Dragondrums - Chapter Nine
May. 29th, 2021 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Piemur wins for most eventful fire lizard hatching story, while the others did...something. I'm not really sure. Menolly was worried, Sebell had faith in Piemur, and Robinton was a callous dick. That's what I remember.
Happily, we're rejoining Piemur in the wilderness here. The best part of Dragonsong is continued here, really, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
One thing I've noticed about this book is Ms. McCaffrey seems to have a need to explain things that Piemur does that really don't need to be explained. See, for example the first paragraph:
Afterward, Piemur wasn't certain why he had run from the dragonriders. He seemed to have been running from or to something ever since his voice had changed. In his panic, he supposed he aligned the Oldtime dragonriders with Lord Meron, and he did not want to encounter anyone connected with Lord Meron just then. Whatever, that night he plunged through the jungle until lack of breath, the painful stitch in his side and the darkness forced him to halt. Sulking to the ground, he rearranged his fire lizard comfortably and then fell asleep.
Why did Piemur run from the dragonriders?
Perhaps it's because he's on the Southern Continent, and the dragonriders down here would undoubtedly be affiliated with the Southern Weyr/Oldtimers. Robinton, and through him, the entire Harper Hall, is allied with F'lar and company, so these people are adversaries who could see an opportunity to use Piemur against one of F'lar's closest allies?
Perhaps it's because the last time he saw a Southern Weyr dragonrider, he was extorting some innocent miners with implicit threats of violence?
Perhaps it's because he's an obvious witness to the illicit smuggling between Meron and the Southern Weyr, which had up until now been a secret. Piemur has no way of knowing how close Meron is to death, but he would undoubtedly realize this is something Meron won't want discovered, even if the Southern riders don't care.
Perhaps it's because that, while Piemur has impressed Farli and thus they can't just take her from him, he has undoubtedly foiled at least one person's plans. If not more. And thus it's reasonable to fear some kind of retaliation.
In summation, Ms. McCaffrey, it's okay. You could have just said he ran for it. It's fine.
Anyway, they make it back to the beach once it's safe. Piemur lucks out even, tripping over the half-eaten carcass of a runner beast. Ew. But Farli's delighted. Piemur is hard pressed to hack fast enough to feed her. I feel like that phrase is repeated from earlier, but I don't mind very much.
Anyway, Farli eats her fill and Piemur starts slicing more meat off. The beast was killed by Thread, so it's not tainted yet. That raises some interesting questions actually. Piemur has eaten fish that consumed Thread and meat that was killed by Thread, and both seem to have no ill-effects on him.
As he focuses on getting some materials for a fire, he spots a river. The grass is lush and herdbeasts are grazing, despite the fall of Thread. He checks the ground: grubs. Piemur is awed. So am I, because I understand that grubs protect the SOIL, but how does it protect the greenery itself?!
Piemur grouses about the Southern Weyr's inactivity during Threadfall, and how F'lar and Lessa (hee, named together!) were right to exile them to where the grubs do all the work.
Anyway, this area is perfect: the water will be fresh for drinking and a retreat from Thread (would the river be deep enough? I clearly haven't swam in enough rivers.) There's jungle that can provide fruit and tubers, and herdbeasts for meat. He can stay until Farli gets past the ravenous hatchling stage and head back to Southern Hold.
He makes another interesting discovery, as he scents a puzzlingly familiar odor. He figures it out: numbweed! There's a shit ton of numbweed here, enough that just one side of the plain would supply every Weyr in numbweed for the entire Pass. WOW. He thinks Master Oldive ought to know about it.
