Curse of the Mistwraith - Chapter One - Captive

[kalinara]

So last time, we got a prologue that had an interesting, if pretentious conceit, as scholars from the "seventh age" have used magic to look back in time to a legendary war(s) of the "third age", to discover what really happened.

So now, we start that recollection:



So chapter one begins in the aftermath of a battle between sailors of Amroth and pirates of Karthan. We're following a longboat (which "cleaved waters stained blood-red by sunset") as it looks for survivors among the burned warships.

Apparently this had been one HELL of a battle. We're told that "[s]even full-rigged warships in a fleet of seventeen had fallen before a single brigantine under the hated leopard banner." Wow. Per our viewpoint character, the bosun of one of the Amroth ships, they were lucky to have won, since the captain of the defeated brigantine had been "none other than Arithon s'Ffalenn, called sorcerer and Master of Shadow."

As you may recall from the prologue, this is all about finding out the truth about the war between the "Lord of Light" and this guy, and whether or not the conventional religion, in which this guy is basically Satan, is correct. It seems like he's got a pretty notorious reputation for mass destruction already.

I think we can figure out which interpretation these guys would favor. "Not even the scraping bump of the corpse which passed beneath the keel caused them to alter their stroke. Horror had numbed every man left alive after the nightmare of fire, sorcery and darkness that Arithon had unleashed before the end."

I do rather like a lot of the language. It's a bit purple prose, but well, sometimes you WANT something that sounds suitably grand.

Anyway, they've spotted two survivors. One appears to be conscious, while the other has been lashed to something or other to keep him from getting swept away. It looks like the conscious one has already tried to free him though.

They go to rescue the conscious dude, and rather surprisingly, he's not on board with this idea. He reacts with "vengeful speed", splashes his rescuers in the face, and goes after one with a knife. As it turns out, this particular survivor is Karthish. Oops. They fight back with their oars, and the guy ends up bleeding from nose and mouth, then he drowns.

Well, I mean. Fair enough. You guys tried.

They realize that the unconscious one is still alive and they decide to bring him on board. Very few pirates, we're told, allow themselves to be captured alive, and the king will want him questioned.

We get a bit of a description of this one as he's dropped at the bosun's feet. "Barefoot, slightly built and clad in a sailhand's patched tunic, the man seemed no one important."

I think we've all read enough books that alarm bells ring at that kind of description. They notice that the man is wearing a silver ring, and they intend to take it as booty. They are about to cut the guy's finger off to get it when they notice that it's not actually silver. It's white gold, and the gem is carved with a leopard device.

Oops. Looks like the captain of the ship survived after all. Well, to be fair, it's hard to have a big war with a dead guy. And I think we have a point in the "not actually evil" column here. Surely a suitably satanic villain would have gotten a far more impressive entrance. Only misunderstood hero types get to flop undignified on the deck.

Anyway, they turn the guy over to double check. "Bared to the fading light, the steeply-angled features and upswept browline of s'Ffalenn stood clear as struck bronze."

I am amused at the reference to the guy's eyebrows, because, while the modern covers of this series are all stately and dignified in that text against cryptic inanimate objects way that all fantasy book covers seem to be now, the ORIGINAL book covers were much more fun.



See, respectable, but boring.

This one on the other hand:



Is much better, wouldn't you say? I miss when fantasy novel covers weren't afraid to look a little silly. Now there's a bonus here, which is that Ms. Wurts painted the original novel covers herself as I understand. So this is DEFINITELY what the two main nitwits are supposed to look like. And Broody McAngsterson over here has some FANTASTIC eyebrows.

So anyway, folks are a little freaked out that they've apparently gotten a dude who just sunk seven ships out cold on their deck. The bosun calms them down and reminds them, hey, they've got a HELL of a bounty. The King REALLY wants this guy, and not just because he's a scary sorcerer type working for the enemy.

There's dramatic backstory!

Arithon s'Ffalenn was the illegitimate son of Amroth's own queen, who in years past had spurned the kingdom's honour for adultery with her husband's most infamous enemy. The pirate-king's bastard carried a price on his head that would ransom an earl, and a dukedom awaited the man who could deliver him to Port Royal in chains. Won over by greed, the sailors put up their knives.

So the King's wife left him for a pirate. Awesome.

These guys aren't stupid though. They don't particularly want to die by way of scary magic, so they tie him up, row him back to the warship, and drop him in front of the first officer of the ship.

