made an offer to help, but you're the one who accepted it and forced it on your wife.
2) That said, MAYBE you should LISTEN to what Finn is SAYING here. You forced the mistress of an evil sorcerer into marriage. You KNOW she was touched by his magic, because of her youth and her ability to influence others.
MAYBE, just MAYBE they set a fucking trap for you?!
3) That said, Carillon does, when push comes to shove, still prioritize Finn over Electra. Dude. You married the wrong person.
Meanwhile Finn still seems basically broken:
He pushed off the wall, wavered, then knelt upon the floor. For one insane moment I thought he knelt to offer apology; he did not. I thought he prayed, but he did not. He merely gathered Storr into his arms and hugged him as hard as he could.
Again, serves you right. But also, Carillon, pay the fuck attention here! You've SEEN Finn do mind control before. THIS ISN'T NORMAL.
Carillon instead goes in to see his newborn child. It's a girl.
Fortunately, Carillon is no Henry VIII. He takes it well:
What man cannot know immortality when he holds his child in his arms? Suddenly it did not matter that I had no son; I would in time. For now, I had a daughter, and I thought she would be enough.
Unfortunately, Electra sees it differently:
“Gods!” she cried out. “All this pain for a girl? No son for Homana—no son for Solinde—” The tears spilled down her face, limning her exhaustion. “How will I keep my bargain? This birth nearly took me—”
Okay, leaving aside the fact that Electra's boyfriend very possibly boobytrapped her brain, Carillon should pay attention to the implications of this. It's a bargain! She's unhappy! Let the woman go!
He tries to comfort her, but Electra is despondent, asking what use is a girl but to wed. And I know that I'm supposed to disagree, but this is a world where women can't inherit the throne. If they could, Lindir would have been fine, and Alix would be sitting on the Lion Throne. Not Carillon. And Electra would be ruling Solinde in her own right.
A daughter doesn't complete her bargain with Carillon.
When Electra sleeps, Carillon goes to find Finn:
Soon enough the criers were sent out and the bells began to peel. Servants congratulated me and offered good wishes. Someone pressed a cup of wine into my hand as I strode through a corridor on my way to Finn’s chambers. Faces were a blur to me; I hardly knew their names. I had a daughter, but I also had a problem.
Do you? Finn has never attacked Electra before. He only entered her mind because YOU wanted it. And then he had some kind of fit. Maybe you should talk to the guy after he comes to his senses?
Anyway, Carillon can't find Finn. He does find Lachlan and Torry. They saw Finn take Storr and leave, without a horse. Torry notes that he seemed odd, not himself, and wouldn't answer questions. (She's white-faced, but Carillon, oblivious doesn't notice.)
Lachlan tells Carillon that Finn went to the Keep, saying he needed cleansing for something he had done. He doesn't want Carillon to send for him or come after him. It's a Cheysuli thing and clan-ties take precedence.
Torry tells Carillon that Finn had said the nature of cleansing depended on the nature of the offense. And his offense was great. She asks Carillon what he'd done:
“Tried to slay the Queen.” It came out of my mouth without emotion, as if someone else were speaking. I saw the shock in their eyes. “Gods!” I said on a rushing breath, “I must go after him. You did not see what he was—” I started out the door and nearly ran into Rowan.
For fuck's sake Carillon, pay ATTENTION. This is out of character behavior, and this book started with your evil sorcerer enemy putting mental traps in people's heads. Maybe you should be looking at that as a cause of this behavior.
Maybe you should be looking at YOUR behavior.
Unfortunately, Rowan comes in now with terrible news from the regent in Lestra, the capitol of Solinde. Thorne of Atvia is planning to invade Homana. He has a grudge for the death of his father and the Atvians slain in the war. He intends to raise Solindish aid and attack the city of Hondarth, through Solinde and by sea.
Gosh, it's almost like Duncan deciding not to kill that guy when he had the chance was a bad idea. Who could have possibly called that one?
If you remember the map I described, Homana is almost entirely landlocked, except its southern coast. Hondarth is a rich city on the shores of the Idrian Ocean, whose commerce is based on fishing and trade. It's a two week ride down, and will take longer as a march.
Carillon realizes that Finn would have to wait.
