Song of Homana - Part Two - Chapter Two
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i_read_whatSo last time, Electra had her baby while Carillon decided to ignore the clear warnings of the guy he's trusted with his life for six or seven years by this point for the woman who doesn't even want to be married to him, and has at least once plotted his death.
So we rejoin Carillon as he rides into the keep. The storm's breaking and the rain is heavy and uncomfortable. Is this symbolism or atmosphere.
He goes to Duncan's pavilion and gets a surprise when young Donal comes out to help him with his horse. Donal, despite being all of seven or eight years old now, is wearing lir gold.
Apparently he'd had the "craving" (which sounds like a really weird way to describe it) a week before, and last night was the ceremony of honors.
I felt the pang of hurt pride. “Could I not have witnessed it?”
Duncan did not smile. “You are not Cheysuli.”
For four days, once, I had been. And yet now he denied me the honor.
You know what Carillon reminds me of? That guy who had one seriously weird trip in college and will not stop talking about how it brought him "enlightenment" twenty years later. Jeeze.
He tells Alix that she must be proud, and she agrees. Her son is a warrior. (Carillon also notes that in the dark, she's more Cheysuli than ever, and [he] [feels] his lack at once.
Donal moves his wolf, an adorable ruddy wolf cub, (Of course, Carillon immediately thinks of Storr) and notes that he's complaining because he wanted to stay by the fire. Alix points out that this is the Mujhar that they entertain. "Carillon to him", Carillon says, noting that they're kin. Cousins of a sort.
Donal then says that "Taj" is weary of Cai's company (hard to blame him) and wants to come in, but Duncan says that falcons will remain outdoors. As it turns out, Donal has TWO lir! Taj, the falcon, and Lorn, the wolf.
Duncan attributes it to Donal's Old Blood. Alix agrees, and points out that she'd taken lir-shape twice while pregnant. Huh, it seems like giving her a complex about risking the fetus was unnecessary, Duncan. I hope you apologized?
There's been a bit of a time skip at some point, apparently. Carillon's daughter, named Aislinn for Carillon's grandmother, is two months old. Duncan wishes Aislinn to have her jehan's wisdom. And Carillon banters back: "And none of my looks."
Alix notes that Finn isn't here, and Carillon says that he met him on the road. But that's not what he came to talk about. He talked about Homana. And shock among shocks, Roberson actually doesn't repeat the dialogue for once. Instead, the focus is on Donal's amazed reaction.
So anyway, Carillon needs more allies than the Cheysuli.
And to do that, he's got to offer up Tourmaline. Which he has. Ellas, Falia and Caledon have marriageable princes.
Alix is horrified, telling him not to barter his sister away, but Carillon is a dick about it:
“Torry is meant for a prince,” I said impatiently. “She will get one anyway; why should I wait? I need men, and Torry needs a husband. A proper husband.” I could not help but think of Lachlan. “I know—it is not a Cheysuli custom to offer women this way. But it is the way of most royal Houses. How else to find a man or woman worthy of the rank? Torry is well past marriageable age; the dowry will have to be increased. There will be questions about her virginity.” I looked again at Donal, thinking he was too young. But he was Cheysuli, and they seemed always older than I. “Bellam held her for years; he even spoke of wedding her himself. There will be questions asked of that. But she is my sister, and that will count for something. I should get a worthy price for her.”
1. I was a lot more sympathetic to the Cheysuli point of view here before I read Shapechangers. Because I distinctly recall how Alix's fate was going to be paired off for breeding without anyone seeking her consent. And I recall the fate of Homanan women in the Keep.
So the Cheysuli have no room to judge here.
2. That said, while I don't think Carillon is wrong here, per se. I think he is being a dick about it. He could at least present it as a matter of necessity rather than framing it from terms of the price he's getting from it.
Duncan asks if the Cheysuli aren't enough. Carillon says no. Thorne's going to be invading in more than one place, rather than like Bellam who attacked straight out. Carillon is not willing to split the Cheysuli as it would be splitting his strongest weapon.
Duncan's response is both heartwarming and a little nonsensical:
Duncan studied me, and then he smiled. Only a little. “Did you think we would not come?”
“I cannot order you to come, any of you,” I said quietly. “I ask, instead.”