This guy, we're told, is young, inexperienced but well connected and very overwhelmed, since his captain has been injured.

We also get MORE description for Arithon, because, well, why not? Not everyone gets the good cover after all. He's "small, sea-tanned and dark, nothing like the half-brother in line for Amroth's crown. A drenched spill of hair plastered an angular forehead. Spare, unremarkable limbs were clothed in rough, much-mended linen that was belted with a plain twist of rope. But his sailhand's appearance was deceptive. The jewel in the signet bore the leopard of s'Ffalenn, undeniable symbol of royal heirship."

We do get some more info. There's a prince of Amroth. This guy's half brother. Who we can probably guess is tall, fair, and blond. And dresses a little bit like a douchebag, going by the cover of the novel. Since Arithon is unimpressive looking, we can guess the brother is very good looking. But he lacks the amazing eyebrows.

So anyway, the first officer has a legitimate dilemma. How do you restrain a dude who can magically destroy you? I appreciate that his first thought is to just kill the guy, because that's a pretty sane response. But he's alive. And injured. (And has "a profile as keen as a knife". Ms. Wurts seems rather fond of her character. I suppose it will remain to be seen whether she's an R. A. Salvatore or a Julian May about it. Right now, I'm more amused than annoyed though. Possibly because of the eyebrows.)

The PROBLEM is that the king of Amroth "knew neither temperance nor reason on the subject of his wife's betrayal" and if he finds out that they let this dude die instead of capturing him alive, things won't end well.

There's some back and forth between the first officer and the more grizzled, experienced mate. There's an implication of long-running conflict between these guys, and I enjoy that. I feel like this crew could easily have their own book, even though I don't know any of their names. They seem like they have their own things going on.

Anyway, the plan ends up to shove the guy in the chartroom for now, get him a healer, and then set him in irons at first opportunity. The mate goes along with this and performs grunt work duty:

The mate grunted, bent and easily lifted the Shadow Master from the deck. 'What a slight little dog, for all his killer's reputation,' he commented. Then, cocky to conceal his apprehension, he sauntered the length of the quarterdeck with the captive slung like a duffel across his shoulder.

So the ship needs some repair before they can move on, but eventually they manage to get themselves sailing. It's nightfall by now. Then something happens. The ship is engulfed in darkness.

"Master of Shadows" might not just be a cute little nickname after all.

There's a fight in the chartroom as the prisoner tries to escape. It sounds pretty vicious. No one can see a thing. Lots of flinging of people about. Arithon gets his first speaking line, telling someone to let go, or their fingers will burn to the bone. And there is some screaming after that which sounds fun. Unfortunately for him, he's still tied up, which means that he's at a severe disadvantage. The first officer finally gets lucky and punches him in the face. The darkness lifts.

(There's another exchange between the mate, who'd thought the chartroom was a bad idea, and the first officer. Which amuses me yet again. I think I ship them.)

So anyway, Arithon comes to. He's not exactly happy. We're told [T]he steep s'Ffalenn features showed no expression, though surely pain alone prevented a second assault with shadow. Briane's first officer searched his enemy's face for a sign of human emotion and found no trace.

I have no idea why this guy's descriptions amuse me so. I feel the same way as I did reading Julian May describe Marc Remillard's "massive elegance".

We also get another mention of the as yet unseen brother: That the same mother had borne this creature and Amroth's well-beloved crown prince defied all reasonable credibility.

Where his Grace, Lysaer, might have won his captors' sympathy with glib and entertaining satire, Arithon of Karthan refused answer. His gaze never wavered and his manner stayed stark as a carving. The creak of timber and rigging filled an unpleasant silence. Crewmen shifted uneasily until a clink of steel beyond the companionway heralded the entrance of the crewman sent to bring shackles.

So here we see some significant hero worship. But the comparison may not be completely fair. Lysaer may well be a far more personable guy than his half brother, but he might not be so "glib and entertaining" after a big battle, and being injured and unconscious. Not everyone cares for satire either.

But it sounds like the first officer has actual knowledge of the guy, which is interesting.

The first officer makes to leave, and like two seconds later, the ship is AGAIN plunged into darkness. The guy runs back. The shadows disappear, while the guards pin Arithon down. Apparently, he'd tried to slash his wrists with glass. So now he's getting his fingers bound with wire.