We fast forward a bit. Eventually Carillon is able to break free of the planning councils and go to the Keep, coming face to face with Finn:
He had left Mujhara without a horse, but now he had one. Borrowed from the Keep, or perhaps it was one of his own. He did not say. He did not say much at all, being so shut up within himself, and when I looked at him I saw how the shadow lay on him, thick and dark. His yellow eyes were strange.
We met under a sky slate-gray with massing clouds. Rain was due in an instant. It was nearly fall, and in four months the snow would be thick upon the ground. For now there was none, but I wore a green woolen cloak pulled close against plain brown hunting leathers. Finn, bare-armed still, and cloakless, pulled in his horse and waited. The wind whipped the hair from his face, exposing the livid scar, and I swore I saw silver in his hair where before it had been raven’s-wing black. He looked older, somehow, and more than a trifle harder. Or was it merely that I had not noticed before?
Carillon explains that he wanted to come, but then the courier came. Finn has heard the news.
And this is disturbing:
“Is that why you have come back?”
He made a gesture with his head; a thrusting of his chin toward the distances lying behind me. “Mujhara is there. I have not come back yet.”
The voice was flat, lacking intonation. I tried to search beneath what I saw. But I was poor at reading Cheysuli; they know ways of blanking themselves. “Do you mean to?”
The scar ticked once. “I have no place else to go.”
It astonished me, in light of where he had been. “But—the Keep—”
“I am liege man to the Mujhar. My place is not with the clan, but with him. Duncan has said—” He stopped short; something made him turn his head away. “Duncan has not—absolved me of what I tried to do. As the shar tahl says: if one is afraid, one can only become unafraid by facing what causes the fear.” The wind, shifting, blew the hair back into his face. I could see nothing of his expression. “And so I go to face it again. I could not admit my fear—i’toshaa-ni was not completed. I am—unclean.”
Wow. DICK move, Duncan.
And seriously, Carillon, SOMETHING IS WRONG.
Carillon doesn't want Finn to see Electra, understandably. Finn also doesn't want to see Electra, but doesn't think he has a choice. Carillon asks if he intends to kill her. Finn tells him that he intends to kill Tynstar.
The anger boiled over. I had not realized how frightened I was that he might have succeeded; how close I had come to losing them both. Both. Had Finn slain Electra, there was no choice but execution. “Electra is not Tynstar! Are you blind? She is my wife—”
“She was Tynstar’s meijha,” he said quietly, “and I doubt not he uses her still. Through her soul, if not her body.”
“Finn—”
“It was I who nearly died!” He was alive again, and angry. Also clearly frightened. “Not Electra—she is too strong. It was I, Cheysuli blood and all.” He drew in a hissing breath and I saw the instinctive baring of white teeth. “It nearly took me down; it nearly swallowed me whole. It was Tynstar, I tell you—it was.”
And I mean, yes, Finn isn't making a lot of sense here. And there's no evidence. I'm certainly not saying that Carillon should kill Electra based on incoherent accusations.
But maybe it's worth looking INTO this?
Why not talk to Duncan? Or Alix, if you want someone actually competent! ASK what the Ihlini can actually do?! FIND OUT if someone ELSE senses the problem aside from Finn!
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't blame Electra if she was still working for Tynstar since she never wanted this to begin with. But be fucking smart about this, Carillon.
Actually, I spoke too soon:
“Go, then,” I said angrily. “Go on to Homana-Mujhar and wait for me there. We will face whatever it is you have to face, and get this finished at once. But there are things I have to discuss with Duncan.”
Thank goodness. Be SMART, Carillon.
He notices gray in Finn's hair and bleakness in his eyes. He states that with a war coming, he'll need Finn at his side:
The wind blew through his hair. The sunlight, so dull and brassy behind the clouds, set his lir-gold in the grayness of the day. His face was alien to me; I thought again of the vault and oubliette. Had it changed me so much? Or was it Finn who had been changed?
“Then I will be there,” he said, “for as long as I can.”
Carillon thinks this is an odd promise, but Finn rides off before he can ask what he meant. I'm pretty sure he meant that to be as ominous as it sounds dude. And the chapter ends here.
The problem with impending tragedy is that it can be very frustrating to watch it happen, when you can see what the characters can't. I want to hit him with a clue by four, and I suspect that will get worse.
So we rejoin a very impatient Carillon, who is staring at Finn in anguish, asking why "it" will not be born? Oh dear.
So Electra is pregnant, and the child is overdue. She's been in labor for two days and Carillon's afraid she's dying. Finn is a surprisingly sympathetic ear, given his dislike of Electra, and merely points out that children come at their own time and that Electra is a strong woman.