The smile widened and I saw the merest glint of white teeth. Not bared, as Finn’s had been; a reflection of true amusement. “Assemble your armies, Carillon. You will have your Cheysuli aid. Do whatever you must in the way that you must, to win the allies you need. And then we shall send Thorne back to his island realm.” He paused. “Provided he survives the encounter.”"
I'm going to give Roberson the benefit of the doubt that this seeming nonsequitur (Carillon had been talking as though he'd be using the Cheysuli) is just Duncan answering unspoken doubts.
Alix asks after Finn, and Carillon, to his credit, criticizes Duncan for his side of things:
The cup grew cool in my hands. “He said he had no other place to go. That you had, in essence, sent him out of the Keep.” I meant to keep my tone inflectionless and did not succeed. It was a mark of the bond between Finn and me that I accused even his brother of wrongful behavior.
Duncan's response is...hm
“Finn is welcome here,” Duncan demurred. “No Cheysuli is denied the sanctuary when he requires it, but that time was done. Finn’s place is with you.”
“Even so unhappy?”
Alix’s face was worried. “I thought he should not go—”
“He must learn to deal with that himself.” Duncan took my cup and warmed it with more liquor, handing it back. It was high honor from a clan-leader; I thought it was simply Duncan. “Finn has ever shut his eyes to many things, going in the backflap.” An expressive flick of his fingers indicated the back of the pavilion. “Occasionally, when I can, I remind him there is a front.”
...I really can't imagine growing up with a douchebag like Duncan as my older brother. I really can't.
Anyway, Carillon brings up the thing with Electra and how much what happened scared him. Duncan agrees:
“It is why he came,” Duncan agreed, “and why he stayed so long. Eight weeks.” His face was grim. “It is rare a liege man will leave his lord for so long unless it has something to do with his clan- and kin-ties. But he could not live with what he had done, and so he came here to renew himself; to touch again the power in the earth through i’toshaa-ni.” He looked tired suddenly. “It comes upon us all, once or twice; the need to be cleansed.”
Carillon thinks about this and absently notes how there is no silver in Duncan's hair, even though Duncan is the older brother.
Alix doubts that he was cleansed at all, noting that Finn was unhappy, but that it's a private thing.
“Can he say nothing to me?” I could not hide the desperation in my voice. “By the gods, we have been closer than most. We shared an exile together, and then only because of me. He might have stayed behind.” I looked at them both, almost pleading to understand. “Why can he say nothing to me?”
Because he's in love with you and you married someone who hates you instead?
I mean, that really does seem like the subtext of this scene.
Carillon returns to the subject of what Finn did to Electra.
“To Tynstar,” Duncan said.
I heard the firecairn crackle in the sudden silence. A hissing mote of sparks flew up. “Tynstar?” I said at last.
“Aye. It was not Electra he meant to slay; did you think it was?” He frowned. “Did he tell you nothing?”
I recalled how he had said it over and over, so hoarse and stricken: Tynstar was here. And how I had ignored it. “He said—something—”
PLEASE get a clue, Carillon. You forced Tynstar's mistress into marriage. And while I don't like to cast doubt on a victim's story, considering how she has youth and magic powers that he gave her! Do you really think he'd give magic powers to a woman that wasn't his ally?!
Duncan explains that Tynstar had set a trap in Electra's mind, so that anyone who used the earth magic on her would succumb to possession. This is an Ihlini power, which Duncan calls a balance of the Cheysuli gift. This is why they use it so sparingly, because they don't want to be like the Ihlini.
He differentiates it:
Minutely, he frowned, looking downward into his cup. “When we use it, we leave a person his soul. We do little more than suggest, borrowing the will for a moment only.” Again the faint frown that alarmed me. He was not divulging something. “When it is Ihlini-done, the soul is swallowed whole. Whole…and not given back at all.”
Now don't get me wrong, I was one of the people who adamantly defended the Jedi mind trick when folks tried to equate it to Kylo Ren's mental torture. But I feel like the mind control powers of the Cheysuli go beyond that. I'm not sure I buy Duncan's rationale.
I do however like that this rationale exists. Roberson seems like she's actually thinking of the ramifications of things in this book in the way that I didn't feel like she did for Shapechangers.
Anyway, Duncan tells us that Finn reacted the way any Cheysuli would, possibly even Carillon himself, he tried to kill the person trapping him through the trap. He wasn't seeing Electra then, "not even a woman" (thanks for the sexism), but Tynstar.
