I Read What?!

So last time, both of our villains died. I can't call it anti-climactic, seeing as how it was pretty eventful. But, we've got ten chapters left. So...what now?



So we rejoin Donal as he informs a wide-eyed Sef that Tynstar is dead. Sef is so shocked that he's not actually helping Donal remove his boot from his injured leg. He attributes Electra's death to suicide:

“No. The Mujhar did.” Donal, frowning, felt at his bandaged leg. “But it was Electra who slew herself. Had she not tried to slay Carillon, she would not now be dead.” He wiggled his toes experimentally. “So we are rid of them both.”

Yeah, I can't imagine why she didn't want to let the man she never wanted to marry in the first place take her alive.

Sef asks about "all the other Ihlini", which is an interesting question. Donal notes that they're still powerful, and all of them claim some measure of dark arts, but he thinks that without Tynstar, they'll have less trouble with the rest. He hopes, anyway.

Sef is still caught up in the details of the story, including that Tynstar and Electra's blood was thick and heavy and black. Donal finally realizes that he's talking to an actual child and apologizes, but Sef thinks it's better to know the truth. So what now?

They're continuing to fight. Even though Solinde didn't actually try to assassinate Donal. Even though they made a production of only killing Tynstar's followers. What the fuck ever. Carillon has gone to stop Osric of Atvia from reaching Mujhara.

...look, I get that the Atvians are supposed to be some kind of threat, but given that the superpowered sorcerers are dead, it's hard to believe they're that formidable.

By the way, Evan had absented himself to spend time with "one of his women". Good for him!

Also Sef has grown a little, though he's still thin. His clothes are too short, and Donal makes note to get more clothing yet again. He dismisses Sef so he can annoy me by angsting like a fucknoodle:

He sipped his wine. He stared into the shadows and thought of how he had come to be the victim of circumstance. Nearly twenty-four years before, a child had been born to a warrior and his woman. Their freedom, like the child’s, did not exist. The gods had seen fit to give them all another fate.

Yep, such a victim of circumstance. Being the heir to the throne and all. Fuck, I hate him.

Later, he wakes up out of a fucked up dream:

He dreamed. He saw a palace and a dais and a woman upon the dais. She was beautiful. She was deadly. She had the power to twist his soul.

Beside her stood a man. Cloaked in black with a silver sword hanging at one hip. In his outstretched hand glowed a violet rune. It danced. Subtly. Seductively. Promising many things.

From behind them came a girl. Half-woman, half-child, trapped between youth and adulthood. Like her mother, she was lovely, but her beauty was unfulfilled. Like her father, she was strong, but without a will the strength was blunted.

Aislinn or Bronwyn, I wonder.

Donal wakes up to Evan, who looks concerned. Something's wrong. Evan brings him to three men: two Homana sentries and one Cheysuli. It's Finn:

His face, like the others, was solemn, etched with tension. But there was something more in the eyes. Something that spoke of a hope destroyed.

Oh...I didn't remember this part. Finn warns Donal that there's grief for him:

Both sentries held flaming torches. Light hissed and flared, shedding faulty illumination. In the hollow, Donal saw shapes huddled on the ground, sprawled awkwardly in the macabre dance of death. Outflung arms, legs; limp, questioning hands. Faces, stricken with amazement and terror. Open eyes, staring into the heavens.

Boys, all of them.

There are fourteen children here. Pages from the Homanan army. Apparently the men were celebrating and wouldn't let the boys take part. They went to celebrate on their own.

And then:

Donal went to the body and knelt. The flickering torchlight showed him shadowed, ghostly faces; slack, childish mouths. He gently moved the body off Sef’s legs, then beckoned one of the sentries over.

The torch was unmerciful. Sef’s head was twisted slightly, so that his face was turned away. But his neck was bared, and the cut in his throat showed plainly. From ear to ear it stretched. The ground was sodden with his blood.

The blood is red by the way. Finn explains that this was done by the Ihlini, and he has proof: a dull gray stone with a vein of black running through it. Apparently it's an Ihlini ward-stone. It's used in conjunction with four others, and is pretty useless on its own. But it explains what happened.

Donal closes Sef's eyes, remembering Carillon doing the same for Electra. He asks why it had to be boys.

Finn's sympathetic:

Because they knew what it would do.” Briefly, Finn touched Donal’s rigid shoulder. “I know what he was to you. I am sorry for what has happened.”

“To me—?” Donal stared up at his uncle. “What of you? What if he was your son—or kin or some other kind? What then, su’fali?”

The scar jumped once. “It changes nothing,” Finn said evenly. “The boy is dead.”

Donal notices the charm around Sef's wrist, meant to ward against Cheysuli sorcery. Donal takes it and then orders a burial detail.

This one is short, but the next chapter begins "Part II", so I'm going to hold off until next week. So we get to end today on a nice dose of child murder. Sorry!