Carillon retorts that Alix had lost a child during the Ihlini attack on the Keep, and apparently Duncan thinks it's unlikely she'll have another child. Given that Duncan is a tool, I'm giving even odds of her being pregnant by the end of the book. Interestingly, we get the first acknowledgment that Carillon finally believes Electra's claim:
“She is—not as young as she appears. She could die of this.”
Finn shuts his mouth at this. Apparently, "like most", Finn forgot that Electra is twenty years older than she looks. How common is this knowledge? Though really, it should be pretty common. People tend to pay attention when royal children are born after all. So I shouldn't judge.
Carillon and Finn's dialogue continues and this is interesting:
I leaned against the door and let my head thump back upon the wood. “Gods—I would almost rather be in a war than live through this—”
Finn grimaced. “It is not the same at all—”
“You cannot say,” I accused. “I sired this child, not you. You cannot even lay claim to a bastard.”
“No,” he agreed, “I cannot.” For a moment he looked down at Storr sitting so quietly by his side. The wolf’s eyes were slitted and sleepy, as if bored by his surroundings. I wished I could be as calm.
Carillon is nervous and anxious, so I don't blame him for lashing out, but considering that Finn confessed that his greatest desire was a son...ouch.
Finn makes an offer: if Carillon wishes the child to be born so much, he can speak to Electra and use the "third gift" and TELL her to have the child. UM?
I stared at him. “You can do that?”
“It is no different from any other time I used it.” Finn shrugged. “Compulsion need not always be used for harm—it can exact an obedience that is not so harsh, such as urging a woman to give birth.” He smiled faintly. “I am no midwife, but I think it likely she is afraid. As you say, she is not so young as she looks—she may fear also she will not bear a son.”
I am both deeply disturbed and a little fascinated. The idea that mind control could be used for medicinal purposes, like as an anesthetic or something, is really interesting. I want to hear more about this.
Meanwhile, Carillon hopes for a son, but really just wants Electra to be safe. So he asks if Finn can do that.
Finn's explanation is kind of great:
“I can tell her to do whatever it is women do while giving birth,” he said, with excess gravity, “and I think it likely the child will be born.”
That's kind of amazing to me.
Carillon thinks it sounds barbaric, and Finn concedes that perhaps it is, but babies are born all the time, and women keep giving birth. He thinks it should be safe. Carillon tells him to come with him. Finn hesitates with a frown, and then follows.
So Carillon bursts into the room with Finn in tow, shocking all the women inside. We're told that Carillon's presence is bad enough, but Finn is a shapechanger, so they're both anathema. I think it might just be that you brought a strange, unrelated man into your wife's birthing chamber dude?
Also, Electra and Finn both dislike each other. Don't you think it would be better to ASK her first?
I thrust myself through them and knelt down beside her bed. Dark circles underlay her eyes and her hair was damp and tangled. Gone was the magnificent beauty I so admired, but in its place was an ever greater sort. The woman was bearing my child.
...ew.
Anyway, Electra is NOT on board with this plan. Unsurprisingly. And we're told that the women are closing ranks. They're all Solindish women, called in by Carillon because he knew that Electra had been lonely, "but now I wished they were gone."
Because your wife's feelings are less important than yours, dude?
I'd like to think any woman would close ranks here against a man trying to force his wife to do something that she didn't want to while in childbirth.
Carillon asks Finn if there's anything he can do, and he steps forward:
He came forward slowly, not noticing how the women pulled their skirts away from his passage. I saw hand gestures and muttered invocations; did they think him a demon? Aye, likely. And they Solindish, with their Ihlini sorcerers.
I saw a strangeness in Finn’s face as he looked on Electra. It was a stricken expression, as if he had suddenly realized the import of the child, or of the woman who bore it, and what it was to sire a child. There was a sudden crackling awareness in him, an awareness of Electra as he had never seen her. I could feel it in him. In nine months I had seen him watching her as she watched him, both with grave, explicit wariness and all defenses raised. But now, as he squatted down beside the bed, I saw an awakening of wonder in his eyes.
Electra’s pride was gone. He saw the woman instead; not the Ihlini’s meijha, not the haughty Solindish princess, not the Queen of Homana who had wed his liege lord. And I knew, looking at him, I had made a deadly mistake.