Carillon asks if that means Tynstar knew he'd trapped Finn.
Duncan thinks so: Ihlini traps are deadly, but something broke the link. Carillon realized that he had done it, when he pulled them apart. He remembers how Electra had grabbed Finn's hand, and he remembers the trapped Homanan from Chapter One.
So what did we learn from this children? Keep our minds to ourselves. And maybe, if a woman doesn't want to marry you, you probably shouldn't force her into marriage?
Anyway, Carillon comes to some kind of realization and leaves the pavilion. Alix follows and asks what he's doing:
The hood lay on my shoulders and the rain ran into my mouth. “Do you not see?” I was amazed she could be so blind. “Finn thought he slew Tynstar through Electra. Tynstar thought he slew him—” I swung up on my horse. “If one is afraid, one can only become unafraid by facing what causes the fear.”
...full disclosure? I don't see what Carillon sees either. I am very perplexed.
So Carillon hears howling when he gets to the palace. He runs past all the frightened voices. He realizes that the howling is Storr. But Electra is screaming.
Carillon rips his cloak off as he runs up the stairs...I'm not sure why, except drama! He bursts into the room:
I burst through the women and into the room. I saw Electra first, white-faced and screaming though Lachlan suggested she be quiet. No need, he said; no need to scream. Safe, he said; unharmed. The wolf was held at bay.
Electra was whole. I saw it at once. She stood in a corner with Lachlan holding her back, his hands upon her arms. Holding her back—
—from Finn. From Finn, who was capably cornered by Rowan with his sword, and another man-at-arms. They caged him with steel, bright and deadly, and the wolf in man’s shape was held at bay.
He bled. Something had opened the scar so that his face ran with blood. It stained the leather jerkin and splattered down to his thighs, where I saw more blood. His right thigh, where the Atvian spear had pierced. There was a cut in his leggings and blood on Rowan’s blade.
He was flat against the wall, head pressed back so that his throat was bared. Blood ran from the opened scar to trickle down his throat, crimson on bronze; I smelled the tang of fear. Gods, it swallowed him whole and left nothing to spit out.
Oh dear.
So Carillon goes to Electra, who stops screaming. He looks at Finn, who looks bad: wild eyed, raspy breath, and trembling. He sends the women out and goes to Finn. He pushes Rowan aside, and "pull[s] Finn from the wall even as he sagged."
“Ku’reshtin!” I used the Cheysuli obscenity, knowing he would answer no Homanan.
There's something fascinating about the way Carillon uses both the old tongue and the liege bond here.
Carillon shoves Finn into the corner of the room and punches him. When Rowan tries to intercede, Carillon explains that he's not beating him to death, he's beating him to sense.
...um. Dude. Really?
A hand closed on my wrist. Finn’s hand, but lacking all strength. “Tynstar—”
At least he could speak again. “Finn—you fool! You fool! It was a trap—a trap—” I shook my head in desperation. “Why did you go in again? Why did you give him the chance?”
“Tynstar—” It hissed out of his bloodied mouth. “Tynstar—here—”
“He nearly slew me!” Electra’s voice was hoarse and broken. “Your shapechanger tried to slay me!”
“Tynstar was here—”
“No.” I felt the futility well into my chest. “Oh Finn, no—not Tynstar, Electra. It was a trap—”
“Tynstar.” For a moment he frowned in confusion, trying to stand on his own. He knew I held him, and I thought he knew why. “Let go.”
So this bit is pretty fascinating in retrospect, because while my memory of this book is a little shaky (I did not remember this much homoeroticism!), I do remember a few very important bits.
Carillon thinks he knows what's going on. He THINKS Finn is reacting to the mental trap in Electra's head. He's not listening to what Finn is actually trying to say here.
Actually, it sounds like he thinks Finn went into Electra's head again, which is something that Electra wouldn't have consented to. And yet he doesn't show concern for that at all. So way to be a crappy husband, dude. But Carillon's not listening to her either. She didn't say that Finn tried to enter her mind again. She said he tried to kill her.
Carillon refuses to let Finn go, since he'll try to kill Electra again. Finn focuses briefly, but the fear comes back into his eyes. He tries to push forward, and Carillon slams him against the wall. Electra shouts with rage.
“Finn—” I set the elbow against his throat and felt him stiffen at once. We had done it all before.
