I Read What?!

So last time, our boys were in Solinde, fighting archers and Ihlini and getting their asses kicked. It ended on a cliffhanger!



We rejoin Niall, who is crying out in pain, trying to figure out what's happening to him. Serri urges him to be still, while Ian, who seems pretty hale and whole, explains that he is "pulling a tooth".

Well, not really. Apparently "Sorcerer's Tooth" is the name of the weapon that the Ihlini used on Niall. Ian, with help, is busy pulling it out of his shoulder. And since it's an Ihlini weapon, the Earth magic won't help.

I've said this before, this whole Ihlini and Cheysuli powers not working on each other thing seems really inconsistent. I mean, okay, both Strahan and Lillith made use of Duncan's lir at times. But it really seems like even the average Ihlini can use a lot of their magic around Cheysuli, while Cheysuli can do jack shit. Why IS that?

(Actually, it occurs to me that there might be a reason built into the source of Ihlini powers. But that's speculation for later.)

So they do manage to get the sword out, and when Niall wakes up later, he's considerably more coherent. He feels like shit, but that tends to happen. Ian is there too, of course, "clothed in shadow".

Niall lets us get a look at this Sorcerer's Tooth:

It was a thin, circular wafer of steel, perfectly flat, edged with curving spikes honed to invisible points. Star-shaped, in a way, except the shape was too refined, too fluid; the spikes flowed out of the steel to form a subtle vanguard at the wafer’s edge. There were runes etched in the metal.

I grimaced. This thing, thrown from the sorcerer’s hand, had lanced out of the sky to imbed itself in flesh and bone. As if it had a life of its own. As if it knew its target.

That does sound pretty swanky, in a nasty kind of way. He gives it back to Ian so that it can be properly disposed of. Serri provides some wolf-y comfort and Ian gives Niall the update on the battle. Apparently the reinforcements were fast, arriving just after Niall went down. Ten out of twelve Solindish attackers are dead. The Homanans lost two, and two more were wounded.

This gets Niall thinking:

I frowned. “What is it they mean to do? Here we are in Solinde, where we have been for two months, and yet we hardly fight. Occasionally, aye—I do not discount the men we have already lost…but I am perplexed by the enemy’s intentions. We have Cheysuli with us as well as Homanans, and yet we hardly see more than twenty Solindish at a time.”

“Gnats nipping at horses.” Ian nodded. “As Sayre says, it was Carillon’s way. But I think there may be an explanation.” He shrugged a little. “A thought, only—but what if the enemy’s numbers have been vastly overestimated? What if the rebellion itself is far smaller than we have been told?”

Basically, Ian thinks that the intelligence is getting manipulated. Reports that should say ten men are getting doctored to say forty. They go to someone named Wycliff, who we've never heard of before and whose position is not made clear in the narrative. Niall and Ian both trust him though and he reports onto Donal.

So there are some reasons this might be happening. The big one being that they're being lured away from the Ihlini's true target. And FINALLY someone bothers to think about the Solindish people themselves:

A winter war. I shivered at the suggestion. “Is it possible the Ihlini manipulate the Solindish? That there really is little more than mutters of rebellion, no rebellion of itself?”

“I am quite certain the Ihlini manipulate the Solindish. What I cannot say for certain is if this realm truly does wish to attack Homana.” His expression was grim. “I have no doubt there are many here who desire independence from Homana—before Carillon defeated Bellam, Solinde never had a foreign overlord—but are they as dangerous as we fear? Oh, aye, there are rebels, raiders…zealots—” he did not smile “—but there are always those who seek to throw down the power and take it for themselves. Regardless of the competence of the king.”

THANK YOU, Ian. This bothered me in Legacy of the Sword too. Leaving aside the whole assassination attempt that Roberson seemed to have forgotten came from a Homanan, how much of the Solindish opposition was just because they were being invaded? Again?

Ian loses some points for me for this though:

“Jehan should be told.”

“I am sure he knows. He has fought Solinde before.”

“But that was with Carillon.”

He did not answer at once. And when he did, his tone was full of infinite understanding. “A man learns, Niall. How to fight, how to lead, how to rule.” His face was oddly serene; I saw compassion in his eyes. “You are learning now.”

1) Donal doesn't know shit, Ian.

2) What does that even mean?

You're my favorite, Ian, but what the fuck nonsense is your author making you say?

This SOMEHOW tangents into Niall feeling anxious about his ability to learn, and then speculation about the Ihlini:

“Niall.”

I opened my eyes.

“The gods choose only worthy men.”

I grimaced. “The gods can make mistakes.”