So days pass. Piemur thinks he ought to get word to Harper Hall, but there's so much to do, and he really doesn't have a way to do that. Besides, Harper Hall sucks. He doesn't say that, but I do. Anyway, there's another Threadfall. Farli warns him this time, and happily, Piemur is prepared:
He had made preparations against the next Fall of Thread, determined never to spend another eternity under a rock ledge. He had found a sunken tree trunk where the river flowed out of the forest. Diving into the water, he kicked down to the depth at which drowning Thread could no longer sting. There he hooked his arm around the tree trunk and poked back to the surface a thick reed, through which he then was able to breathe. It was not the most comfortable of hideaways, and fish constantly mistook his arms and legs for outsized Thread so he had to keep moving. Time, too, seemed motionless, and it felt like hours had passed before the impact circles of Thread on the water surface ceased. He was glad when with a mighty kick of his legs, he burst back into the air, nearly overturning a small runner. In fact the shallows seemed to be blanketed with animals. As if his eruption from the depths had been a signal, or perhaps his presence had frightened them, the creatures began to struggle toward the shore, shake themselves, and then rapidly take off down the plain. Some were bawling with pain, and he saw a number with bloody face scores where Thread had stung them. He also noticed some of the injured making to the numbweed brushes and rubbing against the leaves.
Clever. Though his limbs are quite tired from discouraging fish from trying to eat him. Farli returns relieved and anxious. Aw. She also spots something else: wherries going after something that apparently survived Threadfall. Farli is so useful compared to other fire lizards. Maybe they ought to give them to explorers (and miners!) instead of as vanity pets.
Anyway, they get to the quarry first: a young runner beast that had been protected by its now dead mother. There's some gross imagery of the grubs crawling over her flank. The baby is scored by Thread, but alive and it hobbles to Piemur. Aw. Piemur sees that its leg had been injured and that's why it couldn't flee to the water...
...wait. How do runnerbeasts shelter from Thread?! The river can't possibly hide them too!
So anyway, it seeks comfort and Piemur has a new friend. Farli tries to eat the mom. Everyone's happy. Piemur takes the baby to the river to clean and treat the wound (yay, numbweed) and happily Farli comes with. (Piemur has a sense of propriety: no eating Stupid's mom.)
Piemur's trip back is delayed again though, he can't leave Stupid injured and motherless, so he's going to wait until it can walk easily, THEN head back.
-
We shift to Robinton. He's tired but very satisfied with "the results of his efforts over the last four days." He thinks Sebell and Menolly will be satisfied too, unless they'd gotten word from Piemur themselves.
Menolly greets him and...ugh, I do regret that I read White Dragon when I see this:
“You were away so long, Master,” she cried in a soft voice as she closed the door behind him and spun the wheel to lock the bolts tightly in floor and ceiling.
Ugh.
So apparently Robinton's coming back from Nabol. With news, apparently. We still don't hear what it is yet. We do get this:
“Not the most of congenial of Holds, to be sure. I can't think what can have happened to all the wine Lord Fax appropriated in his conquests. He had some good pressings, too. Meron can't have drunk it all in a bare thirteen or fourteen Turns.”
“You'd no Benden wine, then?” Menolly teased him.
“None, you unfeeling wretch.”
“Then I'm more amazed than ever that you stayed so long.”
Hahaha, alcoholism.
When he gets back to his room, Sebell is waiting. And thankfully he asks about the news. And...ugh:
“He's got news, Sebell,” said Menolly, narrowing her eyes to glare at her master. “I can tell that look on his face. Smug, that's what he is. Did you learn what happened to Piemur at Nabol?”
“No, I'm afraid I didn't find out about Piemur, but among other, equally important, things, I have arranged matters so that we don't have to worry about Nabol Hold supplying the Oldtimers with northern goods or receiving further embarrassing riches of fire lizard eggs in that otherwise impoverished Hold.”
...equally important?!
EQUALLY IMPORTANT?!
There is a MISSING KID. One that is Menolly's friend and Sebell's student! A kid that is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. The Oldtimer problem was already solved with Meron's death!
Well, to be fair, apparently Robinton DID manage to help convince Deckter to take the job:
“A good choice, however unwilling. I pointed out to him, adroitly, that if he merely regarded his Hold as a flagging business and applied the same ingenuity and industry with which he had built a flourishing carting trade, he would find that the Hold would respond and repair. I also pointed out that in his four sons he has able assistants and ministers, a fortune few Lords can enjoy. However, he did have one matter he was particularly anxious to resolve.” The Harper paused. He looked at the expectant faces. “A matter that just happens to march kindly with a problem we face.” He turned to Menolly. “You'd best ready that boat of yours.” He had started referring to her skiff in that manner after he and Menolly had been storm-lost on his one voyage to the southern hold the previous Turn. Now Menolly's face brightened, and Sebell sat up straight, eyes wide with anticipation. “We won't locate Piemur by whistling for him from the north. You two go south. Make certain that Toric lets the Oldtimers know, if you can't carry the message discreetly to them yourselves, that Meron is dead and that his successor supports Benden Weyr. I believe that Master Oldive wants you to bring back some of those herbs and powders. He used up a large portion of his supplies on Meron.