“My lord.” Rowan’s voice was horrified. “What will you do?”
“Tynstar’s meijha,” Finn rasped. “Tynstar was here—”
...I don't need to hear about your kinky sex, Carillon. (Actually, wait. No. That sounds much more fun than what comes next.)
But again, Carillon isn't listening.
I let him go. I let go of the wrist I held, took my arm from his throat and stood back. But this time the sword was in my hand, my sword, and he stopped when I set the point against his throat. “No,” I said. “Hold. I will get the truth from you one way or another.” I saw the shock in his eyes. “Finn, I understand. Duncan has said what it was, and I recall how you were in the Ellasian snowstorm.” I paused, looking for comprehension in his eyes. “Do not make it any worse.”
He was still white as death. Blood welled in the opened scar. Now, seeing him in extremity, I saw clearly the silver in his hair. Even beneath the blood his face was harder, more gaunt at eyes and beneath his cheeks. He had aged ten years in two months.
He asks, alarmed, if Finn is ill. Finn just keeps saying Tynstar. And "He put his hand on me."
Carillon gets Rowan's story. He heard the Queen scream, and he, Lachlan, and the guard, Perrin, came. There were others, but Rowan sent them away because he knew Carillon would want to handle this in private.
He'd found the Queen "in some disarray" and Finn's hands on her throat. Rowan is apologetic about Finn's leg wound, but says that he was trying to kill Electra. Lachlan speaks up too, saying he has no wish to condemn Finn, but he was trying to kill her.
Yes. Carillon. Ask WHY! And keep asking until you get a coherent answer!
Electra wants him executed, while Finn insists it was Tynstar he wanted.
Carillon is weary and despairing:
“But it was Electra you would have slain.” The sword, for the slightest moment, wavered in my hand. “You fool,” I whispered, “why have you done this to me? You know what I must do—”
Rowan immediately protests. Electra again wants him executed. Carillon insists though that he won't have Finn slain. Lachlan is the one who understands, saying "It will bare your back to the enemy"
This is tense, dramatic, and very very awful. Credit to Ms. Roberson.
I really want to just shove this whole scene into this post as an excerpt, because the visuals are so important. Finn "caged by the steel of [Carillon's] sword", closing his hand around the blade and blocking out the runes his father had made. Just lovely and horrible.
Carillon asks if Finn would do it again.
Finn repeats Tynstar's name. Carillon corrects him with Electra, and asks again if he'd do it again. Finn, shaking, says "Aye"
And then:
“Finn,” I said, “it is done. I have no choice. The service is over.” I stopped short, then went on when I could speak. “The blood-oath is—denied.”
His eyes were fixed on mine. After a moment I could not bear to look at them, but I did. I had given him the task; it was mine to do as well.
He took his hands from the blade. I saw the lines pressed into his palms, but no blood. He bled enough already, inside as well as out.
His voice was a whisper. “Ja’hai-na,” he said only. Accepted.
No. Nooooo.
Damnit, Carillon. LISTEN to the man. Take a moment, calm him down, and LISTEN to what HAPPENED.
This is a man that you've trusted, implicitly, for more than five years. Who has never attacked Electra before the trap, and was calm enough, if a little broken when he was going back to the castle. He's incoherent and seemingly sick! Aged!
Stop assuming and find out the truth!
Also, dude. Electra hates you. She's always hated you. You forced her into this. And her boyfriend is an evil wizard whose powers are only neutralized by the presence of Cheysuli.
So maybe, just maybe, you SHOULDN'T GET RID OF YOUR ONE DEFENSE UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! (Or at least ask Duncan for a fucking replacement! I realize that's unromantic of me, but come on!)
And the chapter ends heartbreakingly with the wrong damn divorce:
Finn took the knife from the sheath at his belt and offered it to me. My own, once; the royal blade with its golden Homanan crest.
It nearly broke me. “Finn,” I said, “I cannot.”
“The blood-oath is denied.” His face was stark, old, aging. “Ja’hai, my lord Mujhar.”
I took it from his hand. There was blood upon the gold. “Ja’hai-na,” I said at last, and Finn walked from the room.
I did say that this book was something of a tragedy, didn't I?
So we rejoin Carillon as he rides into the keep. The storm's breaking and the rain is heavy and uncomfortable. Is this symbolism or atmosphere.