Arithon recovered awareness shortly afterward. Dragged upright between the stout arms of his captors, he took a minute longer to orient himself. As green eyes lifted in recognition, the first officer fought a sharp urge to step back. Only once had he seen such a look on a man's face, and that was the time he had witnessed a felon hanged for the rape of his own daughter.

That's...definitely an evocative statement.

The first officer commands them to "show him the king's justice". The idea is that a turn at violence might ease crew tensions:

The seamen wrestled Arithon off his feet and pinioned him across the chart table. His body handled like a toy in their broad hands. Still the Master fought them. In anger and dread the seamen returned the bruises lately inflicted upon their own skins. They stripped the cord from the captive's wrists and followed with all clothing that might conceal slivers of glass. But for his grunts of resistance, Arithon endured their abuse in silence.

The first officer hid his distaste. The Master's defiance served no gain, but only provoked the men to greater cruelty. Had the bastard cried out, even once reacted to pain as an ordinary mortal, the deckhands would have been satisfied. Yet the struggle continued until the victim was stripped of tunic and shirt and the sailhands backed off to study their prize. Arithon's chest heaved with fast, shallow breaths. Stomach muscles quivered beneath skin that wept sweat, proof enough that his body at least had not been impervious to rough handling.

'Bastard's runt-sized, for a sorcerer.' The most daring of the crewmen raised a fist over the splayed arch of Arithon's ribcage. 'A thump in the slats might slow him down some.'

I'm sorry your prisoner isn't acting in a very satisfactory fashion, dude?

So happily for all (especially the first officer who thinks this is starting to get out of hand), the healer shows up. Arithon greets him in a friendly fashion.

'I curse your hands. May the next wound you treat turn putrid with maggots. Any child you deliver will sicken and die in your arms, and the mother will bleed beyond remedy. Meddle further with me and I'll show you horrors.'

See, I don't know what the guy was talking about. I find this perfectly endearing.

The healer is a bit freaked out by this, understandably, but keeps working. Arithon keeps going, threatening him with having his firstborn son's eyes rot out, and flies suck at the sockets. Nice! The sailors are less amused.

Fortunately, the healer has daughters, or otherwise "he might have broken his oath and caused an injured man needless pain.". Eventually, he excuses himself. Arithon targets the first officer next, but the guy's not willing to break when the healer didn't. "He endured with his hands locked behind his back while mother, wife and mistress were separately profaned. The insults after that turned personal."

That bit made me laugh for some reason.

The first officer tries to reason with him, saying that this behavior "makes civilized treatment impossible", and is told to go force his little sister instead. So Arithon gets a rag shoved into his mouth for his trouble, and he'll be locked in the sail-hold.

The first officer is worried though. He's tired. His crew is terrified. One wrong move could get a mutiny. So he goes to the healer and asks if he's got any drugs. He's got an herb that eases pain, but it's addictive. The first officer orders him to keep Arithon drugged up.

To his credit, the healer's not really on board with this plan. But is persuaded by the whole "everyone is terrified and might mutiny" argument. But he does have a very pointed question: "Who will answer if the young man's mind is damaged?

The first officer is less concerned about that then what will happen to all of them if a sailor is panicked enough to murder the prisoner. Basically, the King would have them ALL executed, down to the cabin steward. And Arithon seems crazy enough to provoke them.

I can't imagine why he'd prefer to be murdered now as opposed to brought to his mom's ex, who apparently would murder a whole ship for NOT bringing him alive. How unreasonable.

Anyway, it's twenty days to get back to the King. They can't keep him drugged that long. Especially since they don't know if Arithon's the type of mage that can transmute poisons. They'll need to drug him HARD. But the first officer has a solution: There's a harbor five days away where the crown prince is trying to court the daughter of an earl. They can take him there, and then let the Prince take charge.

The healer isn't completely on board, but it'll have to do. Five days of drugs won't cause permanent harm, and apparently Lysaer has an "inborn gift of light" which is a match for sorcery and shadows. And "his judgment, even in matters of blood-feud, was dependably, exactingly fair.".

That's a good trait to have in a guy.

--

So this chapter started with the heading "captive". Now it switches to the heading "crown prince".

Here we meet the aforementioned, Lysaer. He's busy in the practice yard, and it's common knowledge that they shouldn't interrupt him when he's sparring with steel. We get an immediate contrast:

The prince noticed the man's arrival immediately. Sword engaged in a parry, he flung back coin-bright hair, then winked in friendly acknowledgement. He did not seem distracted. Yet on the next lunge his opponent executed an entirely predictable disengage that somehow managed to disarm him. The royal sword drove a glittering arc in the sunlight and landed, scattering sand.

