hunters_forest | Coldfire reread: Black Sun Rising

And on we go – four chapters this time, since they're very short ones.

Plot summary

Chapter 6
The ship Neoqueen Matilla arrives in the harbour, weeks late. An enraged merchant waiting for his cargo discovers that on the way, the pilot simply forgot the route and all the landmarks. And he's not the only one who seems to have inexplicably forgotten important parts of his life. The ship has acquired three passengers on the way, but the crew all seems to have lost part of themselves.

Chapter 7
The Patriarch remembers his mother. She seems to have been addicted to drugs and alcohol. The doctor had warned her that the drugs and the alcohol would end up eating her brain. Coming home from school one day, he finds her dead – her brain literally eaten by faeborn creatures.

Chapter 8
Damien stays up to observe the true night and only goes to sleep after Domina has risen. Then he is woken again by an explosion. He runs to find the origin – the Fae Shoppe. It's been ripped apart by the explosion: there's been an attack, and a chain reaction in Ciani's wards. Senzei Reese turns up, and Damien realises Ciani must have been in the shop when it hit.

Chapter 9
The mysterious non-human strangers, unhappy that their attack on Ciani didn't go quite as expected, think about going home. Their leader decides that they won't go just yet.

Quotes

"Two of Prima's months, boy - that's how long he said it would take. Two lesser months, come hell or white water or smashers from Novatlantis. And how long has it been, I ask you? A good three shortmonths, going on four - and my buyers threatening to blow my whole business to hell - so where the vulk have you been?"

"It was like something took a part of you out," the first mate whispered. "While you were sleeping, it'd happen. And then when you woke, that part just wasn't there. It never came back, either. The captain ... it won't do you much good to talk to him, Mr. Jarrom. I say just take your cargo and go, and feel lucky it got here at all. And hope that whatever got us isn't contagious." He looked up again, met Jarrom's gaze with his own. "You catch my drift?"

In the kitchen, dozens of things chittered; dark things, wet things, things with shining claws and sharp teeth that dripped bright crimson on the Everclean tiles. Things that sat on his mother's shoulders, dipping bright claws into her matted hair and bringing up soft, slimy tidbits to eat.
He managed to take a step backward. Heart pounding. Mind reeling.
Two steps. Another.
It'll eat up your brain, the doctor had said.
He ran.

He tried to get some sense of the local currents - to read who might be Working this special darkness, and why - but it was like trying to focus on a single ripple in the midst of white-water rapids. At last, exhausted by the effort, he let his Vision fade. Back home he could have identified every sorceror in town by now, and spotted those few who dared to Work the stuff - but the currents here were so volatile and so complex that his skill was barely more than a child's by comparison.

"You don't know what it's like, seeing something like that happen, feeling like you could stop it if you could just figure out what to do ... and then not being able to. Standing there helplessly, unable to save someone you care about ..."
"I do understand," the Patriarch said quietly. "More than you know."

Thoughts

It's very effective how Friedman evokes the terror of the memory-eating creatures - in most cases, she doesn't even explain what it was that was taken, she just hints at it. Which is all the more terrifying, I'd say: playing with the reader's imagination.

The Patriarch's memories: More about faeborn creatures - fears, become literally true. Does it become clear here who summoned the creatures - the mother or the child?

Damien and the currents of true night - it's interesting that he can read them so well at home, but is overwhelmed by the fae here. More evidence that the situation in the West is quite different from the East.

Since this is the first mention of shortmonths - I'm very curious about Erna's calendar. How does it work? Is it ever explained anywhere in detail? There are shortmonths, midmonths and longmonths, presumably going by the three different moons – but which does the official calendar go by? Or is it any of them? We know that they use Earth month names, so they would have twelve months, and it would be rather surprising if that corresponded to one of the moons and to the solar year precisely. Any thoughts? Anyone remember anything said about the calendar elsewhere in the books?

As always, have fun discussing! On Thursday, we'll be continuing with chapters 10 and 11.