He goes to Duncan's pavilion and gets a surprise when young Donal comes out to help him with his horse. Donal, despite being all of seven or eight years old now, is wearing lir gold.
Apparently he'd had the "craving" (which sounds like a really weird way to describe it) a week before, and last night was the ceremony of honors.
I felt the pang of hurt pride. “Could I not have witnessed it?”
Duncan did not smile. “You are not Cheysuli.”
For four days, once, I had been. And yet now he denied me the honor.
You know what Carillon reminds me of? That guy who had one seriously weird trip in college and will not stop talking about how it brought him "enlightenment" twenty years later. Jeeze.
He tells Alix that she must be proud, and she agrees. Her son is a warrior. (Carillon also notes that in the dark, she's more Cheysuli than ever, and [he] [feels] his lack at once.
Donal moves his wolf, an adorable ruddy wolf cub, (Of course, Carillon immediately thinks of Storr) and notes that he's complaining because he wanted to stay by the fire. Alix points out that this is the Mujhar that they entertain. "Carillon to him", Carillon says, noting that they're kin. Cousins of a sort.
Donal then says that "Taj" is weary of Cai's company (hard to blame him) and wants to come in, but Duncan says that falcons will remain outdoors. As it turns out, Donal has TWO lir! Taj, the falcon, and Lorn, the wolf.
Duncan attributes it to Donal's Old Blood. Alix agrees, and points out that she'd taken lir-shape twice while pregnant. Huh, it seems like giving her a complex about risking the fetus was unnecessary, Duncan. I hope you apologized?
There's been a bit of a time skip at some point, apparently. Carillon's daughter, named Aislinn for Carillon's grandmother, is two months old. Duncan wishes Aislinn to have her jehan's wisdom. And Carillon banters back: "And none of my looks."
Alix notes that Finn isn't here, and Carillon says that he met him on the road. But that's not what he came to talk about. He talked about Homana. And shock among shocks, Roberson actually doesn't repeat the dialogue for once. Instead, the focus is on Donal's amazed reaction.
So anyway, Carillon needs more allies than the Cheysuli.
And to do that, he's got to offer up Tourmaline. Which he has. Ellas, Falia and Caledon have marriageable princes.
Alix is horrified, telling him not to barter his sister away, but Carillon is a dick about it:
“Torry is meant for a prince,” I said impatiently. “She will get one anyway; why should I wait? I need men, and Torry needs a husband. A proper husband.” I could not help but think of Lachlan. “I know—it is not a Cheysuli custom to offer women this way. But it is the way of most royal Houses. How else to find a man or woman worthy of the rank? Torry is well past marriageable age; the dowry will have to be increased. There will be questions about her virginity.” I looked again at Donal, thinking he was too young. But he was Cheysuli, and they seemed always older than I. “Bellam held her for years; he even spoke of wedding her himself. There will be questions asked of that. But she is my sister, and that will count for something. I should get a worthy price for her.”
1. I was a lot more sympathetic to the Cheysuli point of view here before I read Shapechangers. Because I distinctly recall how Alix's fate was going to be paired off for breeding without anyone seeking her consent. And I recall the fate of Homanan women in the Keep.
So the Cheysuli have no room to judge here.
2. That said, while I don't think Carillon is wrong here, per se. I think he is being a dick about it. He could at least present it as a matter of necessity rather than framing it from terms of the price he's getting from it.
Duncan asks if the Cheysuli aren't enough. Carillon says no. Thorne's going to be invading in more than one place, rather than like Bellam who attacked straight out. Carillon is not willing to split the Cheysuli as it would be splitting his strongest weapon.
Duncan's response is both heartwarming and a little nonsensical:
Duncan studied me, and then he smiled. Only a little. “Did you think we would not come?”
“I cannot order you to come, any of you,” I said quietly. “I ask, instead.”
The smile widened and I saw the merest glint of white teeth. Not bared, as Finn’s had been; a reflection of true amusement. “Assemble your armies, Carillon. You will have your Cheysuli aid. Do whatever you must in the way that you must, to win the allies you need. And then we shall send Thorne back to his island realm.” He paused. “Provided he survives the encounter.”"
I'm going to give Roberson the benefit of the doubt that this seeming nonsequitur (Carillon had been talking as though he'd be using the Cheysuli) is just Duncan answering unspoken doubts.