Laughing, generous, handsome enough to make maidens weep, the prince flung up his hands. He turned the dagger he yet held en gauche and flung it, point first, into the soil beside the sword. 'There's silver won for your lady, my lord, Ath bless the heir she carries.'

The nobleman is astonished that Lysaer knows so much of his affairs. Then he accuses him of cheating to give him the honor.

Lysaer, first son of the king of Amroth, stopped dead between strides. He widened surprised blue eyes. 'Did I? Well then, I'll buy your lady a pearl and we'll fight on the morrow to decide who pays for the setting.' Then, the smile still on his face, the prince acknowledged the courier. 'You bring news?'

Lysaer sets the man at ease with a bad joke, and the courier delivers the news that we already know. The warship, Briane, has the pirate-king's bastard in custody.

We get more backstory here:

Seven generations of bloodshed between Amroth and Karthan's pirates had never seen a moment to match this. Lysaer suppressed a primal surge of triumph. The vendetta had threaded discord and grief through his earliest memories; an altercation before his birth had killed the realm's first queen and a daughter no one near the king dared to mention. All Lysaer's life the court had lived in dread of his father's rages, and always they were caused by s'Ffalenn. Still, the prince fought the irrational hatred the name reflexively inspired. The prisoner in Briane's hold was his half-brother. Whether he was also a criminal deserving of the cruelty and death that the royal obsession for vengeance would demand was a distinction no man of honour dared ignore.

How very fair of you.

Well, the descriptions we've seen of the man seem reasonably accurate. He does seem to be handsome, charming, and scrupulously fair.

So anyway, the prince reassures the courier: 'You need not worry. The fate of my mother's bastard is a problem too weighty for any but the king's justice. The commander of Briane's company was quite right to entrust his custody to me.'

He insists that the courier get some refreshment and he'll send a page down. The courier bows and departs, "[e]xcused with more grace than a man with difficult news might expect.".

So Lysaer ends up sending for the captain of the guard, saying that if he complains about the rush, tell him that Lysaer will pour him another beer. Of course.

I feel like I'll be saying "of course" when Lysaer does things a lot.

Now, of course, it's time for the brothers to meet. And we get a more overt contrast:

Resplendent in gold silk and brocade, glittering with the sapphires of royal rank, Lysaer of Amroth stepped forward. 'Leave us,' he said gently to the officer. Then, as the door creaked shut at his heels, he forced back a tangle of emotional turmoil and waited for his eyes to adjust.

Dead still in the uncertain light, Arithon s'Ffalenn sat propped against a towering pile of spare sail. Biscuit and water lay untouched by his elbow. A livid swelling on the side of his jaw accentuated rather than blurred the angled arrogance of features which decidedly favoured his father. His eyes were open, focused and bright with malice.

Because Lysaer's our viewpoint character, (and because it's pretty obvious which brother Wurts likes better), we get additional description of Arithon. But it serves a character purpose too:

The queen's bastard was small, the prince saw with a shock of surprise. But that slight stature was muscled like a cat, and endowed with a temper to match; the flesh at wrists and ankles had been repeatedly torn on the fetters, leaving bruises congested with scabs. The hands were wrapped with wire and crusted with blood. The prince felt a surge of pity.

Of course.

Lysaer sympathizes with the fright of the sailors, but he thinks that, on top of fetters and chain, the wire seems cruel. He's embarrassed, and is about to call for someone to cut the wires and ease the prisoner's discomfort. Until Arithon speaks, of course.

I might be doing that for both of them. They are brothers, after all.

But Arithon spoke first. 'We are well met, brother.'

The crown prince ignored the sarcasm. A blood-feud could continue only as long as both sides were sworn to antipathy. 'Kinship cannot pardon the charges against you, if it's true that you summoned shadow and sorcery, then blinded and attacked and murdered the companies of seven vessels. No rational purpose can justify the slaughter of hapless sailors.

Arithon points out that the sailors he killed happened to be serving on ROYAL WARSHIPS. Which is a pretty good point. But he's more interested in provoking a response out of Lysaer, asking if he's too squeamish to try to kill him.

Arithon pressured like gall on a sore spot, his accent a flawless rendition of high court style. 'By the rotted bones of our mother, what a dazzle of jewels and lace. Impressive, surely. And the sword. Do you wear that for vanity also?'