“But don't you dare return until you've found Piemur.”
a) I do believe Robinton convinced Deckter to take the job, but I somehow doubt a businessman from a patriarchal society needed to be reminded to utilize his sons.
b) What is Deckter's task? Finding Piemur is a good thing, though!
c) Wait a second! WAIT A SECOND! You'd best ready that boat of yours.” He had started referring to her skiff in that manner after he and Menolly had been storm-lost on his one voyage to the southern hold the previous Turn.
Are you fucking kidding me?!
The ONE exciting thing that legitimately happened in Harper Hall. The big triumph in which Menolly uses her knowledge of ships and seacraft and survival to save herself and her teacher! The occasion on which they discovered the stupid cove that becomes so fucking important in White Dragon!
It's OFF PAGE?! It happened a YEAR AGO?!
What the fuck?! What the fuck?!
I get that this is Piemur's story. I don't resent that, it's fun. But Dragonsinger was literally NOTHING. The entire plot of Dragonsinger could be summed up in one backstory paragraph. We could literally remove it entirely from this trilogy and we LOSE NOTHING except getting to know Piemur and Sebell a little in advance.
Why couldn't the ill-fated sea voyage have been book 2? We could have started with Menolly as a journeyman with a backstory paragraph about how she entered Harper Hall, encountered no real difficulty, and rocked it) and then she'd have a lovely adventure in which she got to shine. It'd also have fit nicely in the survival theme we have in both Dragonsong and Dragondrums!
WHY DID YOU SPEND A WHOLE BOOK CELEBRATING NONEXISTANT TRIUMPHS WHEN THERE'S A REAL ONE HERE?!?!
Mercifully, for my sanity, the chapter ends here.
Happily, we're rejoining Piemur in the wilderness here. The best part of Dragonsong is continued here, really, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
One thing I've noticed about this book is Ms. McCaffrey seems to have a need to explain things that Piemur does that really don't need to be explained. See, for example the first paragraph:
Afterward, Piemur wasn't certain why he had run from the dragonriders. He seemed to have been running from or to something ever since his voice had changed. In his panic, he supposed he aligned the Oldtime dragonriders with Lord Meron, and he did not want to encounter anyone connected with Lord Meron just then. Whatever, that night he plunged through the jungle until lack of breath, the painful stitch in his side and the darkness forced him to halt. Sulking to the ground, he rearranged his fire lizard comfortably and then fell asleep.
Why did Piemur run from the dragonriders?
Perhaps it's because he's on the Southern Continent, and the dragonriders down here would undoubtedly be affiliated with the Southern Weyr/Oldtimers. Robinton, and through him, the entire Harper Hall, is allied with F'lar and company, so these people are adversaries who could see an opportunity to use Piemur against one of F'lar's closest allies?
Perhaps it's because the last time he saw a Southern Weyr dragonrider, he was extorting some innocent miners with implicit threats of violence?
Perhaps it's because he's an obvious witness to the illicit smuggling between Meron and the Southern Weyr, which had up until now been a secret. Piemur has no way of knowing how close Meron is to death, but he would undoubtedly realize this is something Meron won't want discovered, even if the Southern riders don't care.
Perhaps it's because that, while Piemur has impressed Farli and thus they can't just take her from him, he has undoubtedly foiled at least one person's plans. If not more. And thus it's reasonable to fear some kind of retaliation.
In summation, Ms. McCaffrey, it's okay. You could have just said he ran for it. It's fine.
Anyway, they make it back to the beach once it's safe. Piemur lucks out even, tripping over the half-eaten carcass of a runner beast. Ew. But Farli's delighted. Piemur is hard pressed to hack fast enough to feed her. I feel like that phrase is repeated from earlier, but I don't mind very much.