Dude. Really?!
You're trying to force your wife to take part in a pseudo-medical procedure she doesn't want, and it's a mistake because your best friend might be attracted to her. WHAT??
I thought of sending him away. But he had taken her hand into both of his even as she sought to withdraw, and it was too late to speak a word.
He was endlessly patient with her, and so gentle I hardly knew him. The Finn of old was gone. And yet, as he looked at her, I had the feeling it was not Electra he saw. Someone else, I thought; the change had been too abrupt.
“Ja’hai,” he said clearly, and then—as if knowing she could not understand the Old Tongue—he translated each word he spoke. “Ja’hai—accept. Cheysuli i’halla shansu.” He paused. “Shansu, meijhana—peace. May there be Cheysuli peace upon you—”
Electra tells him that she spits on his peace, and Finn uses the earth magic. As Carillon watches, he starts thinking about the oubliette again. He thinks about how "[f]or all the Cheysuli claimed themselves human, I knew now they were not. More; so much, much more."
But then something happens:
Finn twitched. His eyes shut, then opened. I saw his head dip forward as if he slept, then he jerked awake. The blankness deepened in his eyes, and then suddenly I knew something had gone wrong. He was—different. His flesh turned hard as stone and the scar stood up from his flesh. All the color ran out of his face.
...this kind of serves you right, guys.
Anyway, Storr leaps into the room, while Finn seems to have some kind of seizure and the power dynamic of the scene shifts:
Finn was white as death with an ashen tinge to his mouth. I put a hand on his arm and felt the rigid, upstanding muscles. He twitched again and began to tremble as if with a seizure; his mouth was slack and open. His tongue was turning dark as it curled back into his throat.
And then I saw it was Electra who held his hand and that he could not break free of her grasp.
I caught their wrists and jerked, trying to wrench their hands apart. At first the grip held; Electra’s nails bit into his skin and drew blood, but it welled dark and thick. Then I broke the grip and Finn was freed, but he was hardly the Finn I knew. He fell back, still shaking, his yellow eyes turned up to show the whites. One shoulder scraped against the wall. I thought he was senseless, but he was awake. Too awake, I found.
At this point, Finn is animalistic, growling like an animal, and lunges for Electra.
I caught his shoulders as he thrust himself up and slammed him against the wall. There was no doubt of his prey. One of his arms was outstretched in her direction and the fingers were flexing like claws.
“Finn—”
All the muscles stood up from his flesh and I felt the tremendous power, but it was nothing compared to my fear. Somehow I held him, pressing him into the wall. I knew, if I let him go, he would slay her where she lay.
Eventually Finn's homicidal fit/seizure subsides. He collapses, and is disoriented. He tells Carillon that Tynstar is HERE. Carillon FINALLY gets Finn the fuck out of there.
Finn keeps lurching around, "lacking grace" and not like himself at all. He keeps babbling that Tynstar is here.
Carillon shouts him down, saying that he tried to kill Electra.
He put a hand to his face and I saw how the fingers trembled. He pushed them through his hair, stripping it from his eyes, and the scar stood out like a brand against cheek and jaw. “He—was—here—” Each word was distinct. He spoke with the precise clarity of the drunken man, or the very shaken. A ragged and angry tone, laced with a fear I had never heard. “Tynstar set a trap—”
“Enough of Tynstar!” I shouted, and then I fell silent. From inside the room came the imperative cry of a newborn soul, and the murmur of the women. Suddenly it was there I wanted to be, not here, and yet I knew he needed me. This once, he needed me. “Rest,” I said shortly. “Take some food—drink something! Will you go? Go…before I have to carry you from this place.”
Okay:
1) Carillon, this is YOUR fault. Finn may have made an offer to help, but you're the one who accepted it and forced it on your wife.
2) That said, MAYBE you should LISTEN to what Finn is SAYING here. You forced the mistress of an evil sorcerer into marriage. You KNOW she was touched by his magic, because of her youth and her ability to influence others.
MAYBE, just MAYBE they set a fucking trap for you?!
3) That said, Carillon does, when push comes to shove, still prioritize Finn over Electra. Dude. You married the wrong person.
Meanwhile Finn still seems basically broken:
He pushed off the wall, wavered, then knelt upon the floor. For one insane moment I thought he knelt to offer apology; he did not. I thought he prayed, but he did not. He merely gathered Storr into his arms and hugged him as hard as he could.