Lysaer refuses to be provoked. But Arithon isn't done. He attacks Lysaer with sorcery, sending a mental probe that unearths a childhood memory, which we see as an active flashback:

Lysaer at three years old, on his birthday, excited and over-exuberant. He wants to see his mother! The chamberlain is exhausted, but the nursemaid agrees to take him. We're told that even then, he's very charming, smiling "in the way that never failed to melt the hearts of his attendants".

So he goes to see his mother, and he finds her fighting with his father. From the sound of it, the King wants to train Lysaer to be a weapon in his war against Karthan, and the Queen is not on board with it. She says if he tries to abuse Lysaer like that, he won't get a second child. The King sounds like a real peach of a guy:

The king rose abruptly from his chair. His shadow swooped in the candlelight as he bent and seized the queen's wrists. 'Woman, defy me, and I'll make you wretched with childbearing. Blame your father. He should have made your dowry more accessible. Sorcery and babies made a misfortunate mix.'

The king jerked the queen to her feet. 'You've been indisposed long enough, you royal witch. I'll bed you now, and every night afterward until you conceive the Master of Shadow I was promised.'

What a peach of a guy. I can't imagine why she might have left.

Anyway, she tells him that if he forces her, then "by the stones of Rauven Tower", (I always like paying attention to the oaths and curses people use in fantasy), she'll "even the stakes". "The s'Ffalenn pirates will share [her] bride gift to s'Ilessid, and grief and sorrow will come of it."

The king hits her, and poor Lysaer cries out for him to stop. The queen ends up comforting the poor kid, telling him it's all over. But then, we're told, she left Amroth that night, never to return.

Okay. I mean, I can appreciate the Queen's predicament here, but I'm not sure how her solution actually helps matters.

Her husband wants to raise her son as a weapon. So she goes and bangs her son's enemy, giving HIM a son with corresponding powers. And this kid is DEFINITELY weaponized. And now there's an even bigger feud than before!

Talera, honey, I feel like you didn't think this through. Have you thought of just not having more kids and not training your living one in magic?

ANYWAY. We snap back to a devastated and furious Lysaer in the present day. Arithon's not done though. He "casts shadow":

An image pooled on the deck before the prince. Sanded wood transformed to a drift of silken sheets, upon which two figures twined, naked. Lysaer felt the breath tear like fire in his throat. The man was dark-haired and sword-scarred, unmistakably Avar s'Ffalenn; beneath him, couched in a glory of gold hair, lay Talera, Queen of Amroth. Her face was radiant with joy.

Abruptly, Arithon withdrew from the prince's mind. He smirked toward the couple on the floor. 'Shall I show you the rest of the collection?'

Okay, can I take a moment to admire the sheer artistry of being this level of asshole. It's amazing, really.

Also, why the hell does this guy know what it looks like when his parents are having sex?

So Lysaer doesn't react well to this. Obviously. (There's a line I love here: "Seared by rage like white fire, Lysaer saw nothing in the son but the fornicating features of the father.") He ends up striking Arithon with the flat of his sword, knocking him to the ground.

Arithon breathlessly suggests he tries it with the edge of his sword, but unfortunately for him, Lysaer's been jarred back to reason. He's shocked and ashamed at having struck a helpless man. And he realizes that Arithon WANTS him to kill him. He says no, that Arithon's father's lust for vengeance will fall on some other head.

But Arithon has some important news: the Amroth sailors were incorrect. He hadn't been the captain of the ship (which is called the Saeriat). His father was. If you recall, originally, the sailors were surprised that Arithon was alive. This was because it had been reported that the captain had went down with his ship.

Apparently that was correct. And that means Arithon is the last s'Ffalenn left alive. He tells Lysaer to loan him his knife, and he promises, one prince to another, that the feud between their families will end here with no more bloodshed.

Lysaer won't do that. As mentioned before, Arithon's death would ruin everyone on the vessel. King's decree.

...you could just lie? Who would actually know the guy's on the ship?

Arithon is less impressed with Lysaer's ethics here. He points out that the sailors will get paid very well for the virtue of loyalty, and that he's basically getting brought back to be tortured by a guy with a whole lot of axes to grind.

