I Read What?!

So last time, Danica showed a slightly ominous lack of judgment, while our villains are getting into place.



We start this chapter with the druids. I kind of forgot about them. We haven't seen them since chapter one or two. That's a long time when you're reading a chapter a week or so.

Our viewpoint character is Newander, who I vaguely recall as being the least annoying of the druids. Cleo is working at the book and Arcite is doing daily druidic rituals. Whatever that means. Newander is actually playing hooky, which automatically makes me like him a little more.

Newander is meeting up with Percival, another character that we haven't seen since the beginning of the book. I didn't miss them per se, but it does make their sudden reappearance a little jarring. Percival is apparently courting a female squirrel and Newander apologizes for interrupting him as he goes for a walk outside of the Edificant Library.

He was about to turn back when he spots an agitated eagle, who is speaking so rapidly that Newander can't get a lot from him. He asks the eagle to show him what's wrong. As it turns out, it's a primate attack. Some grey monkey things are trying to get to the eagle's aerie.

The creatures are "su-monsters", which Newander had never encountered. Nor have I, in fact. Apparently it's agreed that they're vicious and bloodthirsty, but the druids have not taken a formal stance about them: whether they're an intelligent evil group or simply a superbly adapted predator.

This is a big deal for druids, because if it's the former, then Newander can act. If it's the latter, then he's really not supposed to interfere with the natural order.

But the EAGLE is intelligent. It's intelligent enough to talk and ask for help. That should entitle it to some protection. Would you let a bear kill a human child?

That could be a bad question, crap druid portrayals do exist after all. I'm rather intrigued by the idea that druids apparently take "formal stances" on things. I feel like that's not really what druids are supposed to do. But I can't really articulate why. Apparently they've even had councils about this very subject.

No seriously though. "Councils"? "Formal stances"? Druids are meant to be semi-independent woodland nature dudes. SOMETIMES they have informal druidic circles. But they're not CLERICS. They shouldn't have fucking COUNCILS, Salvatore!

He tries to warn them off. One throws a rock at him. That, to ME implies intelligence. And it does to Newander too. He decides to act: and while druids may be annoying as fuck, I have to admit, calling thunderstorms is pretty fucking cool. The su-monsters are soon stains on the mountain wall.

But I really think Salvatore just thinks druids are clerics who wear green, based on this:

The fact that the cloud had answered his summons, a calling power that he believed came from Silvanus, also gave him confidence that he had acted correctly, that the su-monsters were indeed monsters and not natural predators.

Silvanus is a god. Druids DO use divine magic, but getting magic directly from a god is cleric shit. NOT druid shit. This is kind of an important distinction in a series that's specifically about being a cleric. This series has done really well with the wizard vs. cleric, as well as genuine faith vs. transactional relationship aspects. It makes me annoyed. Druids deserve better.

The eagle is thankful and Newander has a moment of regret that he's not "more skilled at his religion" since higher ranking druids (like Arcite and Cleo) could actually shapeshift. Newander likes the idea of becoming an eagle and joining his new friend on the high ledge and exploring the air from on high.

But at least he can go camping during a thunderstorm. The library will still be there in the morning.

And by that, I know immediately that it won't. Even before we switch over to Barjin, who is busy setting up the altar room. He's decided that he needs an ally to help him and he's going to use the ashes of Prince Khalif, some ancient noble whose urn he found when he was a young apprentice wizard.

He goes off to explore the crypts a bit more, with zombie Mullivy, poor dude. They go looting sarcophagi. One has a carrion crawler in it! Fortunately, Mullivy's more than a match for it. They look for another and find a well-preserved corpse. Barjin makes Mullivy carry it into the altar room.

We get some fun ritual details for a bit, until Barjin ends up with a mummy! There's an interesting bit in the narration where it's noted that the mummy hates him like it hates all living things, and "Barjin, for the moment anyway, was a living thing."

Is Barjin planning to go lich or something?

Anyway, Barjin's got in under control, and the chapter ends.