Alix asks after Finn, and Carillon, to his credit, criticizes Duncan for his side of things:
The cup grew cool in my hands. “He said he had no other place to go. That you had, in essence, sent him out of the Keep.” I meant to keep my tone inflectionless and did not succeed. It was a mark of the bond between Finn and me that I accused even his brother of wrongful behavior.
Duncan's response is...hm
“Finn is welcome here,” Duncan demurred. “No Cheysuli is denied the sanctuary when he requires it, but that time was done. Finn’s place is with you.”
“Even so unhappy?”
Alix’s face was worried. “I thought he should not go—”
“He must learn to deal with that himself.” Duncan took my cup and warmed it with more liquor, handing it back. It was high honor from a clan-leader; I thought it was simply Duncan. “Finn has ever shut his eyes to many things, going in the backflap.” An expressive flick of his fingers indicated the back of the pavilion. “Occasionally, when I can, I remind him there is a front.”
...I really can't imagine growing up with a douchebag like Duncan as my older brother. I really can't.
Anyway, Carillon brings up the thing with Electra and how much what happened scared him. Duncan agrees:
“It is why he came,” Duncan agreed, “and why he stayed so long. Eight weeks.” His face was grim. “It is rare a liege man will leave his lord for so long unless it has something to do with his clan- and kin-ties. But he could not live with what he had done, and so he came here to renew himself; to touch again the power in the earth through i’toshaa-ni.” He looked tired suddenly. “It comes upon us all, once or twice; the need to be cleansed.”
Carillon thinks about this and absently notes how there is no silver in Duncan's hair, even though Duncan is the older brother.
Alix doubts that he was cleansed at all, noting that Finn was unhappy, but that it's a private thing.
“Can he say nothing to me?” I could not hide the desperation in my voice. “By the gods, we have been closer than most. We shared an exile together, and then only because of me. He might have stayed behind.” I looked at them both, almost pleading to understand. “Why can he say nothing to me?”
Because he's in love with you and you married someone who hates you instead?
I mean, that really does seem like the subtext of this scene.
Carillon returns to the subject of what Finn did to Electra.
“To Tynstar,” Duncan said.
I heard the firecairn crackle in the sudden silence. A hissing mote of sparks flew up. “Tynstar?” I said at last.
“Aye. It was not Electra he meant to slay; did you think it was?” He frowned. “Did he tell you nothing?”
I recalled how he had said it over and over, so hoarse and stricken: Tynstar was here. And how I had ignored it. “He said—something—”
PLEASE get a clue, Carillon. You forced Tynstar's mistress into marriage. And while I don't like to cast doubt on a victim's story, considering how she has youth and magic powers that he gave her! Do you really think he'd give magic powers to a woman that wasn't his ally?!
Duncan explains that Tynstar had set a trap in Electra's mind, so that anyone who used the earth magic on her would succumb to possession. This is an Ihlini power, which Duncan calls a balance of the Cheysuli gift. This is why they use it so sparingly, because they don't want to be like the Ihlini.
He differentiates it:
Minutely, he frowned, looking downward into his cup. “When we use it, we leave a person his soul. We do little more than suggest, borrowing the will for a moment only.” Again the faint frown that alarmed me. He was not divulging something. “When it is Ihlini-done, the soul is swallowed whole. Whole…and not given back at all.”
Now don't get me wrong, I was one of the people who adamantly defended the Jedi mind trick when folks tried to equate it to Kylo Ren's mental torture. But I feel like the mind control powers of the Cheysuli go beyond that. I'm not sure I buy Duncan's rationale.
I do however like that this rationale exists. Roberson seems like she's actually thinking of the ramifications of things in this book in the way that I didn't feel like she did for Shapechangers.
Anyway, Duncan tells us that Finn reacted the way any Cheysuli would, possibly even Carillon himself, he tried to kill the person trapping him through the trap. He wasn't seeing Electra then, "not even a woman" (thanks for the sexism), but Tynstar.
Carillon asks if that means Tynstar knew he'd trapped Finn.
Duncan thinks so: Ihlini traps are deadly, but something broke the link. Carillon realized that he had done it, when he pulled them apart. He remembers how Electra had grabbed Finn's hand, and he remembers the trapped Homanan from Chapter One.
So what did we learn from this children? Keep our minds to ourselves. And maybe, if a woman doesn't want to marry you, you probably shouldn't force her into marriage?