Anyway, Farli eats her fill and Piemur starts slicing more meat off. The beast was killed by Thread, so it's not tainted yet. That raises some interesting questions actually. Piemur has eaten fish that consumed Thread and meat that was killed by Thread, and both seem to have no ill-effects on him.
As he focuses on getting some materials for a fire, he spots a river. The grass is lush and herdbeasts are grazing, despite the fall of Thread. He checks the ground: grubs. Piemur is awed. So am I, because I understand that grubs protect the SOIL, but how does it protect the greenery itself?!
Piemur grouses about the Southern Weyr's inactivity during Threadfall, and how F'lar and Lessa (hee, named together!) were right to exile them to where the grubs do all the work.
Anyway, this area is perfect: the water will be fresh for drinking and a retreat from Thread (would the river be deep enough? I clearly haven't swam in enough rivers.) There's jungle that can provide fruit and tubers, and herdbeasts for meat. He can stay until Farli gets past the ravenous hatchling stage and head back to Southern Hold.
He makes another interesting discovery, as he scents a puzzlingly familiar odor. He figures it out: numbweed! There's a shit ton of numbweed here, enough that just one side of the plain would supply every Weyr in numbweed for the entire Pass. WOW. He thinks Master Oldive ought to know about it.
So days pass. Piemur thinks he ought to get word to Harper Hall, but there's so much to do, and he really doesn't have a way to do that. Besides, Harper Hall sucks. He doesn't say that, but I do. Anyway, there's another Threadfall. Farli warns him this time, and happily, Piemur is prepared:
He had made preparations against the next Fall of Thread, determined never to spend another eternity under a rock ledge. He had found a sunken tree trunk where the river flowed out of the forest. Diving into the water, he kicked down to the depth at which drowning Thread could no longer sting. There he hooked his arm around the tree trunk and poked back to the surface a thick reed, through which he then was able to breathe. It was not the most comfortable of hideaways, and fish constantly mistook his arms and legs for outsized Thread so he had to keep moving. Time, too, seemed motionless, and it felt like hours had passed before the impact circles of Thread on the water surface ceased. He was glad when with a mighty kick of his legs, he burst back into the air, nearly overturning a small runner. In fact the shallows seemed to be blanketed with animals. As if his eruption from the depths had been a signal, or perhaps his presence had frightened them, the creatures began to struggle toward the shore, shake themselves, and then rapidly take off down the plain. Some were bawling with pain, and he saw a number with bloody face scores where Thread had stung them. He also noticed some of the injured making to the numbweed brushes and rubbing against the leaves.
Clever. Though his limbs are quite tired from discouraging fish from trying to eat him. Farli returns relieved and anxious. Aw. She also spots something else: wherries going after something that apparently survived Threadfall. Farli is so useful compared to other fire lizards. Maybe they ought to give them to explorers (and miners!) instead of as vanity pets.
Anyway, they get to the quarry first: a young runner beast that had been protected by its now dead mother. There's some gross imagery of the grubs crawling over her flank. The baby is scored by Thread, but alive and it hobbles to Piemur. Aw. Piemur sees that its leg had been injured and that's why it couldn't flee to the water...
...wait. How do runnerbeasts shelter from Thread?! The river can't possibly hide them too!
So anyway, it seeks comfort and Piemur has a new friend. Farli tries to eat the mom. Everyone's happy. Piemur takes the baby to the river to clean and treat the wound (yay, numbweed) and happily Farli comes with. (Piemur has a sense of propriety: no eating Stupid's mom.)
Piemur's trip back is delayed again though, he can't leave Stupid injured and motherless, so he's going to wait until it can walk easily, THEN head back.
-
We shift to Robinton. He's tired but very satisfied with "the results of his efforts over the last four days." He thinks Sebell and Menolly will be satisfied too, unless they'd gotten word from Piemur themselves.
Menolly greets him and...ugh, I do regret that I read White Dragon when I see this:
“You were away so long, Master,” she cried in a soft voice as she closed the door behind him and spun the wheel to lock the bolts tightly in floor and ceiling.