Again, serves you right. But also, Carillon, pay the fuck attention here! You've SEEN Finn do mind control before. THIS ISN'T NORMAL.
Carillon instead goes in to see his newborn child. It's a girl.
Fortunately, Carillon is no Henry VIII. He takes it well:
What man cannot know immortality when he holds his child in his arms? Suddenly it did not matter that I had no son; I would in time. For now, I had a daughter, and I thought she would be enough.
Unfortunately, Electra sees it differently:
“Gods!” she cried out. “All this pain for a girl? No son for Homana—no son for Solinde—” The tears spilled down her face, limning her exhaustion. “How will I keep my bargain? This birth nearly took me—”
Okay, leaving aside the fact that Electra's boyfriend very possibly boobytrapped her brain, Carillon should pay attention to the implications of this. It's a bargain! She's unhappy! Let the woman go!
He tries to comfort her, but Electra is despondent, asking what use is a girl but to wed. And I know that I'm supposed to disagree, but this is a world where women can't inherit the throne. If they could, Lindir would have been fine, and Alix would be sitting on the Lion Throne. Not Carillon. And Electra would be ruling Solinde in her own right.
A daughter doesn't complete her bargain with Carillon.
When Electra sleeps, Carillon goes to find Finn:
Soon enough the criers were sent out and the bells began to peel. Servants congratulated me and offered good wishes. Someone pressed a cup of wine into my hand as I strode through a corridor on my way to Finn’s chambers. Faces were a blur to me; I hardly knew their names. I had a daughter, but I also had a problem.
Do you? Finn has never attacked Electra before. He only entered her mind because YOU wanted it. And then he had some kind of fit. Maybe you should talk to the guy after he comes to his senses?
Anyway, Carillon can't find Finn. He does find Lachlan and Torry. They saw Finn take Storr and leave, without a horse. Torry notes that he seemed odd, not himself, and wouldn't answer questions. (She's white-faced, but Carillon, oblivious doesn't notice.)
Lachlan tells Carillon that Finn went to the Keep, saying he needed cleansing for something he had done. He doesn't want Carillon to send for him or come after him. It's a Cheysuli thing and clan-ties take precedence.
Torry tells Carillon that Finn had said the nature of cleansing depended on the nature of the offense. And his offense was great. She asks Carillon what he'd done:
“Tried to slay the Queen.” It came out of my mouth without emotion, as if someone else were speaking. I saw the shock in their eyes. “Gods!” I said on a rushing breath, “I must go after him. You did not see what he was—” I started out the door and nearly ran into Rowan.
For fuck's sake Carillon, pay ATTENTION. This is out of character behavior, and this book started with your evil sorcerer enemy putting mental traps in people's heads. Maybe you should be looking at that as a cause of this behavior.
Maybe you should be looking at YOUR behavior.
Unfortunately, Rowan comes in now with terrible news from the regent in Lestra, the capitol of Solinde. Thorne of Atvia is planning to invade Homana. He has a grudge for the death of his father and the Atvians slain in the war. He intends to raise Solindish aid and attack the city of Hondarth, through Solinde and by sea.
Gosh, it's almost like Duncan deciding not to kill that guy when he had the chance was a bad idea. Who could have possibly called that one?
If you remember the map I described, Homana is almost entirely landlocked, except its southern coast. Hondarth is a rich city on the shores of the Idrian Ocean, whose commerce is based on fishing and trade. It's a two week ride down, and will take longer as a march.
Carillon realizes that Finn would have to wait.
We fast forward a bit. Eventually Carillon is able to break free of the planning councils and go to the Keep, coming face to face with Finn:
He had left Mujhara without a horse, but now he had one. Borrowed from the Keep, or perhaps it was one of his own. He did not say. He did not say much at all, being so shut up within himself, and when I looked at him I saw how the shadow lay on him, thick and dark. His yellow eyes were strange.
We met under a sky slate-gray with massing clouds. Rain was due in an instant. It was nearly fall, and in four months the snow would be thick upon the ground. For now there was none, but I wore a green woolen cloak pulled close against plain brown hunting leathers. Finn, bare-armed still, and cloakless, pulled in his horse and waited. The wind whipped the hair from his face, exposing the livid scar, and I swore I saw silver in his hair where before it had been raven’s-wing black. He looked older, somehow, and more than a trifle harder. Or was it merely that I had not noticed before?
