Coldfire re-read: Black Sun Rising - chapter 24

[trobadora]

*runs in* Sorry! Sorry! Completely got sidetracked yesterday and ... ahem. Well. Sorry. Here we go, only about half a day later than it's supposed to be ...

Plot Summary

Damien and Senzei are still following Tarrant’s trail, right into the Forest. Senzei longs to See, and barely stops himself – but even a half-formed Knowing is enough to nearly swallow him. At that point the Forest’s creatures attack, and Damien and Senzei must fight for their lives before they can move on. Damien kills an apparition of Ciani, they attempt to evade a pack of Forest wolves, and are finally confronted by an albino, who agrees to take them to see Tarrant.

Quotes

• He indicated the trees that loomed over them, the thick canopy of vegetation overhead. “No direct sunlight ever reaches the ground here,” he whispered. “Think of what that means! Have you ever watched during the true night, how quickly the dark fae moves out into the open, how powerful it gets even in that limited time? A very hungry, very volatile power, that tends to manifest man’s darker urges. But here - imagine this place in the summer, when those branches are thick with leaves . . . my God! Morning, even high noon . . . no light would ever touch the ground then. The dark fae would live on, oblivious to sunrise, and it would grow, and it would manifest-”


• How ancient the power must be here - and how sensitive, how deadly! He longed to see it on its own terms, to do battle with it directly. And for a moment - just a moment - the key to a Knowing was on his lips. He tasted the words . . . and then bit them back, forcing himself to swallow them. The currents had nearly dragged him under in Kale; here, in the Forest itself, he would be swept away to his death before he knew what hit him. And while even that might have tempted him once - to taste such power, even for an instant! - he had Ciani to think of. He hungered to cast himself into the black sun, drink in its power - but for now, it would have to rise without him.


• “How?” he gasped. His whole body was shaking. “How did you know?”
  The priest’s expression was grim, his face deeply lined.
  It seemed he had aged a decade in the past few hours. “She wouldn’t come into the light,” he said. “Ciani would have known that the Fire meant safety for her, and come to it at any cost. She invoked my god, not hers. She called you by your formal name - which she’s never done before, at least not in my presence. Do you want more?”
  “But you weren’t sure!” he exclaimed. “You couldn’t possibly be sure! And what if you were wrong?”
  “But I wasn’t, was I?” His face was like stone, his tone implacable. “You’d better learn this now, Zen. Some of the things that the darkness spawns can take on any form they like. They read your fears from the fae that surrounds you and design whatever image they need to break through your defenses. And you only get one chance to recognize them, one chance to react. If you’re wrong - or if you hesitate, even for an instant - they’ll do worse then kill you.” He looked off into the darkness; Senzei thought he saw him shiver. “Compared to some of what I’ve seen, death would be a mercy.”


• “Since you will not be driven,” he hissed, “then you must be led. Yes?” He kneed the gruesome mount into motion, one hand tangled in its death-bleached mane. “Follow me.”
  And he laughed softly - a silken, malevolent sound. “I believe the Hunter is expecting you.”

Thoughts

• I think here we see for the first time how Tarrant has made the best out of his limitations – if he can’t bear sunlight, then he’ll create an environment without it. A kind of practicality we rarely see in literary creatures of the night, do we? Most of the time, they seem to content themselves with hiding away during the day.


• Tarrant is right when he says it later, isn’t he – Ciani is the one thing that’s holding Zen back. The one thing that has more power over him than the fae. It’s only by reminding himself that he needs to save her that he manages to resist the lure of the fae, even here in the Forest, even knowing what the currents did to him in Kale. What do you think it is about Ciani that makes such a difference for him? Unlike all the other relationships in the trilogy, that’s one thing I’ve never been quite clear on – what draws these two to each other, what the basis for their friendship is.


• Damien is very quick to kill the simulacrum of Ciani, isn’t he? It says rather a lot about the life he’s led, that he can make such a judgement so quickly, without any hesitation. He picks up the clues, of course – but as Senzei says, he couldn’t have been 100% certain. Do you think he’s ever misjudged, in a situation like that?


• The albino gives a hint here, doesn’t he? He says he’s here to take them to Tarrant, and then that the Hunter is waiting for them. Neither Damien nor Senzei pick up on it, though. Did you? I was thoroughly spoiled even when I read the trilogy for the first time, so I knew who Tarrant was – but those of you who weren’t, did you understand it before Damien did?

On Thursday, we'll be continuing with our regular schedule and chapters 25 to 27. Finally, Damien confronts the Hunter. :-)

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a point where Zen lets Ci watch him working and he thinks that he used to do the same with her? She was like his dealer, giving him his fix of the Fae that he couldn't manage on his own.

On a Damien front, he really does seem like the kind who has probably had illusions of his own family and friends come at him and got in trouble, thus learned never to immediately believe that what he sees is real. Can you imagine the horror of having to kill a creature that had put on the mask of your family?

[trobadora]

Isn't there a point where Zen lets Ci watch him working and he thinks that he used to do the same with her?

Yes, you're right, but junkie-and-dealer is not much of a basis for a real friendship, is there? There's got to be more to them than that.

And yeah, I agree about Damien. He's definitely speaking from bitter experience there.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I think it comes back to the fact that Zen and Ci just don't interest me much at all. I was so relieved when she didn't show up beyond book one.

[trobadora]

Makes sense. I really don't care much about Zen, but Cee fascinates me - I wish we'd seen more of her after she regained her memories. And I do wonder what drew her to Zen.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Zen and Ciani seem to have a very real, very strong friendship, and it's a warming thing to see in a story with so much darkness in it. I wonder at the underpinnings of it...but then, like most close friendships, I doubt it's quantifiable. Two people may come together over a thousand different things, but the liking, the loyalty and love, rise from that indefinable cocktail of respect, trust, and admiration. Without seeing a whole lot of either character (though there's more of Zen's POV in here than I remembered), their friendship leads me to feel that there must be some very worthwhile traits to them both to inspire that kind of friendship.

On that note, I love poor Senzei's frightened courage here, deciding to clamp down on his injury and tough it out (it's kind of cute and sad how he looks up to Damien as his example for this). It shows us something worthwhile about a character who's been looking a touch unsavory lately, especially because he's doing this for Ciani.

On another note, this is one of the few places where we get to see any real hints of Damien's past. “Compared to some of what I’ve seen, death would be a mercy.” We know he's traveled by himself through some dangerous places, but this line hints at some truly hair-raising experiences.

[trobadora]

I wonder at the underpinnings of it...but then, like most close friendships, I doubt it's quantifiable.

Sure - but I still wish we'd seen more of it. I mean, we never do get Ciani's side at all - what drew her to him? What does she like about him? She must know how addicted to the fae he is. I guess I just wish we'd seen more of it. Just like I wish we'd got more of Damien's backstory!

(And yep, this is definitely one of Senzei's best moments.)