Ugh.
So apparently Robinton's coming back from Nabol. With news, apparently. We still don't hear what it is yet. We do get this:
“Not the most of congenial of Holds, to be sure. I can't think what can have happened to all the wine Lord Fax appropriated in his conquests. He had some good pressings, too. Meron can't have drunk it all in a bare thirteen or fourteen Turns.”
“You'd no Benden wine, then?” Menolly teased him.
“None, you unfeeling wretch.”
“Then I'm more amazed than ever that you stayed so long.”
Hahaha, alcoholism.
When he gets back to his room, Sebell is waiting. And thankfully he asks about the news. And...ugh:
“He's got news, Sebell,” said Menolly, narrowing her eyes to glare at her master. “I can tell that look on his face. Smug, that's what he is. Did you learn what happened to Piemur at Nabol?”
“No, I'm afraid I didn't find out about Piemur, but among other, equally important, things, I have arranged matters so that we don't have to worry about Nabol Hold supplying the Oldtimers with northern goods or receiving further embarrassing riches of fire lizard eggs in that otherwise impoverished Hold.”
...equally important?!
EQUALLY IMPORTANT?!
There is a MISSING KID. One that is Menolly's friend and Sebell's student! A kid that is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. The Oldtimer problem was already solved with Meron's death!
Well, to be fair, apparently Robinton DID manage to help convince Deckter to take the job:
“A good choice, however unwilling. I pointed out to him, adroitly, that if he merely regarded his Hold as a flagging business and applied the same ingenuity and industry with which he had built a flourishing carting trade, he would find that the Hold would respond and repair. I also pointed out that in his four sons he has able assistants and ministers, a fortune few Lords can enjoy. However, he did have one matter he was particularly anxious to resolve.” The Harper paused. He looked at the expectant faces. “A matter that just happens to march kindly with a problem we face.” He turned to Menolly. “You'd best ready that boat of yours.” He had started referring to her skiff in that manner after he and Menolly had been storm-lost on his one voyage to the southern hold the previous Turn. Now Menolly's face brightened, and Sebell sat up straight, eyes wide with anticipation. “We won't locate Piemur by whistling for him from the north. You two go south. Make certain that Toric lets the Oldtimers know, if you can't carry the message discreetly to them yourselves, that Meron is dead and that his successor supports Benden Weyr. I believe that Master Oldive wants you to bring back some of those herbs and powders. He used up a large portion of his supplies on Meron.
“But don't you dare return until you've found Piemur.”
a) I do believe Robinton convinced Deckter to take the job, but I somehow doubt a businessman from a patriarchal society needed to be reminded to utilize his sons.
b) What is Deckter's task? Finding Piemur is a good thing, though!
c) Wait a second! WAIT A SECOND! You'd best ready that boat of yours.” He had started referring to her skiff in that manner after he and Menolly had been storm-lost on his one voyage to the southern hold the previous Turn.
Are you fucking kidding me?!
The ONE exciting thing that legitimately happened in Harper Hall. The big triumph in which Menolly uses her knowledge of ships and seacraft and survival to save herself and her teacher! The occasion on which they discovered the stupid cove that becomes so fucking important in White Dragon!
It's OFF PAGE?! It happened a YEAR AGO?!
What the fuck?! What the fuck?!
I get that this is Piemur's story. I don't resent that, it's fun. But Dragonsinger was literally NOTHING. The entire plot of Dragonsinger could be summed up in one backstory paragraph. We could literally remove it entirely from this trilogy and we LOSE NOTHING except getting to know Piemur and Sebell a little in advance.
Why couldn't the ill-fated sea voyage have been book 2? We could have started with Menolly as a journeyman with a backstory paragraph about how she entered Harper Hall, encountered no real difficulty, and rocked it) and then she'd have a lovely adventure in which she got to shine. It'd also have fit nicely in the survival theme we have in both Dragonsong and Dragondrums!
WHY DID YOU SPEND A WHOLE BOOK CELEBRATING NONEXISTANT TRIUMPHS WHEN THERE'S A REAL ONE HERE?!?!
Mercifully, for my sanity, the chapter ends here.