And this gets to Lysaer:

The bare simplicity of the appeal caught the crown prince like a blow. Left no breath to speak, he avoided answer by retrieving his fallen sword. He rammed the blade into the scabbard with a violence born of raw nerves. The original purpose of his visit seemed tawdry, a meaningless, arrogant charade that unmasked a hypocrite player. Unable to trust his reactions, he backed out of his half-brother's presence and shot the bolt on the door. A few short minutes of madness had nearly brought him to murder, to sacrifice the lives of loyal sailors to end the misery of a criminal. Shaking, the crown prince of Amroth gripped the companionway rail. 'Fatemaster's judgement, you deserve what you get,' he murmured to the closed door behind him.

And we kind of touch on what I think I remember as the core conflict of Lysaer's character in this book. (...later books get more complicated.) Which is that he is a fundamentally fair and just person. But justice isn't always clean and it can't be universal.

It isn't justice for the sailors to die because Lysaer was provoked into killing a prisoner.

It isn't justice for Arithon to get tortured to death because Lysaer's father is pissed off about the actions of his ancestors or the particular circumstances of his birth.

There's no real way to reconcile this. Not when the real bad actor, the King, is out of reach.

But I also think it's an interesting character beat that mercy is never a consideration. Because that's what Arithon was asking for. Now granted, mercy killing Arithon has the same consequence as if Lysaer had killed him in a rage. But even so, it's never considered.

Anyway, the first officer asks if he's okay. Lysaer says that he is. But he's conflicted. He pities Arithon, for his unpleasant and prolonged fate. But his reaction to that pity and conflict is interesting: "For the first time in his life, Lysaer fully understood his father's deranged hatred of s'Ffalenn: to the last son left living, they were a breed of fiends."

It seems to me, Lysaer, that you could blame your DAD instead of your brother for what's about to happen.

Anyway, Lysaer is fine and taking charge. He wants the prisoner drugged unconscious and the ship to set sail. The first officer is frightened by this, pointing out that the prolonged overdose will surely cause madness. But NOW Lysaer is thinking of mercy (even as his eyes "gone hard as the cut sapphires at his collar"). He thinks that insanity will be a mercy next to Arithon's fate.

He also intends to sail with the crew, to intercede with his father, should they fear retribution. Of course.

--

We move into a third part of the chapter now, "tracer", and here we go to Rauven Tower. We've heard this name before. The Queen had sworn by it. Our viewpoint character is the "high mage". And he wants to know what's happened to his grandson.

He means Arithon, his daughter's son. And we get more pieces of the puzzle here, indirectly. We're dealing with three powers, not two. The high mage's daughter became the Queen of Amroth, left her husband for the Pirate King of Karthan. The mage apparently loves Arithon very much which causes a dilemma for the "farseer" with him, who reveals that he sees a place of constant motion but no light.

He notably doesn't mention pain, hunger and thirst. And he DEFINITELY doesn't tell the guy that his beloved grandson had tried to provoke his own death.

But finally, he has to tell the truth: that Arithon is imprisoned on an warship of Amroth. He's drugged unconscious and being taken to Port Royal.

Lysaer got a childhood flashback before, now it's Arithon's turn, as the old man remembers a black-haired boy mastering his first lesson of illusory magic, and delightedly exclaiming that it works like music.

And now we see a bit more about how things turned out the way they did on Arithon's side: basically Queen Talera died young, the high mage started training his grandson as an apprentice (the most gifted he's ever had), and Arithon renounced that to join his father as heir. A suitably magic-trained one. Which was kind of the exact OPPOSITE of what his mother wanted. Oops.

And proving that wisdom is clearly hereditary, the high mage issues a curse:

'If Arithon suffers harm, Amroth's king will wish Fate's Wheel could turn backward, and past actions be revoked. I will repay every cruelty, in kind, on the mind and body of his firstborn.'

The farseer tries to point out that Lysaer is ALSO the high mage's grandson, but the man doesn't listen.

--

The chapter ends with "fragments", giving us a brief sentence from the point of view of random people.

The first is an Admiral of Amroth, who sees the ships come in and curses when he sees how many are missing.

The second is the healer on the Briane, who is drinking down rum to try to dull the screams coming from his patient's drug-induced nightmares.

The third is the most interesting, telling us that under misty skies, there's a world awaiting with a prophecy five hundred years old. And no one knows, yet, that "a prince and a prisoner hold all hope for deliverance between them . . ."

Well. That was an eventful introduction. Next time, we'll see what happens when they meet the king!

Comments

[copperfyre]

I love the soapy melodrama <3

Also the crew of that ship! I am worried about them.

[kalinara]

This book will definitely deliver the soapy melodrama!