Carillon explains that he wanted to come, but then the courier came. Finn has heard the news.
And this is disturbing:
“Is that why you have come back?”
He made a gesture with his head; a thrusting of his chin toward the distances lying behind me. “Mujhara is there. I have not come back yet.”
The voice was flat, lacking intonation. I tried to search beneath what I saw. But I was poor at reading Cheysuli; they know ways of blanking themselves. “Do you mean to?”
The scar ticked once. “I have no place else to go.”
It astonished me, in light of where he had been. “But—the Keep—”
“I am liege man to the Mujhar. My place is not with the clan, but with him. Duncan has said—” He stopped short; something made him turn his head away. “Duncan has not—absolved me of what I tried to do. As the shar tahl says: if one is afraid, one can only become unafraid by facing what causes the fear.” The wind, shifting, blew the hair back into his face. I could see nothing of his expression. “And so I go to face it again. I could not admit my fear—i’toshaa-ni was not completed. I am—unclean.”
Wow. DICK move, Duncan.
And seriously, Carillon, SOMETHING IS WRONG.
Carillon doesn't want Finn to see Electra, understandably. Finn also doesn't want to see Electra, but doesn't think he has a choice. Carillon asks if he intends to kill her. Finn tells him that he intends to kill Tynstar.
The anger boiled over. I had not realized how frightened I was that he might have succeeded; how close I had come to losing them both. Both. Had Finn slain Electra, there was no choice but execution. “Electra is not Tynstar! Are you blind? She is my wife—”
“She was Tynstar’s meijha,” he said quietly, “and I doubt not he uses her still. Through her soul, if not her body.”
“Finn—”
“It was I who nearly died!” He was alive again, and angry. Also clearly frightened. “Not Electra—she is too strong. It was I, Cheysuli blood and all.” He drew in a hissing breath and I saw the instinctive baring of white teeth. “It nearly took me down; it nearly swallowed me whole. It was Tynstar, I tell you—it was.”
And I mean, yes, Finn isn't making a lot of sense here. And there's no evidence. I'm certainly not saying that Carillon should kill Electra based on incoherent accusations.
But maybe it's worth looking INTO this?
Why not talk to Duncan? Or Alix, if you want someone actually competent! ASK what the Ihlini can actually do?! FIND OUT if someone ELSE senses the problem aside from Finn!
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't blame Electra if she was still working for Tynstar since she never wanted this to begin with. But be fucking smart about this, Carillon.
Actually, I spoke too soon:
“Go, then,” I said angrily. “Go on to Homana-Mujhar and wait for me there. We will face whatever it is you have to face, and get this finished at once. But there are things I have to discuss with Duncan.”
Thank goodness. Be SMART, Carillon.
He notices gray in Finn's hair and bleakness in his eyes. He states that with a war coming, he'll need Finn at his side:
The wind blew through his hair. The sunlight, so dull and brassy behind the clouds, set his lir-gold in the grayness of the day. His face was alien to me; I thought again of the vault and oubliette. Had it changed me so much? Or was it Finn who had been changed?
“Then I will be there,” he said, “for as long as I can.”
Carillon thinks this is an odd promise, but Finn rides off before he can ask what he meant. I'm pretty sure he meant that to be as ominous as it sounds dude. And the chapter ends here.
The problem with impending tragedy is that it can be very frustrating to watch it happen, when you can see what the characters can't. I want to hit him with a clue by four, and I suspect that will get worse.
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Date: 2020-09-16 03:44 pm (UTC)WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID CARILLON???????
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Date: 2020-09-16 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-29 10:05 pm (UTC)Well, at least bad relationships get deconstructed. Should I give a medal for basic decency, since the prequel had none?
I mean, Song of Homana is far better than Shapechangers. Even in the title. This one is atmospheric. "Shapechangers" sounds kinda lame.
"Unfortunately, Rowan comes in now with terrible news from the regent in Lestra, the capitol of Solinde. Thorne of Atvia is planning to invade Homana. He has a grudge for the death of his father and the Atvians slain in the war. He intends to raise Solindish aid and attack the city of Hondarth, through Solinde and by sea.
Gosh, it's almost like Duncan deciding not to kill that guy when he had the chance was a bad idea. Who could have possibly called that one?"
Did Duncan ever do anything non-punchable? Also, I remember that incident. Apparently, minions have now plot armor.