Anyway, Carillon comes to some kind of realization and leaves the pavilion. Alix follows and asks what he's doing:
The hood lay on my shoulders and the rain ran into my mouth. “Do you not see?” I was amazed she could be so blind. “Finn thought he slew Tynstar through Electra. Tynstar thought he slew him—” I swung up on my horse. “If one is afraid, one can only become unafraid by facing what causes the fear.”
...full disclosure? I don't see what Carillon sees either. I am very perplexed.
So Carillon hears howling when he gets to the palace. He runs past all the frightened voices. He realizes that the howling is Storr. But Electra is screaming.
Carillon rips his cloak off as he runs up the stairs...I'm not sure why, except drama! He bursts into the room:
I burst through the women and into the room. I saw Electra first, white-faced and screaming though Lachlan suggested she be quiet. No need, he said; no need to scream. Safe, he said; unharmed. The wolf was held at bay.
Electra was whole. I saw it at once. She stood in a corner with Lachlan holding her back, his hands upon her arms. Holding her back—
—from Finn. From Finn, who was capably cornered by Rowan with his sword, and another man-at-arms. They caged him with steel, bright and deadly, and the wolf in man’s shape was held at bay.
He bled. Something had opened the scar so that his face ran with blood. It stained the leather jerkin and splattered down to his thighs, where I saw more blood. His right thigh, where the Atvian spear had pierced. There was a cut in his leggings and blood on Rowan’s blade.
He was flat against the wall, head pressed back so that his throat was bared. Blood ran from the opened scar to trickle down his throat, crimson on bronze; I smelled the tang of fear. Gods, it swallowed him whole and left nothing to spit out.
Oh dear.
So Carillon goes to Electra, who stops screaming. He looks at Finn, who looks bad: wild eyed, raspy breath, and trembling. He sends the women out and goes to Finn. He pushes Rowan aside, and "pull[s] Finn from the wall even as he sagged."
“Ku’reshtin!” I used the Cheysuli obscenity, knowing he would answer no Homanan.
There's something fascinating about the way Carillon uses both the old tongue and the liege bond here.
Carillon shoves Finn into the corner of the room and punches him. When Rowan tries to intercede, Carillon explains that he's not beating him to death, he's beating him to sense.
...um. Dude. Really?
A hand closed on my wrist. Finn’s hand, but lacking all strength. “Tynstar—”
At least he could speak again. “Finn—you fool! You fool! It was a trap—a trap—” I shook my head in desperation. “Why did you go in again? Why did you give him the chance?”
“Tynstar—” It hissed out of his bloodied mouth. “Tynstar—here—”
“He nearly slew me!” Electra’s voice was hoarse and broken. “Your shapechanger tried to slay me!”
“Tynstar was here—”
“No.” I felt the futility well into my chest. “Oh Finn, no—not Tynstar, Electra. It was a trap—”
“Tynstar.” For a moment he frowned in confusion, trying to stand on his own. He knew I held him, and I thought he knew why. “Let go.”
So this bit is pretty fascinating in retrospect, because while my memory of this book is a little shaky (I did not remember this much homoeroticism!), I do remember a few very important bits.
Carillon thinks he knows what's going on. He THINKS Finn is reacting to the mental trap in Electra's head. He's not listening to what Finn is actually trying to say here.
Actually, it sounds like he thinks Finn went into Electra's head again, which is something that Electra wouldn't have consented to. And yet he doesn't show concern for that at all. So way to be a crappy husband, dude. But Carillon's not listening to her either. She didn't say that Finn tried to enter her mind again. She said he tried to kill her.
Carillon refuses to let Finn go, since he'll try to kill Electra again. Finn focuses briefly, but the fear comes back into his eyes. He tries to push forward, and Carillon slams him against the wall. Electra shouts with rage.
“Finn—” I set the elbow against his throat and felt him stiffen at once. We had done it all before.
“My lord.” Rowan’s voice was horrified. “What will you do?”
“Tynstar’s meijha,” Finn rasped. “Tynstar was here—”
...I don't need to hear about your kinky sex, Carillon. (Actually, wait. No. That sounds much more fun than what comes next.)
But again, Carillon isn't listening.