He smiled a little; I had been very decisive. “Blasphemy?”

“The gods made the Ihlini.”

The smile was banished. “Aye. They did. And often—I wonder why.”

No more than I. No more than any Cheysuli, beginning to wonder if indeed the gods had sowed a second crop.

A winter crop, I thought; a deep-winter harvest. There was no warmth in the air. No spring. No summer. No light.

Only darkness.

Okay, this is all suitably poetic. But the hell does it mean? Have we decided that Lillith and Strahan are right about the Ihlini and Cheysuli being kin? Oh, never mind.

So anyway, we also meet a dude named Sayre. Sayre is one of the veterans who fought with Donal and Carillon. He's "not old", but spent most of his life fighting. He has half an ear. Sayre and Niall get along pretty well, we're told.

Sayre seems to agree with Niall's analysis of the situation, but he's concerned about how his men will do against more Ihlini sorcerers. He reflects, and this is interesting:

“Tynstar came upon us and took away the moon. He filled it up with blood.” His mouth tightened in a faint grimace of distaste. “He sent a mist across the land, a miasma, intended to swallow us all. And all the army panicked, as he intended, save for Rowan, Carillon, Donal…and even the Ellasian prince, Evan, your father’s boon companion,” He frowned a little, lost in his recollections. “He meant to slay us then, to defeat us before the battle, and yet he was unable. Donal threw the magic sword at Tynstar, and the sorcery was broken.”

I thought of the sorcery I had faced, in the circle of lilac smoke.

“The sorcery was broken,” Sayre repeated. “But it was by a Cheysuli—the Homanans were too afraid.”

I like seeing the normal person's eye-view of important events. Anyway, Niall and Sayre discuss possible tactics. Niall wants to move in on Lestra, the capitol city. Sayre is concerned that in doing so, he'll be leaving the leagues between Lestra and the border open to both the enemy and "the men who serve the bastard."

Oh, yeah, that guy. Remember him? Apparently he's getting more and more famous and each day, Niall loses one or two Homanans, "who decided to change allegiances in hopes of better food, warmer bedding, higher pay. I could not openly curse the bastard for leading his growing army in skirmishes against the Solindish borderers—intended ostensibly to help me—but privately I cursed him at least once every hour. Those skirmishes mostly helped his reputation; word of Elek’s murder had tainted my own name and brightened that of Carillon’s misbegotten son."

...where is the bastard getting the money to pay them? Niall presumably is funded by the royal treasury. Where is the bastard getting his money?

The bastard is a clever sort though, helping Niall, supposedly, while raising his reputation. That's when Ian enters, with a messenger. Unfortunately, the message is ruined, but the messenger is able to relay the news:

“My lord, I am sorry.” Weariness made him almost curt. “It—was difficult reaching you. The Ihlini have fired the land.”

“Fired?” I frowned. “Be plainer of speech.”

“Fired,” he repeated. “Everything between here and the Homanan border has been put to the torch. People are dead, game dispersed, all winter supplies destroyed. My lord—do you see what they have done? They have cut you off from Homana. You must go farther inward in order to survive.”

...shouldn't they have been able to see this? Like smoke and wreckage? But then to be fair, I don't have a great concept of the distances involved in this kind of thing.

Anyway, the messenger is from both Rowan and Aislinn, who were clever and gave him the message verbally as well as written. (Of course, we DID have some speculation that messages were going awry, just a few pages ago...)

Basically the plague has spread into Mujhara. And oh, this is interesting. The Homanans who get it fall ill with a fever, but generally recover, unless very young or old. But the Cheysuli die four out of five. And the lir catch it as well. And THEY die too, at about the same numbers.

So that's a problem. Even that one out of five survivor won't be much of one if their lir happens to be one of the ones that die. It's gotten to Clankeep as well.

Niall's children are in Mujhara. His and Ian's sister is at Clankeep. They have to go back. (There's additional news! Gisella's conceived again.)

So, like Donal before him, Niall decides he and Ian have to skip out on this war to deal with personal matters. But as usual, I'm a hypocrite. I was annoyed at Donal, but Niall's decision makes sense. They've reason to believe Solinde is more of a distraction and we are dealing with a danger to the next generation of the royal line.

...of course I'm not really sure what Niall or Ian think they'll be able to DO here. It's not like they can outrun the plague and snatch the children/Isolde out of reach. They're not doctors. And I'd imagine the Cheysuli have already tried the old magic route.

So really, I'm just hypocritically making excuses for the protagonist that I like better. So be it. Anyway, the chapter ends here.