I let him go. I let go of the wrist I held, took my arm from his throat and stood back. But this time the sword was in my hand, my sword, and he stopped when I set the point against his throat. “No,” I said. “Hold. I will get the truth from you one way or another.” I saw the shock in his eyes. “Finn, I understand. Duncan has said what it was, and I recall how you were in the Ellasian snowstorm.” I paused, looking for comprehension in his eyes. “Do not make it any worse.”
He was still white as death. Blood welled in the opened scar. Now, seeing him in extremity, I saw clearly the silver in his hair. Even beneath the blood his face was harder, more gaunt at eyes and beneath his cheeks. He had aged ten years in two months.
He asks, alarmed, if Finn is ill. Finn just keeps saying Tynstar. And "He put his hand on me."
Carillon gets Rowan's story. He heard the Queen scream, and he, Lachlan, and the guard, Perrin, came. There were others, but Rowan sent them away because he knew Carillon would want to handle this in private.
He'd found the Queen "in some disarray" and Finn's hands on her throat. Rowan is apologetic about Finn's leg wound, but says that he was trying to kill Electra. Lachlan speaks up too, saying he has no wish to condemn Finn, but he was trying to kill her.
Yes. Carillon. Ask WHY! And keep asking until you get a coherent answer!
Electra wants him executed, while Finn insists it was Tynstar he wanted.
Carillon is weary and despairing:
“But it was Electra you would have slain.” The sword, for the slightest moment, wavered in my hand. “You fool,” I whispered, “why have you done this to me? You know what I must do—”
Rowan immediately protests. Electra again wants him executed. Carillon insists though that he won't have Finn slain. Lachlan is the one who understands, saying "It will bare your back to the enemy"
This is tense, dramatic, and very very awful. Credit to Ms. Roberson.
I really want to just shove this whole scene into this post as an excerpt, because the visuals are so important. Finn "caged by the steel of [Carillon's] sword", closing his hand around the blade and blocking out the runes his father had made. Just lovely and horrible.
Carillon asks if Finn would do it again.
Finn repeats Tynstar's name. Carillon corrects him with Electra, and asks again if he'd do it again. Finn, shaking, says "Aye"
And then:
“Finn,” I said, “it is done. I have no choice. The service is over.” I stopped short, then went on when I could speak. “The blood-oath is—denied.”
His eyes were fixed on mine. After a moment I could not bear to look at them, but I did. I had given him the task; it was mine to do as well.
He took his hands from the blade. I saw the lines pressed into his palms, but no blood. He bled enough already, inside as well as out.
His voice was a whisper. “Ja’hai-na,” he said only. Accepted.
No. Nooooo.
Damnit, Carillon. LISTEN to the man. Take a moment, calm him down, and LISTEN to what HAPPENED.
This is a man that you've trusted, implicitly, for more than five years. Who has never attacked Electra before the trap, and was calm enough, if a little broken when he was going back to the castle. He's incoherent and seemingly sick! Aged!
Stop assuming and find out the truth!
Also, dude. Electra hates you. She's always hated you. You forced her into this. And her boyfriend is an evil wizard whose powers are only neutralized by the presence of Cheysuli.
So maybe, just maybe, you SHOULDN'T GET RID OF YOUR ONE DEFENSE UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! (Or at least ask Duncan for a fucking replacement! I realize that's unromantic of me, but come on!)
And the chapter ends heartbreakingly with the wrong damn divorce:
Finn took the knife from the sheath at his belt and offered it to me. My own, once; the royal blade with its golden Homanan crest.
It nearly broke me. “Finn,” I said, “I cannot.”
“The blood-oath is denied.” His face was stark, old, aging. “Ja’hai, my lord Mujhar.”
I took it from his hand. There was blood upon the gold. “Ja’hai-na,” I said at last, and Finn walked from the room.
I did say that this book was something of a tragedy, didn't I?
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Date: 2020-09-23 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 08:27 am (UTC)Carillon fucked up BIG TIME. Electra has legitimate reasons to want his head, while Finn is extremely loyal to him.
Duncan is still an unlikable dickhead, but Finn... did Shaine force him to act like a monster in the first book and thus he wanted revenge? Here he is genuinely likable!
And nice cameo of Alix! If only she was active here too...
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Date: 2020-10-20 04:35 pm (UTC)Poor Alix is criminally underused in this book and it's so annoying. I want to see her interact with Electra! And Tourmaline!